My offer to be a London Ambassador (5)
It’s almost exactly a year ago that I did my first posting about my wish to become a London Ambassador for the 2012 Olympic Games. Subsequently I applied and was shortlisted and this morning I was actually interviewed for the position.
First, a few facts and figures. Apparently, some 33,000 registered an interest in the role. Around 16,000 were shortlisted for interview. The organisers are looking for 8,000 Ambassadors although they might actually appoint up to 10,000. So the odds look good.
Recruitment events have been running since April and the last interviews are tomorrow. My selection procedure was held in the basement of Church Street Library near Edgware Road tube station in central London.
The selectors have been working hard. Today they have seven one-hour sessions. Each is supposed to involve 12 shortlisted candidates but for my session only nine actually turned up. The level of enthusiasm is amazing. This is evident from the number of applicants for the unpaid role, but our group had a woman currently living in Turkey who had flown over for her interview and apparently other interviewees have travelled from as far as China.
First thing: identification. UK citizens have to bring along a passport or a driving licence. Then we were given an overview of the selection process. For our group, this came from Kai who hailed from rural Egypt before spending years in various rural part of Yorkshire. This is the first time he has lived in a city and he was so excited about living in London and helping with the Olympic Games.
Next came an ice-breaker. We were invited to complete a sticky label with our answer to what we most like about London and then fix it to a wall of answers from other interviewees. I wrote: “You can meet people from every country in the world”.
The core of the session was a series of exercises. For this, we were split up into three teams. The teams should have been four each but, since only nine had turned up for my session, we were divided into teams of four, three and two respectively. I was in the team of two with Sunita whose parents are from India – she lives in Northampton but works at Queen Mary College in east London.
Exercise 1: we had to place magnetised symbols of London landmarks on a large wall map of central London. Sunita and I were good at this, placing the dinosaur where the Natural History Museum is located (as opposed to the London Zoo) and the tank where the Imperial War Museum is located (as opposed to Buckingham Palace). Our only problem was the Central Criminal Court or Old Bailey which we confused with the location of the Royal Courts of Justice – although I can’t imagine any London visitors wanting to visit either.
Exercise 2: we had to select from a small choice of face-down cards and then speak for one minute on the subject named on the card. Sunita went first, her card said ‘colour’, and she was brilliant. I went next and my card said ‘weather’ (it was crashing with rain outside which was inspiration). Other choices might have been ‘sports’, ‘music’, ‘place’, or ‘fruit’.
Exercise 3: we had to do a role play, taking it in turns to be a London Ambassador and a visitor to the city who had a particular character ( a choice of face-down cards again) with a particular query (another random choice of card). Sunita played a foreigner with virtually no English who wanted to know how to reach Stratford shopping centre and then the Olympic Park. I portrayed a grumpy visitor who wanted to know what to do with two spare hours.
Finally came the one-to-one ‘ interview’. My interviewer was Shiereen who was born in the Kurdish part of Iraq, brought up in The Netherlands, and now lives in Sutton.
In fact, the ‘interview’ was incredibly informal. We sat on chairs next to each other – and very easy – it was really just a checklist of questions on things like availability plus the obvious question of why one wanted to be an Ambassador and a question about what would get one out of bed to do it.
I was asked whether I would be willing to mentor young volunteers (yes) and whether I would like to be a member of ‘the flying squad’ who would move around from day to day filling gaps (no thanks, I’d rather work in one location with one team).
Only at the every end did the need for managers come up. They want Location Managers who would staff each of the 45 ‘pods’ and Area Managers who would work in the six area offices. I’d said that I would be willing to do the first but not the second, because I actually want to meet visitors and help with queries. Applications for managers have to be submitted by this Monday, so I’ll have to get my Olympic running shoes on.
Selection of London Ambassadors will not be announced until November but selection of mangers will be made sooner.
August 7th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Oh Roger and I actually thought I would know a real live ‘Ambassador’.
Second thoughts, I loved you as a manager, whoever gets you in that role is on to a winner.
August 7th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Thanks, Mavis. If I have team members like you, it will be fun.