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My complaint of the day (job searching)


Ginevra
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Why do some companies put up their ads without salary information? I mean, let’s not be coy about it: I’m only looking to work because I require money. How are either of us helped by you (the company) putting zero information about the salary - at least the salary range - you intend to pay the employee you’re looking for? I don’t want to waste my time. You don’t want to waste your time. So can we just be frank about the pay? 

That is all. 

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8 minutes ago, Quill said:

Why do some companies put up their ads without salary information? I mean, let’s not be coy about it: I’m only looking to work because I require money. How are either of us helped by you (the company) putting zero information about the salary - at least the salary range - you intend to pay the employee you’re looking for? I don’t want to waste my time. You don’t want to waste your time. So can we just be frank about the pay? 

That is all. 

AMEN!  That has been incredibly frustrating for me as well.

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Just my .02 -- feel free to ignore. When I've helped friends and family job hunt I began to understand that if the job asked for a load of experience, they were likely paying. And vice-versa.

I know job hunting is hard. I just always looked at it like a numbers game and tried to keep my heart out of it.

Alley

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34 minutes ago, Alicia64 said:

Just my .02 -- feel free to ignore. When I've helped friends and family job hunt I began to understand that if the job asked for a load of experience, they were likely paying. And vice-versa.

I know job hunting is hard. I just always looked at it like a numbers game and tried to keep my heart out of it.

Alley

That depends on the area lately.  We are having a good amount of want a lot of experience yet pay is mediocre. For example-  a job that should pay 90-100K with experience and proper certificates is being advertised as a 55k job by some companies.  

A DF has been job hunting for awhile.  She has training with a special program that not many are familiar with. Her last interview resulted in an salaried offer of 250 a week for 40 hours.  It was comical for our high cost area anyone thinking they could offer that low. 

Edited by itsheresomewhere
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And it is irritating when one applies for an advertised job, spends time customizing a cover letter, and sends in a resume - and then absolutely no reply.  I mean, come on, how hard is it to email a response - just even a form letter saying "not now, but thanks for applying"

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Myra said:

And it is irritating when one applies for an advertised job, spends time customizing a cover letter, and sends in a resume - and then absolutely no reply.  I mean, come on, how hard is it to email a response - just even a form letter saying "not now, but thanks for applying"

 

 

 

This is what I expect job searching. Sending interest into a void. I'm happily surprised to receive a response.

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21 minutes ago, itsheresomewhere said:

That depends on the area lately.  We are having a good amount of want a lot of experience yet pay is mediocre. For example-  a job that should pay 90-100K with experience and proper certificates is being advertised as a 55k job by some companies.  

A DF has been job hunting for awhile.  She has training with a special program that not many are familiar with. Her last interview resulted in an salaried offer of 250 a week for 40 hours.  It was comical for our high cost area anyone thinking they could offer that low. 

 

That's not even minimum wage!

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I write résumés, so I talk with job seekers all the time. The hoops they go through is so demoralizing. 

  • No salary range provided, yet you tell us your salary requirements; "applications without this information will not be considered."
  • Online systems that ask you to attach your resume and then fill in fields with the exact same information. So time -consuming!
  • Ridiculously delayed follow-up / no follow up.
  • Video interviews with no actual person on the other side of the screen. Just an automated question with you trying to act natural as you answer it.
  • "Entry-level" jobs asking for 3-5 years of experience.
  • Freelance jobs with on-site requirements and specified hours (illegal).

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Hyacinth said:

I write résumés, so I talk with job seekers all the time. The hoops they go through is so demoralizing. 

  • No salary range provided, yet you tell us your salary requirements; "applications without this information will not be considered."
  • Online systems that ask you to attach your resume and then fill in fields with the exact same information. So time -consuming!
  • Ridiculously delayed follow-up / no follow up.
  • Video interviews with no actual person on the other side of the screen. Just an automated question with you trying to act natural as you answer it.
  • "Entry-level" jobs asking for 3-5 years of experience.
  • Freelance jobs with on-site requirements and specified hours (illegal).

 

 

This. This is the one that blows. my. mind.

DH had to do one of those last week. I mean, really?! You can't even bother to read my resume and determine whether I'm worth the time for a phone call? I have to talk into this camera and try not to feel like a total idiot doing it? How can they even get meaningful information from a situation that's likely to be irredeemably awkward for the vast majority of applicants???

And my DH is in sales. He's completely fine with video-based calling, presentations, etc. But this is a whole new low. 95% of sales is being able to read and play off your audience.

The "you show us yours before we show you ours" salary requirements burn me up too.

Job seeking is a humiliating, disgusting process. Only slightly more so than actually working for a faceless corporation.

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11 minutes ago, Hyacinth said:

I write résumés, so I talk with job seekers all the time. The hoops they go through is so demoralizing. 

  • No salary range provided, yet you tell us your salary requirements; "applications without this information will not be considered."
  • Online systems that ask you to attach your resume and then fill in fields with the exact same information. So time -consuming!
  • Ridiculously delayed follow-up / no follow up.
  • Video interviews with no actual person on the other side of the screen. Just an automated question with you trying to act natural as you answer it.
  • "Entry-level" jobs asking for 3-5 years of experience.
  • Freelance jobs with on-site requirements and specified hours (illegal).

 

 

Just wondering if you do this on-line?  Do you have a website or something?  Might be a service people on here are looking for.

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2 hours ago, Myra said:

And it is irritating when one applies for an advertised job, spends time customizing a cover letter, and sends in a resume - and then absolutely no reply.  I mean, come on, how hard is it to email a response - just even a form letter saying "not now, but thanks for applying"

 

 

One reason employers don't respond is to avoid liability issues, such as discrimination lawsuits. From a legal standpoint, it is better not to provide any feedback, not even a boilerplate "thanks but no thanks". I'm guessing that might be the reason for the automated interviews, too.

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YES! I was griping about this to one of my kids last week. If you go too high, you are risking them eliminating you for unrealistic expectations; if you go too low, you might be shooting yourself in the foot. So I looked up online the average pay for that position in our area, and just put that on there. But I still have no idea if they will consider it too high due to other factors. Just today, I was thinking that it's okay, I have a job that is fine, and the risk is worth it. Maybe I don't want to give up the flexibility of my present job after all, if they aren't willing to pay the average salary. It is frustrating, though. At least give me the courtesy of a range, so I know I'm in the ballpark, and can adjust my expectations accordingly. 

Re: Hyacinth's post--yes, the application had almost identical information to what was already on my resume that was to be attached. Why not one or the other? As to the no response--I got that they received my application, but have no idea how long I should wait before I mentally write it off. So I just keep checking to see if the posting is removed.

Full sympathy from here!

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6 hours ago, Myra said:

And it is irritating when one applies for an advertised job, spends time customizing a cover letter, and sends in a resume - and then absolutely no reply.  I mean, come on, how hard is it to email a response - just even a form letter saying "not now, but thanks for applying"

 

My husband had strangers bugging him through LinkedIn to ask him to check their application status. It was weird.

I would say it is more common to not get a reply unless the headhunter nags HR for a status report or you know someone working in the company who ask on your behalf. HR is definitely more wary now then  a decade ago in whatever they say.

Pay is trickier as HR tries to match the last drawn pay and then negotiate on bonuses.  My husband was listening to colleagues complaining about their pay and found out that for someone with a PhD in electrical engineering, his dept pays about $40k higher per annum then another dept. Both departments are not revenue generating depts. 

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One problem with pay being based on past pay is that for me, the job is totally different. The difference is part-time to full-time, a lower level job to a higher level, one that uses my undergrad to one that uses my grad degree, etc. So I don't want to be punished for not being ready for this position before, due to life circumstances. Besides, one lower-paying job can punish you for years, and that certainly doesn't seem fair!

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2 minutes ago, Jaybee said:

One problem with pay being based on past pay is that for me, the job is totally different. The difference is part-time to full-time, a lower level job to a higher level, one that uses my undergrad to one that uses my grad degree, etc. So I don't want to be punished for not being ready for this position before, due to life circumstances. Besides, one lower-paying job can punish you for years, and that certainly doesn't seem fair!

Yes, I agree. Going from past pay would be pretty much irrelevant for me. 

My issue is that there is a lot of variation in duties for the over-arching job title I’m looking at. I’m looking at Administrative Assistant and other similar jobs. But that could be a dinky little church secretary admin assistant that barely pays over min wage, or it could be a more executive-level admin assistant with a law firm or accounting. Big differences in pay and in responsibilities. 

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9 minutes ago, Jaybee said:

One problem with pay being based on past pay is that for me, the job is totally different. 

 

Employers here aren’t allowed to ask for past pay. https://www.businessinsider.com/places-where-salary-question-banned-us-2017-10

However they do top up if possible if they are poaching employees from another company. When my husband went for an interview with Apple, their max pay for the job was lower than his pay at the time of interview so they were seeing what they can do with bonuses to make the pay package a close match.

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2 hours ago, Jaybee said:

One problem with pay being based on past pay is that for me, the job is totally different. The difference is part-time to full-time, a lower level job to a higher level, one that uses my undergrad to one that uses my grad degree, etc. So I don't want to be punished for not being ready for this position before, due to life circumstances. Besides, one lower-paying job can punish you for years, and that certainly doesn't seem fair!

And really, giving me lower pay based on my prior pay just makes it more likely that I am going to jump ship (because you usually get offered at least a bit more to entice you to a new job, sometimes quite a bit more). 

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3 hours ago, Jaybee said:

One problem with pay being based on past pay is that for me, the job is totally different. The difference is part-time to full-time, a lower level job to a higher level, one that uses my undergrad to one that uses my grad degree, etc. So I don't want to be punished for not being ready for this position before, due to life circumstances. Besides, one lower-paying job can punish you for years, and that certainly doesn't seem fair!

I got burned by this last year. I have worked in my field for 20 years. My company had good benefits, 5 weeks paid vacation, pension and 9 paid holidays a year (with 2 being float days you could take when ever you wanted). The pay was mediocre.

I changed jobs to a job with a pension and 10 federal holidays a year and they were only willing to put me at the equivelent of someone with 2 years experience. Their reason was it was technicaclly a raise in pay rate (even though I was loosing a ton of vacation and senority.  Eventually I will gain back part of what I lost but it will be Years before I do. I don't think they were used to factoring the benefits I had at the old company were equivelent to what they were offering! They ware only looking at pay vs pay. 

I jumped at the new job, because it was a good opprotunity and a place to retire from. As mentioned above...a 2 year employee makes more than a senior employee at my old job).  Sometimes I regret the loss of vacation but I know in the long run it is the best decision. 

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