All my expectations.

Blown out of the water.

For months I've been applying only to places that underwrite KUNM on the theory that "if their profits partly go to support my station I can live with working there".

If worst came to worst, I figured, and I was stuck biding time doing boring crap during such hours that I had no time left over to volunteer, at least I could be somewhat satisfied with whatever turned up, knowing that part of the "excess value" I manufactured for my capitalist exploiters would go directly to the station that's my lifeline to the world.

Time and time again I've gotten responses from "you're overqualified" (whatever the hell that means) to "you're underqualified but we won't tell you why" (the latter being a sure-fire way to make me *never* go back as a paying customer, regardless who they underwrite).

Today applied at one underwriter for a job and actually got dealt with *really* straight. Temp agency called "High Desert Staffing". I wouldn't mention them by name except that the experience was so unusually good.

Filled out the application, and they still took a paper resume to look at, since the online application didn't go as far back in time as the paper resume did. I didn't even have to force it on them. They asked.

They also seemed to overlook the little "yes" box, with explanation, next to the "conviction/guilty plea" question which, in theory, isn't supposed to be a legal bar to employment, choosing instead to look at my actual qualifications for the job. Unheard of.

An employer that actually follows the law. Imagine that.

There *were* about five online tests I had to navigate my way through, but I got a good "sense" from the people there, so I played along. And get this: the minute I started the first test, I knew I would finish the last one. It wasn't bullshit about how I "feel" when "other people" "seem to feel" this or that way about their "perceptions" of my "behaviour". They didn't ask me to read other people's minds regarding my behaviour.

They gave me ACTUAL SOFTWARE SIMULATIONS. IMAGINE THAT. As in, "select this data in these rows and columns and paste them in the rows and columns in such-and-such format". It was computer testing at its best: testing actual abilities in working with computers in realistic simulations. "Can you do this?" as opposed to "how do you respond in simplistic binary when confronted with complicated feelings about how other people feel about you when you feel that they feel you feel this way towards them?" bullshit crap.

Every computerized test I've taken to date has had countless meaningless questions like "I feel happy when..." or "I would rather be an architect than a football player", with choices from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". Huh? Just show me what you want me to do and either I can or can not.

The tests in this case were *strictly* empirical.

The one test that I only came out *slightly* better than average on, the interviewer (yes, someone actually interviewed me!) got to hear me explain *why* I "failed" it (even though I didn't actually "fail" it, but only "passed" by such a margin that it disappointed me). In turn, I clearly understood from the notes that she took, that I had merely specialized in this-or-that aspect of medical billing so much that some "advanced" questions I *aced* while totally flubbing other "intermediate" ones that kinda spoiled my overall average for that one test.

And I got to review my own scores. They were both surprising *and* helpful.

There's only one "basic" question I flubbed and absolutely knew the answer to: Diagnosis codes. Where I'd worked with them, we'd used a proprietary "shorthand" to refer to them which wasn't the national standard. WHOOPS. One question I *could* have answered better, out of a couple hundred. I'll live.

High Desert Staffing rules.