Maximum PC

...but what about employment?!

I saw on their website that they were looking to use another PC technician, but heck, they're just as "corporate" as the rest of the others. This store was not too far down the road from Best Buy. In fact, the general manager was friendly.

I had a great first interview last Friday with the GM and everything went well. He said he would contact me at the end of the day (5/31). BUT, I didn't contact him until this morning (6/2). GM said he already hired someone else? Staples became the fourth employer on my list that turned me down for a nice job. Geek Squad, Office Depot, and Kroger were the other three.

This GM did not even obtain the decency to at least contact me last Friday before hand (like he said he would), and fill me in on what was going on first before he hired someone behind my back! That is a wrong within a wrong.

So when it came to trying to get a nice PC technician job at Staples, let me re-do their slogan by saying "that was NOT easy!"

Dude... This doesn't belong in the Dog pound.

You applied for a job, they found someone they liked better and hired them.
They are not "required" to notify you that they "hired someone behind your back"

This does not make Staples a bad company.

Staples is a bad company! At mine, they have coolers at the registers with soft drinks, energy drinks and Gatorade. There isn't one single beer in those coolers!!!!! How dare they! Therefor staples is a bad company!

I stand corrected.

Wait they have gatorade now? I think my local Staples is living in the 90's...

if the GM told you if he got to bang your mom he'd give you a job and turned around and didn't do it you might have something to complain about but if everyone came on and complained everytime they weren't hired the dog pound would be huge.

Did you ever consider that the problem may be with you and not the companies you've applied for? If the behavior you have displayed on this forum is any indication of how you are on a day to day basis, i'd say the stores made the right call.

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=78467


so, are you going to complain HERE about every company that DOESNT hire you?

Did you happen to take a pre employment personality test / survey at any of these companies? I'm pretty sure Circuit City and Best Buy require applicants to take one of these when applying for a job online, so its a reasonable assumption that most of the other companies require them as well. These tests are designed to weed out individuals with undesirable personality traits such as the inability to deal with a stressful situation in a calm and polite manner i.e. someone who doesn't get the job he applied for an then makes several angry posts on the internet trashing the company. I used to be the guy that gives these tests to people so i'll let you in on a few things. The tests generally give one of two results "Qualified" or "Not Qualified". We were not permitted to tell a person that they did not pass, instead it was policy to tell the applicant that we would get back to them at a later date, and if the applicant followed up with us we were instructed to tell them the position had been filled. If the test says the person is not qualified we simply cannot hire them. Hiring a NQ applicant is grounds for immediate termination.

OK, generally I would be in full agreement with most of the replies. The GM did not exactly hire someone behind your back. The GM could have been a little more professional in that he did say he would give you a call.

This is not really something worth getting upset about to any degree.

Generally within a large corporation when a person is interviewed based on a submitted resume if not selected for the position the get a standard form letter of rejection. Something nice to the effect of thank you for your interest, although someone else was chosen we will retain your resume on file. They are not obligated to do that it is just a professional courtessy.

Something else to consider is if the person hired doesn't work out you could get a call. Never burn a bridge or overly bitch.

OK, I understand Staples, Best Buy but Kroger? What exactly was the position at Kroger all about?

Ron

Take it from me, a Wal-Mart Electronics Associate. Large corporations suck ginormous freakin' balls!!! I hate my job. I'm rarely ever appreciated, I do the work of 4 to 6 people on a daily basis, and get paid $9.30/hr. @ 40 hours a week. Sure, I could complain all day long about it, but my point is to drive you toward a better lifestyle. Trust me, u do not want to work for those guys anyway. In fact, my wife, myself, and 2 close friends of ours, who're married, are starting our own PC biz in the local area. That'll get us outta' the crap-hole of Corporate E-merica. It'll be easy for me to build a client base, due to my ever-so-loyal customers, that ask for me by name, btw. They love me, they'll follow me. They've told me so, because they trust an honest person who is respectful and knowledgeable about his products. You need to find a good place that'd really suit you well, and they're obviously not it.

JC, I agree with you to a point. Not all large corporations suck "ginourmous" freaking balls. Really depends on the corporation and the pay scale for the position. I work in an engineering disapline for a pretty large company (McDermott International MDR). I do not earn $9.30 an hour which is about $19,000 annual income. I have a good 401K and retirement plan as well as paid medical plan. My work is appreciated and in return I am well compensated. Our part of corporate America starts a boot engineer right out of school with a EE at about 55 to 60K annual with benifits. That is about $27 to $30 an hour. Additionally they are paid a salary not an hourly wage rate.

Overall corporate America has a pay scale based on worth. The more an individual is worth the more they are paid. Generally as in the case of this thread an employer will seek out the best person for a job. The only problem I see in this thread based on the thread is a GM told an individual he would call and failed to notify the individual the position was filled.

Ron

That's something I've noticed as well, it's usually just retail and "cubicle-madness-inducing" companies that are like that, and they do it because they can. It would've been nice to at least have a chance at furthering my education and having a chance of a better career, but alas, I had to start from the dirt, and move upward. Always been one that falls through the cracks. Regardless, my point still stands, but I should've specified better: Large Retail corporations and white-collar companies suck ginormous freakin' balls. That better, Ron? I wasn't very awake when I typed that anyway, so gimme a mulligan.

I agree with part of what you said here. However, in terms of education, you have to go out and seek that yourself. Hardly any companies are going to pay for your education (some will, but still).

Look, maybe we should look at things this way. I will level with you straight up.

This forum is a mixture of HS Drop Out to pretty sucessful degreed people.

Please spare me the started in dirt bullshit as I am sure the dirt I began in is much older. Likely older dirt because I am older.

I dropped out of HS which was in NYC. I grew up in NY. When I was 19 and 1/2 I was drafted so my ass (my uneducated drop out ass) could go to Nam. That was 1969. When I was due to get out I was still an idiot. Times were also hard in the 70s much like now. My friends were jobless.

I reinlisted in the Marines which I chose over the draft. I chose the Marines as they offered some school which beat the shit out of comming home dead. Made sense to me at the time.

When I did leave the Marines I finally had a good job with DoD plus an education. I finally, after much work had a selling point plus experience. I was worth something to an employer. You need to make yourself worth something or you ain't shit. That is how it works. I left DoD after ten more years for what I do today. Took a long time but the payout was nice.

This isn't about me but if you want something beyond Wal-Mart for a job I suggest you offer something. Now if you want to work from dirt up I suggest you begin thinking and thinking includes attitude. If you want to start your own business I applaud you but having been there and done that the picture is a tad rose colored. With the wife we ran a very good brick and mortar gun shop.

We sold the business because working "real" jobs plus the gun shop was a bit much. Starting a basement computer business is easy. Rent some brick & mortar and it's a new game.

You need to get your shit together, make decisions, and move on those desicions or resolve your life to $10 an hour, your call on that.

Ron

Point not seen, apparently. Of course education's not just given away, that's a given. My example, is a journey of never being able to get out of the crack that I was born into (no jokes, it's not really that humorous). We grew up poor because my single mother has always been undereducated, and my druggie and now deceased dad was never around. Only benefit I got from him was after he died. I graduated HS, but I was "pushed-through", so I can't really say I had a chance to learn anything, as it wasn't necessary, thus I had no drive to strive for excellence, and was never encouraged by anyone to do so. My only goal was to graduate, as it would make me the first one in my family to do so in about 3 or 4 generations. After HS, however, I found good paying jobs, and was going to be able to go to college, but I made too much money, yeah, go figure, to be eligible for grants or anything. Well, I later found out that I also have a spinal problem, and had to quit the (factory) job that I had. Great, I'm not making any money now, maybe I can get financial aid or something, since I'm considered low-to no income, right? Nope, I don't have a job, so the only chance I had, which were loans (tried for a long time to get grants), were out of the question, and I couldn't file for disability either, since I'm still able to work, though not at any factories (where the $$$ is around here). Finally, my wife and I had jobs, but were getting meager wages, so we had money, but not too much, right? Well, sure, but then we didn't make enough, and it was barely less than we had before, when we made too much! Finally we were given a break, sort of. I was set to start up school at Collins College, in Tempe, AZ, and it was all of 99% set, so we move out there. We get there, get to work on the final details, and then BOOM!!! Denied! My wife had just received a 15 cent/hour raise, and so we then were told we made too much money. But wait, it gets better. I could take out a personal education loan from the school, and pay them $400/month... on top of the $659.75 for rent, and utilities!!! I didn't even have a job yet, and knew it'd have to be full time regardless. Needless to say, I didn't get to go to school. I still can't, because now it's all dependent on my credit rating, which isn't high enough. There are lots of people stuck in the same BS I am, and I know it's not 'just an excuse'. It really sucks, badly, and even worse, I still haven't even found any1 who'd so much as give some helpful advice on how to fix the issues. Anyway, to the OP, don't fret it, just try and try again, and try not to get too upset if a tyrant company like BB turns u down. It's not the end of the world. A week after the whole BS w/ Collins happened, I got the best job I've ever had, met a lot of great people, made a decent buck, and learned more about what I was going to go to school for, by doing, real-world style. I did get a break there, but we had to move back here to IN, because of our family, so we fell back into a crack. Nothing lasts forever in this life, so do what you can, while you can.

I also looked at the Marines, Army, ANG, etc., but because of my spinal; issue, I was ineligible. I had awesome scores on the (is it asvab? correct me if I'm wrong, been 10 or 11 years now) test, but my problem is and was physical. Something we couldn't get past. Sorry u had to go to NAM, but as you admitted, that was your fault. You had a way out, a very rough way out, but at least that option was there for you. I didn't even have that.

I feel for you JC, I really do.

I'm not getting a free ride either. I have to take out loans. I don't qualify for any grants or anything like that because my parents make just over the required amount to get a grant. My school expects us to pay at least $5500 PER YEAR out of our own pockets. My parents interest rate is 8.5%, which is going to race, which is unsubsidized, which means they are paying for it right now. My loan is at 6.5%, which is set to rise another 3%, luckily that one is subsidized so I don't have to pay at the moment.

My mom is currently unemployed, because the factory where she worked closed down. My dad is an OTR (over the road truck driver) so he is rarely home, and he isn't making too much either because of this recession bullshit.

Anyways, sorry you didn't have a chance to go to college. You should have been able to fill out a FAFSA and get subsidized loans and such, which you wouldn't have to pay back at the moment (6 months after you graduate). When I get out of school, I will be paying over $40,000 over 10 years.

Same here Hackman, everyone should look into going for an extended schooling after high school. You just will not find a job without it, unless you like hopping the fast food bandwagon.

JC I am not saying keep going to school. What I am saying is maybe consider a trade or something. What you need to do is dig out of the rut. Be it through higher education or the trades you need to find your nitch and work at it.

Ron