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Can't Seem to Get a Full time Job
BrotherVoodoo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So right now I work weekends as a wedding DJ, but as far as finding a real 9-5 or even just 40hr/week a job I keep getting Illuminati-ed out of positions.
Most recently I had an interview last thursday. It went good and I knew 2 people at the place and was called to see if I could 2nd interview friday, but I was hours away at a wedding that day so I asked if I could do monday or if absolutely necessary I could do friday. I was told monday was fine, monday came and I was not called so I called them, they gave me the runaround said they would call back when they figured out a time, they didnt. Then tuesday the guy I was supposed to interview with was out of the office or something and the receptionist didnt know what was going on. Now today I called and he's out til next monday (I know this part is true) but I was told he was 2nd interviewing people monday (this could have been for a different posistion as I knew they were hiring 2 different jobs). But my friend said he got in trouble for asking what the status was today. So now they went from 2nd interviewing me to blackballing me out of nowhere.
Last June I had a job set up with a big financial company but then when I called back to get the details of my start day was told my job had been canceled, only they neglected to notify me and instead waited until I called them to inform me I was getting the shaft.
Also I have gone to multiple interviews and only been given 5 minuts and wasted my time and gas money to get there.
my question:
WHAT THE FUCK
I swear to god I need a job and I'm trying my ass off but I can't win.
Most recently I had an interview last thursday. It went good and I knew 2 people at the place and was called to see if I could 2nd interview friday, but I was hours away at a wedding that day so I asked if I could do monday or if absolutely necessary I could do friday. I was told monday was fine, monday came and I was not called so I called them, they gave me the runaround said they would call back when they figured out a time, they didnt. Then tuesday the guy I was supposed to interview with was out of the office or something and the receptionist didnt know what was going on. Now today I called and he's out til next monday (I know this part is true) but I was told he was 2nd interviewing people monday (this could have been for a different posistion as I knew they were hiring 2 different jobs). But my friend said he got in trouble for asking what the status was today. So now they went from 2nd interviewing me to blackballing me out of nowhere.
Last June I had a job set up with a big financial company but then when I called back to get the details of my start day was told my job had been canceled, only they neglected to notify me and instead waited until I called them to inform me I was getting the shaft.
Also I have gone to multiple interviews and only been given 5 minuts and wasted my time and gas money to get there.
my question:
WHAT THE FUCK
I swear to god I need a job and I'm trying my ass off but I can't win.
BrotherVoodoo on
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I've been interviewed, told more or less "man, you would be perfect for this position, but we're able to function just fine without hiring anyone into it so why increase our overhead?"
Shit sucks right now.
I can type 80wpm and have great office skills (last MS test I was over 95% on everything), and yet... hey! Nothing!
you have to understand that currently, (in the US anyhow, i dont know where you are) jobs are scarce, and the unemployed masses will do ANYTHING to get a decent job. so a job that used to get 15 - 25 applicants will now get 150-250 applicants. and its not going to be the best person for the job. the best person for the job would command a particular salary that "the man" isnt willing to pay. they want the average guy who will do the job, but wont perform well enough to get a raise, or cause costs to rise.
They are looking for an easy out, and hiring whoever will fit the bill, not the job.
Another interview was with a theme park as an administrative assistant. I asked when they were looking to fill the position, "I only just opened up the position. I'm not sure when I'm going to fill it, Shirley out there is handling her job and the responsibilities of this position right now. Maybe when the economy turns up and we get this new roller coaster and area opened up I'll need to hire someone."
I'm also just not getting a call back from a museum who has had a major opening since May. I really have the background they are looking for (this is beyond lol office skills). Things are really fucking weird all over.
I've been at it for the last month or so...I expect to be looking for at least another six months.
Also, sometimes we just find people we like and so don't want to interview anyone else. It sucks for the people we blow off interviewing, but that's just how it goes.
Do you get so much interest that returning a call to say "we've decided to go in another direction" isn't realistic?
This is fairly common. A few places will send out a generic letter to everyone after they have the person but quite a few don't bother at all. Especially if you have 100 applicants, hell if you have 25-50 that can be a pain in the ass depending on how busy you are. If they don't call in 2 weeks, they're not calling.
Only time I tell someone something along the lines of "we've decided to go in another direction" is when they call me and ask what's up. Then I feel bad because I appreciate their persistence (though not enough to hire them)
Persistence is really good though. Always follow up as much as you can. People get busy and sidetracked and hate making decisions. But I've hired a couple people because they were the ones who called me and let me know that they were really interested in the job.
This is particularly rough for me as someone who wants to work in nonprofits (because NGOs are especially willing to use volunteers or ask their people to work harder for the same or less money), but I imagine it's a similar situation all over.
Also I understand not calling 75 people, but you can't just send out a nice "sorry we've made a hire and closed the position" email? That just seems like common courtesy to me.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
The best thing you can do is keep busy, learn something new, do odd jobs if necessary (check job agencies, temp agencies, whatever), volunteer.... Take it as an opportunity to improve yourself.
If only courtesy existed in the corporate world. The best you'll get is a "We'll be in touch" on your way out.
I hate to jump on the "real world is competitive and unforgiving, etc" bandwagon but it's true. If you can, find some comfort in knowing that there's plenty of us in the same boat. Just grab what you can for now and keep at it.
Drinking helps too.
[x] Radisson Hotel Boston
[x] Pre-Pax Dinner
[x] BYOC and 3 Day Pass
I agree. I hate it when companies do this. Even more when they say in the application, we only contact those interested, please do not call. Cause now I cannot follow-up, for if I do I failed to read the application
As to BrotherVoodoo's problem, I've been doing contract work the past 2.5 years, through an agency. Maybe try to look up agencies in your area? Usually the kind of work is in costumer support, reception, or data entry. You can even get tech jobs too, depending on your qualifications.
The advantage of agencies is that they can move you around and you are not considered head count. The downfall of course is depending on where you go, the job length might vary. You work when there are positions available.
volt.com and angus one are two agencies I know of. I'm not sure if they are located in your area, but they are located throughout Canada/US.
And then well..there's a good chance one of these 10 people will get your job.
Also, yes you'll do a tons of interviews just to find out it was for nothing....just keep going at it, don't be discouraged if you're turned down a hunderd of times....way easier said than done i know, sorry
I had to go through so much bullshit do land a decent gig, i perfectly understand the postion you're in. Temp agencies are a somewhat good fallback plan, not so much as it was before but still....
Again i will reiterate : KEEP GOING AT IT. Never, ever put things back to next week because you're feeling low. KNOW that you will find something, and keep looking.
That is to say, if there was bullshit surrounding an interview, the interview process or hiring in general, it isn't specifically targeted at you as much as something that is already in place. If your name was in the top three of the pile, they will go out of their way to get you back in for a second interview. What I suspect, Brother, was that, unfortunately, you were not seen with a "hiring" eye after the first interview, yet you were qualified enough to move to round two. In some sense, this is a sham. In another, it is a symptom of the disorganization of hiring searches and disrespect shown to applicants.
The job you're going to be hired for will simply "feel" different. They'll be friendlier, more open. Companies are interviewing boatloads of applicants, and many of them actually are hiring. Just, in this case, not you. I don't mean to be harsh, but the process is often much more black and white when you strip away all of the small insults and brush-offs.
My advice? Make sure you're sending out 10+ resumes a week. The job you'll be hired for will come along, it's just a matter of ensuring your pool is large enough. Someone out there is probably itching to hire someone like you, it's merely a "needle in a haystack" proposition of the two of you actually connecting.
A job search sucks until you finally hit it right. And when you do, it will most likely be out of left field due to how horrid the process is, currently.
If you're persistent, you'll eventually find that "match" and everything will go smoothly. It's getting the foot in the door in the first place that's the hard part.
This will continue. You'll get the run-around, be confused as to if a position is even still open etc. etc. When you get hired, it is often on-the-spot or you'll understand leaving a first-round interview that they really like you. Have a touch of patience, and keep applying to everywhere, and their mother, in order to maximize the chance that you and your future employer will actually meet.
Could be that your friend asked about you, and the boss wondered why he was showing so much interest in one of the candidates, and that immediately disqualified you.
My experiences have to send up a red flag on this. Companies, hell everyone, is more willing to hire someone that is vouched for by an existing (good) employee than some guy whose first contact began with "I read about you on Craigslist..."
Perhaps the friend wasn't a model employee, or perhaps there was someone the C*O knew more personally. Contacts and networking receive so much attention in our society because they are the way most people get jobs. Knowing someone isn't enough. Knowing the right somebody is almost everything.
Apply at Wal Mart in Bellevue, NE. They do both interviews right after each other. Call back the next day at the same time, they toss me around before the last guy tells me the position has been filled. Okay. Thanks for making me waste my money, I guess.
Other Wal Mart calls me up (I checked all 5 or so in the area on the app). They call me before the interview saying that they want me to update my references. Okay, I've been using mine for a while, so maybe they both left. I update them to new people, they do the interview the next day.
During the interview, Wal Mart manager asks about my previous jobs. Of course, since they're all part time high turnover jobs, I do not remember the manager names I worked for, especially since once of them, I was a group of 900 people doing seasonal work for Oriental Trading Company.
Then he starts talking about how he wants to talk to the manager I had at the library, but he called and they said she didn't work there anymore. Except I know for a fact she worked there, she's a high ranking librarian and I was pretty sure she wasn't going to have spent all these years working just to walk away from it all of a sudden. I told him this. He told me to go to the library and get new info, and he'd set up the interview for the next day. I went there, well what do you fucking know she still works there. I go back, he doesn't believe me, the interview process sort of dies.
tl;dr businesses have all gone crazy with their interview processes and some hiring managers seem to be taking some of it to extremes.
edit: also, it's hard to even get waiter jobs, because almost all of them are starting to specify that they want women. Yes, they can get away with it, because we still don't have equal rights for both sexes.
Haha, I've been notorious for not drinking in my family, but my father stepped into my room one day and saw a bottle of wine and some blue moon and was like....what's this stuff?
And I essentially said, "What job searching does to you."
Get your resume perfect. Most cities are offering constant career fairs these days, and those will often include interview tips, resume tips AND the chance to talk to potential employers. Get ready to buckle down and work hard. There's not enough jobs right now, and you're going to be swimming upstream with 100 other people exactly like you trying to get every job.
There's a fine line between "I know this guy, he is a hard and diligent worker" and "I know this guy, and want to do him a favor money-wise."
I also have a theory that there are a ton of managers and hr people out there who, well... probably don't have the knowledge and/or experience that makes a good manager/hr person. They were put into place when the economy was awesome and the talented people were given good and well earned promotions.
Then no one cared they sucked because the economy was rockin', then shit hit the fan, and here we are.
Thats right hiring people, its your fault.
There's a huge gap between what a company can do to avoid issues once someone is hired and the simple networking that occurs when hiring. Companies have HR departments and policies for this very reason.
I'll maintain that knowing someone or, probably more accurately, having the correct connection to make hiring directors aware of your application is often what places on a head-above-the-rest.
I really don't want this to be misconstrued as some sort of "all jobs go to family friends" type of argument, but as has been said, there are 100's of people apply for the same position, and your old co-worker or buddy saying "Hey! I know that guy and he's good!" often results in that application be given precedence over others purely for the sake of an already apparent internal reference.
Limed for unpleasant truth. At this one point in my life which i estimate at an all-around lowest, because it was pretty much do-or-die (that is get a job or going back to my parents) i went through hell. I went from 1 or 2 per week to 6 or 7 per week that mean oh yes two interviews on the same day at completely different places, back-to-back interviews for different jobs at the same place, completely irrelevant interviews, completely out of whack interviews, soul-crushing interviews ( "wow you are really bad at what your doing" - "thank you sir, will you call me back?" ) and the list goes on and on and on.....
So..yeah. Get those interviews! More! more more more more more more! Apply for things even remotely relevant to what you've been doing! Sends CV by the dozens! Call and call again !
Also, a very valid point here :
As weird as it may sound a lot of interviewers have really no idea what the fuck they are doing. You'll notice this more and more as you gain experience of professional HR people who will guide you through a standardized interview.. as opposed to someone who will just ask "what would you think are you three best qualities" ( UUURRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH )
So yeah. Be prepared for the random things and don't hesitate to do the whole thing yourself. A quick guide :
1)Your history. What are your diplomas, small-time experiences, what school did you attend, and why.
2)Your job history. What company, what job, when, how
3)Your qualities : *insert any relevant to the job you're applying even if you don't have them*
4)Your personal motivation for applying to this company and not the next one down the street.
5)Your short term and long term goals.
Estimate 2~5 mins by item.
Hope this helps,
So follow up, except I usually won't care, except those times that I'm lazy and decide to care.
Also, we reserve the right to waste your time, but if you try to waste my time you get a "black mark."
During a better economy, when the ratio isn't so bad, you get to be on more fair footing and can tell people that you won't work for them because they wasted your time. Sadly, that was several years ago and won't be coming back for quite some time.
I've gone over my resume with my sister and father several times before it reached its "final" (I say this because it gets tweaked in one way for another for every job) version. My dad ran an S&P 500 company for decades. He spent a lot of his life in sales. He has interviewed, hired, and fired more people than most people will. Even though he has been retired for nearly ten years, I still consider his experience to be worth a whole fucking lot. His final opinion on how he would treat my resume is (I'm paraphrasing a bit), "Holy shit, this guy could be an actor, but instead he wants to get into sales and management. I know the personality and skills required to be an actor and how great those apply to sales and management, and look, he has outside sales and actual management experience for professional touring companies. I should at least talk to this guy." My sister, who clearly doesn't have the experience my father does but has more recent experience with going over resumes on behalf of her bosses, "The resume has an attractive layout unlike a lot of the other crap I have to look at, he has a lot of experience that we want, and he seems to have great communication skills. Good enough to have him move forward thats for sure."
Still on this note, I have a degree in Theatre. A lot of those skills translate wonderfully to the business world and a competent/seasoned hiring person would know that, but a good one will at least be open to learning that. As such, discussing that while my education is different from any of the Business, Communication, or Marketing majors have, I have communication, organizational, management, and other attributes that those other programs just don't focus on.
It's absurd. I do have an interview at a call center tomorrow though... yay call center... but yay interview!
op- Check out jobs with www.Enterprise.com if you are looking to get into running a business/management. They have a really strong management-trainee program and promote exclusively internally.
That can be an extremely awkward conversation. I know it's basic human deceny to call, but that's what Human Resources is for.
/e passes the buck
Limed for truth. If you're willing to stake your reputation on an applicant, it's a huge bonus. In my experience those people are better hires than a recruiter referral because the existing employee garauntees their success by either priming them before they even start or letting them know in no uncertain terms before hand "Dude, if you fuck up, you're really fucking me over".
Job hunting sucks, but you have to keep plucking away. Try and gear your mindset away from what you need and make it more about what you have to offer. No one is going to hand you shit (unless, you popped outta the right vagina, in which case IMBN). You have to get out there and motherfucking sell yourself.
No... follow up because if it's between you and someone else, I'll go with the person who followed up. And yeah pretty much if you're wasting my time before I hire you, it's kind of reflective of the employee you're going to be. Why hire someone who doesn't show up when they're suppose to?
Sorry but this is how it goes. Like someone said earlier, there are a lot of people interviewing and I seldom have the time to be courteous and send out a lot of "thanks for coming to the interview but sorry you didn't get the job" messages. That's generally why I tell people in interviews that if they don't hear back from me in 2 weeks...
edit: (and sorry this is so big a post now)
Yeah... it's not like I want to blow people off all the time, but I have a job to do too. Hiring sucks on both ends.
I applied at the hospital for a ton of different positions, for every job I selected I had to take a different quiz. By the end of it, I had taken over 40 quizzes, many of which were exactly the same.
That is excellent practice! I can't tell you how annoying it is to get resumes from people whose "stupid useless objective" statements state that their goal is to work in a field or company different from the one their applying to work for.
Changing your resume and cover letter to reflect the job you're applying for is great!