h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If any of your read my post in Ask about translating Hindi and Urdu, you'll know I had an interview this week.

It was for more or less my dream job and it's in Bradford, so I wouldn't be too far from home.

Went across, fell in love with the campus (it is really gorgeous and I was expecting a 60s concrete nightmare) and did my interview. I thought it went quite badly - I was nervous and stumbled on a few of my questions. My presentation didn't seem to go that well either. So I head back to Manc, pretty bummed out.

While I'm in a tunnel, I get a voicemail and one of the interviwers saying she'll call me back in half an hour. It was a *long* half-hour! She calls back - "We're delighted to be able to offer you the job" - and my shout of ecstasy could be heard two carriages down.

I start Monday after next. Yesterday was a good day!

Well done, you! Congrats, and good luck at the new job!

My most awkward interview was for my present job. It's nice when an interview you think you choked at turns out to have gone well, eh?

Again, congrats!

Oh - well done you. I missed the Hindi/Urdu thread, although I did see the title. I'll go check it out. I've plenty of interest because they're near the top of my list of languages to learn.

with the new job

And today signed for a lovely little apartment on the edge of the city centre.

I think I'm officially a professional now.

Oooh! It's so exciting when you find, and get, a lovely place to live! Congrats again.

Bradford gets an undeserved bad name...for obvious and unpalateable reasons.

>>Bradford gets an undeserved bad name<<

I'm starting to question how much of it is undeserved. I found the level of casual racism I encountered really quite shocking. In about 10 of the 15 or so times I viewed places to live the landlord/lady expressed quite blatantly racist views.

Apart from my stint in Devon and Cornwall I've lived in very racially mixed areas for the last years. In my last year of Uni, me and my three housemates were the only white people on our street. I loved the experience. Never in all my time in Manchester have I ever experieced the sort of racism that I saw in Bradford in just a few days. It makes me a bit cautious about the job I'll be having to do.

I don't get racism - I truly don't understand it. While I'm not remotely prudish and ignore most swear words, I loathe people using racist language in my presence - just as much as I do homophobic language.

One of the questions I was asked at interview which really threw me was "We have a very strong policy of equality and diversity here, how would you deal with that?" because I've never seen it as something that I need to deal with - for me it is a core of personality, so innate I don't think about it. I always find it surprising that other people don't seem to get something that is so blatantly true.

You've just given a pretty good answer to the question.

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that my attitude in response - one of complete surprise in even being asked - was a factor in me getting the job.

But at the time I was far less eloquent than I was here. Though I did make a nice little point about anybody working for me had better share my views in this case, otherwise they won't be working for me for long.

In most cases I'd encourage a huge variety of opinions, beliefs and attitudes, but in this case the belief that people get respect because they are human, not because of anything else, is the only acceptable one.

It just worries me because I know for the job I'll be relying on a gang of university students. In Manchester, when I was part of this gang, us students were from all over the country and indeed the world. Bradford University has an unusually high proportion of locals - students who stay in their home city to study. I'm nervous that I might have to challenge racist views on quite a large scale.

I'll need these people. They'll probably be dedicated, motivated, brilliant, charming and passionate and I'll be the happiest bloke in the world. But if I encounter racism I will have to crush it - be a bar-steward about it, because I *cannot* tolerate it.

Of course...there are ways and means of challenging it. One way is to slap people down - and sometimes this is necessary. Another way is to make it clear how obviously stupid racism is. Why on earth would anyone be racist?