Job Search Venting Thread

[helpme2010]

Helpme- I share your pain. I find on line apps to be a complete waste of time because as an overqualified individual they are never going to select me. As a person who has been out of the mainstream job market or awhile, they aren't going to select me for jobs which my background is relevant because I'm not current, underqualified, etc. for those jobs. Heck you can't even apply for a job at the grocery store without filling out an on line form.

On a side note, I was reading an article that quoted a recruiter who was frustrated by companies demands for the perfect candidate. Apparently if you meet 49 out of 50 the company will wait for the candidate who meets 51 of 50. The recruiters have named the candidates companies are looking for "purple squirrels". Ever see one of those?

Hang in- something will pop up.

1. Purple Squirrels - I never heard that term until now. Yes I have seen Purple Squirrels constantly during my 10 years of job searching and going in and out of jobs.

2. The same companies posting the same exact jobs constantly for 5-10 years now.

[helpme2010]

My husband filled out an application for Best Buy today and you would have thought he was applying for a job at the Pentagon! And I should know, since I have Dept of Defense clearance with my job! It's ridiculous that you have to answer 100+ hypothetical questions just to submit an application for a minimum wage job!

And let's get real, if someone is stupid enough to answer those questions with a "yes" as to whether they've stolen from their employer, done drugs while at work or had a fist-fight with a customer, the'yre not likely to have gotten that far through the application anyway! They'd probably still be stuck on the first page trying to figure out if it was okay to put their previous cellblock number down as their prior address.

This is funny. I would love to answer yes to all the criminal and other stupid questions and see if they then decide to hire me.

I have shopped at Best Buy over the years and half the people are intelligent about the products and half are ignorant or even lie about the product. I guess it would be easier to get a job with the Pentagon than Best Buy or McDonalds

[discouraged]

The problem with Best Buy, McDonalds, etc. - I believe - is that those of us who are looking and even willing to take those jobs and have business experience, we MAY just raise questions about the ethics or be aware of labor laws, etc. They can't afford for that to happen.

After all, it's people like us who raise the conciousness of workers. And what if some of us got into WalMart and started some sort of wage riot. You never know; could happen. It's easier for them to just overlook folks like us.

Dry humor guys.

[helpme2010]

The problem with Best Buy, McDonalds, etc. - I believe - is that those of us who are looking and even willing to take those jobs and have business experience, we MAY just raise questions about the ethics or be aware of labor laws, etc. They can't afford for that to happen.

After all, it's people like us who raise the conciousness of workers. And what if some of us got into WalMart and started some sort of wage riot. You never know; could happen. It's easier for them to just overlook folks like us.

Dry humor guys.

I actually lost a couple jobs over ethical issues, that was before I learned how to just shut my mouth and instead look for a new job before quitting due to a company acting unethically. The reason is it takes months to find a new job and so many companies I have worked for have had an unethical CEO, that if I quit right away or protested the ethical violations, I would be permanently unemployed!

[Fallonedward]

I so agree with this statement. My husband has his undergraduate degree from Purdue and his MBA from Harvard and he has been searching for 11 months now. He just applied for an analyst position (he has 20+ years of management experience) and they want someone with a BS degree, MBA, CPA and 25 + years of experience, plus about 30 lines of specific experience required and the pay range is $45 to $55...

Dang he is willing to take anything at this point because we are bankrupt and out of money...
This economy sucks

I have been absent from this board for awhile, just focusing 100% day and night on job searching. I wanted to post up a thread to vent out a little steam and maybe other job searchers can vent as well.

What I hate about job searches:

1. When a company posts so many requirements for a position (many not realistic - I bet if Bill Gates applied or even God for that matter, they would be turned down for not having enough experience)

2. When you can meet every requirement, except one item (and each company has a different one item that you can't meet).

3. When you actually meet every requirement and have the exact experience, but they still send you a rejection letter saying they are looking for a more qualified candidate.

4. When you have to fill out 50,000 pages of information about yourself on a recruiter or company website, spending hours, and they could have easily extracted this right out of your resume. And the ultimate insult, after doing this, they don't have a job for you.

5. The same exact companies keep posting for the same exact jobs (and this has been happening for 5-10 years). Makes you wonder about your job security with that company, and what kind of boss you will be working for

FEEL FREE TO ADD TO THIS LIST

[Dee]

The problem with Best Buy, McDonalds, etc. - I believe - is that those of us who are looking and even willing to take those jobs and have business experience, we MAY just raise questions about the ethics or be aware of labor laws, etc. They can't afford for that to happen.

After all, it's people like us who raise the conciousness of workers. And what if some of us got into WalMart and started some sort of wage riot. You never know; could happen. It's easier for them to just overlook folks like us.

Dry humor guys.

You may be on to something! I mean, my husband has 25+ years professional experience and can't even get an interview for a minimum wage job! And it's not from lack of trying! He's put in applications with just about every retail business within a 15 mile radius of us, said he's willing to work nights, weekends, whatever. I'd say the number of applications so far is well over 500. But not a single phone call.

I guess he's never noticed the fine print on the job notices that says "Only ignorant, inexperienced sheep need apply".

[helpme2010]

Paid Job Sites

Are any of you running into this annoying scam? A bunch of good jobs are posted, you click on them and even fill out the information, only to be taken to a staffing site that charges you a membership fee to connect with the job.

Mainly the Ladders and Doostang. Both require you to pay a high fee to access their jobs. I actually did a one week trial offer with the Ladders a few years ago and the jobs they listed were the exact same ones listed on monster, hotjobs, careerbuilder, etc.

So they flood the job boards with ads for great positions, you click on them and get their requirement to join their site to apply. Some like Doostang are more clever, they don't show their name right away, but rather another staffing site, you fill out the info, then go to Doostang. They even say you can join for free, which I did, only to find out, you have to pay to actually apply for those jobs. Pure B.S.

I am constantly getting these sites emailing me to pay for various services, etc. This is the price I pay for opening myself up to find a job.

[helpme2010]

Fallon and Dee, I read your posts and want to rip my hair out, feeling for both of you. Fallens husband has the BS - MBA, CPA, what, a fricken NBA, NFL, CBS, ABC, NBC. How many degrees does he have to earn??? And he still is getting a crappy pay range offering like that and being out of work for 11 months. This is absolutely unbelievable. I bet you get pissed as hell when someone tells you guys that you need to be re-educated.

Dee I more closely resemble your poor husband as I have around 25 years professional experience with a strong track record as well. He has put in more job searching effort than I have even. So all this experience goes to waste having to apply to local retail stores and even they don't want someone who is overqualified. So what avenue is left for him and people like us? OK, we keep trying until jobs open, hopefully in a few years the recession will recover and jobs will be available. What happens when they try cutting the unemployment extensions???

I can't believe in this country, those who are educated and have experience can't find a fricken job. I kept listening to people including my family telling me to go back to college and complete my degree. I see all the news reports how those who have degrees earn 20% or more than those without degrees. Yet I can't find a job or don't see any jobs offering me more or even the same as what I earned for the past 10 years without a degree.

Man this is frustrating.

[gml120]

Fallon and Dee, I read your posts and want to rip my hair out, feeling for both of you. Fallens husband has the BS - MBA, CPA, what, a fricken NBA, NFL, CBS, ABC, NBC. How many degrees does he have to earn??? And he still is getting a crappy pay range offering like that and being out of work for 11 months. This is absolutely unbelievable. I bet you get pissed as hell when someone tells you guys that you need to be re-educated.

Dee I more closely resemble your poor husband as I have around 25 years professional experience with a strong track record as well. He has put in more job searching effort than I have even. So all this experience goes to waste having to apply to local retail stores and even they don't want someone who is overqualified. So what avenue is left for him and people like us? OK, we keep trying until jobs open, hopefully in a few years the recession will recover and jobs will be available. What happens when they try cutting the unemployment extensions???

I can't believe in this country, those who are educated and have experience can't find a fricken job. I kept listening to people including my family telling me to go back to college and complete my degree. I see all the news reports how those who have degrees earn 20% or more than those without degrees. Yet I can't find a job or don't see any jobs offering me more or even the same as what I earned for the past 10 years without a degree.

Man this is frustrating.

Exactly! I guess we should all just drop everything, forget all that education and experience, and become cosmetologists, after all the rich will always need their hair done!

[helpme2010]

Exactly! I guess we should all just drop everything, forget all that education and experience, and become cosmetologists, after all the rich will always need their hair done!

And don't forget about the other option, becoming a reality tv show star. Do something really bad and you get rewarded with a lucrative career.

[RichM]

On the subject of over-qualification... Is there any particular reason you can't just leave the college fields blank, and fill in the experience ones with the most unflattering, generic, but honest description of the prior job(s) possible, when applying for shitty jobs?

I mean, if you know it's a crappy job, then why mention that you used the be the CEO of IBM? That's almost asking to get rejected.

Here's an example. Once upon a time I worked as a Vector Control Specialist. I had certifications in several states, as well as a USCDC certification. My job consisted of performing precise calculations of temperatures, degree days, and so forth to predict the exact days that various mosquitoes would hatch, and then deciding exactly how much of which insecticides would be applied, to which bodies of water, at what times, of which days, to kill the larvae before they pupated. I also was involved in monitoring mosquito populations for the presence of arboviral organisms and other pathogens, and doing risk assessments to determine whether the use of aerially-applied adulticides was justified by the observed endemicity rates in the sample pools.

But if I were applying for a job at McDonalds, I would summarize all of that as "Mosquito Exterminator."

Just a thought...

-Rich

[helpme2010]

RichM, I agree with your advice. If I am going after a lower title, I tend to emphasize more on the lower title positions I did and obviously don't try to push myself as someone going after a much higher title (unless of course they ask that stupid question where do you see yourself in 5 years - "taking over your job of course" ahahahaha).

I have been going in and out of jobs for 10 years now and didn't have a degree listed on my resume for those 10 years, so I have seen both sides. I think now its just a lot worse out there. I think those with the higher education will have a tough time getting into the low paying retail jobs, so maybe they should leave out those degrees. I'm also thinking the minute they see the work experience, they are going to be in some trouble, unless they were applying for corporate level management. I do like your idea of dumbing down the resume for these types of positions or listing work related to those jobs.

My major problem is the PURPLE SQUIRREL issue, especially missing one or two elements from the wanted list, or not being from the exact industry that is hiring.

[discouraged]

I actually had more responses when I downsized my experience. Took a temp job, which has thankfully ended (but that whole thing is on another thread) and will once again be submitting resumes using the downsized one.

We'll see. What truly ticked me off were the programs set up for people who had no skills and people like me were then hired to straighten out the mess they created. Yes, they were only getting minimum wages, but they should have been trained, rather than just being a body to fill out statistics. Theoretically that was what the program was supposed to do for them, which, if they had been trained, could have resulted in a higher paying job for them down the line. An example of employers using the system for their own benefit, which this time back-fired on them.

[Dee]

So what avenue is left for him and people like us? OK, we keep trying until jobs open, hopefully in a few years the recession will recover and jobs will be available. What happens when they try cutting the unemployment extensions???

His extensions already ran out, so we are flying on my salary alone. Fortunately, I do make enough to pay the bills, but that leaves us only $400/mo to pay for groceries, gasoline, OTC meds and anything else that comes up. We've been eating a lot of rice and pasta lately and parking our cars on the weekend to conserve gas. I had my .16 cent Ramen noodles for lunch today - I feel like I'm back in college. My headlight went out the other day and I broke down and cried over the $28 replacement bulb - I had to borrow the money from my 11-years old's birthday money that he's been saving!

On the subject of over-qualification... Is there any particular reason you can't just leave the college fields blank, and fill in the experience ones with the most unflattering, generic, but honest description of the prior job(s) possible, when applying for shitty jobs?

I mean, if you know it's a crappy job, then why mention that you used the be the CEO of IBM? That's almost asking to get rejected.

Yep. He's been trying that. Hasn't had any success so far. I think they must look at the year he graduated from high school (since most of them ask that question) and figure he must have more experience than he's admitting to. It's like a no-win situation.

[helpme2010]

I think also the problem relates to something else. I have been an exact match for a batch of jobs, but never get a response. I have been a nearly exact match for a batch of jobs, no response. I am guessing there must be hundreds of resumes coming in to the recruiters for each job, possibly thousands. You got a very small chance of even getting in the door. This is going to take constant applying for long periods of time. I even tried connecting to someone in the company or a higher level person and these people keep telling me I can't help you, you have to apply through the career section on the website.