Confessions of a Serial Interviewer by Steven Ra Ga

Life was interesting I needed a job. Like always.

My girlfriend at the time used to let me hang out at her place and feed her cat while she was away at work. She was from France and had a strange way of looking at the world.

While looking for work on workopolis I saw an ad with a big Dinosaurs on it looking for a Traveling Exhibits manager. I applied and didn’t think I would get the job.

When I was called in for an interview I was impressed with company turned out it was a Chinese company, the owner built it by himself and was now a millionaire. He would have the dinosaurs built in China shipped to Vancouver and reconfigured by their in-house guy then shipped off to America, the dinosaur exhibits would just tour around the states constantly. Some times there were permanent installs in zoos or amusement parks.

When I got hired they called me to say you are going to Atlanta in a week. That was my 1st assignment we were pulling items out of a museum in Atlanta.

Next thing I new I was at the airport, my visa was maxed at $2k and I needed more room to buy my luggage to get on the plane. I recall sitting there debating the increase but did it regardless I thought this job will help me pay down some debt. Nope.

In Atlanta is was cold but not too bad, things were running smoothly until I decided to jump in one of the trucks to get the job done. The workers weren’t moving fast enough, while in the truck I was moving a large skid of rocks, weighing about 2000lbs, because the truck was on a slant and it was cold, ice started to form inside the truck, the skid slipped and I slipped it pinned me against the wall of the truck. I was stuck.

I radioed for some help and two workers got the skid off of me. Turned out I had broken or fractured a bone in my foot, the same foot I had injured years before while using pallet jackets as a scooter.

I had a limp for a bit, but never went to the doctor.

Around this time while in Atlanta I turned on the news to see Paris was in a terror attack. it was shocking but a world away so I didn’t think much of it. That evening I went to message my girlfriend in Vancouver, she was unresponsive. In the morning I received an email 10 pages long from her, it basically to the effect she was upset I didn’t call her to see if she was okay.

After that I spent 7 months traveling from city to city, barely was I home. On the road all the time. It was okay, except for the time zone issues. Eventually I got good enough to be left on my own and that’s when the issues started happening.

I didn’t have the confidence to handle the issues that came up so often I would just surrender to the problems.

One time in Halifax the client kept bothering me to return the off road forklift I guess because it cost a lot to keep so instead of putting my foot down like I should have I let them take it, I then fought with the retired grounds keeper until we jerry rigged away to get a 1,000 pound skid into the trucks because they didn’t have a dock.

Another time in Florida, I locked the keys in the van and my crew had to walk home in the rain.

Another time we were in Kansas City and our business owner came, that’s when I learned he was so wearily that he had disposable underwear, he would just toss it away at the end of a job.

While working a job in Jacksonville Florida we only had one issue. I was running the install and suddenly the weather started to turn the clouds were as black as night and it was mid day. I called back to Vancouver to ask about what I should do, my coworkers response was “do what the locals do.” I watched as the locals came rushing out of the building grabbing their equipment and rushing back. The lighting started to get closer, I ran over to my Chinese worker who has broken English, “hey bud” I yelled “we gotta go!” He looked at me and said “I gotta finish I am almost done” since he is from China and used to working in hostile conditions he didn’t have much awareness for his own safety. So I just grabbed him by the scruff and started running for the door. We got in just as a massive crack of thunder shook the building.

BOOM!!!

The locals informed me this was a regular occurrence. And that some of their friends have fired from lightening strikes over the years.

Wild eh…

That’s was an experience, when the rain was gone it was back to work as usually.

I can recall the humidity was unbearable.

This one time in Kansas City we hired like 30 Jimmie’s, we were tasked with removing a display and shipping it on to the next location. While there I had all the jimmy’s grouped together it was best not to leave them alone.

We had this big canvas sign that we had to staple on each time, pull the staples out and roll the sign up into a PVC pipe.

We stuck the jimmy’s on it, I recall walking into the room to check on the Jimmies, when I entered it was like a chaotic battlefield, staples were flying in all directions, no one was wearing eye protection.

Another time a Jimmy asked me for a knife, we weren’t really supposed to give out knives for the obvious reason, if I didn’t mention before Jimmies were normally Ex-Cons and cheap day labourers. The rule of thumb was not to ask them why they went to prison.

When I went looking for a knife we didn’t have any. So I fashioned one together with some cardboard, tape and an box cutter blade.

I returned to the Jimmy and gave him the blade, he paused and admired it throughly, he then said “this is a nice shiv!” I now paused, noting the slang word for a knife used in stabbing crimes in prison.

To my surprise he returned the knife at the end of his shift.

Traveling for work is tough, especially if you are traveling every week to a new city.

I guess the last memory that stands out was I needed to wash my clothes because I had been in Jacksonville Florida so long. I recall google mapping a laundromat and walking in like I was in a rougher part of town. It looked like a place I would get shot so I just acted tough.

Eventually while working with dinosaurs I became bitter and started fighting with my co-workers. I knew at this point I was unhappy and it wouldn’t be long before my ass was on the chopping block. The company eventually had a merger and I was let go, probably for the better.