Interview over, our facilitators told us that shortlisted persons would hear from them in due course.
We all then departed to await our fates.
I did not know what to expect, although I knew I had done what I was expected to do at the first interview.
After a few days of waiting, a call came through that I had been shortlisted for a face-to-face interview, and so I should come and pick up my letter.
Hmm! Really? I headed for the Head Office of Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL) for a second time to pick up my interview letter.
Finally, the day came for the last lap of the interview to determine whether I would be employed or not.
I remember my grilling was scheduled for the afternoon.
Despite that, I decided to arrive before time in the morning, around 10 a.m. and await my turn.
I sat patiently at the reception till I was told that it was my turn to go to the interview room upstairs.
Before I climbed to the interview room, I had made sure I knew all that there was to know about the company I was going to work with, but the turn of events indicated that it was a wasted effort (my ‘apor’ did not drop).
I sauntered to the interview room, greeted my interviewers on the panel and waited to be offered a seat before I sat to face them.
Intriguing questions
There was an eerie silence for a few seconds as the panellists went through copies of my CV as if previously rehearsed.
As I waited patiently to be bombarded with some questions, one of the panellists, who was then Editor of the Junior Graphic, Mavis Kitcher, broke the silence by asking, “Are you sure you saw the advert well? It said we need reporters, but looking at your CV, you have been an editor here, an editor there.
“Are you sure you will be alright if we employ you, and the younger ones start sending you here and there? How would you feel?”
Indeed, that was not the question I had envisaged, but how was I to tell the panel made up of then Editor of the Daily Graphic, Ransford Tetteh, then Editor of the Graphic Showbiz, Nanabanyin Dadson, Mrs Kitcher and a representative from the Human Resource Department, as well as the recorder, that I was there because I had more or less been hounded by some colleagues to apply?
But while I pondered over this, I just began blurting out my response without thinking, which I believe was put in my mouth by God Himself.
Although I believe every word I uttered in response, I had not prepared that reply, should I be asked that question.
Divine response?
To the question I replied in a matter of fact way, that “He who wants to rise must first be prepared to go very low”, adding that practically, if any of them would indulge me, he or she should stand while I go low so we jump and see who will go higher.
That reply seemed to have further disarmed my interviewers, who went silent once more.
It took Mr Dadson to break the ice with the comment “that was a good one”, which left almost everyone smiling or grinning.
“So what do we do now?” The chairman of the interview panel, Mr Tetteh, asked.
To that, Mr Dadson replied that they should ask the last question first.
The question was, “How much would you like to be paid if you were employed?”
Initially, I told the panel that I was sure they already had the amount they would pay reporters, but upon further prodding, I told them the amount that would be okay by me as my net salary.
Another question I remember vividly being asked by Mr Tetteh, was why I had a Ghana flag lapel pin on the jacket I was wearing, and whether it was because I was attending the interview, to which I responded that it was already on the jacket when I picked it and I did not have any reason to remove it.
Although they were interviewing for reporters, the panel reasoned that I was more qualified than they were expecting, so the chairman ruled that I should be put at the Staff Writer level if they took me.
With that decision, I was dismissed and told that I would hear from them. Is that it? I asked myself, as I thanked my interviewers and left the room and went back home, grinning and thinking about how the interview went.
Employment letter
True to their word, some days later, I received a call asking me to pick up my employment letter from GCGL.
In a dual state of uncertainty and joy at the prospect of being employed, I went for my letter the following day.
At that same period, an application I put in after much hesitance, to do a top-up degree course at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) where I first cut my teeth as a journalist in 1991, had been approved, which meant that I would have to juggle between school and work for two years
My journey through Graphic - Edmund Smith-Asante writes - Part 1
My journey through Graphic - Edmund Smith-Asante writes - Part 2
My journey through Graphic - Edmund Smith-Asante writes Part 3
My journey through Graphic - Edmund Smith-Asante writes Part 4
My journey through Graphic - Edmund Smith-Asante writes (Part 5)
My journey through Graphic - Edmund Smith-Asante writes (Part 6)
