Being out of work for over 7 months, it’s painfully obviously how difficult it is to find a job in the current economic mess this country finds itself in. I’m not saying it should be easy to find a good job, but you would hope that companies could at least make it a little easier to apply for a job.
While searching the want ads, I come across a job as a delivery driver, no CDL required, no experience necessary, yada, yada, yada. The ‘job fair‘ would be today, no times listed, no phone number to contact someone about a definite time, just a company name and address. Every job fair I’ve come across, runs from 9am-5pm or 8am-4pm, or something similar.
I get myself all spiffy and head to the address, arriving at 10:45am, only to find the times listed on the front door are from 1p-5p. I wasn’t pleased with having drove all that way just to have to find a way to kill almost 2 1/2 hours, but managed to do so. Returning at 1:15p, I walk inside, and am given an application. Simple as can be, I complete it in about 5 minutes. Giving it to the receptionist, she hands it back, opens the door and escorts me to an area further back in the office, and asks that I walk to the end of the line and wait. I walk past about 50-75 people, waiting ahead of me. No big surprise there, I kind of expected it. What I didn’t expect was to be waiting in line for almost two hours, as they had all of two people meeting with the applicants. Again, I dealt with that, as well.
When I finally reach the end of the line, I realize that they are meeting applicants in the lunchroom. Now, this is a company of decent size, so that was a bit surprising as I was expecting a conference room of some sort. I sit with the recruiter/HR rep/whatever and we talk for about 5 minutes, I’m praised for having been at my previous job for 9 years and then I’m told “Thank you very much for coming, we will hold on to your application until a later time as right now, we are looking for people with more experience“.
More experience!?! What the hell is wrong with these people! I effectively waste an entire day when I could have been out, putting in applications and resumes to companies I may have actually stood a chance with, but NO. Instead of saying what you really wanted, in the ad, I get to stare at the back of some dudes head for almost 2 hours then walk in to be told that crap. My god, I’m not asking for a job to fall into my lap, just for a chance!
Not to mention, when somebody mentions ‘job fair’ I envision multiple companies filling positions, or at the very least multiple positions at a company, to be considered for. This was an over glorified, weed out session, where they waste every bodies time and if by some miracle they like you, they schedule you to come back and meet with some other schmuck. This ranks as probably the worst time I’ve had, so far, in looking for a job.
When I get screwed, I expect someone to buy me dinner first.
