This past Tuesday was my first day actually working as an AI recruiter.  The day was rather interesting day in other aspects, too, and not in a very good way – but I’ll get to that.

I must say I really enjoyed the work.  I was stationed at náměstí Republiky, for those that know Prague, and while you’d think the place is full of people (I thought that when they sent me there in the morning), I was surprised how few people that I could speak to  were there.  The place was crowded with tourists in large groups, which made my work harder – when they slowly passed by me, they utterly destroyed my chances of addressing anyone.  However, Náměstí Republiky is not a ghost square either, so I did talk to some people.

While – as I was warned and as I fully expected – most people did not want to talk to me at all, and some stopped to talk to me, but not about Amnesty International, I did get into a few really satisfying conversations with people genuinely interested and willing to help/get involved.  I was happy to realize that I found it in myself to remember those at the end of the day, and think of the day in positive terms.

That is not to say I don’t remember the whackos; I most certainly do.  They’re just not what comes to mind when you ask me how I like my new job.  I like it a lot.  I take it with the grain of salt, and I’m happy I have it; even the grain of salt, because that is an innate  part of life, and that’s perfectly fine as soon as one accepts it as such that.

So yes, a few really old people stopped to talk to me about how things were better during socialism, how the price of onions is outrageous, etc.  Some of them were actually nice people, and we had a pleasant, albeit short conversation, since I cannot talk about the hardships of buying a swimsuit while I’m on the clock.  And yes, I also had some really really, incredibly moronic people talk to me.  In my five-hour shift, I learned from them that Guantanamo is a hotel-like prison.  That the market should get everything it demands, for example human trafficking, slavery, or cheap labor from the third world.  That you can’t take domestic violence all that seriously, because, let’s face it, women need a strong ruling hand.  And to top it all, one gentleman assured me that imprisonment helped Václav Havel’s health, because he could not smoke while behind the bars.

I can totally understand why some people don’t last long in this job, and from these examples, I think, it is clear to anyone (unless you agree with those people, in which case, please stop reading my blog, defriend me on Facebook, unfollow me on Twitter, and stop any and all forms of contact you have with me).  Knowing that these things happen a lot, I think, makes it easier not to think too much of them, and I was able to do just that on my first shift.  If that will hold is uncertain, but I believe it will.  I like my job.

I also think I did a good job at it, especially considering it was only my first day.  There are things I know I didn’t handle the best possible way, but realizing this so early on is also a way of being good at my job :).  I’ll do it differently next time, and over and over again, until I find the right way.

One thing that this past Tuesday proves I’m really bad at is dressing accordingly.  I’m not talking about dress code or some sort of social norms (those are all a huge, steaming pile of bullshit).  I’m talking about weather.  That’s right.  I pride myself on packing light, so I only had a t-shirt.  And I got cold.  So I drank a lot of strong black tea – to get warm, right?  What I didn’t realize was that I also hadn’t eaten in a few hours.  So I got sick to my stomach and puked into a trashcan.  Oh, how very mature of me!

While the puking was, I believe, an isolated event, a simple consequence of the strong tea on an empty stomach, the clothing snafu had grave consequences – my voice got raspy.  Not in the hot, rock-star kind of raspy, but in the ill, bacteria-fueled kind of raspy.  My body temperature rose and I felt lousy.  Although I would have handled the day on the street physically, I would have probably lost my voice half-way through, so I had to cancel my next two shifts.

Here’s to the learning experience of a new job – expected and unexpected!