Resume Responses
Red Flags (year 2012)
After I sent nearly 325 resumes in a two year span , I received an email inviting me to interview at a local business, eight miles from my home, offering $9.00 per hour for 16 hours per week doing data entry.
I arrived five minutes early only to be told I should have called you. It slipped my mind, I’m sorry. My partner hired someone yesterday. I should have called you. You have all the skills we want. I will keep your resume. He then told me he had 35 responses to the job posting within two days.
Nine dollars an hour is enough to make you choke! Yet you tell yourself you are willing to start some where! Start all over again at age 64????
You make the follow-up calls and send emails to check on the status of jobs you applied to only to be ignored or told over 200 people have applied for a simple part-time job. In essence it has become sheer insanity to think a job is “just around the corner”.
About a week later I received a call from the retail sector. A position I haven’t held in over 30 years. I took the 45 minutes to complete the application online and take their required psychological test. A few days later I received a call from the local store manager of a well-known women’s apparel store.
I remembered the very wealthy women shopping at the original store for their wardrobe years ago. As I arrived I noticed that all of the female staff was young enough to be my children.
The line of clothing had changed drastically to appeal to their age group: Chanel suits have been swapped for skin-tight leggings with boots and peasant shirts. Red flag time!!
Immediately I felt I was wasting my time, but professionalism superseded and I took the interview. The manager who was scheduled to interview me introduced herself from behind the sales counter.
Suddenly she decided her “top lead sales person” should conduct the interview. Red flag again.
During the interview I shared the knowledge I had about the company history, corporate location and the exclusive line of “better” women’s wear once branded by this retailer.
This top sales person told me that she knew none of that, using the excuse I don’t live here. I’m from Dartmouth. I asked myself what in the world that had to do with her lack of knowledge about the company, but she was in charge of this interview, so I obviously said nothing more, and she went on to tell me that I knew more about the company than she did! Who in the world admits that?? Another red flag. I asked myself, who is this 12 year old interviewing me!!!
The interviewer apologized, stating she did not have my resume with her. I offered to go to my car to get my copy and she insisted she did not need it. Tell me about yourself she said….”dear Lord, are you kidding me” was all I could think! Five minutes into the interview she admitted I was the first applicant she has every interviewed. Red flag time! WHY ME???? She told me the manager recently returned from maternity leave and was very tired and decided to hand off the interview.
When I recited my 35 year work history and experience she said, So you don’t have any retail experience. That’s okay, it doesn’t matter. You certainly seem comfortable talking with people and dress well. Although we prefer you wear more casual clothes such as jeans”. I thought the original owner of this (once) high-end fashion store must be rolling over in her grave to hear all of this!!
The interviewer kept saying so, you must have questions. After repeating that for the third time, I simply told her that I was sure I had all the information I needed. No, they never offered me the job nor called me in for another interview.
After speaking to a lot of unemployed professionals, I am finding many are faced with very similar situations. The endless list of jobs applied to, the “position filled, thank you for applying” letter or email, the hours of networking with friends and professional acquaintances. Accepting 1/3 the salary they once earned just to have a check coming through the door.
If you have been in the professional arena for years you cannot help but wonder what in the world is going on out there? Who trains these people interviewing skills and tells them to act so ignorant during the process? I sense no one informs them that they are representatives of the company from whom they receive their pay check.
Red flags going off everywhere? Your gut telling you “wrong place for you to work”? Follow your instincts. Talk to others who are in the same situation to confirm you are not crazy and, no, this is not happening to just you…………………….
