So, basically since I got out of school, I’ve been trying to get a job. Unfortunately, companies apparently don’t like or me or something, and I am still unemployed.
The closest I got was from Target, but as I’m sure you can tell from the title of this post, that it didn’t go so well. I now recount why:
I got my first call from them on May 18. The lady said that I should be there for an appointment at about 1 PM on May 20 (Wednesday). Doesn’t say what I’m going to be interviewing for (I selected “Up for Discussion” or equivalent) on the application), just be there. OK, so I get there, and I have to wait almost 30 minutes before the person doing my interview comes available. A bit annoying, but not too bad. So, I do my interview and think I did decent. Not extremely good, but not bad. The manager in charge of my interview doesn’t give me a date that I should hear back by, but after a week I decided that it’s been (too) long enough.
I call back on the twenty-seventh to check back in on my application. The first person I talk to informs me that she’s not in charge of that area that I’m being considered for and to call back again later, because the person who is is on lunch break with some interns or something. OK, fair enough. So, I call back, ask for this person, who then tells me that they don’t know, and they’ll call me back. Again, I suppose this is fair enough, but to be honest, I wouldn’t have minded staying on the phone a bit longer so I could get an answer faster. So, later that night, she calls me back asking to come in for a second interview on Friday (the 30th).
Cool, a second interview, that’s usually pretty good, right? So, I got to the interview, do pretty good again, I think, and this time I make sure that she tells me when I should expect to hear back. She says on Monday. Monday comes around, I hear nothing. OK, I’ll give them a day, and then call them back. So, on Wednesday, I’ve still yet to hear from them, and I call back. The person who answers me tells me these exact words: “Yeah, I think they’ve made a decision, but I don’t know what it is. We’ll call you back or send you a card.” OK, two things: If you know they’ve made a decision, then I think it would just be proper to tell the person to stay on hold while you go and find out. I’ve already called them back at least 5 times by now to figure out if you’re going to do anything about my application or not, just to hear basically the same message (“We’ll call you when we hear something”, which is apparently never.)
So, I wait another week and give them another call. This time, the lady (same one who said that she thought they’d made a decision but didn’t know) answered again, and told me she’d find out and took my phone number. I’m like, cool, things might be looking up. Well, that Friday (the 18th, exactly a month after my first call), I get a postcard in the mail from Target saying this:
Hello, thanks for taking the time to apply with us. While we’re unable to offer you a position at this time, we do appreciate your interest in Target.
So, not only have the motherfuckers wasted my time (not only just a month of time wasted that I could have been looking for another job, but they gave me two interviews), but I didn’t even get the job. The Target hiring system (at least at my local Target) is incredibly inept.
Now, you may think the story with Target is over. I’ve been declined for a job, so there can’t be much more I can bitch at in regard to the management, right? Wrong.
So, (probably) the only reason that I got an interview from Target in the first place was because my dad works with someone who is the brother of the Target General Manager, right? Apparently the brother (not the manager) was wondering if my dad was going to help him re-tile the bathroom of his mother’s rent house (which happens to be where the manager is living right now). So, my dad was like, “Well, I don’t know if I’d wanna work for him, he didn’t hire my son.” So the guy called up the manager and my dad talked to him on the phone, and he said that I have a “meeting” with him personally in the morning. Pretty sweet, right?
Wrong. I get all dressed up for an interview-type thing that morning and drive all the way to Target. I go up to the Customer Service desk and ask to speak to the manager, and the person there says, “He’s left for the day.” “What? He said he would be here until 12:30” “Well, he must have thought we would be, but had a shorter day than he planned.” This was at 10:00 AM, mind you. Now, please, if anyone can explain to me how a General Manager of a Target store can only work from 8-10 and be “done”, then I’ll give you a cookie.
This whole thing just pisses me of.
And I still don’t have a job. =(
Dude, Target? I can understand if you were applying for Google or something, but this isn’t exactly a job-in-demand. Go get an IT job!
Also, you shouldn’t rely on your father to “pull the strings”. That’s lame. =P
Good luck though, their HR sucks.
I hope galador doesn’t mind me revealing this, but we live in Arkansas… yes, Arkansas. As you can imagine IT places aren’t the most prevalent businesses in our area. In fact, the largest “tech based” company in our area is doing nothing but slowing firing all their employees.
That Target is one of the best employers of college students the area. Being “unqualified” sucks.
Wow, same thing happened to me, skipping the 2nd paragraph :P
I came in for 1 interview then got the card.
Then the fucking assholes have a job fair at my school.
Yeah, their hiring system sucks. Basically it works like this.
You Apply
You get first interview with a Team Lead. This person basically is one step above your normal employee. They just work 40 Hour weeks and are in charge of an area. The first one is generally just to weed out the obvious people that shouldn’t be hired. (There are like, 2 or 3 working every given day so they won’t always be available.)
You get your second interview with an ETL (executive team lead). This person is more or less the manager of the store. There are usually 1 or 2 working at a time at the store and they are like the big cheese. They basically decide whether or not you should get the job. The only person above them is an STL (store team lead) and there’s one per store.
You get your third interview with HR. Basically offering you a job.
The thing is, usually (at least at my target) if you apply around like, 3 pm, you’ll get your first two interviews right there. Although I have heard from a lot of people I know that they went through something very similar to what you went through.
The truth is, Target doesn’t really care. To them you’re just another person, easily interchangable and hardly valued. It kinda sucks but hey, I’ve learned to live with it.
What I don’t understand is, when perfectly good people like you, or some of my other friends get turned away, yet they let in some of the stupidest, worst employees I’ve ever worked with.
I don’t get it :(