So, this is what you get when you post your resume on job sites, eh?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

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Please call me ASAP. Joan

Joan Bxxx
Senior Staffing Consultant

Hxxxxxxxx Staffing Services and Marketing Limited

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ottawa ON xxxxxxxx
Tel. no.: xxxxxxxxxxx
Fax no.: xxxxxxxxxxx

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Me:
Please provide me with some details as to why I should call you ASAP. Thank you,

Doug

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Regarding a permanent position that I received your resume from monster. Joan…

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Hi Joan, Well, yes I gathered that, but unless you have a specific position in mind for which I’m qualified I have no interest in calling you. Sorry.

I did have a particular position to discuss with you but if calling me is of no importance then so be it.

Joan

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If you were seriously interested in someone with my skills and experience I believe that you should at least provide me with a job description before asking me to call you ASAP. Your approach to job recruiting is crass, and frankly very amateur. Please consider to whom you are sending these spam messages in the future, because you’re obviously wasting my time. I am not angry, nor am I trying to be a jerk. I am merely pointing out the fact that I am stressed out enough trying to find a job, and your blatant spam emails do nothing but contribute to my stress.

If you were interested in me you would call me.
If you had a specific job in mind for which I was qualified you would share that with me.
I realize you are only doing your job, but please try to see how you are preying upon the unemployed.

Besides, I had an interview today, another coming on Monday, and another on Tuesday for positions that I am imminently qualified. They had no problem providing me with the job description beforehand.

Regards,
Doug

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Crickets chirping…

2

My husband just got a call from someone like that. We live in Florida. After talking with him for about 15 minutes about the job and his qualifications, informed him that it was a contract position that required he relocate to New Jersey for 3 months. Uh, that is kind of a large detail you might want to ask about first.

3

You should have answered. I got a lucrative offer from the CEO of a very reputable business firm located in Nigeria. I start as soon as I make my earnest money payment of $5000 to cover my office supplies for the first year.

4

I hate my current job. I’ve had it for about a month or so. I was supposed to hear back today from a company I interviewed for on Monday, but nothing. :frowning: I guess I’ll call Monday morning and see if they’ve filled the position. Stupid south Florida job market.

5

In all likelihood Joan was looking for recruits for some sort of multi-level marketing business, like Primerica, or goats for a peicework business like Northwood Mortgage. If it had been a legitimate job she would have provided a few details when you asked, even if she had held back the name of the firm.

6

You know that’s a scam right?

The office supplies should cost no more than $2,500 for the first year.

7

Just don’t forget the MODALITIES.

8

I would have been put off by all those x’s. I mean really, “Joan Bxxx”? “Hxxxxxxxx Staffing Services”? Clearly this was someone from the porn industry.

9

Well, maybe they want you to buy your own computer, software, printer, etc. :smiley:

10

In my experience, you will also get many, many offers from people who want to help you sell insurance.

11

Yeah, I was gonna say it sounds a lot like the crap I was getting from Primerica and other similarly shady companies. I’d get a message telling me how uniquely qualified I was for this position, OMG it’s so exciting I have exactly the experience they are looking for! I write back saying “this is a design position with a marcomm agency? Can you give me details?” Oh no no, this is sales, in the financial market, and I’m uniquely qualified… To which I respond “Are you stupid or are you using some alternate definition of ‘uniquely qualified’ that I’ve never heard of? You did notice I have absolutely nothing on my resume even tangentially relating to either sales or the financial industry, yes?”

I occasionally get email from people looking to offer great business opportunities to X Company (or even X Medical Company, which I have absolutely no prior or current affiliation with), too, because they are too dumb to notice that the page they Googled, that says “X Company” about a third of the way down, has a BIG BANNER across the top that says “My Company : PORTFOLIO – Return Home” on it. Or to notice that the “X Company website” they are reading consists almost entirely of empty, content-free pages and dummy links. Or that the BIG BANNER at the top is clickable and takes you to MY main page, not X Company.

Rant rant. And yet I can’t find anyone to contact me about stuff I can do. Why is that?

BTW, your responses to her made me squirm with glee. :smiley:

12

Joan Palpatine?

13

I got an IM from someone who saw my blog and thought I was qualified to at least send in my showreel to them. It wasn’t a scam, as far as I could tell, and was all genuine and above board.

But they forgot to mention I’d be expected to relocate to Singapore.

14

Fuck. Upon review I should have became Crandall Spondular!!!

15

Ok, that’s funny stuff right there.

16

I think I mentioned this in another thread, but once applied for a job with this promotional company that refused to tell me what the job duties were. They kept saying “it was too complicated” to go over on the phone, and that I had to come in for an interview to find out. I got a few bits and pieces from the rep I talked to, but only after some pretty heavy duty pulling.

The whole thing made me uncomfortable about the job. I have no idea if it was for good reason, but it did strike me as pretty suspicious.

17

Devil’s Grandmother hit the nail on the head:

I get e-mail after e-mail asking me to sell insurance.

Also I HATE the companies who rename the same crappy job 35 different ways, hijacks a job search, and just puts me off the job in general.

Plus, shouldn’t the search MEAN something? I’m sorry but every time I do a search I check “Entry Level” in the hopes it weeds out the other stuff, but what’s the first job I see? “Director of Marketing: 10+ years experience.” Yeah, that’s nice and entry level for me.

GOD I HATE JOB SEARCHING IN THIS DAY AND AGE.

(rant over…sorry everyone)

18

I am a graphic designer, and have been for about 17 years. I had an interview at a company that wanted to hire me because they had a new VP who was into running marathons, and I’d worked at a running and fitness magazine (I was the Art Director and a contributing writer) for three years a decade before, so they thought I would make a good executive assistant for him. What the company did was “provide excellent services to customers in the greater Chicagoland area.” They had a really spiffy office in the West Loop, but I never did find out quite what they did.

I wasn’t entirely sure what an executive assistant does, so I didn’t think I’d be very good at the job. It was a really bizarre interview, because I kept asking what the job entailed, and the HR guy kept refusing to answer, except to tell me to “assist the new VP.” Whatever that meant, I didn’t bother to find out.

It was very surreal.

19

I don’t tell my wife that I could easily get a job selling life insurance. Almost every day the same two guys desperately want my services in this area.

20

Let’s think of something not stated so far. According to the OP, Joan is from “Hxxxxxxxx Staffing Services and Marketing Limited.” The “staffing services” tells me Joan is a recruiter, and they are notorious for collecting names and resumes to keep on file, even if they have no suitable jobs at the time. I’d venture that Joan crawls through Monster daily, looking for resumes so she can maintain her inventory of people. She found the OP’s resume, and asked him to call. She has nothing to offer him (thus the job description ambiguity), but she wants to be able to put him in her database, just in case she ever gets something. Even if she did have something, she wouldn’t say for whom–she gets paid only if you go through her, so telling you who her client is allows you to contact them directly, cutting her (and her commission) out totally.

I went through this often enough, only before the Internet, when catchall newspaper job ads would appear daily. If your resume remotely approaches the kinds of jobs this staffing agency usually gets, you’ll get a call. So, Leaffan, if you call Joan, she will want a personal interview (that’s not for a job) so she can get to know you a little better. Her notes from this interview will be on file with your resume. If she ever gets something suitable, she will call you. Don’t get excited; you may never hear from her again. Or maybe you will. But only if something you’re suited for crosses her desk.

No scam, just a recruiter’s SOP. You can choose to play along or not. I did get a couple of great jobs this way … but only a couple. Use your best judgment.