Of course. The whole Calgary job market is red hot they’re importing Mexican nationals to fill positions (which is not to suggest that Mexican people don’t have skills, because they do - just that it’s so opposite of what you hear about the US govt’s position on Mexican workers, typically).
However, you may find that you’re no further ahead - Calgary has the third highest cost of living in Canada, the average rent on a one bedroom appartment is about $1100/month and the average home price is about $450,000 (although the market is softening quite a bit).
Check out the Government of Canada website - you can look up AA (they call it secretary, but they mean the same thing) - it’s certainly a thought.
I don’t have anything constructive to offer the op, but I want to say that I would love **Broomstick **to move to Calgary. Her flying threads are still some of my favourites, she has a solid head on her shoulders, and I like her writing.
Hey Broomstick, we have lots of small airports within a few hours of single engine flight, the Rocky-mountains a 45 minutes drive away, the most sunshine days per year of the entire country, and a nice little doper community. Oh yeah, and a oil-based economy that’s sitting on reserves bigger than Saudi-Arabia, and a significant worker shortage.
Btw, excellent advice everyone, and good luck Alice. Sorry for the hijack…
I hear what you say, but consider that I have NOT been able to find full time work for nearly a year and have no health insurance whatsoever. A steady job in Calgary starts to look better and better.
When I did hiring, the question I used for this was not “Are you willing to work overtime” (everyone, even people who would later refuse all overtime, says yes). I ask, “Tell me about a time when you were expected to work outside of your regular job hours.”
Bad applicants will say something like: “My boss asked me to stay a half hour late, so I did.” Generally, people who will not work overtime see staying late a half hour as an extreme sacrifice.
Good applicants will say something like: “I always try to be very flexible at my job. I don’t have a lot of outstanding commitments so I’m generally fine to come in or stay late, as long as it’s within reasonable limits. In the past, I’ve worked overtime once every week or two at a moment’s notice, and I’ve never had a problem.” Or, they may say, “I’ve never been asked to work overtime, but, I’ve worked many jobs in the past where my hours moved around from week to week. I wouldn’t mind staying if something needs to be done. Advanced notice is great, but once in awhile in a crisis is very understandable.”
After asking a behavioral question, if their answer is on target, I’ll generally clarify what exactly to expect in the office and make sure it’s still okay. Just avoid too dreary a picture - too many overtime/flexibility questions turns me off as an applicant. Even though I’m very flexible, these types of questions generally indicate a job where you’re likely to be taken advantage of - e.g. working overtime consistently every week because of chronic understaffing, or, an employer who considers you their slave and will demand that you drop any and all real life commitments even if there is no business need.
Also, re: criers… it sounds like you have a bit of baggage going on. I don’t think the answer is to screen by age alone. Instead, you’re looking for maturity and perspective. I’ve cried a couple times in the office (I mean literally two times in my career) and I was apologetic after, but it’s how I respond to extreme stress. I don’t get angry and throw things, I get sad. I fail to see how chronic anger problems are better than an occasional, discreet, non-drama cry.
Wait - are you saying that they’re NOT my slave? DAMNIT!
Actually I don’t think either are acceptable office behaviour and I’m not sure where I said that anger was preferable to crying. Come to work, do your job. If you screw up, own it. If you’re so upset that you’re going to scream and throw things, or burst out crying or whatever then go home and come back when you’re calm.
Jesus - it’s WORK - not Big Brother - you’re not rewarded for creating drama.
Jesus - we’ve interviewed 6 people so far and it’s really not going that well.
Every age and demographic, one of them talked for over an hour without actually answering any of our questions, one of them looked like she was going to come over the table and stab me, one had never kept a job for more than 1 year because they were all terms that ‘finished early’ and one the afternoon was a full on wakado. She told us stories about bitching out her former supervisor for giving her a project to do and then checking on her before it was done. Apparently she was asked to perform ‘miracles’; however, it only took her 30 extra minutes to finish it after he asked. And rather than saying ‘Oh sorry it’s not quite finished, I’ll bring it in as soon as it’s ready.’ she bitched him out and told him he had unrealistic expectations, and that in the future he would need to bring her work with more notice.
THIS is the example she used during her interview with her potential new supervisor. That, in and of itself, demonstrates a total lack of judgement.
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I guess I’ll go though another 20 resumes and we’ll bring more people in.
What I can’t understand is why I, a sane, stable person can’t even get past HR half the time for an interview and yet I hear people complain about the whackaloons HR sends them. Of course, there are so many qualified (and sane) AA’s around here that any business can pick and choose. Sometimes I think they pick young and buxom over all else.
Oh, well - painting houses and businesses to pay the bills hasn’t been all bad. The weird thing is, last time I tried to get an office job the HR drone implied there was something wrong with me for working in construction during the time since I was laid off from an office job. WTF? She would have preferred to see someone who sat on their @$$ rather than actually work for a living?
Thank goodness for stupid people. It makes it a lot easier to weed out the slackers.
Seriously, you’d be amazed what people will tell you in an interview. In my previous job, we used to hire temps, and the temp agency would constantly try to slip us candidates that didn’t meet our few requirements (no criminal history, one year work experience in customer service). One person admitted to me that he was fired from McDonalds for stealing cheese after 6 months… his only prior job experience. Many, many others regaled me with stories of telling off their bosses or customers, starting fistfights with co-workers, theft, or walking off the job in a huff of drama. People who do such things generally don’t get that it’s not normal.
That said, you’re in a difficult position. The best applicants will be scared away by the temporariness of the position before you have a chance to interview them. I wouldn’t bother working for a year at a temp job unless I could find no better.
True, dat. However, we did get 26 applications for this job which shocked the hell out of me - we’ve been in the news alot lately and I think thats contributing.
Every one of those that I’ve interviewed so far has mentioned loving animals as being a reason to apply to the job. I’m always tempted to ask if they know they won’t be petting fluffy bunnies and kittens as part of thier job duties.
Actually, one of them announced within the first 2 minutes that she’s vegan. I interupted and asked if she knew that one of our departments was Production Animal Health and that actual animals are used in our teaching & research. Amazingly she didn’t seemed bothered by that. Actually, other than being very junior (she would require quite a bit of mentoring/training) she was pretty good. I think I’ll bring her in for a second interview with my boss to see what he thinks.
However, if she’s the one, I will have gone against every single piece of advice I’ve gotten in this thread! I’ve elmininated the guy, all three of the older gals, and the one who ‘thrives on stress’. She’s young, inexperienced, and could potentially cry on the job. However, I kind of liked her and she does have relevant experience and recieved promotions in the past in an AA job which is good.
I suppose I’ll take a look at the other resumes and see what shakes out.
Which raises the question: Why not just hire a good temp for a year-long project? (I’ve done a year-long project as a temp.) There are good AAs out there who prefer to work temp jobs. Perhaps you could explore this concurrently?
Oh, and as to why HR sends you whackados? My personal theory is that you will choose people who remind you of yourself. If you were reviewing the resumes, I bet your whackado ratio would go down.
Without putting to fine a point on it, the temps typically available in this City suck ass.
I know of more than one situation where the person didn’t actually come in at all and still billed the company for her regular work day for 6 weeks!. No thank you.
I don’t know about the HR thing either - the HR woman that was interviewing walked the woman out and came in and started begging for forgivness. Really, she didn’t seem that bad on her resume although she did list about 4 medical leaves. (Why on earth would you put THAT on your resume??!!)
Welcome to the wild, wierd, wicked world of hiring. However, in my (admittedly limited experience) just as you are about ready to give up and buy a semi-trained orangutan to do the job, a candidate who is nearly perfect for the job will come across your desk. So hang in there.
There are a (very few) really good HR people; the people who know the ins and outs of employment law, mediation, relocation practices, how to vet resumes and candidates even though they may not fully understand the technical requirements of the position, are willing to go above and beyond to make the hiring process run smoothly, and most of all, are willing to pick up the damn phone and ask questions rather than let things fall through the cracks. Just people are an absolute joy to work with. Unfortunately, most HR people are–again, in my limited experience–lazy and ignorant boobs who seem to think that they’re working at a beauty salon or betting parlor. Unfortunately, the latter often seem to get promoted over the former; our current HR ‘recruiter’ is nothing more than an e-mail forwarding machine. I’m looking for a propulsion engineer, he gives me people with C++ coding experience; whiskey tango foxtrot, dude? (One cannot help but assume that nepotism or fornication are more important qualities than competence.)
Of course, it is also pretty easy for someone to snow on a resume, and even interview pretty well, but totally flop on the job, either because they’re lazy, an ill-fit for the position (usually the hiring manager’s fault for not being clear about the job requirements), or just a well-polished dumbf**k.
That may be true, but the benefit of a temp is that they are strictly at will. Not working out, taking 20 minute smoking breaks every half hour, or dripping nail polish on the keyboard? Thanks, we won’t be needing you tomorrow; rinse and repeat until you get someone tolerable. Do it long enough and you might actually find someone you’d like to hire on a full time, or at least extended contract basis. It’s something to consider, at least as a fill in.
Yes, but for the first three months a full time person is ‘at will’ as well. You can fire them for no reason whatsoever if you like.
Or some totally stupid reason like you didn’t like their shoes. Obviously you can’t descriminate on the usual things (sex, race, orientation, religion, etc) but I could never understand why those things come up anyhow. How difficult is it to say that you think Jimmy is a dumbass rather than saying Jimmy is Sweedish (or whatever).
I have to be honest - that ANY case for wrongfull dismissal due to discrimination comes to court makes me a little worried for humanity. Not only because people discriminate over such things, but that they’re so stupid as to get caught.
