The guy spoke so fast, especially the greetings. He probably had spoken the same greetings for a million times. I was not prepared to take a call in the middle of my lunch. His speaking was so fast as if a machine gun firing over the phone, and I could not catch the words until he mentioned my resume.
Luckily, I had not distributed my resume to all dive centers in Cairns. Not yet. I was going to all dive centers door-by-door to hand out my resume. I visited only two dive centers this morning. One of these dive centers would not reply me until next Monday, because the manager was on a cruise to outer reef this weekend. I instantly figured out that it was a call from the other dive center that I had just visited two hours ago.
'... interview ... this afternoon…' the speedy guy kept shooting words, but I could catch a few of them. 'Or,' the first time he made a pause between sentences. '… next Monday…' probably thought that it was too fast for me to go to the interview in the next hours.
'I can do it this afternoon.' I interrupted him. Not only for his convenience, but also mine. I did not want to hang in the air in the entire weekend.
Two hours later, I was there again. I was expecting a senior person because the speedy guy was the training officer in the dive center. However, he looked like a guy at his early thirties. I should have known that because senior persons do not speak so fast. I briefly narrated my past work experiences. The speedy guy did not ask many questions afterwards.
'Do you have a drive license?' he asked. Here again. The same problem I had yesterday. I had been rejected for no drive license. Bad memory was flashing back.
'Uhh, that’s the most difficult challenge I have in Australia.' I was preparing myself for the upcoming failure.
'Okay, it’s…' he hesitated to think of the wording. 'No Chinese instructors have a drive license in Australia…' he continued.
Without too much thinking, the speedy guy decided to give me a try and sent me to a dive boat next Monday morning. It was the speediest interview process I had ever had. I supposed he needed a Chinese/English bilingual guy to start work immediately.
