I was offered to apply for a job abroad.

Specifically in Ireland. I said no, purely because I have my sights set on my truck driving education in august, and because jobs like the one I was offered to apply for, is one of those call center jobs, that aren't really secure. The staff turnover in that job field is huge, because if people fail to go 110%, or if they fail to live up to their expectations, they are booted out. It happened to me in Portugal. I had accepted a job from a company called Staples, in their Lisbon office. Let me explain the entire process from hire to when they let me go.

On the phone, I was told the start date was two months away. All I had to do was send the flight info, and they would arrange pickup at the airport, an apartment in Lisbon and help with all other stuff. However, before I had the chance to book the flight, they called me again and said that the start date was one week away, and not two months. Alarm bells began to ring in my head, but I decided to go ahead and book the flight out, one week away. The day before I was due to depart, I had severe second thoughts, and I was VERY close to call it off, but my sister's ex-boyfriend's friend convinced me to give it a shot. So I did.

I wish I hadn't.

When I got to Lisbon, I had a wander around the airport, looking for my pickup driver, expecting the person to be there when I arrived. No luck. I even went to the place the email said to be at. I waited for about 15 minutes, still nothing. I decided to give it about 30 minutes, and if the pickup hadn't arrived by then, I would buy a ticket for the next flight back to Copenhagen, and abandon the job. 30 minutes passed, still nothing, so I headed over to the nearest airline, and asked when the next flight to Copenhagen departed. "Today is Tuesday, and the next flight to Copenhagen is on Friday".

Bummer.. I am not about to wait three days for a flight home, so I decided to head back to the meeting point. That's where I met a Belgian guy, who was also a new hire at the company. Ten minutes later, a French girl joined the huddle. About 30 minutes later, a full hour and 15 minutes delayed, the pickup finally arrived. "I'm sorry for being late, but I wasn't informed of your arrival until 15 minutes ago. Let's head to the car and get you to your apartment". Second alarm bell rang, but I decided to roll with it anyway. In hindsight, not the best thing to do.

We arrived at the apartment, which was excellent. Maybe they had redeemed themselves, with that. We got situated, picked out bedrooms and had a wander in the city. Lisbon is a beautiful place, for sure, with a lot of great food. The following day, we were picked up and driven to the HQ. We all worked for different clients, so we had to go to different offices. I was told, that I had to head to the waterfront, and there would be an office building, where I was going to work. I asked for the address, which they provided. When I got there, it wasn't the right building. I spent a whole day looking for this stupid office building, and when I finally found it, I had 30 minutes left before I was off. I did find it, which was a relief.

The training, which I was going to be receiving, was all over the place. I was promised an intense training period of three weeks, but the training was three days only, because they needed agents on the phones. I was assigned my own workstation and thrust into the job, after three days worth of training, that was mediocre, at best. I was not trained in procedures, which led me to give incorrect information to clients. When I asked for more training time, they replied that there were no time for that. After the three weeks, the manager told me that I had been unsuccessful, and that I was let go, even though I specifically told them, I wasn't ready to be put on the phones. Long story short: I should have gone with my gut, and called it off before I left.

The reason why I declined the Ireland job application, was 100% my bad experience in Portugal.