Cold comfort

Sarino Russo staff pushed the notion of what they termed cold calling.

I recall stories from my parents and older relatives. These are people who lived through the depression of the 1930s. You’ve probably watched old movies of long queues of people lining up for food handouts, never mind lining up for a job, and of people walking from town to town in search of work. I feel miserable just thinking about this. Snap out of it!

My mother and aunt used to talk about their experiences of marching the streets of Glasgow, knocking on factory and workshop doors and asking if they had any work; any kind of work. My mother did this in Australia when we first arrived here, and on a few occasions she was successful in getting factory work in stinking, hot, noisy environments that almost caused her to collapse from exhaustion. She carried the memories of one of those employers for year after year on her hands. The chemicals used in the fruit processing factory resulted in dermatitis of her fingers which lasted for years. She suffered sore hands and skin for years, but she never sued nor claimed compensation.

This is nothing to look forward to. If that’s cold calling, who wants it?

I wanted a job that was within my capabilities. A job I felt comfortable doing, something that I would like. My skills were mildly specialised and jobs were few and far between. My partner had less practical skills than me but was far more qualified. Both of us have tried cold calling employers. We wrote to selected employers.

I sent out a series of emails, very briefly outlining our skills, background, and qualifications. Not much more than a hundred words. I wrote just enough to whet their appetites. If I got any bites I would have provided more information and sent my CV too.

I never had any takers. Not one job. Not one interview. I had a few responses saying they were passing my email onto colleagues. I had a few people ask for my CV. No jobs ever came of it. On the other hand my partner has won several jobs. Some people had retained her email for periods approaching 12 months before contacting her and asking if she’d like to come in for an interview. These jobs have never been brilliant in her view, and have all been casual positions or contract jobs.

You often tend to be treated distantly (or shabbily) in such jobs. The permanent staff know you will likely be moving on and consequently don’t want to invest any effort in getting to know you or engaging with you in any meaningful way. Of course, if you just want a job then these niceties don’t matter a bit, and if you do a half decent job you will probably be able to get your supervisor to be referee for you.

So I guess the bottom line to cold calling from my experience is don’t waste your time. Though it can work for some.

Monash University

I applied for a job with Monash University, and I've never experienced an interview where I was treated so poorly as I was with them. In hindsight I can only assume the position was earmarked for someone in particular, and they were just going through the motions of advertising and conducting interviews with no intention of offering the job to any of the other applicants.

The position description identified Gerard Toohey (Manager, Student Administration) as Unit Head, and Peter Yates (Director, Services & Systems) as Divisional Director.

Gerard Toohey seemed to be the chair but his heart wasn't in the process. He looked bored throughout. It wasn't so much his posture of leaning on the table while resting his head on his hand that disturbed me, though it set a poor impression of the organisation. It was the fact that during the progress of the interview the meeting was interrupted by someone entering the room. This messenger whispered something to Toohey resulting in him leaving the room part way through the interview. It's difficult to assess a candidate’s performance at an interview if you excuse yourself from the process. The most interesting thing about this experience was that I received a rejection letter the day after the interview.

It doesn't take long to prepare a letter, but it does take some hours to get it through an organisation’s internal mail system, and you have to be very lucky for Australia Post to get a standard letter delivered by the next day unless it's sent by a priority paid service. It takes a while to reach the letter writing stage. Normally the interview panel would meet to decide on a candidate, and while this could be done quickly forwarding a recommendation to the HR section does take time. HR would want the successful candidate to accept the position which is usually done in writing, before doing anything else. Only after this has been completed will the other candidates be advised. There is only one conclusion I can deduce: my letter of rejection was in the post while I was being interviewed.

I have no qualms in identifying Gerard Toohey and describing his shoddy behaviour in the hope that my experience might serve as a warning to other job seekers.


Postscript:
Refer comment posted by Anonymous:

Dear Anonymous,

You wouldn’t know me from a bar of soap and couldn’t possibly have any idea of my background in HR or otherwise. Please don’t make unsubstantiated statements. You seem very sensitive to this item. Could it be that your name is Gerard Toohey. Though, I can confirm I’ve been involved in hiring enough people in my time to know the limitations of the process. Not from the HR side I might add, but from the business side of things. That’s what counts. I know how the process is conducted and how long it takes. Despite your rage I stand by my comments, and yes the interview was indeed rubbish. It was one of the more unprofessional experiences I have encountered. If the cap fits Gerard wear it. And yes, I felt extremely sour after the experience; you have no idea.

Recruitment Agencies

Recruitment agencies may help some people get work. In my experience they were pretty much a dead loss, and seldom helped. The frustrating thing about getting a job nowadays is that you often have to go through agencies, because their clients, the employers, get the agencies to do the initial filtering. So you’re stuck with them. I found most of the agencies I came into contact with seemed to spend a large amount of energy in fluff and bubble, and provided little genuine service. I don’t think employers are getting value for money, and I’m certain job seekers are getting stuffed around into the bargain.

The agencies that had the jobs that interested me tended to be located in the upmarket side of town in some high-rise building. This was ironic because I thought better service came from agencies at the other end of town. My first experience of them was eye opening. In subsequent visits I found the antics of the staff amusing, and then it became annoying.

Some of the buildings where these agencies are located, with their marble floors and walls, seem so flushed with money that they were almost intimidating. You get out the lift on the 40th something floor, and enter their smart office with plush carpets and mahogany wall panelling and desks. You approach the reception desk to announce yourself to the impeccably dressed and good-looking young female receptionist. Men are seldom seen at the reception desk of these places. She directs you to a seat and calls the person you’re there to meet. You have some time to look around before your name is called. So, you wait in the comfy armchair next to a table with the neatly arranged magazines that you’ve probably never heard of, and would have even less interest in reading. There are often a few other people waiting with you, generally dressed smarter than yourself, usually in suits that could have been fresh off the tailor’s rack that very morning.

In what seems a very short time another charming young woman or young man appears calling your name. A welcoming hand extends in greeting, and they always have such a friendly smile. You feel good, and their small talk seems interesting. Laughter comes easily at their lighthearted jokes as together you the walk down the quiet corridor to an interview room. The view from the interview room window is usually magnificent.

They leave you alone with a questionnaire to complete prior to the interview. The questionnaire is no trouble, but isn’t this the same information you put in your application. So there you are taking in the view from the window over the rooftops to the distant horizon. You spend so much time waiting you think they’ve gone out to lunch, and the panorama becomes boring. You check your responses to the questionnaire, just in case you left something out. No, it’s all there, and you stare out the window again. Daydreaming is preferable to browsing the copy of the company’s annual report that’s displayed on the nearby rack. The pamphlets of the agency’s services or associated companies are generally always in pristine condition. No one seems to touch them. After an annoyingly long time waiting for someone to return you begin to realise that you are alone, not because it takes 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire, but because the individual who has shown you into the room is probably interviewing someone else in the room next door.

Eventually they return and in a very officious manner seek additional information on any interesting aspects you may have included in the questionnaire. They tell you a bit about the position their client has on offer, and after about 10 or 15 minutes you are out the door and on your way home again, often never to hear from them again. All this could have been done by phone. So why did you spend an hour in the car driving into town, paying a fortune at the parking station, and then as much time on the return trip. Half the day is ruined. You would have been better spending the time applying for a job with a real employer that you had half a chance of getting.

I grew to hate employment agencies when I was unemployed. I don’t know how many times I saw a decent job advertised, but had to apply through a recruitment agency. Of course, the real interview might take place if you meet the agency’s requirements, or rather, their interpretation of their client’s requirements. Yes, their interpretation, because they get it wrong. This a real worry because quite often the agency might contact you some weeks later, because despite having passed you over for the job you applied for, they contact you because they believe they have matched you with some other role, and the worrying thing is that they have mismatched you. Was that why I missed out on the original job, because they didn’t understand my skills and experience. For example, so many times they thought systems analyst was the same thing as data analyst. What goes on in their brain: systems = IT; data = IT; therefore systems analyst = data analyst.

I’m feeling cranky because the one and only job I got with the help of an agency was negotiated by telephone. I spotted an okay looking job on one of the web based job seeking sites, emailed my CV, and after only a few hours the agency was on the phone asking some questions; the same questions other agencies ask, after they insist you come into their office for an interview. Why can’t they all do it by phone? This very commendable agency was Ambit Recruitment. Good people to deal with in my experience. So I don’t mind giving them a plug. A few hours later Ambit rang back with an appointment with the agency’s client for the next day. An actual interview with the employer. It went well, and a further telephone call by Ambit saying they wanted me and asking me to drop by to sign a contract, which was the first time I had been in the agency’s office, and I had a job starting the following Monday.