-Ring-
“Hello?”
“Hi, we received your resume, and we’d like you to come in for an interview for the position.”
“This is the secretary/admin assistant position?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Could you tell me a little bit more about the duties?”
“Well, you would mainly be responsible for answering the phone.”
{this is where we start entering the world of what I would *like[i/] to say}
“So, the secretary admin/assistant position you advertised is actually a receptionist position, then, is it?”
“Well, yes, I guess so.”
“Do you think that information might have been valuable to have put in the ad, so I wouldn’t have wasted my time sending a resume, and you wouldn’t have wasted your time reading my resume and calling me?”
“Yes, you’re right - a receptionist job is different from a secretary job. We’ll change the ad right away, and never pull a stupid stunt like this again.”
“Alright then. Bye.”
“Bye. And thanks for your valuable input.”
I mean absolutely no disrespect for receptionists; I greatly admire people who can answer multi-line phones all day and not yell at anyone, and I think receptionists rarely get credit for the incredible jobs they do. That said, I am NOT a receptionist, I don’t have the nature to be one, and I would REALLY appreciate it if the business world could get it through their thick heads that secretaries and receptionists are not interchangeable.
My favorite we’re “Entry level…3 years experience required”. So which one is it? Entry level or one requiring experience? No shit, it took me a few months to figure out the obvious that the position wasn’t entry level but the salary was. I can be dense sometimes.
Oh, those are great; “Looking for someone with at least five years experience, with multiple excellent skills; salary $8.00/hr.” Good luck finding someone.
Heck, I’m still trying to figure out whether or not I’m the secretary or the receptionist. What am I if I get to cover the multi-line phones while typing letters?
Er, no problem, except C# didn’t even exist 5 years ago.
I hate those. I see them all the time:
looking for enthusiastic self-starter, excellent communication skills, highly organized, 10+ years experience in professional environment, 80+ wpm typing speed, superior 10-key skills, intimate knowledge of Excel, Word, and Powerpoint, bachelor’s degree preferred, $6.50/hr
That’s some pretty wishful thinking there. I’d like world peace, an end to poverty, and a big ol’ pot of gold delivered to my doorstep while we’re at it.
A couple of months ago, I finally convinced my company that easy going, female, software developer does not mean backup receptionist and got my office moved to the second floor away from the accursed reception desk!
Hey - want to be my secretary? The position involves innoculating, diagnosing and operating on small animals and maybe the occassional excursion to help deliver a baby calf. You’ll have your own assistant nurse and surgery. Must have AVMA accreditation.
I strongly suspect that ads such as these are phonies: i.e. they already have someone within the organization lined up to take the job, but some cack-brained law requires them to publically advertise it anyway even though they have no intention of seriously considering anybody who applies.
The worst part of such ads here is they hardly ever mention salary. And all those “career experts” tell you how important it is to never talk salary until the prospective employer is ready to talk salary.
So off you go for a series of interviews to find out they are looking to pay dinky shit for salary.
If more ads were up front like this one, it would save a lot of time on behalf on the interviewer and interviewee. The prospective company starts to wonder why they aren’t getting any applications for the position….
So off you go for a series of interviews to find out they are looking to pay dinky shit for salary.
This drove me batty also.
I once went to a series of interviews very involved by both sides since the position would be setting up something the company never had before. This went on for 5 seperate interview times with many, many people taking many hours. After it was done, they were excited and had an offer. $28,000. I thought it was a joke and laughed out loud. They were confused and asked me what I thought the position should pay. Mid $70,000 to mid $80,000 I replied. They were shocked. So, I turned it down. They replied later and offered $55,000 so I replied that I didn’t want to take a pay cut since I was making more than that now. A couple weeks passed and they called again offering $78,000.
I would have taken it but I couldn’t get out of my head that they, at one time, thought the position was worth $28,000 and couldn’t work for a company that had ever thought that about what I do. I told them such, very direct.
They ended up hiring someone I knew who told me they hired him for $82,000. :rolleyes: You would think that if they are putting such effort into bringing someone in to do something new that they would know $28,000 is an insult and would have at least checked out what the going rate was. What a big, freaking waste of time.
And the only ads that DO mention salary are “Reply stating salary expectations.” Well, I would like as much salary as you are willing to pay. Oh, what’s that? You want me to name a figure out of the blue so that you can pay me that, when everyone else starts at $5/hr more? I really hate this cheap game - I have a friend who fell for this and named a salary in the interview, and that’s what she got - almost
$10 000 per year less than the next person that was hired. This just smacks of disrespect for the employee to me - employers ALWAYS know what they’re willing to pay - they’re just playing a game, trying to get people to undercut themselves.
(cjhoworth, I suspect there is an element of sexism in the receptionist/secretary deal - sort of like, every woman working in an office will be expected to answer phones at some point. I don’t think men in offices run into this nearly as often.)
Hmm, that’s a good thought, kabbes. Name a price that is obviously way too high, and let them do what they should have done in the first place (namely, tell me what salary they had in mind all along). Unfortunately, most of these ads use salary expectations as a screening tool for resumes.
