Thanks for wasting my time! (Job hunt)

The BBQ Pit
1

WTF? Am I living in the Twilight Zone?

The ad in the paper said:

Yeah, the place was far away, but everything around here is far away. Where else am I going to find a job while the kids are at school?

I called and I set up an interview for 10:00 today.

After squeezing my fat ass into a skirt I haven’t worn for five years and driving an hour, my car overheating the whole time, it was a big waste of time!

She tells me that it’s housekeeping for timeshares, she explains what a timeshare is and says at first, I’ll just be helping another housekeeper, but if I’m clean and fast, I’ll get my very own buliding!

I was with her, so far.

She says the hours are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 9:30 to 6:00.

I said, “Oh, I was under the impression that it was during the week, while the kids were at school.”

She says “They are at school, on Wednesdays. Did the ad say anything about weekends off?”

I said “No, I just thought that since it said, work whlie the kids are at school, those were the hours you had.”

She says “We’re a resort, you should have known better.”

Well, I didn’t.

I just thanked her and left.

What a fucking waste.

2

Yup, that’s bullshit. Her ad was indeed intentionally misleading, and her trying to put the blame on you is also bullshit.

Your idea about cleaning hosues while your kids are at school is great, though. Can you make up an ad and post it at some local locations to get some business?

3

I feel for you, dragongirl

What’s with their claim that “We’re a resort. You should have known better.”? I mean, isn’t the idea of a help wanted ad to clearly specify the kind of help wanted, including such things as required hours? It seems to me that they wasted their own time as much as yours. And I have no idea why they’d think that somehow you should have been able to guess what hours they wanted you to work. Resorts need M-F daytime housekeeping too, right?

Be glad you didn’t end up working for these jerks. Maybe they would have been as misleading about your wages as they were about the hours.

Best of luck on your job search.

4

“Hosues”? Can we make that 'houses?"

5

Just wanted to say good on you, Dragon, for getting out there and looking for work. Keep it up and things will start looking better.

6

dragongirl, have you looked into area housecleaning services to see if you can join up? I would imagine those clients would be while kids are at school, since they don’t want you vacuuming while they’re home on the weekends.

7

I really like featherlou’s suggestion. If you work for yourself, you may well make more money–like, twice as much money or more–than you would if you were hired by someone else. After all, people who hire their cleaning out to a cleaning service pay an hourly rate that’s much higher than anything the actual workers receive.

So, here’s an idea–look in the Yellow Pages for housecleaning services. Call a bunch of them and ask what they’d charge per hour. Then write up your own flyers and quote a price that’s lower than anything the companies would charge but higher than what you’d earn as one of those company’s employees.

Really, it might work out well for you. If you have reliable transportation–or could cut a friend with a car in on the deal–you could get your own cleaning materials and really clean up, so to speak.

Are there other things you could do for money that don’t require that you have a boss? How about child care, or in-home cooking (like one of those personal chef things–are you good at cooking?) or lawn care, or what-have-you?

8

I’m with you on the misleading ads. I’m looking for work right now, and it’s AMAZING all the ads in the listings that you get when you enter “writer” that involve writing in no way, shape or form. This week a lot of the ads you get under writer are for models and movie extras – prolly a come-on for some pay-for-play employment scheme.

The absolute worst was the week the only response I got from all the resumes I sent out was from some outfit that wanted me to cash checks for them. It sounded suspicious, so I checked them out on Google and turned out I was being invited to work as the “sucker” or “patsy” in a check fraud scheme.

Ah, the joys of free market capitalism.

9

Bummer dragongirl; I agree that it really is better you aren’t working for these people anyway.

I second (third…whatever) the suggestion of making up fliers of your own (take them to coffee spots and post them, go around and stick them on front doors, etC) and taking out an add in the local paper. Here we have a mailer called the PennySaver; you can advertise for free in the PennySaver and everyone in the county gets it. Maybe there is something out your way like this?

Our house keeper comes twice a week and we have medium-sized 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. Once a month she steam cleans the floors (we have our own steam cleaner) and twice a month she sweeps our back porch for us. I think she charges $110 a week.

10

What makes me angry is when you make an investment of time and money to go on a job interview and they have no intention of hiring you. They have to interview X number of applicants to justify some kind of legal thing. I have taken time off from work (sometimes), dress up, drive and find day care only to waste the whole every bit. I don’t mind if I have a fighting chance but filling a quota is maddening.

After years of this, I have become a tad pickier about who I interview with and ask more questions during the phone phase.

11

I’m in law school. A friend of mine was lucky enough to get an interview with a firm in California. They even paid to fly him out, put him up in a hotel for the night, etc. At the interview, the interviewer told him that the firm really doesn’t hire anyone from anywhere but the Ivy League schools and their equivalents. He didn’t get the job, and was left quite puzzled about why they bothered to interview him. Did they expect him to show up at the interview and say “Surprise! I lied on my resume, I really go to Harvard!”?

12

I suspect that wasn’t the real reason they didn’t hire him. Perhaps they noticed something in person that didn’t show up on the resume. His skin colour maybe?

13

I once drove two and half hours two a job interview in another city, only to have the guy bitch at me most of the time about my involvement with liberal college organizations about peace and the environment.* I think he only called me down to bitch at me. What an asshole.

*Because I didn’t have much work experience out of college, except for an Internship and having edited several college newsletters, otherwise I would have left it off.

14

The only problem I have with this is that some people like to deal with established maid services, since the maids are bonded. Any random person who wants to clean your house may be looking to make some extra money, or to steal some extra money.*
*Not that dragongirl is a thief. But in this day and age, I think your chances would be better in trying to get hired by Merry Maids or a similar outfit.

15

I had my own ‘business’ cleaning houses for about two years, and had built up a nice client listing. Although I advertised in the local paper, most of the clients I gained were through word of mouth referrals. I charged by the job (not by the hour) and with the usual clients, they had a weekly list of stuff they wanted done. I didn’t do anything “heavy”, such as wash windows, or shampoo carpeting, but stuck with the every day clean up (vaccumming, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, changing sheets, etc.).

No, I wasn’t bonded, and it always amazed me how many people blindly trusted me. Granted, I was honest and would never even consider stealing anything from anyone, but these people didn’t really know me but would let me into their homes… Amazing.

16

Well, maybe that’s true. I don’t know. But it seems to me that putting up a few ads or calling the local Pennysaver is worth a shot. Really–what do you have to lose? A few bucks in photocopies, maybe a couple hours posting ads? The worst that could happen to you is that someone calls you, asks if you’re bonded, and then gets mildly pissed off to find out that you’re not. Big whoop.

I think it’s well worth it. Even one client who hires you for a couple of hours would more than cover your costs. And it’s a good idea to have those ads out there while you’re still looking for a job.

17

dragongirl, if you decide to go the solo-cleaning lady route, I will, if you’ll allow me to, create your fliers for you. I’m not the best layout person, but I can download a template from Microsoft’s Office site with the best of 'em. I’ll print them on heavy paper, in color and mail them to you, free of charge.

After lurking in many of your threads and biting my tongue in almost all of them, I am SO happy that you’re taking steps toward independence and self-reliance.

My email address is in my profile. Please take me up on this if you decide to clean houses by yourself.

18

You are completely right, but I don’t think we’ve ever hired a licensed housekeeper. I reckon we are lucky because nothing major and noticable has ever gone missing. Before we hire them, we always get referrals (in this case, she could get a local pastor, friends, past employers or what not) and photocopy their driver’s license to keep in file. Just in case, you know.

19

Our housekeeper was independant as well. When I hired her, she wasn’t bonded, she got bonded with her first weeks pay.

We paid my housekeeper $25 an hour. She brought her own cleaning supplies - used our vaccuum and mop.

Merry Maids doesn’t pay well and tends to give their employees the run around. I think you are much better off going independant - once you build up a client list (which you will do if you are good), you can start to be pickier about your clients. You can’t do that if you work for someone else. One of my friends mom’s has been cleaning houses for years - her waiting list to become a client is a year long - and that’s the people she has said she will work for.