Here’s your job, now where’s my trip?

I just finished reading an interesting article about Michael Checkoway, a somewhat innovative PR person.

Like so many others, Michael is looking for a job.  And he’s willing to pay for it.  To publicize his efforts, he has created a web site appropriately titled www.michaelcheckoway.com.

If you just so happen to have a job available offering a base salary of at least $55,000, you allegedly can win a prize ranging from all expenses paid trips to Vegas or NY; for $75,000 you can go to Mexico.  Or just opt for the $4,000 cash; $100,000 will get you TWO prizes.  The catch, of course, is that Checkoway has to still be employed after 90 days.  He seems like the type of guy who would up and leave the job on the 89th day just so he wouldn’t have to dole out the winnings.

Personally, if I were looking for a job (and I’m grateful that I’m not looking for a job), I would just be happy to take the job and the salary without dishing out any prizes.  I also wouldn’t be posting my efforts on a web site and I’d be looking for work myself, not expecting someone to contact me.  I guess this guy thinks that if he lures enough people, maybe some high-paying fancy job will just land in his lap. 

It will be interesting to see how this one pans out….

I’m all for charity

and I give several times throughout the year to various causes.

However, this past week at work a campaign started to raise funds for a very well known charity (which will remain unnamed here).  This charity seeks contributions every year and it just so happens that every single place I’ve ever worked at has been a contributor.  And I have never given a dime to this organization, simply for my own personal reasons.

So my company decides to throw in this incentive:  if 70% of your department’s employees donate, everyone gets an extra 1/2 day off.  To me, I could take it or leave it.  My commute to work is almost an hour so really, what’s a 1/2 day?  Yes, on the surface it sounds nice.  But I’m not going to contribute to a charity I don’t believe in simply to help achieve this incentive.

But to some in my department, this seems to be a life or death matter.  There have been several of my co-workers who have begun the “pressure” e-mails–requesting that anyone who is donating to let them know, so they can keep track.  First of all, it’s none of their damn business if I’m contributing to this charity or not.  Secondly, it is not mandatory that I contribute.  Thirdly, if I don’t contribute are they going to drag me out to the parking lot and shoot me? 

One co-worker who had not contributed and decided she wasn’t going to was harrassed by another co-worker until she gave in (wimp!) very unwillingly. 

“It’s just a dollar,” she told me later when I asked her why she gave if she really didn’t want to.

“That’s not the point.  If you believe in something, such as not giving to this charity, then why give a dollar just to please someone who wants an extra 1/2 day off?”

“I guess you’re right.  But maybe because of me we’ll reach our goal.”

Maybe…but at the cost of your choice? 

I’m getting ready for someone to approach me and if they do, they will get an earful.

I’ve never considered myself a leader but I’m also not a follower.  I guess you could say I’m more of a “go my own way” type of person.  A lot of people have issues with me because I do choose to do “my own thing” and not “go with the flow”.  To them I say “get your own set of balls” because I  have mine.  That’s why I stand on my own two feet, maybe alone, but at least I’m not dragging my ass behind a bunch of carbon copy individuals who think they have to do such-and-such because so-and-so said they have to.  Often without explanation. 

I’ll do something if I want to or if it’s mandatory.  I won’t do it because everyone else is.

Some tips for calling your insurance company…

Just a few little pointers from someone who works in an insurance company call center.

1.  If you have a claim and are calling to follow up on the status, please at least know your name.  If you know your claim number and/or policy number, that’s a bonus.

2.  If you file a claim at 8:00 a.m. don’t expect to have a Claim Rep call you back by 8:30; it doesn’t work that way.  As much as you may think your claim is the only one in the world, it really isn’t.  There are at least 50 people in front of you.  Deal with it.

3.  Don’t complain to me that so-and-so won’t call you back.  I look up your claim, find out who is working it and transfer you.  What happens after that is out of my hands.

4.  Don’t think just because you have reached a live voice that I’m going to automatically know EXACTLY what you are talking about.  I’m a call center rep–basically an operator with a little more skill.  I don’t know what your deductible is or how much you get for rental.  Yes, I can look the info up; however, I’m not allowed to give you that information.  I can’t even tell you your policy number.

5.  If you call and ask to speak to “John”, please have “John”’s last name.  This is a HUGE insurance company and there are a LOT of “John”s that work here!  If you don’t have his last name, be prepared to give me your name, claim number or policy number.

6.  Don’t get all pissed off at me if I can’t find your claim; you probably gave me a wrong number

7.  Don’t get pissed off at me if you give me a policy number and I tell you “that’s not one of our policy numbers”.  Our policy numbers don’t have ten digits and a letter at the end.

8.  Although I’m sure the tree that fell into your garage has caused a big nuisance for you, don’t expect anyone to come out INSTANTLY and assess your damage.  It really does NOT work that way.

9.  Don’t expect your policy to have “towing” as one of the options.  If you break down because your car is an old piece of shit, why do you think it’s your insurance company’s responsibility to tow your car somewhere to be repaired?  We’ll only tow you if you get into an accident; and it’s not part of your policy.  You have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed.  My suggestion:  Get AAA

10.  If you call us to file a petty claim for that precious $1,500 diamond ring you lost during your vacation to Bora Bora, try to remember the millions of individuals who still suffer in Myanmar.  What they would do for a simple diamond ring…

Another mess up from Monster.com

Looking through Monster.com today I spotted an interesting advertisement for an Administrative Assistant.  In going to read it, I couldn’t get past the name and location of the job.  When I got to the description part, it said this:

Job Responsibilities:

 

·         Greet visitors and manage sign in procedures
 

·         Answer operator telephone calls from the auto attendant
 

·         Manage shipping/receiving of packages and office documents
 

·         Manage incoming and outgoing mail
 

·         Maintain office equipment, office supplies and refreshments as needed
 

·         Maintain clean and orderly office décor
 

·         Coordinate meetings:  schedule rooms, send out invitations and coordinate calendars, order food, arrange conference call numbers/live meeting service, create agendas, etc.
 

·         Type, format, coordinate printing and/or distribution of office documents
 

·         Make travel arrangements
 

·         Additional responsibilities as assigned
 

 

Job Requirements:

 

·         Associate’s degree or equivalent business experience required
 

·         Two or more years business office experience with similar responsibilities required
 

·         Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat
 

·         Professional, positive and cooperative manner; team player
 

·         Excellent verbal and written communication skills
 

·         Ability to work proactively and independently
 

 

Reports to the Office Manager

It’s Greek to me!

Temporary staffing company and interview updates

I’ve had two recent fiasco meetings with some more temporary staffing agencies.  I’ve figured out how these companies make their money.  They get commissioned on the number of bodies they get in the door to sign up for their alleged services.  It doesn’t matter how many they actually help find work for.  That’s the only way I can see how any of these companies stay in business.

I had high hopes for KNF&T.  When I met with them they seemed very professional and took the time to ask me what I was looking for now and where I wanted to see myself in the future.  Then, Connie, the woman I met with, told me how once a week she gets jobs in from Human Resources at UMASS.  I told her I’ve already applied there several times.  She told me that their Human Resources department is like a “black hole”.  But I asked her to keep me in mind if a job position that fit my criteria opened up there.

Connie then went on to tell me about a “great opportunity” at a company in Marlborough.  Some hardware manufacturing place.  For a purchase order clerk, or along those lines.  Sounded fine to me, although I have no actual experience in doing that sort of thing, but was willing to give it a shot.  She called me the next day to tell me I had an interview with them.

I went and met with Steve, the supervisor at the hardware manufacturing place.  The best way to describe him is to think of a wet noodle.  Needless to say, the interview lasted a mere ten minutes and I knew it wasn’t going to happen.  On top of that, KNF&T was paying shit for this job and upon complete hire with them (this was a temp-to-perm position), it wasn’t going to be much more than what KNF&T was offering.

When I went to follow up with Connie the following day, she had gone from being the nice individual who had listened to me the previous day to a cold-hearted bitch who basically said, “he could sense your disinterest in the job”.  My disinterest?  He really didn’t tell me much about the job; he had spent most of the time talking about himself and how he had worked his way up through the ranks to Supervisor.  I had to ask him about the position and what it entailed.  But my “disinterest” was for the best.  I can tell you that if I had gotten that position, it wouldn’t have been for very long. 

My next temporary office experience was with Execustaff in Worcester.  What a waste of time that was!  I drove 20 miles into the city just to be told by Brenda, the contact, that they mainly make placements in the medical field.  Since I didn’t have medical field experience, I would probably have to get something in an entry level position and that I would need to e-mail her on a weekly basis for job opportunities.  Sorry, I’m not going to waste my time, Brenda.

On Friday I went for an interview at “ANTON”, which is where my husband works.  I should’ve known it wasn’t going to go over well when Joan, the Supervisor who would be interviewing me, called me up to request the interview and said, “It only pays $30,000, no more than that, just so you’ll know”.  Uh, who says that to you on the phone?

Then when I met with Joan, we weren’t even in the elevator and she asks me, “Why do you want to work at Anton?”  It wasn’t asked like you would ask in an interview such as “So, tell me why you’d like to work here”.  It was asked in an accusatory tone, such as “how dare you try to get a job here”. 

“Well, I’m looking for something different,” I told Joan.

“You’ve been in insurance for so long, though,” she replied.

“Yes, but I’m kind of sick of it,” I explained.

Then came the math test.  She plopped me down at an empty desk right out on the floor with all the other employees instead of having me take the tests in a secluded office or conference room.  I had to listen to one woman on the phone making her party plans for that night and another guy on the other side of the wall complaining to a co-worker about how he always has to clean up after this other co-worker and how he was “always the one getting in trouble”. 

Needless to say, I didn’t have an easy time completing the tests with all the distractions.  Then all Joan did in our interview was talk about herself, the account lines her department worked and kept asking if I had any questions.  I couldn’t wait to get out of there!

On a brighter note, I received three promising calls yesterday:  One for an interview for this Thursday and two other job prospects.

For job seekers: watch out for errors on Monster.com

Just a heads-up for any job seekers out there.  Something I ran into with three jobs I was interested in applying for.  These are mainly jobs listed through WorcesterWorks.com in Worcester, MA.

On at least three of the jobs, and I’m sure there are more, there were errors in the e-mail addresses.  In all three, the word “and” was placed in error.  For instance, one was listed as hrand@xxxx.com.  So I looked up the company on Google and discovered that the e-mail address listed on Monster.com is incorrect.  And for this particular job, that was the only means of communication they gave; there wasn’t a fax number or address given.  So hopefully this employer won’t be surprised when they don’t receive any replies to their job advertisement!  However, I sent them my resume at the CORRECT e-mail address listed on their web site.

Just food for thought–humans do make errors, even when they should be extremely careful in the job they are doing, such as posting job ads on Monster.  A bit of advice would be to try to search for the company and clarify the e-mail address and fax number before trying to contact them.

Jamsbio

There’s a great new site out there that allows you to post about your music memories and get paid to do it.  It’s called Jamsbio and they can be found at www.jamsbio.com

They are in beta mode right now.  When you join, you are instructed to write ten posts.  Upon completion of that, you get $50.00 (I’m a witness to this–I’ve done it and I got my cash about a week ago!).  After that, they pay you $3.00 for every post.

It’s quite an enjoyable site and I foresee much more for it in the future.

Update on Complete Staffing

Here is an update, or maybe more an addendum, to my posting about jobs the other day.  This is regarding the temporary staffing agency called Complete Staffing out of Southborough, MA and the representative I dealt with there named Anthony Martin.  If you are an individual seeking temp or temp-to-hire work, Complete Staffing is NOT the place to consider applying with.

Here is what happened to me:

Last Thursday I went to Complete Staffing and met with Anthony, whom according to his business card is nothing but an Account Executive.  We discussed a job opportunity, which I had seen posted on Monster.com.  This was the reason why I was there in the first place, as I was interested in this job opportunity.  Anthony told me he would forward my resume to this company, told me mainly what it entailed, it all sounded good to me, the pay was right, temp-to-hire, he even told me it would be a good way for me to get my “foot in the door”.  He said that they may want to interview me and that he would get back to me later that afternoon or the following day “first thing”.  I told him that although it was going to snow the following day (Friday), I would be willing to meet with them for an interview if they wanted.  I told him I was an “adventurer”.  Believe me, snow does not bother me.  I live in New England.

Thursday afternoon came.  Nothing.  Friday morning “first thing”–nothing.  I called at 10:00 a.m.  A male answered, mumbling something that didn’t sound anything like “Complete Staffing”.  I asked to speak with Anthony.  He told me he was on the road and would be back in about an hour.  Could he take a message?  Sure.  I left my name and number and reason why I was calling.  Never heard back from him.

Monday.  Called again.  Same voice.  Same thing.  Left a message.  It dawned on me that this guy may be Anthony himself.  Why wasn’t the female receptionist, whom I met that first day, answering the phone when I called?  Never got a call back.

Tuesday afternoon I called.  A male answered.  Anthony was in an interview, would you like to leave a message?  No offer of voice mail, which I thought was interesting.  I left another message.  No call back.  Still wondering what the status was on this job.

Wednesday I called twice.  In the morning, I got the same guy again.  Can I take a message?  I left yet another message.  I called in the afternoon and a female answered.  Would you like his voice mail?  I told her that I had been trying to reach him all week, he was not returning my calls, but yes, forward me to his voice mail.  I got some general voice mail box, no name indicating whose box it was, and left a message.  No return call.

Finally this morning I decided I would call and ask for a Manager.  Again the SAME guy answered, again mumbling the name of the business. 

“Can I speak with a manager?”

“This is.  My name is Anthony.”

Oh really?  A Manager?  I thought you were an Account Executive.  “Oh, hi, Anthony,” I said, knowing full well it was him all along I had been speaking with.  The same one who kept telling me Anthony was “on the road” or “in an interview”.  “I’ve been trying to reach you for days.  You never returned my calls.”

“Yeah, well, uh, I’ve been out of the office for a few days,” he said.

“Really?  Every time I called I was told you were in an interview,” I replied.

“Well, I’ve been in and out,” he hemmed and hawed.

“Uh-huh.  Right.  Do you know anything about that job?”

“Well, I’m still waiting to hear back from them.  I sent them your resume.  They may not be interested in you.”

“It would’ve been nice if you had called to tell me that,” I told him.  “I don’t like it when I call someone and they don’t return my calls.  It seems very unprofessional.”

He didn’t know what to say to that.

“Well, if I hear anything, I will call you,” he assured me.

“Right, Anthony.  Have a nice day.”  And I hung up on him.

You know, I do need a job.  I want a job.  But I don’t want to be ”dicked” around by some jerk in a ”staffing” agency who thinks they can pull the wool over my eyes simply because they don’t know what they’re doing.  I’ll bet Complete Staffing is hanging on a thread themselves.  They probably can’t make payroll every two weeks.  They hardly ever have any jobs listed on the job boards.  How do they stay in business?

So take my advice, if you are seeking to work for a temp agency, don’t select Complete Staffing.  You’ll be wasting your time.

Helpful info when job searching

In my search for jobs over the past many years, I have come to learn many things about what to look for and what not to bother with.  I will mention names in this post and I don’t really care because people need to be warned about scam places and places that don’t help you a lick in finding a job.

First up, I will mention a former place I worked for:  Liberty Mutual.  I think the only good thing about this insurance company were some of the people that worked there.  Then again, some of the people that worked there were jerks too.  Liberty is a great place to work if you don’t mind working in an unethical setting.  The fact that they are probably the only employer left on the face of the Earth that does not screen for drug use (probably because they are too cheap), leaves the door open to many illegal drug users.  In fact, two druggies were caught on the premises with cocaine; instead of canning their asses as it says to do in the handbook, these two were slapped on the wrists and sent to rehab for 28 days.  Then they came back and continued their same old shit.  Finally, they got canned and just in time for one of their boyfriends to be hauled off to jail for drug possession.  This isn’t to mention the crazy lunatic I used to work directly with who was so stoned every day she didn’t even remember my name or the one co-worker who came stumbling out of the ladies’ room reaking of booze.  I should’ve known better to take a job with a place that doesn’t offer drug testing.  That’s part of the reason why I left.  Who wants to get caught in a drug raid?

Looking for an at-home job?  One place to stay away from is HEA Employment.

I joined this site in October 2007 and like everyone else, I have applied, applied, applied. I have over 17 years of transcription experience, word processing experience, can type 70 wpm, have worked as an administrative assistant (and have AA certification as well) yet I have not received a reply to anything I have applied for. Oh, I take that back. I did get an e-mail from some woman in real estate, who indicated she had rec’d my application via HEA. She asked I call an 800 number regarding her job offer. So I did and got a big long recording which ended in her requesting if I was interested, I would need to submit $50.00 to her for database information. Sorry, but I’ve already paid money to use this site, I’m not going to pay her on top of it–for what I don’t know.

I’ve found a few things fishy about this site since I’ve started. First of all, it seems that not all the jobs are at-home jobs. When the listing says “you will need to work in our office”, to me that does not indicate an at-home position. When I questioned HEA about it, I was told that all the jobs should be at-home and if I ran across any that indicated they weren’t to let them know. Well, there were quite a few. Also, as another poster mentioned, there were a few jobs I e-mailed directly and they had no knowledge of having a job listing on HEA. I found this interesting.

Secondly, when searching for admin/clerical jobs lately I’ve noticed nothing new has been added, as Tigerfish is still listed as first and I applied to them way back in November. Why is it once you apply for a job you cannot apply again? Some companies only keep your info on file for so long. That doesn’t make any sense either.

Thirdly, this company may have a satisfactory record listed with the BBB, however, within the past 36 months there has been a complaint and even if it is only ONE complaint, it is still a complaint. And I can see why.

Another question I have is that if you are to apply for a position via HEA, using the link “apply for this job” but the job also lists a link for their web site and actual application page, why should I apply via HEA when I can apply right on that company’s site? How do I even know once I click on “apply for this job” through HEA that HEA is forwarding my resume on to the company? I never receive a reply that the company received my resume. All I get is a confirmation from HEA saying they forwarded my resume. How do I have proof that they did? Especially when I don’t hear a word from anyone.

As for those who have posted regarding their “job success”, it would be helpful if you indicated what you did differently than those of us who have not achieved such success. One gentleman indicated that he “followed all the directions”. Well, I’d like to know what directions you received that were different than what the rest of us received. You can only follow directions you are given. If you aren’t given any, then there’s nothing to follow, is there?

I think HEA just proves another point in the old adage “you should not pay for a job”. After all, we all did pay money to HEA in order to find employment. Since it seems that the majority of the people on here have not found anything, even after years of searching, then I’d say it’s safe to say that HEA fits into the category of “job scam”. Remember that in poor customer service, one dissatisfied customer tells at least 8-10 people of their negative experience. And then they tell 8-10 people also.

Next up, let’s talk about those temporary job agencies.  I am registered with six of them and not ONE of them has found me a job.  When I first go to meet with a recruiter they get me all excited thinking I’m going to be able to get at least a temp job for a while, until something permanent comes along.  Right.

OfficeTeam is one that comes to mind.  A day after I first went there, I got a call from the Rep at OT.

“We have a client who really, really needs someone right away.  Can you go in for an interview today?”.  It was Friday.

Well, no I couldn’t.  It was 11 o’clock in the morning and I had my day planned already.  If they were that desperate and they really wanted me, they could talk to me on Monday.

“Fine.  You can meet with them Monday at 10.”

Great.  Except apparently she never told this company I was coming because they sure were suprised to see me!

“OT never told us you were coming,” the man I spoke with told me.

“Oh, that’s interesting.”

This guy didn’t seem to be in any big rush to fill this position, which was paying a lousy $11.50/hr through OT.  In fact, at the end of the conversation he indicated that he had a few other candidates to speak with.  Huh?  A few other candidates?  What happened to “someone they need right now”?

When I called OT to follow up, my representative just brushed it off, as if she knew it was going to happen.  I haven’t heard anything since.  Also, any calls I have made to OT for job searches have gone unanswered.

Placement Employment is a place I found via the unemployment office.  After going there, speaking with a representative, being given a plethora of tests, passing the tests, being told that there was a possible job coming up at the start of February, I have yet to hear from them.  In fact, two weeks ago I called to get “Well, he’s been out of the office sick.  You can leave a voice mail.”

I haven’t got a call back yet.  Maybe he’s dead.

Complete Staffing is the latest bunch of temp agency morons I have dealt with.  Last week I had an appointment with a recruiter who talked up this temp-to-hire job to me.  I even told him I would be willing to drive out for an interview with the place that Friday in a snow storm. 

“I’ll call you about it either by the end of today (Thurs) or first thing tomorrow morning,” the recruiter said.

Well, I didn’t wait for him because I knew he wouldn’t call.  I waited until 10:00 a.m. Friday and when I didn’t hear from him, I called there.

“Oh, he’s on the road right now,” the person who answered the phone told me.

I left a message.  As of today (Tuesday) he has yet to call me back.  And I called again today and left another message.

As for the other three, Suburban Staffing was allegedly having an “open house” last Thursday.  I dropped off my resume and met with a recruiter for about five minutes.  For a temp agency having an “open house”, they didn’t seem too busy.  And in speaking with them today, they don’t have any jobs available right now either.  Open house?  How do these places stay in business?

Snelling is just a place I went to on a whim.  I’m not expecting the world from them.

And Thursday I have another appt. with KNFT so I’ll see what they have up their temporary sleeves.

As for unemployment, other than dishing out benefits, they aren’t too helpful in many other departments, unless you have virtually no skills and need to start from square one.  They have their listing of jobs, which is really just a link which sends you to a temp agency such as Placement Employment.

I had to laugh the day I went and saw on their calendar they were hosting a recruiting event with Carroll Enterprises.  I told the recruiter at unemployment that I just had an interview with them and the Human Resources individual was about as friendly as a wet mop.  She wouldn’t even shake my hand.

When searching for a job on the internet, one thing I have found helpful is to forget about going to Monster.com.  Go to indeed.com instead.  It lists all the jobs, newest to oldest, from all the web sites:  Monster, Careerbuilder, etc.  So you don’t have to keep going from site to site searching.

Watch out for those work at home jobs that ask you for money.  Remember, jobs are to pay YOU; it’s not the other way around.

One web site I have found helpful in searching for at-home work is homejobstop.com  At least it’s free to join.