Tales from the Staffing Side
A few quick tales about my workplace, since I know you all enjoy stupid customer stories (some events dramatized for comic effect):
Client: “I want a senior ColdFusion Developer, but I only want to pay $40/hour. What? I can’t hear you… STOP LAUGHING!!!”
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Me: “Okay, sounds great… what I’ll need you to do is send your resume in to our recruiter, and his email address is-”
Potential Temp: “Well, can I talk to him?”
Me: “He’s on the phone, but send him your resume and he’ll follow up right away.”
PT: “But why would I send him my resume without talking to him first?”
Me: because I just told you to. “Because that’s our process for new applications.”
PT: “But I don’t want to just send my resume out.”
Then I guess you don’t want a job that badly, do you?
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PT: “I’m calling about the data entry posting I saw on the Internet.”
Me: “Um, that posting wasn’t made by our office. Do you-”
PT: “But I saw it! On the Internet! It said you had a data entry job!”
Me: because if you see it on the Internet, it has to be true. “Sir, our office doesn’t place for data entry positions, but I can give you the number-”
PT: “But this number was given to my by a FRIEND!”
Me: “I understand that sir, but if you are looking for a data entry job, I can’t help you. As I said, our office does not have data entry jobs. Our office down the street does that, and I can give you the correct number.”
PT: “Is it still the same company?”
What part of “our office” don’t you understand?
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Some advice when looking for a job:
- The answer to “What kind of work do you do?” is NOT “Anything, really…”
- “You got any jobs?” is not an effective question when you are looking for work in a professional environment.
- A secret: if someone who can get you a job asks you to follow a particular application process, do not argue with them or tell them all the reasons you don’t want to do it. If you can’t follow directions, you aren’t going to get a job.
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One more:
“Performed systems administration by maintaining a customer database” is not a bullet point that’s going to get you a job as a systems administrator. It just makes you look like you’re trying to make something out of nothing.