A depressing day looking for work

First topic message reminder :

My job search yesterday has left me feeling thoroughly hopeless.

It started out with an open interview time slot for 10AM with one of those Dave and Buster's type places that are going to be opening up around here. They have been advertising help wanted for bartenders, wait staff, cooks, etc..... so I called them to set up an interview. Four days later, I get a call back from some guy letting me know that I'm scheduled for the 10:00 slot. He seems impressed that I have almost 20 years experience as a bartender/server, so I figure brand new place, and it's supposed to be really large, needing an entire staff - I'm a shoe in for the job!

So I show up a little early yesterday, and there are only 5 other people besides me waiting for their interview, so now I'm feeling really good about getting hired. Among the interviewees were a youngish guy, maybe in his early twenties, two girls in their early twenties I'd say, and three women around my age. I started to talk with one of the women that was around my age and we compare our years experience - she had almost 10 years and also felt really positive about getting hired due to her experience.

We are kept waiting for almost 45 minutes before they start calling people in. They start with the young guy, he's in there for almost 10 minutes and when he comes out, he's smiling and gives the thumbs up to one of the girls that he had been talking to. Then they call in one of the younger girls, and she too is in there for almost 10 minutes. Then they call in one of the women around my age - she is in and out of there in less than 5 minutes, and when she comes out she kind of shrugs at the rest of the group with a WTF look on her face and leaves. I'm starting to feel a little apprehensive at this point. They call up the other younger girl and again, this on is in there for about 10 minutes.

By this time, more people are starting to straggle in, I'm guessing for the 11:00 slot, and most of them are younger than I. They finally call me in and I'm ready to wow them with my years of experience and such, but instead the guy starts asking me questions such as "How would you handle an unhappy guest?", which seemed normal enough, but then he asks me "How do you feel about kids?" I'm thinking huh? I know that this is supposed to be some kind of a family place place, with games for tokens and such, but it seemed like a really weird question. I don't actually have any kids myself, so I answer "I don't have any kids, but I have a lot of nieces and nephews and I like them just fine." That must have been the wrong response, because the guy tells me "OK, well we are going to be interviewing for the next several days, so we will give you call in the next couple of weeks and let you know." I interpreted that as "Don't call us, we'll call you!" and that was the end of that, in and out in about 2 minutes. When I was leaving, I gave the woman that I had been talking with the same look as the other older woman had given us and shook my head. I don't even expect a call back.

After that, I went on to one of those corporate chain places that a friend of mine had said had a help wanted/experienced bartender sign in the front window for about 2 weeks. I walk in there and let the hostess know that I am there to apply for the job. She directs me over to the bar and tells me that she will bring over an application. She brings it over to me and tells me to let me know when I've finished filling it out because the manager likes to interview applicants on the spot. So I fill out the application and give it back to her, she gives it to a young waitress to give to the manager. I wait and wait and wait. After about a half an hour, I'm thinking that they might have forgotten about me? So I approach the hostess and ask her about it, she goes to the young waitress and they talk quietly for a moment or so, and then the hostess comes back to me and tells me that the manager has stepped out for a while and won't be able to interview me today, is my phone number and address correct in case he wants to call you? Duh, I just filled the damn application out, I haven't had time to either move or change my phone number quite yet. But I'm polite and thank her, go home and go right back to bed for the rest of the day.

I look young for my age (46), or so I've been told. I'm pretty and in good physical shape for doing semi-physical work and being on my feet for hours at a time. I have a great rapport with customers and people in general. I just don't get it, is my experience worth nothing with these people? I feel like I'm being pushed out of my usual line of work for youth. Maybe I should find a line of work that isn't so age centric? It seems like the smaller taverns around here aren't hiring because business doesn't warrant any new employees, and the large chain places just want young, cute girls.

I'm usually a very upbeat and optimistic person and I'm not prone to depression, but this is getting ridiculous, so I'm venting here.

Thanks for having this place to come and vent.

I'm sure that email was sent out by one the "top notch" HR employees..lol. I had an interview last week and I think this practice will some day land me a job in 2015.
I learned in this particular interview to never do small talk with the other candidate that sits in the same waiting room as you. Even though the interviewers are talking in another room, they easedrop on everything you say.

DesperateInRI wrote:I applied for a temporary, part-time receptionist position on Friday. Love the fact the "rejection" email has misspelled words! Hey, at least they got back to me!!

FML!!

Re: RECEPTIONIST (NORTH SMITHFIELD) (ID:4D237EE0000B2190)
Inbox

Robbie@chamberlandco.com

9:04 AM (2 hours ago)

to me
Sorry the possition has been filled

Well, if I had received this e-mail with misspelled words, I would've replied back..."Dear Robbie, I hope the person you hired will be able to proof read your letters...obviously you don't know how to spell."

You don't need them for a reference, so what harm would it have been...some of these people need to be treated like we get treated

Desp,

I agree with Marilyn. Also perhaps they did you a favor. A shoddy response like that may be an indication of the shoddy way they do things there, and not the place you'd want to be anyway.

jmainframe wrote:Desp,

I agree with Marilyn. Also perhaps they did you a favor. A shoddy response like that may be an indication of the shoddy way they do things there, and not the place you'd want to be anyway.

And, Desp, you could also had "you obviously don't know how to spell, and have very little tact!"

After I had an interview with a School Principal, I never heard back. A week later, I e-mailed her again, reconfirming that I would be perfect for the job. She came back with a response that the position had been filled....and I flung back another response saying "Thank you for your response however, I would've thought that you would have informed me of your decision, rather than having to get back to you myself. Considering the professional role you play in your school, I would've thought you would've exercised some professional courtesy."

Hey, if I don't need these people as references, or future employment...those are the kind of responses they are now getting from me.

MarilynL wrote:After I had an interview with a School Principal, I never heard back. A week later, I e-mailed her again, reconfirming that I would be perfect for the job. She came back with a response that the position had been filled....and I flung back another response saying "Thank you for your response however, I would've thought that you would have informed me of your decision, rather than having to get back to you myself. Considering the professional role you play in your school, I would've thought you would've exercised some professional courtesy."

Hey, if I don't need these people as references, or future employment...those are the kind of responses they are now getting from me.

Not good.

Marilyn, it's upsetting but I encourage you not to burn any bridges down the job search path. Occasionally people like this will come back to you with another opening they would like to discuss with you.

Very seldom do employers send out messages of this kind these days. Unfortunate but true.

Now the game is do an interview, send a thank you note, and keep on trucking with more interviews with other employers and recruiters.

But sorry to hear you didn't get the job.

That job was only for a cafeteria monitor...trust me it's not a job that would've paid me to survive, but I was desperate. Because she only asked questions about working with kids, I doubt she even noticed that I did other things in my career. Additionally, I would almost bet that if there were other openings in the future, they would pick a parent of a student who wanted to work, rather than a 59 yr. old outsider. So, I would reply the same way, if it happened tomorrow. She didn't impress me, and it wasn't a great loss for me. I do pick and choose the ones I honestly reply to in this way...not everyone...and she was one that deserved it. It's high time we stand up for ourselves.

There have been many times when I have been tempted to do the same, Marilyn. However, just like we use "networking" to help us find a job, employers use it to narrow their applicant pool. I just wouldn't take the chance, you never know who knows who.

Depending on the job, employer, and situation...I would do it again. ...lolol...I doubt a cafeteria monitor is in their applicant pool, and I don't think I will ever apply for that type of job again...now that I know I would be up against parents of students in those school systems. However, I wouldn't do it for an employer that is in my experienced field, where networking is possible ..or for a company that I would love to work with someday. ..but that's just me.

Hi, my name is Kathy I work from home and love it. Working for this company is the best decision I ever made! This is legit! You can make a great income and do this anytime, around your schedule,

MODERATED!!

Kathy has a scam going on to take advantage of unemployed and low-income people. Just sign up and pretty soon you can pay $160 to upgrade.

SCAM! MODERATED!!

This is a scam!