Job hunt/application/interview bullshit

[vivalostwages]

1. Last summer, I went for an interview at a medical lab for a transcriptionist position. When I got there, they made me fill out the paper application all over again even though I had already submitted one online. Then the interviewer seemed shocked that I did not recognize a medical acronym that she quoted to me. (There are thousands of medical acronyms, so sue me for not knowing this one off the bat.) Then she expressed even more shock upon realizing that I had never worked in a lab before. (If I had, I would have put it on my resume--which she had on her desk.) Her last words: "Thanks--we'll be in touch." I never heard a thing but sent a courtesy email anyway.

2. This summer, I applied online to be a medical proofreader and took the test. I edited and proofread a short article to make it appropriate for publication. They're going to pay me for taking the test, at least, but they did not say why the answer was "no."

3. Earlier this summer, I applied online to rate/score written tests and went through all the tutorials. At least they paid me for that work. However, I apparently blew both trial scoring sessions, even though I scored the best I could and their rubric is virtually the same as the one I use in one of my current jobs, doing the same kind of thing but not online. They never said how many I got wrong or if they were looking for a perfect score (which would make no sense, since these things must be read and scored by multiple readers, not just one.)

4. I have all but given up applying for a full-time position at my current workplace. Oh, they gave me a 10-year service award (no money), but I have not been able to score an interview there for many years. My cumulative experience, evidently, is working against me.

5. My friend C. recently interviewed for a different job, only to hear the interviewer tell her that her cover letter was "very unprofessional." Uhhhh.....so why did the higher-ups call her in to be interviewed??

6. My friend L. is trying to get a different job as well, but they were late getting to her for her interview, and when they finally did, they tried offering her $10,000.00 LESS per year than what she makes now....and she had already made her salary range clear in advance.

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Is your job hunt going badly? Interviewers wasting your time? Other complaints? Go ahead and register them here.

[Shagnasty]

That stuff sucks but it happens to almost everyone. The only thing you can do is try to learn the game, because it certainly is one, and try to play it better but even that may not be enough. I am a highly experienced professional and have gotten some bizarre interview feedback before that I just tossed in my mental trash heap. You can't expect to land every job you interview for no matter how perfect you are especially these days. My overall batting average is about 1 in 5. You just look to see if their feedback has valid points, address those, and move on. Unless you are applying for jobs you aren't qualified for, you don't have control over everything. Most companies interview people for positions that either don't really exist at all or they have already decided who they are going hire and it isn't you no matter how well you do. Don't beat yourself up over individual interviews unless you did something really dumb. You should use them as a learning experience to see how you could do better on them based on the interviewing experience they are giving you.

[msmith537]

Most companies interview people for positions that either don't really exist at all or they have already decided who they are going hire and it isn't you no matter how well you do.

I wouldn't say that. Whenever I have interviewed candidates at any job, it was for an actual position. But companies always sort of have a sort of image in their mind of what that person will be like. And they can be fickle. I was hired for one position where the company had been looking at candidates for a year. Somehow they picked me. Don't know why it took so long. They could have hired anyone to sit on ass doing nothing.

[Uzi]

It is a numbers game.

I applied in Canada for any number of positions that I was completely qualified for, not too much, or too little. Got very few answers. The problem is that huge numbers are applying for the same role. At that point any little error in your cover letter, resume, or interview are used to disqualify you.
I applied overseas for a position that I didn't think I had any hope to get due to my minimum qualifications for the position, but because no one was qualified to that level in the local market and few are willing to pack up and move overseas, I got it.
Timing and luck? Or, was I willing to look in areas that others weren't and fill a niche?

[Boyo Jim]

Mine is among the top 1% of the scores in the state civil service administrative exam. I get several invitations to apply and/or interview every single week, and I can't get a fucking job anywhere.

I never thought I was THAT socially and conversationally and professionally inept.

So for me, it's NOT a numbers game. If it was, somebody would have hired me long ago.

[Dallas Jones]

Most companies interview people for positions that either don't really exist at all or they have already decided who they are going hire and it isn't you no matter how well you do.

Oh yeah, I agree with this statement, particularly for publicly funded positions. The jobs must be publicly posted for about 2 weeks just in case there is a more qualified applicant out there somewhere. There isn't. It is part of the ethical hiring protocol. But they already have an internal applicant looking to advance who will likely get the job.

I learned this while unemployed a few years ago. I live in a smallish town and could usually find out who actually got the city, county or state job I had applied and interviewed for and it was usually an internal advancement. Can be quite discouraging to realise you are just going through the motions.

You might think that they wouldn't bother to waste the time doing it this way when they know that they are just going to move Bob into the job. You would be wrong. Bob can only be moved into the job after the closing date for the job posting is reached and a few people have been interviewed. Then Bob gets the job.

So I got hired into a publicly funded position after 18 months of searching for a job. How? The old fashioned way, I knew somebody.

A friend/manager at the place called another friend/manager and asked, "Are you going to interview Dallas?" Well, no, my application wasn't forwarded by HR. So then my application was pulled and I got an interview and was hired.

It sucks, but that is still how to get a job, connections.

[Shayna]

I just got a job by contacting the CEO of a company and sending him over 20 errors on his website. He asked if I was free to do copy editing, then after I said yes and sent him my resume, he didn't respond for over a week. So I sent him a snarky email telling him that if he wasn't serious about offering a paying job, he should at least hire an intern, because he seriously needed someone, to which he immediately responded with a firm offer. I don't recommend this approach, however. I'm still embarrassed by my unprofessional behavior.

Wishing you luck!

[dropzone]

I went into an interview believing that my security experience, though residential, was extremely high-end and probably better than the commercial security the job called for. The interviewer, the guy who called me in, apparently only began reading my resume when I walked in the room and I bailed after three minutes because I didn't care for more abuse like, "This isn't commercial. Why are you wasting my time with residential?"

Bro, my residential experience includes ballistic doors and floors, gun safes, and man traps with potentially lethal gas. My experience involves keeping out Al Quaeda kidnappers. Access control and networked CCTV are child's play.

[GuanoLad]

I got my current job (a very recent development) by having experience in a relatively obscure application. This is a double edged sword - I've unintentionally limited myself in who will hire me; but they've also limited the pool to hire from.

[Uzi]

I get several invitations to apply and/or interview every single week, and I can't get a fucking job anywhere.

Hmmm, I was batting 50% on interviews vs. job offers. My problem was getting the interview as I didn't have connections.
The odds of getting an interview are 1 in potentially hundreds. The odds of getting a job offer once you've been interviewed are usually 1 in 6 or so. That is assuming all interviewees are equally qualified and make similar impressions.
I'd ask yourself why, when you are only competing with a limited numbers of other interviewees, you keep losing out.

[Dave Hartwick]

However, I apparently blew both trial scoring sessions, even though I scored the best I could and their rubric is virtually the same as the one I use in one of my current jobs, doing the same kind of thing but not online. They never said how many I got wrong or if they were looking for a perfect score (which would make no sense, since these things must be read and scored by multiple readers, not just one.)Not necessarily so, IME. I once applied for a shop job that required an aptitude test. When I called back to see if I got the job, the answer was no. The testing company had a site where you could look up your score. [pitiful sneak brag]Mine was perfect, or damn near. [/pitiful sneak brag] I might've blown the interview, or somebody else had a good line on the job, or they decided they could cover it with existing positions, any number of things.

[Boyo Jim]

Hmmm, I was batting 50% on interviews vs. job offers. My problem was getting the interview as I didn't have connections.
The odds of getting an interview are 1 in potentially hundreds. The odds of getting a job offer once you've been interviewed are usually 1 in 6 or so. That is assuming all interviewees are equally qualified and make similar impressions.
I'd ask yourself why, when you are only competing with a limited numbers of other interviewees, you keep losing out.

One of the more unexpected things I learned in this process is that these state agencies are bringing in much larger numbers of people for interviews than I thought. Even for low-level jobs, they are inviting 20-30 people for in-person interviews. Perhaps it's because of the bad economy and they are getting far more qualified candidates than they usually would, but OTOH it tells me these people don't have enough useful work to do it they can basically put aside a whole week to interview so many people for clerical work.

[Martin Hyde]

An interview isn't totally dissimilar from a first date. If you get the cold shoulder from the woman after that it doesn't mean you did anything objectively wrong. Employers, just like a first date, can make their decision to go further based on very very small things.

Sometimes it is stuff 100% out of your control. Maybe you mention you used to work for XYZ Company and one of the guys sitting in on the interview has supervised several people who came from that company and all of them were terrible.

Just like with a first date, it could come down to intangibles. And in an interview you're being compared to usually 5-6 other people and if you are all over qualified (often the case) then the reason for not getting an offer can be essentially impossible to say.

[aruvqan]

Before 2000 if I could get an interview, I had a 50/50 chance of getting hired. Lately it is almost impossible to get called in for an interview, and I have almost no chance of being hired anywhere - it is amazing how few buildings that are 'handicapped accessible' actually can be entered and moved around in with a wheelchair. I *can* gimp around on crutches, but after about a week of said gimping I end up with my feet going into a flare and I end up in a chair *totally* for around a week. If the building is not chairable, I need to telecommute. Generally companies are not hiring people to telecommute right out of the starting gate, you have to prove you are dependable first, though I telecommuted for a year and a half for Oakleaf, you would think if I was dependable for one company I would be dependable for them as well *sigh*

[as a comparison, I got hired for Oakleaf after a year out of work, in which I submitted somewhere around 500 applications over that year. Jobhunting is a full time job when done right. I got 19 interviews, 6 second interviews and 1 third and final interview]

[elninost0rm]

Mine is among the top 1% of the scores in the state civil service administrative exam. I get several invitations to apply and/or interview every single week, and I can't get a fucking job anywhere.

I never thought I was THAT socially and conversationally and professionally inept.

So for me, it's NOT a numbers game. If it was, somebody would have hired me long ago.

The Clerk Typist test? I scored in the 98% percentile and would get those "availability notices" by the truckload. 1-2 a day was almost guaranteed.

I probably got 50 of those, and in those 50 I got maybe 5-6 interviews. In 5 or 6 interviews, I got offered 2 positions. It's just hit or miss. With a score like that, you'll stick eventually (assuming you aren't blowing the interview for some reason).

[Boyo Jim]

The exam name is "Office Support". There are 3 levels of test - Entry, Intermediate, and Advanced. To take a higher level test, you also have to take the lower level tests first. I am in the top 1% in both Intermediate and Advanced, not quite so high in Entry because so many people take it and skip the higher levels. Which is fine with me since the higher levels pay more -- my scores mean that I am invited to apply or interview for pretty much every one of the better paying gigs, but not invited in for the lower paying ones. Also, only 20% of the positions are Entry level anyway.

I am very hopeful about an interview this Thursday -- I've already made it through a phone interview so I am now a "finalist" and the director of the agency is going to personally interview me. Mostly I get in on these cattle calls and don't make it past that, so this is pretty unusual.

As to blowing the interviews... I've thought about that quite a bit. I'm articulate and presentable. I think there are at least a couple of factors against me -- I'm old for this level job and perhaps over-qualified. OTOH, in this economy there are a LOT of other older workers out there also looking.

[LonesomePolecat]

I'm planning to retire in about a year and three months. One of the reasons is so that I'll never have to deal with bullshit like this again.

[fluiddruid]

I once got called in for four interviews with a company (3 different positions) and didn't get hired. "Oh, you look so great, you're a perfect fit, but we had an internal candidate in mind. We could really use someone like you here, though! I'll tell so-and-so though, they're hiring too..." I'm sure it would have continued, but I bombed the last interview because the HR person described it as a completely different position in terms of responsibilities, so I looked like a rube when answering why I was interested and what made me a good applicant. They even asked me to cancel a vacation for interview #2 (I didn't).

Companies that interview you when you have zero chance for the job should have to pay you for your time. What horseshit.

Somewhat ironically, I ended up working at that building a few years later -- for a different company. They only had to interview me the one time. It was weird going back, but at least HR was in a different place.

[elninost0rm]

The exam name is "Office Support". There are 3 levels of test - Entry, Intermediate, and Advanced. To take a higher level test, you also have to take the lower level tests first. I am in the top 1% in both Intermediate and Advanced, not quite so high in Entry because so many people take it and skip the higher levels. Which is fine with me since the higher levels pay more -- my scores mean that I am invited to apply or interview for pretty much every one of the better paying gigs, but not invited in for the lower paying ones. Also, only 20% of the positions are Entry level anyway.

I am very hopeful about an interview this Thursday -- I've already made it through a phone interview so I am now a "finalist" and the director of the agency is going to personally interview me. Mostly I get in on these cattle calls and don't make it past that, so this is pretty unusual.

As to blowing the interviews... I've thought about that quite a bit. I'm articulate and presentable. I think there are at least a couple of factors against me -- I'm old for this level job and perhaps over-qualified. OTOH, in this economy there are a LOT of other older workers out there also looking.

Yeah, I really don't think the interview is your problem. You sound like you'd do just fine. That said, it's not a numbers game. They would have every reason imaginable to pick you, but they aren't (yet). I definitely agree with you there.

I have noticed that age seems to be working (unfairly) against a lot of very qualified applicants out there.

[vivalostwages]

Yeah, I really don't think the interview is your problem. You sound like you'd do just fine. That said, it's not a numbers game. They would have every reason imaginable to pick you, but they aren't (yet). I definitely agree with you there.

I have noticed that age seems to be working (unfairly) against a lot of very qualified applicants out there.

I strongly suspect this as well. In my case, I am no longer fresh blood, as I was in 2000 when I was hired at Current Workplace.

[vivalostwages]

I once got called in for four interviews with a company (3 different positions) and didn't get hired. "Oh, you look so great, you're a perfect fit, but we had an internal candidate in mind. We could really use someone like you here, though! I'll tell so-and-so though, they're hiring too..." I'm sure it would have continued, but I bombed the last interview because the HR person described it as a completely different position in terms of responsibilities, so I looked like a rube when answering why I was interested and what made me a good applicant. They even asked me to cancel a vacation for interview #2 (I didn't).

Companies that interview you when you have zero chance for the job should have to pay you for your time. What horseshit.
.

I would have made a decent chunk of cash by now if this were true.

[matt_mcl]

Then the interviewer seemed shocked that I did not recognize a medical acronym that she quoted to me. (There are thousands of medical acronyms, so sue me for not knowing this one off the bat.)

And many of them vary from place to place and institution to institution, which is what makes medical acronyms so dangerous.

[Fair Rarity]

I was working at a job through a temp agency and they wanted to hire me directly. Now, I had been doing the job awesomely for months, which is why they wanted to hire me, but they put me through this ridiculous hiring process. It wasn't big enough of a company that there were immovable hoops to jump through. Someone could have just said "Sure, let's drop all this other stuff." But no. For some reason, coming in through a temp agency made me more suspect than people coming in off the street.

I had to take some sort of aptitude/intelligence test. I scored nearly perfect, but I had to convince the HR manager that I was worthy of a job because I scored TOO well. She had it in her head that I wouldn't like the job and would be bored by it... the same job I had been doing for months, and knew quite well what I was getting into.

It wasn't like other people were desperate for my job. No one had lasted more than a year and I had been ordered from the temp agency because the person they originally hired quit after ONE DAY.

Then they repeatedly called and harassed my references. It was bizarre. I stayed there for several years and I never saw them put anyone else through such hassles. If I hadn't known I was a good fit for the job, like if I had been treated like that as a stranger off the street, I would have withdrawn my application.

It got even funnier later when I was laid off. A few months later, they tried to hire me back. I wasn't worth hiring, then I wasn't worth keeping, but then I was too important to not have back. Insanity.

As for this market, I basically gave up even looking for work. I went back to school. I'd love something part-time, but it's very discouraging out there.

[Johanna]

I went to interview at one place last winter... a company that was very proud of their federal contract. I'd answered an ad for an Arabic to English translator. Which is my forte.

Got there all prepared for an Arabic to English translation test. Instead I got Arabic conversation and composition tests. That was a WTF :confused: moment. I passed the tests, but professionally I don't translate into, speak in, or write in Arabic because my skills there, while adequate, are not professional level.

The woman I interviewed with first told me that only a small part of the job would be Arabic to English translation. Another :confused: WTF. Then they brought the boss to interview me. He said actually there will be no translation in this job at all. Just reading Arabic sources and writing analyses in Arabic. The biggest WTF :confused: of all. The whole interview and all the preparation I did for it was a waste of time. Mine and theirs. How many more people's time did they waste that way?

Whoever writes the job announcement obviously has not been in communication with the actual work unit. Morons. Either that, or new management took over, completely replaced the old work plan with a new one, but neglected to update the job listings. Morons.

[Freddy the Pig]

Whoever writes the job announcement obviously has not been in communication with the actual work unit. Morons.This is common in my field because companies hire through recruiters, and it annoys the hell out of me. It's very rare for a company to communicate a correct, up-to-date position description to a recruiter.

So the recruiter passes incorrect, out-of-date position descriptions on to me, and I have to decide whether to interview (and prepare for the interview) on that basis. Then I get in the interview and it's a bait-and-switch where they really want something else. Asswipes.

Fortunately I'm already employed so I can tell them to piss off. In mid-interview. Which is fun. But still a waste of time.

[Shecky]

I just got a job by contacting the CEO of a company and sending him over 20 errors on his website. He asked if I was free to do copy editing, then after I said yes and sent him my resume, he didn't respond for over a week. So I sent him a snarky email telling him that if he wasn't serious about offering a paying job, he should at least hire an intern, because he seriously needed someone, to which he immediately responded with a firm offer. I don't recommend this approach, however. I'm still embarrassed by my unprofessional behavior.

Wishing you luck!

You're my new hero.

[Scuba_Ben]

I went into an interview believing that my security experience, though residential, was extremely high-end and probably better than the commercial security the job called for. The interviewer, the guy who called me in, apparently only began reading my resume when I walked in the room and I bailed after three minutes because I didn't care for more abuse like, "This isn't commercial. Why are you wasting my time with residential?"

Bro, my residential experience includes ballistic doors and floors, gun safes, and man traps with potentially lethal gas. My experience involves keeping out Al Quaeda kidnappers. Access control and networked CCTV are child's play.

You've done Evil Overlord grade home security?! Wow man, that's awesome. I'd LOVE to see you do an Ask The... thread, just to hear about your work.

The interviewer only saw "residential" and didn't bother asking about the deadly gas? They should be thrown into one of your man traps.

[Shayna]

You're my new hero. LOL I still can't believe I did that. :eek:

Might be some new/different opportunities listed here to check out: http://govinthelab.com/job-listings-2/

[Martini Enfield]

I've been trying to find graduate work in my degree field for over a year now, and besides the usual Catch-22 of being "Overqualified" for entry-level stuff and "Not experienced enough*" or "not being familiar enough with [organisation's] processes" for anything at the level people with my qualifications might reasonably be expected to be suitable for for, I got a rejection letter (from a recruitment company I'd made enquiries to) earlier this week for a job I didn't even apply for.

What's also interesting that most of my colleagues from Uni are in the same position- they're still working their "Uni Jobs" because they can't get a graduate job, which was why they went to Uni in the first place...

Except I have plenty of practical experience

[Sierra Indigo]

What's your degree field Martini?

[Martini Enfield]

My degree is in Journalism/Mass Communication, which (besides working in the rapidly shrinking media) overlaps into Corporate Communication, PR, Marketing, and so on. In theory, anyway...

[Sierra Indigo]

I think you've just missed the graduate intakes for most of the APS departments for next year. I know I saw ours kicking around recently, don't know when they close though.

[Martini Enfield]

I think you've just missed the graduate intakes for most of the APS departments for next year. I know I saw ours kicking around recently, don't know when they close though.

I've applied and been rejected for a few already, and I'm waiting to be rejected from one in the near future. :p The problem with the APS Graduate Programmes is that there's often quite literally 2,000 people applying for maybe 25 positions, and whilst it's edifying to be candidate (say) 28 out of those 2,000 people, it still doesn't get you a job, even when the people who do make it but turn the job down are taken into account. Ah well, I keep applying anyway... I figure something will turn up eventually.

Still, if you find the info and your organisation is still looking for Communications people, I'd be grateful for a PM with the details. :)

[vivalostwages]

I apply online for a lot of editing and proofreading positions. I can also do medical proofreading as well as med transcription, and I am studying coding now. I have 20+ years of experience teaching and tutoring English, and I have three college degrees. *Sigh.*

[PoorYorick]

This is common in my field because companies hire through recruiters, and it annoys the hell out of me. It's very rare for a company to communicate a correct, up-to-date position description to a recruiter.
It's even worse at the corporation I work at, where the actual managers write the descriptions. You'd think they would have a vested interest in seeing that the job descriptions were correct, but after looking at several hundred in-house job openings, I can't understand exactly what the damned job is. Eighty percent of the description consists of acronyms and corporate buzzwords. It's like they use a generic job description template or something.

[GargoyleWB]

Lifetime, my batting average is about 1 in 20 for interviews where I at least meet the job reqs. It's a silly game that you can't take personally. The ones that grind my gears the most are the ones that clearly have not read your resume, ask questions that could clearly be answered by reading the very resume in front of them, and decide on the basis of that resume content. Those managers/HR people are a total waste of oxygen.

[vivalostwages]

Lifetime, my batting average is about 1 in 20 for interviews where I at least meet the job reqs. It's a silly game that you can't take personally. The ones that grind my gears the most are the ones that clearly have not read your resume, ask questions that could clearly be answered by reading the very resume in front of them, and decide on the basis of that resume content. Those managers/HR people are a total waste of oxygen.

Agreed. I had one of those, as I mentioned in the OP. Bitch owes me $ for wasting my time and gasoline. However, I did not mind driving much farther for a better interview with a better person who had read the resume and was actively taking notes on the back of it. At least he was "with it." I don't even resent him for not hiring me.

Just a couple more rants for now....

What really bugs me at my current workplace is that a number of people who were hired later than I was and who are younger than I am have gotten the FT jobs, whereas I have become uninterviewable. It also confounds me that they still insist on seeing my freaking college transcripts. I finished my final degree in 1991. What relevance could these documents possibly have now?

[Sierra Indigo]

It's an easy way to see how old you are, without having to ask how old you are or what your birthdate is.

[PoorYorick]

It's an easy way to see how old you are, without having to ask how old you are or what your birthdate is.
Heh, fooled them. I got my bachelor's at 34.

[Darth Panda]

I'm on the other side of the table now, and it's interesting. Sometimes, I'll interview a dozen people and think "wtf, you have got to be kidding" and then there have been times when I've interviewed a dozen people and thought 6 or 8 would all be perfect, but we could only hire 2. And, no, I don't get to decide to hire more - I'm not that important. But being in a spot when you have to decline someone who is clearly qualified also sucks ass - although, obviously, much more so for them. Nothing fun about it though.

[dropzone]

You've done Evil Overlord grade home security?! Wow man, that's awesome. I'd LOVE to see you do an Ask The... thread, just to hear about your work.FUCK, yeah! Mobster level. Computer mogul level. For the latter Mr Mogul decided he didn't need the Blofeld-level automated screens on his conference room. I tried to argue, "But he can no longer say, "I suppose you are wondering why I brought you here, Mr Gates," while they closed.

Geeks have no imaginations. Mafiosi do.

He put a 15' x 30' Dale Chihuly (http://www.chihuly.com/) chandelier in his theater. I took it as my duty as an audio engineer to cause it to explode the first time Mr Mogul's kids cranked the system. Mogul's kids were not blinded and I have failed. :(

[dropzone]

I've been trying to find graduate work in my degree field for over a year now, and besides the usual Catch-22 of being "Overqualified" for entry-level stuff and "Not experienced enough*" or "not being familiar enough with [organisation's] processes"....
Except I have plenty of practical experienceCountered a "You are too experienced" with a "But not in YOUR industry" email and have the interview tomorrow. Give it a try. Try to not be insulted by their offer, noting that you know they would not offer something beyond what is appropriate for someone with your experience and ability. It's a line item and those can be changed as conditions improve. You are an improvement and even if they low-ball you it still beats what you were making.

[Martini Enfield]

Countered a "You are too experienced" with a "But not in YOUR industry" email and have the interview tomorrow. Give it a try. Try to not be insulted by their offer, noting that you know they would not offer something beyond what is appropriate for someone with your experience and ability. It's a line item and those can be changed as conditions improve. You are an improvement and even if they low-ball you it still beats what you were making.

I don't think you quite understand the dilemma: I'm not getting past the "initial application" or maybe "1st/Phone interview stage"; when I nicely ask "Why the hell not?", those are the sort of responses I'm getting.

Government Departments (where I've been focusing a lot of my efforts) are generally obliged to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications. Some of it has been extremely useful, some of it hasn't been.

Pretty much any full-time Government or Corporate job would be an improvement over what I'm currently doing. Money isn't the issue- actually getting to the "seriousl consideration" (especially when there's quite literally a thousand other candiates) and/or actually getting a job is.

[Mauvaise]

I just got a job by contacting the CEO of a company and sending him over 20 errors on his website. He asked if I was free to do copy editing, then after I said yes and sent him my resume, he didn't respond for over a week. So I sent him a snarky email telling him that if he wasn't serious about offering a paying job, he should at least hire an intern, because he seriously needed someone, to which he immediately responded with a firm offer. I don't recommend this approach, however. I'm still embarrassed by my unprofessional behavior.




I know this is the Pit and all, but this is one of the reasons I still remember and adore you. :)

[Full Metal Lotus]

A friend of mine went for an interveiw with a major Canadian Retailer (Position Dept Manager), seemingly did very well on the interview, and then found out, by a slip of the tongue from one of the interveiwers that the position wasn't actually available. They were actually training a new HR person by having them condict interviews for positions at various store levels that were not actually available.

[ladyfoxfyre]

A friend of mine went for an interveiw with a major Canadian Retailer (Position Dept Manager), seemingly did very well on the interview, and then found out, by a slip of the tongue from one of the interveiwers that the position wasn't actually available. They were actually training a new HR person by having them condict interviews for positions at various store levels that were not actually available.

See, now that shit should be illegal.

[PoorYorick]

A friend of mine went for an interveiw with a major Canadian Retailer (Position Dept Manager), seemingly did very well on the interview, and then found out, by a slip of the tongue from one of the interveiwers that the position wasn't actually available. They were actually training a new HR person by having them condict interviews for positions at various store levels that were not actually available.
That's a hell of a slip of the tongue.

[Martini Enfield]

See, now that shit should be illegal.

It is, in several places...

[vivalostwages]

It's an easy way to see how old you are, without having to ask how old you are or what your birthdate is.

I'm pretty sure that info is already requested on the application, as well as the years when I got my degrees.

[Boyo Jim]

...I am very hopeful about an interview this Thursday -- I've already made it through a phone interview so I am now a "finalist" and the director of the agency is going to personally interview me. Mostly I get in on these cattle calls and don't make it past that, so this is pretty unusual. ...

I can almost taste this job. I know they've contacted at least one of my references; however, they did tell me they'd be contacting references of all three finalists.

18 months now without a job... My new retirement plan is just to kill myself if I have to stop working.

[Shayna]

I know this is the Pit and all, but this is one of the reasons I still remember and adore you. :) Aw! that is so sweet of you to say! I've MISSED seeing you around, girlfriend! And I adore you, too. Seriously much.

Okay, y'all may commence the puking now. :p