Having joined the workforce in 2000, I’m now on my 6th full-time job: from performing arts, trading, technology, translation to education, I’ve had my share of thrills and incidents from various jobs and interviews. Here are some of them - and yes, they are all true…
I had attended an interview at the famed and fortress-like TSMC headquarters as well as inside Taiwan’s presidential palace (but didn’t get either job, sniff); I had shaken hands with a certain presidential candidate (who was later elected) at his party headquarters; I had seen the mayor of my hometown across the hall at the said headquarters and not know who he was (due to my very limited knowledge of politics and politicians); I had tried to block the founder of Taiwan’s pride, Cloud Gate, at the backstage door from meeting Mikhail Baryshnikov, again because I did not recognize him (besides, no one told me he had an appointment!); I had shaken hands with Baryshnikov himself in addition to Nana Mouskouri, Ricky Martin and half a dozen other renown artists, and dined with Martha Argerich…It should have been an honour to meet most of these people, yet I don’t think the brief handshakes had impacted me in the least. And to be fair, it’s probably safe to say none of them could recall who I was. (Maybe with the exception of a dear old violinist whom I accompanied to the airport. He drew me and violin and even gave me his address and an invitation to visit him in gay Paris!)
Apart from celebs, I had a co-worker with quite a different background who confided in me that he was (or had been) in the mob. I don’t remember how long he had been on the job before he disclosed this piece of information, but it couldn’t have been more than a couple of weeks (it was a company with a high turnover). I guess he was trying to prove his manliness by talking about fights and scars; and all the time I was listening politely, I wondered if this was how he went around introducing himself. But other than the blustering and lightly coloured hair, he didn’t struck me as all that different. Apparently, gangsters must make a living just like ordinary folks.
I did a fair amount of odd jobs (like, really odd) on my first job. Although my primary responsibilities were international correspondence and reception, I had had to help out with other duties, including arranging transport, distributing flyers, selling tickets & programmes, monitoring backstage meals, making show announcements in the venues, preventing the audience from taking photos, and other tedious but not too out-of-the-ordinary tasks. However, at the end of one particular tour, when I was about to leave the performers at the hotel to be picked up for their flights the next day, their agent held me back from my bus - not forcibly, but firmly. The reason was that my company had not made the remaining payment according to schedule; therefore, she did not want to be left in the middle of nowhere (i.e. in the hills of Hsinchu) and wanted to keep me with them until they get the money. While she didn’t clap me in chains, she demanded matter-of-factly that I join her in the bathroom to help colour her hair so she’d look nice when she got back home. It was altogether a surreal experience. Thankfully, my company finally sent a co-worker to meet us at the airport with the payment and put an end to further drama.
I had been on the radio once, maybe twice. When STOMP first toured Taiwan in 2000, I accompanied them to a radio interview. In the recording room, the show hostess (陶子) included me in the introduction as the interpreter as the show went on air. That came as a total surprise because I thought I was simply there as a representative of the local host, which mainly involved overseeing the transportation and meeting. But she seemed to think otherwise. So the performers made room for me around the microphone and I did my bit of on-the-spot casual interpreting. According to co-workers who caught the programme, I had a nice radio-quality voice. (The other time I might have been on radio would have been a pre-recorded interview about my voluntary work with an amateur English-speaking theatre. The interview was in Chinese although the interviewer was German. But I never checked if the tape really was used for his programme.) And that sums up my 15 ’seconds’ of fame.
A year into my first job, the general director announced that I was going to be made team leader. As I was already planning my resignation, the promotion mattered very little. The real irony though, was that I was the only member on that team anyway; in other words, I’d still be the one to do all the work. Now people who do not know what really goes on may think it is a glamourous job; indeed, my successor got to fly to New York to interview Pavarotti. But one too many bizarre things had happened on the job and I was even hospitalized once due to a severe headache while single-handedly taking a group on tour down south with only the aid of a hired Russian translator. In fact, my definition of a ‘good’ performance had come to be any one that proceeded smoothly without trouble or drama - so no, I don’t miss it.
At one job interview, I was met by the office assistant on the ground floor of the company, who asked me to put plastic covering around my shoes before we ascend to the upper level. Puzzling over how my shoes could possibly cause any harm, I asked if they had some delicate state-of-the-art instruments placed closed to the ground. The explanation was that the office was carpeted and employees liked to go around in comfortable flip-flops (in fact, there was a cabinet near the entrance where everyone stored their outdoor shoes); for guests, we must use plastic coverings so as to prevent soiling the nice carpet… It was a lucky thing I didn’t spill the cup of tea that was served to me; one shudders to think of the outrage that would otherwise have been triggered by such a serious offense.
