50+ thread

It’s like mints!!

 

Breathe mints

 

I think I'm in one of Weesa's desk flipping moods this morning.

Two weeks ago, I had an interview for a job. The usual process is, you have an initial interview with the HR person assigned to the position you applied for. They give you info about the company, various employee benefits, salary, and a rough description about the specific role, does it require occasional overtime/weekend work, etc.. So, I get the email from the HR person from this company, wanting to schedule that initial interview. We agree on a date/time. I login to the Zoom meeting, and we talk for about 30 minutes. The person asked me a lot of job specific, technical questions, which was a bit unusual, but hey, maybe that's how this company operates.... So, he allows me to ask any questions I may have. Then just as we are about to conclude, he says "So, when will you be moving to Boston?" Me: ....... uhhhhh, wut?? The job posting says "Remote anywhere in USA". I'm looking at it right now. Interviewer: "Oh, didn't the HR person tell you? The company used to allow remote work, but has recently canceled that policy, and now all employees must work from a company office." Me: .... Um, you're not HR?? The HR person that set up this interview said it was with himself. You are the first interview I have had with anyone at the company so far. Interviewer: "Hm, that is unusual. No, I am the hiring Manager for the pposition you applied for. And yes, normally you would interview with HR first. I will talk to them about this mistake."

Today, at 11:00 EST, I just had another initial phone interview with an HR person from a different company. Me: Good Morning. You are with the HR group, yes? I just want to make sure I have the right understanding of whom I'm speaking with. Interviewer: "Yes, I'm ...... with the HR Talent Acquisition team at XYZ company. <he talks about the company, the position, confirms that yes, this is a remote position> So, I see in your application, you requested an annual salary of $X, is that correct?" Me: Yes, that was my last annual salary, so I am looking to stay in the same ballpark. Interviewer: "That's understandable. Well, this position only pays 1/2 of what you requested. See, this is not a technical role." Me: ... Ok, I didn't know, because the job posting doesn't mention the salary at all, otherwise I would not have applied. Interviewer: "Oh, really? We are supposed to have the salary range included in each job description, that is company policy. I will make sure that gets corrected, thank you for letting me know."

/RANT
This kind of shit has been going on since the very first time I got laid off, back in 2010. You apply for a job, then during the interview process, you find out the actual job is NOTHING like the job posting. WHO THE FUCK IS WRITING UP THESE JOB DESCRIPTIONS??????? AND WHO THE HELL IS SANITY CHECKING THEM????????

Not to ramble on,, but I'll mention 3 scenarios that easily come to mind.

2011: I was living in northern California (Placerville), about 140 miles east of Silly Putty (Silicon) Valley. I got scheduled for an interview with Cisco, down in San Jose (Silly Putty Valley). I drive down, interview first with the hiring Manager. About 20 minutes in, he starts asking me various questions about things not related to the job. I answer that I do not have that experience, and that wasn't in the job posting, or I would not have applied. He looks at me, says "hm, it should have been there, that is what this job is about. I'll check with the HR people that wrote the job posting".

2011: I got an interview with Godaddy.com, they flew me to Phoenix, put me up in a hotel, got me a rental car. I first interviewed with a very senior Manager. Then the hiring Manager. Then other technical team members that would be my potential peers. One of their questions was "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?". A very legit question. I thought about it for a moment, and said "I'd hope to be at the 'Architect' level <in this particular area of I.T. work> by that time." They all stared at me... "Uh, that's what this position is, for the Architect of the department." Yeah.... that was in no way mentioned in the job posting.

2016: (my 3rd bout of unemployment) I was living on Long Island, NY. I got an interview with Amazon.com. I did an initial phone interview with the hiring manager before they decided if they wanted me to come out to Seattle for the full interview experience. I impressed the hiring manager, he said he was excited to have me come out to continue the interview process. So Amazon flew me from New York City to Seattle, hotel for 3 nights, rental car, even reimbursed me for my meals! I interviewed with a panel of technical folks who would be my peers if I got hired. Midway through the interview, they started asking all sorts of questions about web services, web server management, web development..... absolutely none of which I have ever done, and again, none of which was part of the posted job description. They paused the interview to call the hiring manager into the room to sort this all out. Now remember, I had already interviewed with the hiring manager for an hour, before they decided to bring me out to Seattle. Everything he and I discussed *was* part of the job posting. So the hiring manager comes into the room, one of the other people explains the confusion to him, and he responds "Oh, yes, we're hiring a web developer / AWS expert <AWS == Amazon Web Services, their "cloud storage" service>." Me ..... <in my head> then WHY THE FUCK DID DID YOU NOT TELL ME THAT BEFORE YOU WASTED ALL THE MONEY TO FLY ME OUT HERE???????

These are by no means the only such WTF??? experiences I have had over the last 14 years of interviewing, but they are some of the more extreme.

/END OF RANT

Sorry, just reached my limit for stoopid, useless nonsense after the interview this morning, and needed to let off some steam.

 

What a waste of time. They don't seem to have thier shit together

 

Tom I'm hoping that you'll find a job very soon

 

Half the companies I apply to seem to be so disorganized......

The last company I worked for was a total fuster cluck. Seriously, I still wonder how they are still in business the way they operate with a "redundancy? backups? disaster recovery?? we don't need none that shit!" mentality. In my role as the manager of the Major Incident team, I encountered sooooo many situations that made me just

 

Thank you, me/my wife, too! Things are getting to the point of "no return". I have already spoken with our mortgage company, as as long as we do no go beyond 6 months delinquent, they will work with us to make up those payments (if I find a job during that period), but if it goes longer than 6 months......... As of today, we have not missed any payments, but we have maybe one more payment in saved money, so I need to find a new job this month.

Worst case scenario, if we do lose this place, we can move in with my in-laws who live 15 miles away. The bad news is that since we have negative equity in this place, and it is a rather expensive place by local standards, I do not think there is much likelihood it would sell before the bank foreclosed, and that would mean I would lose my VA home loan eligibility for life. And therefore, we would not likely be able to ever buy another place, since we would have no money to put as a down payment.

I lost my first house to foreclosure, when I was unemployed, and couldn't sell it because the bank refused every short sale offer I received. Fortunately, the lender that refused the short sales was a HELOC loan, not the purchase lender, who the VA loan was with, so that lender received their full payoff when the house went to auction, and hence, I kept my VA eligibility.

I know we'll survive whatever comes along, but I am just so tired of going through this shit again and again........ this is round 4 of unemployment.

 

Bless you

One day, I really wanna try my hand at these emoji's and see what I can come up with. Maybe something like taking a sledge hammer, or chainsaw to a computer

 

The weather here in the middle Tennessee region is not looking good over the next few days

A marginal risk Severe weather has been just been issued for my area for this afternoon and this evening

 

I swear in recent years it seems as if nobody has their shit together. Customer service in person, online, over the phone, product quality, selection, price, return policies, ability to even find products and selection, store and customer hours and availability, all down hill. I told my grandson who is 15, we had more options and choices, certainly better customer service - and in some case better quality - 10 years ago than we have today.

 

So sorry Tom. Hope you find something soon.

 

happy Monday all

 

Last year we needed service on the propane fireplace we have in our house. The store we had always dealt with was under new ownership for about 2 years at that time I later found out. They sent an inexperienced tech who couldn't even find the shut off valve. Having had a ventless fireplace for 20 some years I showed it to him then suggested it might be the thermocoupler, to which this young guy, said "maybe." I asked if he could switch the out the old one with a new one so we could check but he told me he hadn't brought any to the scheduled service call. I couldn't believe this as this is often what is wrong with these fireplaces. So we had to have another service call arranged. The clueless tech he left and I called the store to have somebody come out again to exchange the thermocoupler. I told the owner I did not want that guy. She told me he was in training and he would do better next time. I told her he can train on somebody else. So she offered to send out her team who put in new fireplaces. they came, tried the thermocoupler and it did not work, so they suggested we needed a new fireplace. Ok. I asked about the service charge for their visit and they said if they put the new one in they would roll the service charge for this visit into that cost. They left the brand new thermocoupler in my supposedly dead fireplace and left. My wife and I went to the store chose a new fireplace and arranged a date for installation. Granted, this was in March of last year when it can still be cold and the fireplace was our main source of heat so I was anxious to get it in. The day before the scheduled installation the owner called to say her team had to go on another call. This was right before Easter, so she told me they wouldn't be able to come out for another 3 weeks or so, mid April. I said that won't work. She offered to send the rookie back out, the one who couldn't find his way around the old fireplace, to install it. I laughed in her face and said no thanks. Then I told her, "we will just come pick it up. My step son can do it. I just didn't want to bother him." she said ok. We picked it up and brought it home. When we checked the invoice there was no charge listed for the service calls or for the thermocoupler her crew left in my old one, not that I wanted the thermocoupler. I just wanted my old back that they had took. I'm typically an honest guy, but I thought, this company has crapped on me. I'm not calling them to inform them they undercharged me It's not my business to keep track of their business. So now I have new fireplace and a new themocoupler. My guess is the company isn't long for staying in business. When a small company can't even keep track of inventory and charges, that's bad.

 

Afternoon all.

Started another round of treatments at Yale New Haven. We’ll see how it goes.

 

Afternoon everyone, 3 things on my to do list today ,#1 make an unhealthy breakfast, #2 mow the grounds on the family estate,#3 take nap. Right after lunch #3

 

Frustrating to say the least.

 

best wishes.