The Controversial Four-Letter L-Word: How bad is it to be LATE?

I spent 12 years of my life growing up right next to my school. 

It took me exactly six minutes to walk from the moment I shut my door to setting my backpack onto my class seat - including four flights of stairs downwards and three upwards. Saying this, I was accustomed to leaving everything to the last minute and never worrying about time-on-commute. People didn't care if I was a few minutes off arriving in class since I was just next door. 

Sadly, once I graduated high school, my techniques didn't work anymore. 

It took me a long time to adapt, and even when I kicked off bad habits, I am just the queen of bad luck. 

I have gotten too often on the wrong side of the train, 

missed my bus which arrived 5 minutes too early, 

riden a bus moving inch-by-inch because there was an Eminem concert in town, 

gotten lost in Labyrinth streets with my GPS going mental and believe it or not, having my skirt rip right at the center to my bottom. 

Right in the middle of the city. 

While walking. 

Yes.

My main fix-it technique I now use is adding another 30 minutes to my calculated commute time for unforeseen events - which works so far - so good! Yay! 

But now let's roll back a bit. This is not about preventing lateness. You've done your best, and for some act of God, you're running late! How bad is it going to be? In saying the following, I assume you're not late all the time, did the right thing and called them before the actual meeting time and gave an accurate time of arrival. Specially for work-related, I call even when I'm running only 5 minutes late.

Personal Friends / Casual Meet-ups

They'll get pissed but most friends will forgive you and you have to suck it up if they decided to do their thing without you. Unless people are expecting you on the meet-ups, they'll pretty much not care and go on without you. 

Interview

After letting them know, given your estimated time of arrival - lateness factored in, they'll say whether you should still come in or not. They'll normally say not to come in anymore if they have something to do after your scheduled time and if they're really tight - you'll never hear from them again. Most of the time, they'll appreciate you calling in and will see you when you arrive - if they're still free, or just reschedule on the spot. This is, of course, assuming you didn't just say you're going to be late for 2 hours. 

Work - One of Many

If your job is something all 20 of you employees doing the same, it's not much of a loss from the company, you'll get a slap on the wrist and a mumbling curse from the person whose shift you're supposed to takeover.  Do it too often, forget that job.

Work - One of a Kind

If you're part of a team where each of you does something different, you're dead. No kidding. I was once participating in a location shoot for a magazine where we were told to meet in front of XXX Gas Station located at a highway. It was set up for 6am and I arrived 30 minutes early. I called and said I was there and waiting, only to find out there were two of the same gas stations on opposite ends of the highway - almost 2 hours apart. Horrible. They called another make-up artist located nearby. I was very relieved. I'd rather they not have waited for me and mentally cursed at me the entire time. It was an honest mistake which could happen to anyone and I did hear from them again. (Whew!) 

On the other hand, I once had a busy day lined up and because a model was over an hour late, I had to cancel two following very important meetings. Think of this: you ruined everyone's day and plans, incurred extra charges for the client in terms of staff and location hours. Technically, you should pay for losses.

Work - You and Your Job are Awesome

This is exceptional. My sister, programmer and consultant, is awesome, and aside from scheduled meetings, she can pretty much arrive two hours late as long as she finishes what she have to do. Which is ironic because she was the only one out of us five who was never late a minute for school and now she gets the late benefits. Life is rewarding if you work hard. 

So that's my two cents on L-A-T-E. 

Never forget to respect everyone's time, 

call if you're going to be late BEFORE THE ACTUAL TIME, 

don't wait until they're looking for you, 

and there's always the risk you'll never hear from them again. 

Interview Must Brings!

So you've done your company research, ironed your outfit and think you're ready to rock that job interview. I have had too many misfits and examples of what-could-go-wrong-will-definitely-go-wrong stories to go to battle unprepared. Here is a list of what I would consider necessary armoury and why.

1. GPS or decent print out of area street  map

You've Googled up the location saying it's "7 minutes walk from Central Station" and you've been to the area plenty of times so the place would be fairly easy to get to. Unless you've walked all those streets everyday, it would be a fair bet you don't even know half of the streets in that suburb. Don't let yourself be late because you couldn't figure out whether you should go left or right.

2. Hair Pins and / or hair products (gel, spray, wax - whatever you like best to use)

You may have done all your prep back in your bathroom, but when mother nature strikes, be happy to know you won't be licking your palm to flatten your hair. (When I do my prep, I like to put a soft hair mousse then hot blow-drying my hair in place so when the wind messes it up, my hair will pretty much easily mould back to its "setting".)

3. A little bottle of mouthwash

Maybe you were too nervous during the train ride and salivated too much with your mouth shut, maybe you had a cigarette and then your mouth is starting to get too stale or maybe you popped a sugar-rich candy. Toothbrush in a public toilet is a bit too much (it is, here in Sydney, anyway) so mouthwash is your best bet and pretty much easy to use. Literally takes less than 10 seconds to gargle, spit, run the water to rinse the sink. As for mints, a lot of menthol candy are filled with sugar so when you're already sporting a stale breath, the sugar messes it up some more. Oh, yes, you know what I'm talking about.

P.S. use the public-access toilet where you got off from your commute...I've found it hard to find one between public transport and private offices. And you don't want to be gargling at your interviewer's toilet. Just a bit too tacky!

4. Band-aids

Most people I know will sport their best pair of shoes when heading to an interview. Unfortunately, our prettiest shoes rarely are the most comfortable ones. Also, if you've never been to where your interview is going to be, you're not sure how long you're going to walk nor how much uphill-downhill you'd trek through(specially in Sydney!). Prior to wearing the shoes, slap on those band-aids where the shoes get mean and bring spare ones with you in case they come loose or you have to double-layer 'em up. If they're brand new, you're not really sure where they're going to hurt so better grab a handful. When I have more space in my bag, I even bring spare flats or slippers for after the interview. (Not before! You're not sure if you'd have the opportunity to change into your pretty ones before you get there! Some areas, it's hard to find a toilet. Play safe.) 

5. Tissue

Back in the Philippines, every other person has a small pack of tissue with them(this could be due to the inexistent tissue on tissue holders in public toilets). But half the time, we use them for emergencies outside the lavatory and I only realised this after I stopped carrying tissue here in Sydney. Heat / nervousness making you sweat too much or even getting you to grease up, sudden wind making you sneeze, stepping on a wet puddle(or getting splashed by someone else!), I can go on and on! Tissue is one of the world's cruel products which you can't find any when you need it the most. So, as we used to say in the Girl Scouts, always be prepared!

Sydney International Student, Banana English and Lucky Breaks

When I decided to come over Sydney as an international student, I had unmatchable excitement and optimism.  I was excited to start in a new school which was pretty well-known for the course I was taking then (Pre-press and Graphic Arts) and believed the mix of my fashion, arts, corporate and leadership background and experience was a great head start for a career in a country reputably so full of fresh opportunities.

A lot of optimism there was definitely let down.

Firstly, a lot of my experience came from freelance work. 

As a lot of make-up artists, stylists, writers or events organiser could say for themselves too. Freelance barely counts for anything in this country, or when moving to another country, for that matter. Freelance cannot be credited as official skills in most systems, some people whom I handed my resume to gave me a "Bull shit, yea right." face while skimming, and most of all, nobody can refer you to anybody as nobody knows you at all.

Secondly, "school" was horribly disappointing. 

I don't know how it got to this point, but because Australia offers a huge doorway for immigrants (compared to other first-world dream destination countries such as US of A, UK) it has a huge influx of international students, a lot with hopes  of being eventually absorbed as citizens. This resulted into schools lowering their standards of acceptance so they can accomodate more international students. Why? Simple: it's a multi-billion-dollar industry. For plenty of universities / colleges, the money they get from international students covers 20-90% of their total revenue. I can say I have not seen a single Aussie citizen in class for both schools I've been in.

A basic example of what taints the quality is the acceptance level of English fluency. The Department of Immigration and most schools require an IELTS exam result of their specified minimum score. However, if an applicant's English level (pardon the language as I believe it is the best word to use) sucks, they can alternatively take a short English course which the school itself will offer or has an affiliate school who does the English classes.

I have passed by a few of these classes and for what I can say, picture a teacher holding a banana with BANANA written on the blackboard then repetitively saying "Ba-na-na. Ba-na-na. Ba-na-na." Thus said, your chances of learning proper, or even just grasp an understanding of, English is not much farther as it is if you eat an entire copy of Merriam-Webster's latest dictionary edition.

School lessons over a span of a week, you can learn within 2 hours on your own time if you have a working understanding of English. This is my case with schools who simplify things. On the other hand, some schools will teach as they will, and let those who can't understand flow like seeds in the wind. I have met too plenty undergraduate students on their graduating year and still has no idea what they have just studied for the past years.

Lastly(for now), I cannot seem to get a break.

Without local experience in my desired occupations, it appears that nobody wants to give me a go. Every interview always asks about local experience, local experience and local experience. (Seriously though, how will I get any local experience if everybody wants local experience?) I am even very willing to work for free in internships to get a grasp of an Australian working experience and learn a lot from within the industry. However, most of the decent ones want you to be in a graduating year from a chosen few(and expensive) universities. Then, once in a while, I get some false hope in getting a better position with start-up business guys but the case happens is that I feel like I was doing the teaching than learning. Also, being on a student visa restricts your working hours and flexibility, making most employers put you in the bottom of the picking.

I have heard too many stories such as some guy from the UK coming here and claiming to be DJ (but actually has no experience of being one at all) and now has an awesome DJ career or the girl who worked as a kitchen hand then in one occasion had a conversation with some company big gun, wowed him, then got a great job offer. I think these are exaggerated versions of people who got some break in a career, worked hard in it, and are now in a good position. (Not that I don't believe these stories. They could be very true!) 

The point is not that I am hoping for a CEO position offer(not that I would turn one down), but all we need is a break. A break to prove how hard we can work and show what an asset we can be rather than being reduced to doing dead-end jobs when we have more to offer.