The job hunt horrors have started…
August 13th, 2008 by Ben Fry in Urban ExplorationsMy job searching isn’t off to a good start.
I was supposed to have my first post-college graduation interview today and it went … , well, it actually didn’t go at all. I walked out completely disappointed and angry and feeling scammed.
A few weeks ago I applied for a job with the City of St. Petersburg — I won’t say which job because I don’t want the competition — and was delighted when I got a call a couple days ago to schedule an interview with someone I thought was the City of St. Petersburg. How could I have been mistaken, you ask? See the exchange below:
Stephanie: “I’m calling about a position we have available. Are you still looking for a position?”
Ben: “Weellllll, yyyess …” I said non-commitally. (At this point she hasn’t told me where she is calling from. I get a lot of job offers to sell pest control services, cars and, ironically, insurance, and I suspected it was that type of call).
Stephanie: “You don’t sound too sure about that.”
Ben: “Well I am looking, but I just graduated from college on Saturday so I haven’t really done a big search yet. Plus, I don’t even know where you are calling from.” (Here was the point at which a person with less underhanded leanings would have given me a company name, etc. Keep reading to see where the confusion lies.)
Stephanie: “I’m calling from St. Petersburg.”
Ben: “You mean the City of St. Petersburg?”
Stephanie: “Yes
I realize that Stephanie had no way of knowing I had applied for a job with the City of St. Petersburg. She just got lucky that I was actually hoping to hear from someone who was calling from St. Petersburg — not the City, but the city — you know what I mean. So you can understand my confusion today when I couldn’t find the place she sent me to — I was, after all, looking for an office of — that’s right — St. Petersburg. After driving up and down Seminole Blvd. (within city limits according to Mapquest, but still: why would St. Petersburg have an office way out there? Not a giveaway, but certainly a red flag that was on my mind ever since Stephanie, if that is her real name, gave me the address), I finally found the place and … Damn! It belongs to United American Insurance Company (see above sentence regarding irony).
In my disbelief I actually parked and went in. A quick visual scan of the place confirmed that I definitely was not interviewing for the job I thought I was interviewing for. It was a small room with eight to 10 cubicles filed with a few young dudes in suits. One guy was asking another guy, who was obviously his superior, about a problem with a customer’s policy (there may be problems for more than just one customer, as it turns out). I caught an unpleasant-smelling breeze from what I think was most likely a revolving door.
I asked and the woman at the desk by the front door said she was Stephanie. After getting my name she said she had some paperwork for me to fill out. I asked if it is for an insurance sales job and she confirmed that, yes, it is to sell insurance.
“Then don’t bother, I’m not interested.”
She asked me if I wanted Stephanie to take my name off the list (she lacks a firm grasp on the obvious, that one). I started to say “Aren’t you Stephanie?” but then decided I just wanted to get out of there so I gave her a disgusted “Yes, please do” and walked out.
I could have said it much nicer over the phone a few days ago, had I been given the chance.
Back to the drawing board. Or the Monster job boards, anyway.
(Ben Fry just graduated from USF-St. Pete and completed an internship at Creative Loafing.)
August 14th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Aw Ben, you got suckered! Good post though to let others know about this kind of thing. But if this was me — Oh, boy if this was me — I’d have taken the job. There’s not many things more fun than TRYING to get fired from a job. And just think of all the fun you would have calling people attempting to sell them Florida Earthquake Insurance, Acts of God insurance, Van Down By the River insurance, Disgruntled Postman insurance,….
August 14th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
2 new employement sites were just added to the About.com Top 10 Employment list:
http://www.linkedin.com
http://www.realmatch.com
Try one or both of those…
August 14th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Thanks. I already have accounts with all the main online job/career sites (almost 20 in all!) and will add those two to my collection. I appreciate it.
I have been slowly searching for a few months but am doing a more aggressive search; one not restricted by a full-time class schedule.
I will check those out.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Don’t feel to bad, Ben. Going on the shady job interview is a rite of passage for the recent college graduate.
My own favorite job-hunt clusterfuck involved my answering an add for a “fun and exciting” career with an “up & coming print art company.” I called the number, and after a friendly phone interview I was asked to come in for a full-day interview to see if I was a good fit for the organization. Great, I thought. I’ve practically got the job already.
Being an extremely green job hunter, I never asked for clarification on what an “up & coming print art” company was. Turns out, they sold framed Ansel Adams and inspirational posters from the trunks of cars parked at street corners and in office parking lots.
My “interview” required I take an already-on-the-job sales associate to Orlando in my car (he gave me $8 for gas, which even in those days wasn’t half a tank) spend the day in Orlando and try to get cubicle drones to plunk down $15 for posters. I was horrified.
That was the first day I smoked cigarettes during the daytime. I blame this one interview for rapidly advancing my transition from bar smoker to full-time cigaholoic.
Don’t worry, Ben. You’ll find a job. You’ll love it. And six month’s later you’ll be suicidal and ready to start looking all over again.
August 16th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Thanks for the tips…I also went to the “fun and exciting” career with an “up & coming print art company” interview a few years back. I got to the interviewer’s office and began planning my exit strategy immediately. Then they did a pathetic demonstration of how they get pumped up (stood in a row and did some kind of motivational cheer complete with clapping and high fives, etc.). When it came time to hit the road I told them I couldn’t drive a car load because my car windows didn’t roll down and I had no A/C and I had to be somewhere in the early afternoon. Instead of following the sales guy I was assigned to I simply drove away quickly.
I have been to a few shady job interviews since then which is why the United American one really pissed me off. I have a pretty good radar for that sort of thing and if I hadn’t already been waiting for a call from the “City of St. Petersburg” as it was, I wouldn’t have been conned.