I hate modern hiring practices of some companies

[ClimbnSink]

Meh, they are free and fun to make.

 

[N801BH]

I was denied after completing a 45 min online application and submitting my DOB, SSN, Address, Mother's Maiden Name, and promise to turn over my first born.

I don't know anyone in the stuffing bidniz either. I'll see if there any old guys at the airport that know anyone.

I'll miss my first born, but hey, we'll just count is as practice for the second.

Good plan..... Just maintain them as yours for the tax deduction...

 

[jesse]

Ask who the manager is and how to contact him. Give him a call and say you're interested in the job and would love to meet with him at whatever time would be convenient.

Research. Figure out who the decision makers are and pursue them.

 

[steingar]

Both my brother and good pal were college educated professionals in scientific disciplines. Both were chronically unemployed for years. It can happen to anyone, and is not reflective of anyone's worth.

Hell my neighbor did CAD art for 20 years and got laid off. Now he sweeps floors at a hospital. I told him he was my hero, he did what he had to do to be employed.

 

[OkieFlyer]

Both my brother and good pal were college educated professionals in scientific disciplines. Both were chronically unemployed for years. It can happen to anyone, and is not reflective of anyone's worth.

Agreed. My brother is a mechanical engineer, and has had trouble getting and keeping jobs in the past few years. He's one of the smartest, most organized, most driven, most pleasant, and hardest working fellas I've ever known, but he got into manufacturing which has been downsizing for years now. He got stuck in an unstable industry and get get out. It's apparently difficult to crossover into other industries.

I'm an oil and gas guy, and I've seen a major shift in hiring practices. Just a few years ago, you could go in and introduce yourself to the manager/supervisor, shake his hand, look him in the eye, and tell him you would like to go to work. Now you fill out an hours worth of crap online, and the computer decides whether you get to talk to a human. My prior experience made the computer happy enough to pass me along to a human, but I think companies (including my own) miss out on a lot of potentially great employees because of this. IMO, there is no substitute for looking a person in the eye and having a conversation.

 

[1600vw]

Lost a job because of what you did.

Try working your As# off and then your health takes a crap. You loose your job, all savings you have to help pay for medical treatment. Become homeless, then told you will never work again but wait, it gets better. Instead of making 80 grand a year you will get 900 bucks a month with no pay raises and have to deal with all the a-holes telling you all you want to do is live off the system and be a dead beat.

Sell the bike, and live in a box if you must. I have been there and done that in a body brace to boot.

 

[bflynn]

First - don't get down. It's ok to rant, but if you do get an interview and you show up nervous or sad, you're not doing yourself any favors.

Second - quit trying to deal with computers. Go through your network and connect with people, especially people in a similar industry. When you contact them, don't ask them for a job. Ask them if they know about jobs. You'll do far better talking to people than trying to weave your way through an arcane computer filter.

For example, the USPS job - do you know why you probably didn't qualify? Because almost every government job requires experience at the next lower level. You didn't tell the computer about your experience in a way that they thought about, so it marked you as not qualified. Is it any wonder that you'd get frustrated when you're trying to navigate through a maze built by people that don't understand the maze on their side and don't really care how you're going to see it on your side?

Double check your resume, make sure it's in a good format and uses the right industry buzzwords. Make sure it's published on places like Dice and Monster, recruiters troll those sites looking for resumes that fit their jobs. Don't bother competing with the 2000 other people applying for the jobs on those sites, but definitely put your resume out there.

If you've got advanced skills and you're senior in your industry, I'll will recommend a search site called "TheLadders", but only join if you see a job that you honestly believe you're qualified for. I'm not that thrilled with them as a business because they set me up for auto-renew without asking and then refused to refund what I never wanted to buy in the first place...but they have good jobs. Sometimes. The volume and quality of jobs they have has gone down over the years, but you can expect things starting from at least 90k and going up. These are serious companies hiring serious workers. They will expect that you are on your top game.

Last - if all else fails, cut your lifestyle, get your butt down to McD's and start mopping the floors. You'll at least have some money or be able to pay off your slavery to your lenders. Plus you get something approximating one meal a day until you can find something that works right for you.

 

[wsuffa]

I'm an oil and gas guy, and I've seen a major shift in hiring practices. Just a few years ago, you could go in and introduce yourself to the manager/supervisor, shake his hand, look him in the eye, and tell him you would like to go to work. Now you fill out an hours worth of crap online, and the computer decides whether you get to talk to a human. My prior experience made the computer happy enough to pass me along to a human, but I think companies (including my own) miss out on a lot of potentially great employees because of this. IMO, there is no substitute for looking a person in the eye and having a conversation.

Some of that is driven by the sheer volume of applications resulting from computer technologies & the recession, some of that is a direct result of EEO and reporting requirements.

First - don't get down. It's ok to rant, but if you do get an interview and you show up nervous or sad, you're not doing yourself any favors.

Second - quit trying to deal with computers. Go through your network and connect with people, especially people in a similar industry. When you contact them, don't ask them for a job. Ask them if they know about jobs. You'll do far better talking to people than trying to weave your way through an arcane computer filter.

For example, the USPS job - do you know why you probably didn't qualify? Because almost every government job requires experience at the next lower level. You didn't tell the computer about your experience in a way that they thought about, so it marked you as not qualified. Is it any wonder that you'd get frustrated when you're trying to navigate through a maze built by people that don't understand the maze on their side and don't really care how you're going to see it on your side?

Double check your resume, make sure it's in a good format and uses the right industry buzzwords. Make sure it's published on places like Dice and Monster, recruiters troll those sites looking for resumes that fit their jobs. Don't bother competing with the 2000 other people applying for the jobs on those sites, but definitely put your resume out there.

If you've got advanced skills and you're senior in your industry, I'll will recommend a search site called "TheLadders", but only join if you see a job that you honestly believe you're qualified for. I'm not that thrilled with them as a business because they set me up for auto-renew without asking and then refused to refund what I never wanted to buy in the first place...but they have good jobs. Sometimes. The volume and quality of jobs they have has gone down over the years, but you can expect things starting from at least 90k and going up. These are serious companies hiring serious workers. They will expect that you are on your top game.

Last - if all else fails, cut your lifestyle, get your butt down to McD's and start mopping the floors. You'll at least have some money or be able to pay off your slavery to your lenders. Plus you get something approximating one meal a day until you can find something that works right for you.

This.

 

[schmookeeg]

Well, as a qualified 'old guy' coming up on 60, I have to take a bit of offence at the lottery deal. At 14 I was a tire changer in a small shop in SoCal. My summers were spent changing truck tires, shocks and stuff in 100F heat. Winters were no better in the rain when people came in for new tires cause the old ones were baldino. When that job folded, I moved 'up' in the world at 16 to tire recapper. Now this was the j-o-b, I tell you. Still 100F heat, now add molten tire rubber, toxic glue, and big pnuematic machines that didn't know the difference between a tire bead and a finger. It would grind either one with the same relish. I joined the army to move UP in the world again, spent my 4.5 years in the big green machine and started college at 21. Oh yeah, I didn't mention that the GI Bill only paid a small part of my tuition and fees, so I worked nights as a recording tech to get through eng school.

Cry me a ****ing river you little ****s. Oh, and you wanna talk about crappy flying jobs? well, how about towing banners and gliders for free! Just so I could build time, zero pay and only hours in the logbook. Lets see how many letters you can get on the banner today, and tow it down the beach at 501' in 90F weather. Yeah - tell me how bad you got it, on your big Harley. I was driving a 67 Fiat 850, and then I got a 71 Pinto. Woohoo!

I got your rant, right here.

Please run for an office where I may vote for you and donate to your campaign.

 

[JimNtexas]

Absolutely agree.

One if the things I hated most about the corporate world was their obsession with testing ("screening") applicants. This sort of psychobabble nonsense meant that we were always hiring the same kind of drones.

Stop applying at mega-corps, and go apply at a business the size of mine, where my wife Mary is "HR" and I am "management". We would hire you in a heartbeat, and so will others.

I have to agree with Jay. I work in a small software company (~15 people) and my wife runs a small tax company (~10 employees).

In both places we've had good luck hiring people who don't perfectly fit into a corporate cookie cutter, but wind up being great contributors.

If you want to do cable/telephone/satellite installs I'm sure you know that subcontractors do a huge percentage of the work for the big companies.

The next time you see a TWC/ATT/Comcast truck just ask the guys on it which of their subs do good work, and then apply directly to the subcontractor. I think all Dish and Direct TV work is done by contractors.

Most of these subs are small businesses that are more likely to give you a personal look.

Good luck!