Fidelity Investments
I worked as a contractor at Fidelity from 2008 to 2012. I had naively expected the job to go permanent at some point, but I've learned that just doesn't happen in America anymore. In January 2015, having given up on the American job market, I had received an offer to teach English in South Korea and was about to sign the contract when a CIO from Fidelity contacted me. He said he remembered what great work I did during that earlier stint and he wanted to hire me for the new team he’s putting together. I said okay, great, count me in. I declined the teaching gig in Korea, and started working there in February on a six-month contract with the promise that it would go permanent. Unfortunately, that CIO left the firm abruptly two months later. As soon as I learned I was going to be unemployed again come August, I began applying for internal positions. I pointed out to the incompetent HR department that I turned a job down (the gig in Korea) in order to accept this one, I would NEVER have done that had I known I'd be facing unemployment again, and “what the hell are you going to do to right this wrong?” Absolutely nothing, "Go back to your desk, visit our job page, and start applying online." So, I applied to five design jobs for which I was 100% qualified, and was automatically rejected for all of them. One rejection email said I was not eligible because I had not yet worked there for one year. This rule only applies to permanent workers, contractors only need to work there for six months. In other words, their ATS screwed up. I complained to the idiots in HR who, out of embarrassment, scampered for the rest of the day to schedule me for an interview for that job, which they did.
The interview was over the telephone with two women in the Asset Management division, one was the hiring manager and the other was an HR rep. Never have I experienced two people more disinterested in talking to me. It began with the HR rep pointing out the most important thing is for me to explain the one-year gap on my resume, "We definitely want to hear more about that!" Really? I should have ended the call right there.
Let me break here and say something about an “unemployment gap” on a resume. If there’s a “gap” on my resume, it means I did something that is of no relevance to my career or to the job for which I am applying. And what I did during that gap is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. I really would like to know where people come off thinking they can be this intrusive into our lives in this age. If I chose to take a year off for whatever reason, be it to climb Mt. Everest or to take care of a sick parent or learn how to play chess, that’s MY business and NOT YOURS. I do not exist on this planet exclusively to fulfill a line item work history entry on a corporate applicant tracking system. Deal with it. To steal a quote from another discussion group, If your name does not appear on my birth certificate, marriage certificate, or in my will AND you don’t pay my salary then I don’t have a responsibility to "account" to you for anything. I have two things to do in this life: Live my life, and die. Everything else is an opt-in and if you’re seriously more concerned with hearing explanations about six months that weren’t job-related than 20 years that were, then you can go fuck yourself right off a cliff.
After explaining my gap (I had to have some surgery -- I was tempted to ask her if she’d like to know that the surgery was to have uterine fibroids removed, if she’ like to know that the sizes of the fibroids were 8cm and 5cm, and whether she’d like to see pictures of the surgery), the hiring managed heckled me about my education. I had taken courses in design at Northeastern fifteen years earlier, and this was the first time in fifteen years that my education came up in an interview! Next, the hiring manager sternly explained to me that this job requires all artwork to be created exclusively in InDesign – Photoshop and Illustrator are strictly forbidden (!!!) and she asked me if I would be “comfortable with this.” I have never heard of anything so ludicrous. The job description demanded the candidate be completely up to date on every design package, yet this person clearly hasn’t updated their own skill set in over a decade, meaning the job applicant must “dumb themselves down” to work with her. I did my best to say, “Yeah, sure, fine,” but this was a serious turnoff. Again, I should have realized this whole thing was rotten and ended the call.
Moving on to reviewing my portfolio, I was ready with a ton of samples of the work I had previously created at Fidelity (I was sharing my screen with them). Because I had quite a few pieces and we were only scheduled to talk for 45 minutes (another red flag, this interview wasn’t even worthy of a whole hour of their time?) I asked were there any specific pieces they wanted me to talk about first, i.e., anything they particularly liked, anything we can skip…? The hiring manager did what she did thru the majority of the call which was to say absolutely nothing, and the HR rep said she HADN'T EVEN LOOKED at my portfolio. I said, oh, I thought I sent you the link with the login info (I keep it protected under a password), and she said, "Yeah, but I couldn't be bothered.” Whoa. I really should have hung up the phone here.
I proceeded to talk thru every piece whilst neither of them said one word, save for one detailed 3D graphic I created using Cinema 4D, about which the hiring manager pointed out there’s no way I could expect to be given Cinema 4D so “could you create that just using Photoshop?” Again, what a ludicrous thing to ask! I said sure, that 3D graphic can be done in Photoshop, but it would take a thousand hours, and why spend that time when there’s a tool that will do it in a fraction of the time?
At the end, I asked about the “video/motion design is a plus” in the job description and pulled up some 3D videos I created...neither of them knew what to say to me, finally the hiring manager mumbled "oh we just need someone to know how to upload a video to our website."
In summary, this was a horrible, demeaning and downright offensive experience, one of the worst in my life.
In May 2016 (nine months later), the job was still being advertised, this time through Veritude (their temp division).
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GE advertised for a presentation graphic designer in March 2018, and I earned a series of telephone screenings. First, I had a phone screening with a recruiter (which always includes the most important question of "what are your salary requirements?"). I then received an email stating, "Congratulations on moving forward in the selection process for the Presentation Graphic Artist role!" -- I really find the use of the word "congratulations" as distasteful here, as (1) I hardly see any reason to be congratulated (I haven't been offered a job yet) and (2) it contributes to making the hiring process feel like a game show where I'm the contestant. The phone interview with the hiring manager was rather uneventful, and at the end I asked what was the next step in the process, i.e., would there be an in-person interview. She could not give me an answer, and instead told me to check back with the recruiter. Now, how on earth does the hiring manager not know whether or not you'll be meeting with them at some point? One month later, I received their rejection email, stating, "We decided to change the requirements and add the need to understand and have experience working with financial reporting and presentations." I have twenty years of experience in working with and designing content for financial presentations (*cough* Fidelity Investments *cough*), so…my guess is that this is just another fake job.
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Gartner advertised a Senior Graphic Design position in March 2016:
After seeing the banner image on their "Life at Gartner" page, it became pretty obvious why I didn't even qualify for a phone screening...
EDIT: And, here it is again, newly advertised on December 14...
GTT / Global Technical Talent
This is another good example of "recruitment agency" uselessness. On November 12, 2014 I received an email from their recruiter about a six-month visual designer position in Boston. I responded with, “Thank you for your email. While I have the skills listed (including 3D animation), their stipulation that my portfolio be ‘current’ means they won't consider anyone who is unemployed (my last major contract ended one year ago and I have only been working small freelance gigs).” I received no response.
On December 3, this same recruiter emailed me again with the same job description, though the title had now changed to “art director.” I responded, “I responded to an email you sent me back on 11/12 regarding a similar role, which I have pasted below (you never responded).”
Her response: “Apologies, I missed that email below. Right now we have the following role open ‘Art Director’, please let me know you interest.”
I guess she was too lazy to go back and read my initial response, so why should I bother sending it a second time?
On December 10, I received an email from her colleague for the identical job. I guess he didn’t bother to check if the first recruiter had already contacted me. I responded with a cut/paste, “I have already responded about this position to your colleague, X, on 12/3 as follows…”
No response received. And that was the end of that.
ICANN
In October 2014, immediately following the loss of my home and my moving into my mother’s basement, I applied for a job they had posted on LinkedIn, with the location being Brussels, Belgium. This seriously excited me, as I was ready to leave this country (I was also applying for ESL teaching jobs, having just completed a TEFL certificate). The HR rep contacted me, I explained that I am looking to relocate internationally, and she explained that the location has changed, that it would more likely be Singapore. I said that’s excellent because my mother plans to move to Australia to be with relatives, and as Singapore is nearby this would work great for the both of us. Following the usual pointless question/answer conversation, I sent her a detailed email follow-up full of additional samples of my work, both links and attachments. I received absolutely NO response from her, and never heard from her again.
Hasbro (and Utilidata)
I’ve applied to Hasbro multiple times over the years for naught. One day in the summer of 2014, after I had accepted that my career in America was over and I was preparing for my new teaching-overseas life, a recruiter (can't recall which one) contacted me about a job at Utilidata in Providence. It was the usual song/dance, which begins with “We’ve got a design job that I think is a great fit for your background," and ends with me getting rejected by his client for “reasons unknown.” After discussing the job, he asked how my search has been going, and I flat out told him because I’m over 45 and haven’t worked since October I’ve become unemployable and “I can guarantee you that Utilidata will not even grant me an interview due to my age.” He said, “Yeah, unfortunately, that’s what most employers are doing now, they have their pick of whom they can hire.” The company Hasbro came up, he said how he's been working with a lot of former designers, mostly older/experienced folks, who were laid off the previous year by Hasbro who has been getting rid of all their "older" workers, replacing them with young cheaper kids.
I found the news article from January 2013 about the layoffs…
Here’s a good follow-up article from April 2013:
I do wish that when Hasbro advertises a job they would be honest and tell us the age cutoff for applying to this company. I’d really like to know what IS the new age cutoff these days…35? 30? Just how much experience is TOO MUCH to pay for these days?
So, there ya have it, folks, Hasbro discriminates. Oh, and so does Utilidata, true to my prediction they didn’t even want to talk to me over the phone.
IDEO
This company advertised for a graphic designer position back in June 2014. I applied and, of course, heard nothing. Three months later, they reposted the job on Coroflot. Here’s a snippet from the job description:
"Hot shot?" Excuse me, but I have never thought of myself as a "hot shot," just a simple graphic designer, and a reliable good worker in general, certainly not a "hot shot." Why this company feels the need to demean and disrespect the candidates looking at this ad is beyond me. And, in addition to the essay question, they want a full explanation of the pieces in the applicant's portfolio as part of the cover letter. Now, call me old-fashioned, but I remember a time when this sort of detail was saved for a face-to-face interview.
And, no, I did not apply for this job a second time.
In April 2014, I received an email from a recruiter at Ingram Content Group about an interactive designer position (still not clear how they received my resume). I read the job description, but as soon as I saw the “mobile design experience” requirement I knew it would be a waste of time pursuing it. I responded with, “Thank you for contacting me about this position. While I am confident I could perform the tasks, I do not have the required ‘work experience’ in interface design on mobile applications, and I’m certain they would reject my resume. There was a time when a company would hire you and permit you to learn on the job, but those days are sadly gone!”
She followed up with, “When looking at your profile, I was very impressed with your experience, and I believe that the hiring manager would definitely be interested in seeing your resume.”
So we had a phone screening where she asked a few generic questions that didn’t really accomplish anything...
"Are you proficient in Adobe Creative Suite?"
Yes, I am. I state so on my resume which I assumed you'd have read by now.
"And are you proficient in Illustrator?"
Uh, Illustrator is a part of Adobe Creative Suite, sweetheart.
As with almost every recruiter I’ve dealt with these past few years, I’m estimating her age to be half of mine. We wrapped it up with her insisting that their hiring manager would appreciate my work experience and portfolio, and that she’d be in touch.
I never heard from her again.
Fast forward to May 2. I received an email from another recruiter from the exact same company. "I received your resume to our Interactive Designer position posted on Dice in the past and wanted to see if you would still be in the market to consider a new position? If so, I would like to speak with you about another new Interactive Designer position and I want to discuss if that would fit your interest and skill set. I have attached the job details for your reference."
I did not recognize the company name or job description at first, so I replied and we scheduled a call. Afterwards, I did a quick search through my emails and, sure enough, I found the earlier message thread. I brought this up during our call, giving him the name of the girl I conversed with. He seemed slightly embarrassed and wasn’t even sure if this was the exact same position. He said he’d look into what happened and get back to me. Here’s the email I received not long after hanging up...
"Your candidacy was reviewed in April and I just had your information re-looked at once more. The notes on your candidacy were in a different place which I missed, so that was my mistake. Unfortunately, you were passed on and per the chaos with all our new IT positions, getting back to let you know fell through the cracks. I apologize for that as we make part of our process to let all candidates know the status of their candidacy once we have feedback. At this time, the decision still has been made to continue to pursue other candidates.”
So, in summary, this company has kept this position empty for a month at least, and will continue to keep it empty until they find that magical “perfect candidate,” whomever that may be. And I particularly love how he did not share with me WHY I was “passed on.” Seems that if I was never a good candidate I should never have been contacted in the first place.
International Cruise & Excursions (ICE)
I applied for a senior graphic designer job with this place in October 2014. This job was based in Scottsdale, AZ. Again, I was anxious to get the hell out of Stinkassachusetts and New England, and I was pleasantly surprised that they contacted me to set up a phone interview with the hiring manager. Sadly, the call with the woman was disappointing, and confirmed my belief that the unemployed will stay unemployed because they are unemployed. I tried my best to “not sound unemployed,” mentioning the few clients I’d worked with over the past year. But she kept harping on the same question of “what specifically have you worked on recently.” I mentioned some of the projects but I’m guessing because they do not appear in my online portfolio they don’t matter. I got the feeling that she was looking for me to admit I was unemployed. After fifteen minutes she ended the call because she had to run to another meeting. I sent a follow-up thank you email, but never heard from this place again.
JLT / Jardine Lloyd Thompson
In September 2015 I applied for a job with this dinky company via LinkedIn where it received a whopping 117 applicants, and was contacted by the HR rep who scheduled me for a telephone screening with the hiring manager. The morning before the call, she contacted me saying the hiring manager had to reschedule the call. I said no problem, and she said “great, we’ll be in touch.” THREE WEEKS LATER, I was still waiting, so I emailed her asking “should I assume this call is never going to happen?” I received NO response. One week later, I got fed up and emailed another HR rep shown on their website where they were still advertising the job, pointing out “according to the LinkedIn job page, you received 117 applicants for this position — did you treat them all as disrespectfully as you’ve treated me? I am also baffled as to why, after receiving a whopping 117 applicants, you continue to advertise this job. Am I to believe that out of 117 applicants (including myself), you didn’t find even one qualified applicant?” Surprise, I received NO response to that email. Then I got really angry, and emailed the guy shown as their “media” contact, blasting him with “in the age of social media, treating people this poorly – including job applicants — is not a smart business practice.” Well, I *finally* got a response here, he replied sort of apologizing and saying he’d look into it to see what happened.
A few hours later, I got the following email from HR dimwit #2:
Absolutely pathetic. A canned copied/pasted rejection email with the last “The applicant experience is important to us / please feel free to contact me” paragraph tagged on as a joke…?!?!? Clearly another modern-day executive idiot who received their customer service training from the University of Facebook.
I shared this incident in the comments of Nick “Ask the Headhunter” Corcodilos's blog, here’s what he had to say: “The institutionalized hypocrisy, arrogance and disdain for job seekers that’s embedded in that boilerplate should stun any company’s board of directors. If I were you, I’d send your comments and that quote to the chairman of the board at that company and ask, 'Do you know where your company’s failure is being birthed right now?'” I probably should have taken his advice and written to the board of directors, but all letters I've sent to "companies behaving badly" so far have gone ignored, hence, why bother. “The customer is always right” has become “Prove to us that we did anything wrong."
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory advertised for a Graphic Artist/Designer back in early June 2016:
Note that it’s pretty much the exact same job, they only slightly modified the title and assigned it a new job number. Clever!
One of the worst phone interviews I’ve ever had happened in April 2014 with this dinky company. I applied for a graphic design job and received a phone call from their HR bimbo. She introduced herself saying she was responding to my application. Her very next question was to sternly demand “what are your salary requirements?” I was a little bit taken aback by the audacity of this question, to be demanding this before even speaking with me about my background or the job (I recall a time when nobody dared speak of salary until an offer was made…ah, the good ole days). I refused to give a figure and said I’m completely open. She practically barked at me, DEMANDING a figure. I finally told her that I had been making $X at Company 1, and before that I made $X at Company 2, and I’d like to not go below what I was making at Company 3 ten years ago which was $X (foolishly thinking this would be a low enough number and should satisfy her). Imagine my shock when she revealed “oh, this job isn’t going to pay as much as that” and the figure she gave me was akin to what I was earning in my first design job back in 2000. I was shocked by this and additionally completely turned off by this woman’s unprofessional demeanor, but I let her schedule a “real” phone interview for us to talk the following week.
The “interview” consisted of her doing exactly what that other HR bimbo at Axis Communications did, i.e., read pointless questions from a checklist (nothing to do with design, no questions about my design experience). She asked something about what I can tell her about their company. I was, like, what kind of stupid question is that? And why am I being interviewed by some dumb robotic HR bimbo as opposed to the creative director or art director? Well, I don’t recall what my response was beyond “you’re a real estate firm” but apparently it wasn’t a good enough answer and she got nasty and snapped “well when you have an interview with a company you’re supposed to research them!” I realize now I should’ve just ended the call, but I continued to play the game, and it just got worse. Her questions got even more and more stupid, like “what do you need to do your job?” (or something vague like that, don’t recall the exact words). I came right out and said I don’t understand this question. Her response was. To. Repeat. The. Question. Slowly. Word. For. Word. Again, I should’ve hung up the phone. (Oh, the question was referring to what equipment do you need, like a computer – jeezus frickin' christ, YES of course I’d need a computer to do this job!). Needless to say, this led to nothing, not even a formal rejection email.
There’s something very wrong when so many talented skilled professionals like nurses and engineers remain unemployed while someone as useless as this woman maintains a job...
King Fish Media
King Fish Media advertised for a senior graphic designer with a direct apply on StinkedIn back on January 22, 2016. The ad received 94 applicants, including myself.
So, what did they do a few days later? Why, advertise the same job on Indeed, of course! Because...um...well, who the hell knows why anymore...
I applied and was promptly rejected. Here it is again, posted as of July 11 (although they didn't bother to change the job number):
After seeing the banner image on their "Life at Gartner" page, it became pretty obvious why I didn't even qualify for a phone screening...
EDIT: And, here it is again, newly advertised on December 14...
__________________________
This is another good example of "recruitment agency" uselessness. On November 12, 2014 I received an email from their recruiter about a six-month visual designer position in Boston. I responded with, “Thank you for your email. While I have the skills listed (including 3D animation), their stipulation that my portfolio be ‘current’ means they won't consider anyone who is unemployed (my last major contract ended one year ago and I have only been working small freelance gigs).” I received no response.
On December 3, this same recruiter emailed me again with the same job description, though the title had now changed to “art director.” I responded, “I responded to an email you sent me back on 11/12 regarding a similar role, which I have pasted below (you never responded).”
Her response: “Apologies, I missed that email below. Right now we have the following role open ‘Art Director’, please let me know you interest.”
I guess she was too lazy to go back and read my initial response, so why should I bother sending it a second time?
On December 10, I received an email from her colleague for the identical job. I guess he didn’t bother to check if the first recruiter had already contacted me. I responded with a cut/paste, “I have already responded about this position to your colleague, X, on 12/3 as follows…”
No response received. And that was the end of that.
__________________________
In October 2014, immediately following the loss of my home and my moving into my mother’s basement, I applied for a job they had posted on LinkedIn, with the location being Brussels, Belgium. This seriously excited me, as I was ready to leave this country (I was also applying for ESL teaching jobs, having just completed a TEFL certificate). The HR rep contacted me, I explained that I am looking to relocate internationally, and she explained that the location has changed, that it would more likely be Singapore. I said that’s excellent because my mother plans to move to Australia to be with relatives, and as Singapore is nearby this would work great for the both of us. Following the usual pointless question/answer conversation, I sent her a detailed email follow-up full of additional samples of my work, both links and attachments. I received absolutely NO response from her, and never heard from her again.
__________________________
I’ve applied to Hasbro multiple times over the years for naught. One day in the summer of 2014, after I had accepted that my career in America was over and I was preparing for my new teaching-overseas life, a recruiter (can't recall which one) contacted me about a job at Utilidata in Providence. It was the usual song/dance, which begins with “We’ve got a design job that I think is a great fit for your background," and ends with me getting rejected by his client for “reasons unknown.” After discussing the job, he asked how my search has been going, and I flat out told him because I’m over 45 and haven’t worked since October I’ve become unemployable and “I can guarantee you that Utilidata will not even grant me an interview due to my age.” He said, “Yeah, unfortunately, that’s what most employers are doing now, they have their pick of whom they can hire.” The company Hasbro came up, he said how he's been working with a lot of former designers, mostly older/experienced folks, who were laid off the previous year by Hasbro who has been getting rid of all their "older" workers, replacing them with young cheaper kids.
I found the news article from January 2013 about the layoffs…
Wayne Charness, Spokesperson for Hasbro, said the layoffs will take place over the next couple of months. He said the company is simply adjusting the business strategy in line "with certain markets that are declining.” He said business is “fundamentally good,” and that the company’s “strategy is sound.”So, “business is ‘fundamentally good’”…they are “simply adjusting” their strategy. Okilly-dokilly.
Here’s a good follow-up article from April 2013:
Rhode Island’s toy making giant, Hasbro, has laid off over 50 employees this year in Rhode Island as part of a larger workforce reduction that comes on the heels of the RI EDC approval of a $1.6 million tax credit from the state. Furthermore, CEO, Brian Goldner signed a new 5-year contract, making him one of the highest paid executives in the world, with a pay package exceeding $26 million in 2012 alone.Fret not, my fellow peasants, I’m confident that Mr. Goldner’s $26,000,000 annual compensation will trickle down to those who were laid off.
I do wish that when Hasbro advertises a job they would be honest and tell us the age cutoff for applying to this company. I’d really like to know what IS the new age cutoff these days…35? 30? Just how much experience is TOO MUCH to pay for these days?
So, there ya have it, folks, Hasbro discriminates. Oh, and so does Utilidata, true to my prediction they didn’t even want to talk to me over the phone.
__________________________
This company advertised for a graphic designer position back in June 2014. I applied and, of course, heard nothing. Three months later, they reposted the job on Coroflot. Here’s a snippet from the job description:
"Hot shot?" Excuse me, but I have never thought of myself as a "hot shot," just a simple graphic designer, and a reliable good worker in general, certainly not a "hot shot." Why this company feels the need to demean and disrespect the candidates looking at this ad is beyond me. And, in addition to the essay question, they want a full explanation of the pieces in the applicant's portfolio as part of the cover letter. Now, call me old-fashioned, but I remember a time when this sort of detail was saved for a face-to-face interview.
And, no, I did not apply for this job a second time.
__________________________
Ingram Content Group
In April 2014, I received an email from a recruiter at Ingram Content Group about an interactive designer position (still not clear how they received my resume). I read the job description, but as soon as I saw the “mobile design experience” requirement I knew it would be a waste of time pursuing it. I responded with, “Thank you for contacting me about this position. While I am confident I could perform the tasks, I do not have the required ‘work experience’ in interface design on mobile applications, and I’m certain they would reject my resume. There was a time when a company would hire you and permit you to learn on the job, but those days are sadly gone!”
She followed up with, “When looking at your profile, I was very impressed with your experience, and I believe that the hiring manager would definitely be interested in seeing your resume.”
So we had a phone screening where she asked a few generic questions that didn’t really accomplish anything...
"Are you proficient in Adobe Creative Suite?"
Yes, I am. I state so on my resume which I assumed you'd have read by now.
"And are you proficient in Illustrator?"
Uh, Illustrator is a part of Adobe Creative Suite, sweetheart.
As with almost every recruiter I’ve dealt with these past few years, I’m estimating her age to be half of mine. We wrapped it up with her insisting that their hiring manager would appreciate my work experience and portfolio, and that she’d be in touch.
I never heard from her again.
Fast forward to May 2. I received an email from another recruiter from the exact same company. "I received your resume to our Interactive Designer position posted on Dice in the past and wanted to see if you would still be in the market to consider a new position? If so, I would like to speak with you about another new Interactive Designer position and I want to discuss if that would fit your interest and skill set. I have attached the job details for your reference."
I did not recognize the company name or job description at first, so I replied and we scheduled a call. Afterwards, I did a quick search through my emails and, sure enough, I found the earlier message thread. I brought this up during our call, giving him the name of the girl I conversed with. He seemed slightly embarrassed and wasn’t even sure if this was the exact same position. He said he’d look into what happened and get back to me. Here’s the email I received not long after hanging up...
"Your candidacy was reviewed in April and I just had your information re-looked at once more. The notes on your candidacy were in a different place which I missed, so that was my mistake. Unfortunately, you were passed on and per the chaos with all our new IT positions, getting back to let you know fell through the cracks. I apologize for that as we make part of our process to let all candidates know the status of their candidacy once we have feedback. At this time, the decision still has been made to continue to pursue other candidates.”
So, in summary, this company has kept this position empty for a month at least, and will continue to keep it empty until they find that magical “perfect candidate,” whomever that may be. And I particularly love how he did not share with me WHY I was “passed on.” Seems that if I was never a good candidate I should never have been contacted in the first place.
__________________________
I applied for a senior graphic designer job with this place in October 2014. This job was based in Scottsdale, AZ. Again, I was anxious to get the hell out of Stinkassachusetts and New England, and I was pleasantly surprised that they contacted me to set up a phone interview with the hiring manager. Sadly, the call with the woman was disappointing, and confirmed my belief that the unemployed will stay unemployed because they are unemployed. I tried my best to “not sound unemployed,” mentioning the few clients I’d worked with over the past year. But she kept harping on the same question of “what specifically have you worked on recently.” I mentioned some of the projects but I’m guessing because they do not appear in my online portfolio they don’t matter. I got the feeling that she was looking for me to admit I was unemployed. After fifteen minutes she ended the call because she had to run to another meeting. I sent a follow-up thank you email, but never heard from this place again.
__________________________
In September 2015 I applied for a job with this dinky company via LinkedIn where it received a whopping 117 applicants, and was contacted by the HR rep who scheduled me for a telephone screening with the hiring manager. The morning before the call, she contacted me saying the hiring manager had to reschedule the call. I said no problem, and she said “great, we’ll be in touch.” THREE WEEKS LATER, I was still waiting, so I emailed her asking “should I assume this call is never going to happen?” I received NO response. One week later, I got fed up and emailed another HR rep shown on their website where they were still advertising the job, pointing out “according to the LinkedIn job page, you received 117 applicants for this position — did you treat them all as disrespectfully as you’ve treated me? I am also baffled as to why, after receiving a whopping 117 applicants, you continue to advertise this job. Am I to believe that out of 117 applicants (including myself), you didn’t find even one qualified applicant?” Surprise, I received NO response to that email. Then I got really angry, and emailed the guy shown as their “media” contact, blasting him with “in the age of social media, treating people this poorly – including job applicants — is not a smart business practice.” Well, I *finally* got a response here, he replied sort of apologizing and saying he’d look into it to see what happened.
A few hours later, I got the following email from HR dimwit #2:
“Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the Graphic Designer position with JLT Specialty Insurance Services, Inc. Our posting on LinkedIn generated a large response of qualified applicants and has been filled. We will keep your resume on file for 6 months should another position matching your experience, skills and areas of expertise becomes available. The applicant experience is important to us and we are always looking for ways to make improvements. If you would like to speak to me regarding your applicant experience, please feel free to contact me.”
I shared this incident in the comments of Nick “Ask the Headhunter” Corcodilos's blog, here’s what he had to say: “The institutionalized hypocrisy, arrogance and disdain for job seekers that’s embedded in that boilerplate should stun any company’s board of directors. If I were you, I’d send your comments and that quote to the chairman of the board at that company and ask, 'Do you know where your company’s failure is being birthed right now?'” I probably should have taken his advice and written to the board of directors, but all letters I've sent to "companies behaving badly" so far have gone ignored, hence, why bother. “The customer is always right” has become “Prove to us that we did anything wrong."
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Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory advertised for a Graphic Artist/Designer back in early June 2016:
I was rejected. One month later, on July 15, this job appeared:
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Jones Lang Lasalle
One of the worst phone interviews I’ve ever had happened in April 2014 with this dinky company. I applied for a graphic design job and received a phone call from their HR bimbo. She introduced herself saying she was responding to my application. Her very next question was to sternly demand “what are your salary requirements?” I was a little bit taken aback by the audacity of this question, to be demanding this before even speaking with me about my background or the job (I recall a time when nobody dared speak of salary until an offer was made…ah, the good ole days). I refused to give a figure and said I’m completely open. She practically barked at me, DEMANDING a figure. I finally told her that I had been making $X at Company 1, and before that I made $X at Company 2, and I’d like to not go below what I was making at Company 3 ten years ago which was $X (foolishly thinking this would be a low enough number and should satisfy her). Imagine my shock when she revealed “oh, this job isn’t going to pay as much as that” and the figure she gave me was akin to what I was earning in my first design job back in 2000. I was shocked by this and additionally completely turned off by this woman’s unprofessional demeanor, but I let her schedule a “real” phone interview for us to talk the following week.
The “interview” consisted of her doing exactly what that other HR bimbo at Axis Communications did, i.e., read pointless questions from a checklist (nothing to do with design, no questions about my design experience). She asked something about what I can tell her about their company. I was, like, what kind of stupid question is that? And why am I being interviewed by some dumb robotic HR bimbo as opposed to the creative director or art director? Well, I don’t recall what my response was beyond “you’re a real estate firm” but apparently it wasn’t a good enough answer and she got nasty and snapped “well when you have an interview with a company you’re supposed to research them!” I realize now I should’ve just ended the call, but I continued to play the game, and it just got worse. Her questions got even more and more stupid, like “what do you need to do your job?” (or something vague like that, don’t recall the exact words). I came right out and said I don’t understand this question. Her response was. To. Repeat. The. Question. Slowly. Word. For. Word. Again, I should’ve hung up the phone. (Oh, the question was referring to what equipment do you need, like a computer – jeezus frickin' christ, YES of course I’d need a computer to do this job!). Needless to say, this led to nothing, not even a formal rejection email.
There’s something very wrong when so many talented skilled professionals like nurses and engineers remain unemployed while someone as useless as this woman maintains a job...
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King Fish Media advertised for a senior graphic designer with a direct apply on StinkedIn back on January 22, 2016. The ad received 94 applicants, including myself.
So, what did they do a few days later? Why, advertise the same job on Indeed, of course! Because...um...well, who the hell knows why anymore...
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