A Case Of The Mondays: Vent Your Work Spleen Here

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, theredhead77 said:

What is the difference in how time is spent if it is spent achieving education to further their career?

 

I was saying something else.  I don't think it's appropriate to imply you are spending all your time in a school program when you are not. 

[theredhead77]

Just now, EtheltoTillie said:

I was saying something else.  I don't think it's appropriate to imply you are spending all your time in a school program when you are not. 

I understood what you're saying. 

I think it's completely appropriate to respond to "I see you were laid off 6 months ago" with "I was, and I decided to take some time to focus on completing [certificate program] and acquiring skills to set me up to achieve my career goals of [fill in the blank] during this time" is completely acceptable.

I also think adding "I picked up a side gig in customer service to pay the bills while I completed this program. It's not in my resume because it is a short term situation" in passing is also acceptable.

 

Then again, I had a resume item for "IT Consultant" with employment for 10 years when it was a BS position for my friends company.  I helped him out once every few months for a couple hours and he paid me cash. I explained that as a side gig and no one batted an eye.

[EtheltoTillie]

2 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

I understood what you're saying. 

I think it's completely appropriate to respond to "I see you were laid off 6 months ago" with "I was, and I decided to take some time to focus on completing [certificate program] and acquiring skills to set me up to achieve my career goals of [fill in the blank] during this time" is completely acceptable.

I also think adding "I picked up a side gig in customer service to pay the bills while I completed this program. It's not in my resume because it is a short term situation" in passing is also acceptable.

 

Then again, I had a resume item for "IT Consultant" with employment for 10 years when it was a BS position for my friends company.  I helped him out once every few months for a couple hours and he paid me cash. I explained that as a side gig and no one batted an eye.

But Cloud 9 has a full time job, not a side gig.  I would not use the term side gig.  I would just say job. 

[emma675]

I work in the financial services industry and I have had a background check for almost every job. In my industry, they check for criminal activity, credit score, and anything that might make you a financial risk for a bank to have as an employee. I don't even handle money or customer accounts, but it's a standard check for all employees. I even had to do a drug test for one job.

I'm not even sure if they call to check previous employment history much anymore, given the rules HR has to follow when verifying former employees. An HR rep at my old job once told me she had to be careful around only answering certain questions and only answering yes or no when someone called to verify employment. She couldn't go into why an employee wasn't there anymore, regardless of whether they quit or were fired. Maybe someone here knows more about that?

[EtheltoTillie]

13 minutes ago, emma675 said:

I work in the financial services industry and I have had a background check for almost every job. In my industry, they check for criminal activity, credit score, and anything that might make you a financial risk for a bank to have as an employee. I don't even handle money or customer accounts, but it's a standard check for all employees. I even had to do a drug test for one job.

I'm not even sure if they call to check previous employment history much anymore, given the rules HR has to follow when verifying former employees. An HR rep at my old job once told me she had to be careful around only answering certain questions and only answering yes or no when someone called to verify employment. She couldn't go into why an employee wasn't there anymore, regardless of whether they quit or were fired. Maybe someone here knows more about that?

As an attorney who used to do employment cases, I know something about this.  Large companies are risk averse, so the HR departments don't answer many questions that might damn the applicant.  But they could answer questions involving accuracy in verification of employment.  This is really a choice that companies make, not something they are required by law to do.

The question of references, i.e., is this person a good employee, won't be answered by any HR person.  If you want to know stuff like that, then the prospective hire has to give you references they know are willing to talk about them.  Then you have to read between the lines in how the person talks about the applicant.  This may include some people who know that their employers don't want them talking but they may do it anyway. 

[theredhead77]

40 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

But Cloud 9 has a full time job, not a side gig.  I would not use the term side gig.  I would just say job. 

I'm not saying she needs to call it a side gig. But if she is focusing on her school work as her primary focus then this placeholder job is a "side gig" even if it is full time. Certificate programs offer value and shouldn't be devalued because they aren't a degree.

I'm saying she doesn't need to put it in her resume or talk too much about it during any interviews.

She can literally gloss over it and focus on what she was doing to further her education and prepare for her new career instead of dwelling on this miserable placeholder position.

Edited April 12, 2023 by theredhead77

[Cloud9Shopper]

A lot of the past applications I’ve done don’t even have spaces for reference contact information anymore. My last job and the job I’m in now didn’t call my references; they just did the usual background checks and verified my employment dates.

I appreciate all the debate LOL. Lots to consider. I was not planning to say this is a side gig if someone asked me what I was doing now. Either way I am still not getting interviews, so I guess maybe a resume refresh is in order.  

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

A lot of the past applications I’ve done don’t even have spaces for reference contact information anymore. My last job and the job I’m in now didn’t call my references; they just did the usual background checks and verified my employment dates.

 

Yeah, not everyone does this.  Depends on the job. 

[roseha]

I worked at a fine arts organization and when I left after 15 years was told that they "don't give references".  I ended up getting two, one from my former executive director (at that place) and another from a co-worker who joked "What are they going to do, fire me?"

This was about 17 years ago though.

[theredhead77]

50 minutes ago, roseha said:

I worked at a fine arts organization and when I left after 15 years was told that they "don't give references".  I ended up getting two, one from my former executive director (at that place) and another from a co-worker who joked "What are they going to do, fire me?"

This was about 17 years ago though.

My former company has a whole doesn't do references. They'll provide information as allowed by law but keep it vague. Personally, you can ask for references. I left with one from my boss, the person who hired me (original boss) who was now our CFO, multiple VPs and Senior leaders and a few directors.

[chocolatine]

My understanding has always been that references (in the sense of recommendation, not employment verification) come from people, not companies. I have provided several references for former coworkers and team members long after I had left the job at which we had worked together.

[isalicat]

As someone who was in the technical recruiting business for 38 years, I can assure you that personal references are a nice thing, but since you aren't going to pass on a reference that is not entirely complimentary, they are almost never any sort of factor in the decision as to whether to hire. Truth be told, most high tech companies that I worked with use their own, behind the scenes, networking capabilities and reach out to get the intel on anyone they are seriously considering. I had many a candidate dismissed from the interview process without being able to tell them why because the hiring manager had been informed (either by their own boss or HR department, or directly by their contacts within the industry) that the candidate was not a good bet, for whatever reason. Since I was also very networked I would often find out what was being said behind the scenes, but because I needed to maintain that network I could not ever reveal that to the candidate. This is one of the main reasons you don't hear anything back after interviewing - the HR person or recruiter doesn't want to lie to you directly so they just ghost you instead. (I never ghosted anyone - I was very good at dissimulation - its an art form 😺 )

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, isalicat said:

As someone who was in the technical recruiting business for 38 years, I can assure you that personal references are a nice thing, but since you aren't going to pass on a reference that is not entirely complimentary, they are almost never any sort of factor in the decision as to whether to hire. Truth be told, most high tech companies that I worked with use their own, behind the scenes, networking capabilities and reach out to get the intel on anyone they are seriously considering. I had many a candidate dismissed from the interview process without being able to tell them why because the hiring manager had been informed (either by their own boss or HR department, or directly by their contacts within the industry) that the candidate was not a good bet, for whatever reason. Since I was also very networked I would often find out what was being said behind the scenes, but because I needed to maintain that network I could not ever reveal that to the candidate. This is one of the main reasons you don't hear anything back after interviewing - the HR person or recruiter doesn't want to lie to you directly so they just ghost you instead. (I never ghosted anyone - I was very good at dissimulation - its an art form 😺 )

When I posted earlier about getting references, I was also thinking about something like what you said.  You have to do your own detective work, but even where there are reference names provided by the employees, you can find out negatives.  People will damn with faint praise or just leave out things that you know are red flags. 

It's terrible to ghost someone, though.  Of course, no one is ever going to tell you why you didn't get the job, but if you're down to a more final part of the process, you should let people know that they weren't chosen. 

[chocolatine]

12 hours ago, isalicat said:

Truth be told, most high tech companies that I worked with use their own, behind the scenes, networking capabilities and reach out to get the intel on anyone they are seriously considering.

Meta (i.e. Facebook back in the day) did that in a really blatant manner when they recruited me. Several people with whom I was friends on Facebook were already working there, and one of them told me that he was asked about me even though I didn't list him as a reference.

As a hiring manager, I look up every interview-stage candidate on LinkedIn, and if we have connections in common, try to discreetly find out some information through the mutual connections.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I sure hope my Facebook friends aren’t what’s keeping me from getting jobs or interviews. I did have two decent jobs prior to getting laid off though (the job that laid me off and the one before that, I had good performance reviews and everything), so I know I can succeed somewhere. Now that I can’t get any interviews I guess I’ll have to stress that FB friends or LinkedIn connections could be saying something negative and I’ll never know it. I also won’t go asking every single one of them if a potential employer reached out, though. I don’t have the time or energy for that haha. Although someone I’m FB friends with gave a positive reference to a higher-up when I applied at his employer. (It didn’t work out for other reasons.) 

Anyway, it’s been a hard week at work. During our team meeting yesterday we got lectured on typical call center nonsense for not answering calls and emails fast enough or taking too long and how that’s “unacceptable.” If you want machines, hire robots, or at least set up your system so I can answer an email before a phone call comes in and kicks me out of the email. I have felt like crying at work both yesterday and today. I’m just not customer service-oriented and it shows. I hate being nitpicked to death too and not trusted so…I’m not going to give up on my job hunt. I’ll just keep looking even though times are bleak. 

[chocolatine]

22 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I sure hope my Facebook friends aren’t what’s keeping me from getting jobs or interviews. I did have two decent jobs prior to getting laid off though (the job that laid me off and the one before that, I had good performance reviews and everything), so I know I can succeed somewhere. Now that I can’t get any interviews I guess I’ll have to stress that FB friends or LinkedIn connections could be saying something negative and I’ll never know it. I also won’t go asking every single one of them if a potential employer reached out, though. I don’t have the time or energy for that haha. Although someone I’m FB friends with gave a positive reference to a higher-up when I applied at his employer. (It didn’t work out for other reasons.) 

I didn't mean to stress you out. My case was a bit extreme in that a lot of my FB friends are people with whom I attended the same computer science/artificial intelligence graduate program, so most of us ended up working in the tech industry, and, because it was a highly ranked school, many of us landed at FAANG. So when I was going through the interview process at FB, five or six of my friends were working there. And FWIW, none of those "back door" references were detrimental because I got the job. (Which I ended up hating, but that's a story for another time.)

[Cloud9Shopper]

Still no upcoming job interviews. 😢Hopefully this week brings some positive movement. I’m now at 30 applications with no interest, which is the worst drought in my most recent searches. I guess it really is my resume at this point. I’m going to see if I can make some of the bullet points more concise and reconsider how necessary a few of them are. (I do, of course, change my resume based on each job description.) I also have a couple of career coaching consults coming up. I may not be able to afford much, but if it gets me out of the call center and back into a career, I’m willing to take some free consults to see who I’d work best with and pay a moderate amount of money. (One coach was charging $2,000 which I can’t afford but I am talking with one tomorrow who is a little under $400, which is more reasonable.) I know the market is bad but I’m also willing to see what I’m doing wrong at this point. 

As far as my current job, I’ll just keep a neutral face when they bring up the team’s stats and talk about how “unacceptable” they are. I really don’t care about stats when I know part of the problem is due to the callers themselves. (You ask for their account number, they don’t know it so you either need to wait for them to login or answer “Where do I find that?” and they still need forever to look for it, or they want me to stay on the phone while they troubleshoot or try to do something in their account…) And really if I get an HR interview they will not care that I handled a call in less than X minutes. I’ll just do the minimum and pretend to play the game until I can leave. 

 

[emma675]

I think I'm going to start looking for a new job, 8 months into my current role. It's not ideal, but my current company kind of did a bait and switch in the job description and I'm doing the work of three people. I'm exhausted trying to keep up, my boss doesn't understand why I can't do the work of multiple people, and I'm at an age and point in my career where I don't want or have to put up with this crap. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by emma675

[ginger90]

12 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

(One coach was charging $2,000 which I can’t afford but I am talking with one tomorrow who is a little under $400, which is more reasonable.)

Do you have Workforce Staffing in your county, or a county nearby? They provide free services such as, resume building, interview tips, and job searching.

[Cloud9Shopper]

We have CareerLink here in PA but I’d rather work with a coach or counselor geared towards professional jobs. I have enough work experience now that I’m not going to go to the CareerLink where they tend to be geared toward blue collar or lower paying jobs. (If they have job fairs they tend to bring in warehouse employers or nursing homes looking for CNAs.) My goal is to get out of the call center and back to a career and in our area I don’t trust that they would help with that. 

[theredhead77]

FWIW, many "blue collar" jobs, such as welding and plumbing bring in $100k plus. There is a massive shortage of incoming welders. As the old guard retires we are going to be in a world of hurt. A welder fresh out of trade school will bring in a living wage out of the gate with minimal to no student debt.

Shit, if I could weld I would have looked into switching to welding as my second career. Alas, I can't. My former job sent me to a welding training program for part of our "Day in the Life" program. It's so hard and I am so uncoordinated.

I'm not suggesting you become a welder, C9, just sharing information in case anyone reading is looking at a career shift, or has a child that is about to graduate and doesn't know what to do

Edited April 18, 2023 by theredhead77

[ginger90]

3 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

We have CareerLink here in PA but I’d rather work with a coach or counselor geared towards professional jobs. I have enough work experience now that I’m not going to go to the CareerLink where they tend to be geared toward blue collar or lower paying jobs. (If they have job fairs they tend to bring in warehouse employers or nursing homes looking for CNAs.) My goal is to get out of the call center and back to a career and in our area I don’t trust that they would help with that. 

Workforce staffing isn’t Career Link.

Both places have various employers who hire from them. For instance warehouse jobs are not just on the floor, etc.. HR jobs are there too. My daughter recently switched from HR at Amazon to a nonprofit. Her salary is very good and however she schedules her 40 hours is fine with them as it’s a place using  shifts.

Edited April 18, 2023 by ginger90

[Cloud9Shopper]

We don’t have a Workforce Staffing group where I live unfortunately.

I will try to rework my resume and see if I can get experience volunteering with a nonprofit. They tend to need volunteer coordinators or volunteer screeners that would get me some HR experience that I can put down.

And nothing against trades here. I was thinking of being a hairstylist when I was much younger but it’s not the best idea now since I’m not a huge customer service person. Maybe if I win the lottery I’ll go to beauty school…

Edited April 18, 2023 by Cloud9Shopper

[theredhead77]

9 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I’m not a huge customer service person

You've mentioned this a few times. I gently encourage you to change your mindset about not being a customer service person. Every job has an element of customer service. Internal customers (people you work with, people asking you for things, hiring managers you are recruiting for, etc...) and external customers (people paying your company for a service, people who apply at your company you are screening for positions, etc...). 

Internal customers can be much, much harder to navigate as you have to form lasting, positive, and productive relationships with them. Candidates are also tough. Those who have been on the hunt for years with hundreds of applications submitted (like I was) may be extra jaded and tired of the process. Some may even take it out on you. Sure, that's not great for them and you can report that as part of the process and have them blacklisted, but how you react to their reaction will reflect on you.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I mean I get it…but it’s OK I think to have a preference for internal customers versus external ones. I hate call center work but I think it’s unfair to assume that I wouldn’t be able to handle another field or don’t get along with others at any job I do. I did fine in my last two jobs when I got to use more of my strengths and wasn’t under the gun and being micromanaged the way you are in a call center. 

Oh well. I am taking a break from the search for now anyway. Thirty apps and no interviews means something is wrong with my resume so I am taking a few days away to redo it and see if I get better results when I’m ready to come back. 

[hoosier80]

I am going to have to see if there’s any way I can retire sooner than I planned. 
The Dip is still being dense, and grabs any “easy” ticket that comedian for us. I have had multiple tickets I grabbed, only to have her reassign to herself. If you ask, oh I didn’t see that.... it is big as life. She’s def afraid for her job for some reason.

Another co-worker has gotten more hyper recently. Constant IM’s today even with the busy indicator at busy, plus my saying I am busy. Then we got a vague reorg email from corporate. It will take at least a year. She was beyond hyper.  I have been through at least 7 corporate mergers, so you cannot predict what will happen and worrying doesn’t help. I again said I am busy. 
 

On a call now about the reorg email. Nothing for us now. Dip again trying to impress and brown nose. Gag me. 
 

I really need to consider an earlier retirement.

[Leeds]

On 4/12/2023 at 1:07 PM, Cloud9Shopper said:

 

I appreciate all the debate LOL. Lots to consider. I was not planning to say this is a side gig if someone asked me what I was doing now. Either way I am still not getting interviews, so I guess maybe a resume refresh is in order.  

Do you include a customized cover letter?  When I was responsible for the initial weeding through of applications and early screening, I tossed any resume that arrived without a cover letter. (I worked in a highly desirable industry so we had the luxury of doing that.)

Do people still include cover letters?

[EtheltoTillie]

3 minutes ago, Leeds said:

Do you include a customized cover letter?  When I was responsible for the initial weeding through of applications and early screening, I tossed any resume that arrived without a cover letter. (I worked in a highly desirable industry so we had the luxury of doing that.)

Do people still include cover letters?

I have had to recruit law students, and I have asked for a cover letter and writing sample.  Years ago, when I worked in publishing, the cover letters were the thing that made the package stand out.  I recall two outstanding hires all these years later that were moved to the top on the strength of a cover letter and were eventually hired.  Now, though, there is computer screening of applications in certain fields, and I don't know if anyone looks at letters.

[chocolatine]

5 minutes ago, Leeds said:

Do you include a customized cover letter?  When I was responsible for the initial weeding through of applications and early screening, I tossed any resume that arrived without a cover letter. (I worked in a highly desirable industry so we had the luxury of doing that.)

Do people still include cover letters?

In the tech industry cover letters aren't common and haven't been for a long time. And as a hiring manager, I don't have time to read cover letters, so it's a wasted effort if a candidate does include one. For me, a resume is sufficient to decide whether to move a candidate to the first stage of the interview process.

[Leeds]

21 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I have had to recruit law students, and I have asked for a cover letter and writing sample.  Years ago, when I worked in publishing, the cover letters were the thing that made the package stand out.  I recall two outstanding hires all these years later that were moved to the top on the strength of a cover letter and were eventually hired.  Now, though, there is computer screening of applications in certain fields, and I don't know if anyone looks at letters.

I was working in publishing too, and I suppose the demonstration of a feel for language that can be demonstrated in a cover letter is more important there than in some other fields, such as the tech industry @chocolatine mentions.

[theredhead77]

I was sending out a custom cover letter with my application for years. On platforms that only allowed for one file upload, I'd send my resume and cover letter as a single PDF. I encountered a few recruiters who befriended me along the way and they all shared that these days cover letters are rarely read.

After spending quite a bit of time on various recruiting and job forums on Reddit I realized that in my industry, they were pretty futile. In the end, I don't think having a cover letter helped, it certainly didn't get me more interviews and I started sending out applications without them. I can say that not once was my cover letter mentioned or referenced during a phone screen or interview.

In fact, the position that I finally accepted an offer for didn't have a cover letter. This was my third time around, so I can't say for sure that a cover letter sent with a previous application tipped the scales. I think the previous connection with the recruiter made the difference.

[Browncoat]

Cover letters are required for jobs I've hired for (and applied for!), and I have read every single one I've received.  They make a difference to me -- if someone claims they pay attention to detail and have multiple errors in their cover letters, for example, I'm much less likely to move them forward.

I do hate writing them, though.

[Bastet]

I flip to the resume first, but then I do read the cover letters from the people whose resumes went into the "consider" pile.

[emma675]

I'm in corporate communications so a cover letter is pretty much a given. But I have one draft version that I customize for each application, which makes it easier. I just have to remember to upload the right version each time. Years ago, I was speeding through an application process and accidentally attached a cover letter meant for another company. I realized about 10 seconds after I hit submit and was kicking myself. Needless to say, I didn't get an interview invitation, lol.

[Bookish Jen]

Cloud9Shopper, I feel for you. Working a survival job because you need the paycheck can be so tough on your state of mind. I've worked call center jobs and they suck. I hope you find something better soon. But I do understand taking a break from the job hunt. Finding a job these days is so damn frustrating.

My temp job is going well. The money is decent and I like the people I work with. I don't know if I'll get hired on permanently, but if not, hopefully, I'll get something new.

[Jaded]

I saw this tweet earlier which made me think of this thread since cover letters have been the main topic of conversation lately.
 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Jaded

[oliviabenson]

46 minutes ago, Jaded said:

I saw this tweet earlier which made me think of this thread since cover letters have been the main topic of conversation lately.
 

 

You go girl! She is going places!

[Cloud9Shopper]

After nearly 40 applications I finally got some interest for an HR assistant position. The pay range posted in the ad was pretty broad (like $17-$26 an hour) but I decided to take the interview next week and see how things go. There’s also some marketing duties and I have a background in editorial work, so that’s a plus too. 

While every job has its downsides I’m definitely excited to take the interview and see if I can get back into my field of choice. At the end of the day life is short and if things work out I’d rather be doing something that suits my strengths than stress myself out at something I’m not good at for the sake of a paycheck. (Of course I won’t take a bad job offer but just in principle…) 

[theredhead77]

32 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

After nearly 40 applications I finally got some interest for an HR assistant position. The pay range posted in the ad was pretty broad (like $17-$26 an hour) but I decided to take the interview next week and see how things go. There’s also some marketing duties and I have a background in editorial work, so that’s a plus too. 

While every job has its downsides I’m definitely excited to take the interview and see if I can get back into my field of choice. At the end of the day life is short and if things work out I’d rather be doing something that suits my strengths than stress myself out at something I’m not good at for the sake of a paycheck. (Of course I won’t take a bad job offer but just in principle…) 

Good luck!

Is a "bad job offer" in the field you want to be in, that will get you out of call-center hell, really a bad job offer? You'll have to decide what you are willing to sacrifice to get out of where you are.
 

[Cloud9Shopper]

27 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

Good luck!

Is a "bad job offer" in the field you want to be in, that will get you out of call-center hell, really a bad job offer? You'll have to decide what you are willing to sacrifice to get out of where you are.
 

I guess we’ll see what happens if they offer it to me. Rent and utilities don’t pay themselves so I can’t take too much of a pay cut. (I can take maybe $3-$5 a hour less but not much beyond that.) The interview on Monday is an intro call so I’ll keep applying in the meantime and see how this interview goes, how many rounds their process is, etc. 

[Bethany]

My niece found out today that she has been laid off - which was bad enough but the manager called her and the others affected into a zoom meeting and told them that way.  I thought lessons had been learned about giving out bad news in this way after the PR disasters of last year when this kind of thing made the news.  Guess not.

[Jaded]

44 minutes ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

My niece found out today that she has been laid off - which was bad enough but the manager called her and the others affected into a zoom meeting and told them that way.  I thought lessons had been learned about giving out bad news in this way after the PR disasters of last year when this kind of thing made the news.  Guess not.

Sounds like that manager was being lazy, didn't care how they went about doing things and probably enjoyed embarrassing people under their employ. I doubt that manager would appreciate being fired in the same way.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I found out about my layoff through a Zoom meeting too. And the day before that IT had called me to see what kind of equipment I had for “inventory.” I’m sure. /s I’m still not fully over it. 

 

[chocolatine]

6 hours ago, Jaded said:

Sounds like that manager was being lazy, didn't care how they went about doing things and probably enjoyed embarrassing people under their employ. I doubt that manager would appreciate being fired in the same way.

It most likely wasn't up to the manager. It's usually the company leadership who decides how layoffs are communicated across different departments. The managers are given a script to follow to minimize liability.

Edited May 4, 2023 by chocolatine

[PRgal]

Does anyone work for their family and has had trouble getting their "co-workers" to look at things from your perspective?  Say you want to focus on women-founded businesses since they tend to get less funding but the person in charge thinks you need to look at the business as a whole before making the decision.  They don't seem to "get" that you ARE, but you just want to target them.  It isn't an affirmative action thing at all.  If they're good, they're good.  If they suck, they suck.  Or you believe it's important to focus on mental health awareness, especially in some cultural communities where it's even more stigmatized due to long-held beliefs going back 1000s of years.  They, however, think it's unnecessary to be too culturally-specific, especially if it's your own.  They don't think it's good draw attention to that fact.  

[theredhead77]

On 4/26/2023 at 7:39 PM, Cloud9Shopper said:

I guess we’ll see what happens if they offer it to me. Rent and utilities don’t pay themselves so I can’t take too much of a pay cut. (I can take maybe $3-$5 a hour less but not much beyond that.) The interview on Monday is an intro call so I’ll keep applying in the meantime and see how this interview goes, how many rounds their process is, etc. 

Any updates on this or your hunt? Hopeful you find a way out soon.

 

 

5 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

My niece found out today that she has been laid off - which was bad enough but the manager called her and the others affected into a zoom meeting and told them that way.  I thought lessons had been learned about giving out bad news in this way after the PR disasters of last year when this kind of thing made the news.  Guess not.

How frustrating. There is no good way to do mass layoffs but telling people on an individual basis seems to be a much better way. Then again at my previous company, pre-pandemic, they laid off an entire department on a Wednesday morning with an 8am meeting telling everyone in a conference room. If that wasn't bad enough, IT had disabled their badges and log-ins so people couldn't get into the building until the receptionist showed up. They were trying to be stealth and efficient but the mass badge disablement gave it away.

[Cloud9Shopper]

55 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

Any updates on this or your hunt? Hopeful you find a way out soon.

Job postings I’m interested in have kind of dried up so I haven’t applied many places lately and I’m still getting rejected or ignored a lot despite my resume updates. I had one phone interview and I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t call me back for the second round…they made a point of telling me how 80 people applied and they picked 10 for phone screens

I’m just trying to chill now because we’re not as busy at work this week so it’s made things slightly more tolerable. I’ve had some decent lulls between calls and gotten to play music or sneak in some fanfic writing (on my personal phone of course). I really want to be sure I’m leaving for the right thing both pay and fit-wise. I’m not at a point in my life anymore where I want to jump to just anything for the sake of leaving. 

I did see one job I was interested in and was going to apply…then saw they required three years experience and were paying $14-$18 an hour. I’m not that desperate! Good grief. 

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by Cloud9Shopper

[theredhead77]

1 hour ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

. I had one phone interview and I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t call me back for the second round…they made a point of telling me how 80 people applied and they picked 10 for phone screens

Was that for the position you mentioned above that is in recruiting? Regardless, you made it to the top 10 of whatever position that was for. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by theredhead77

[Cloud9Shopper]

13 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

Was that for the position you mentioned above that is in recruiting? Regardless, you made it to the top 10 of whatever position that was for. 

No this was something different. I canceled the HR interview when I found out their hiring process involved a 1.5-hour interview if you made it to the second round and then a “third party assessment.” This was an HR assistant role so it just wasn’t worth that kind of effort to me. And once a job says they require a personality test I just drop out LOL. I never get far when companies require them during the hiring process so I just refuse when asked and remove myself from consideration. (One other HR job wanted me to take the Wonderlic before they’d look at the rest of my application.) 

[PRgal]

45 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

No this was something different. I canceled the HR interview when I found out their hiring process involved a 1.5-hour interview if you made it to the second round and then a “third party assessment.” This was an HR assistant role so it just wasn’t worth that kind of effort to me. And once a job says they require a personality test I just drop out LOL. I never get far when companies require them during the hiring process so I just refuse when asked and remove myself from consideration. (One other HR job wanted me to take the Wonderlic before they’d look at the rest of my application.) 

Why on EARTH would they ask for a personality test?  I didn't even think that was legal.