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Of the dozens and dozens of places I've applied over the years, one place really stood out as a place where I'm glad I didn't get hired.
I was out job hunting and went to a department store in the mall. It was part of a big chain I'm sure you've heard of. I walked in and decided to find the office to apply for a job. I had to ask two employees where the office was, because the first didn't even know!
So, I step into the office. This is summer of 2003. The place looked like a grimy anachronism.
The entire place was dingy and reeked of tobacco smoke, with all the surfaces feeling grimy like they are covered in cigarette tar. A tattered dot-matrix-printer banner hung over the back wall with some slogan on it. The secretary looked practically mummified she was so ancient and withered. She had an electric typewriter on her desk and a computer that still had a 5 1/4 floppy drive on it that was running Windows 3.1! Several items around the office had fake chrome/brass finishes that had worn off around the edges exposing the cheap plastic beneath them.
The calendar on the wall was from 1999 (4 years ago!), and grimy and torn memos tacked up talked about office parties from several years past. It was clear nothing was ever taken down here. The entire place seemed dingy and run down, and every piece of office equipment looked at least a decade old, if not much older.
I ask about a job, and the secretary gestures for me to apply at the computer over in the corner. In a side alcove of the office was a desk and a beat-up computer of the same vintage she had on her desk. I sit down at it, and it's got a 5 1/4 floppy, running Windows 3.1 with plain VGA graphics, and to apply to a job I click on the icon which starts Netscape 1.1 (Summer of 2003, remember).
I start to fill out the application, but I pause when I get to the part where I have to enter my SSN. I notice that it is not a secure connection, no HTTPS protocol in use. I tell the secretary that this is not secure and I am concerned about putting my SSN and other vital data over an unencrypted connection.
In her raspy voice she tells me that's the application, and only people at the home office look at it so it's as secure as it gets.
I take a long look around the place and realize just how bad the place feels and think about what it would be like to work for a place like this. As I'm doing this, the computer gives me a Blue Screen of Death and crashes. When it reboots, it gets stuck rebooting and gave some archaic error messages.
The secretary says she'll have to put in a request to corporate for them to contact a "repairman" and send one out. She tells me that in a couple of weeks the should have that computer up and running again if I want to come back and apply then.
I get up, and leave quickly making a point to never even think of working there ever again.
I was out job hunting and went to a department store in the mall. It was part of a big chain I'm sure you've heard of. I walked in and decided to find the office to apply for a job. I had to ask two employees where the office was, because the first didn't even know!
So, I step into the office. This is summer of 2003. The place looked like a grimy anachronism.
The entire place was dingy and reeked of tobacco smoke, with all the surfaces feeling grimy like they are covered in cigarette tar. A tattered dot-matrix-printer banner hung over the back wall with some slogan on it. The secretary looked practically mummified she was so ancient and withered. She had an electric typewriter on her desk and a computer that still had a 5 1/4 floppy drive on it that was running Windows 3.1! Several items around the office had fake chrome/brass finishes that had worn off around the edges exposing the cheap plastic beneath them.
The calendar on the wall was from 1999 (4 years ago!), and grimy and torn memos tacked up talked about office parties from several years past. It was clear nothing was ever taken down here. The entire place seemed dingy and run down, and every piece of office equipment looked at least a decade old, if not much older.
I ask about a job, and the secretary gestures for me to apply at the computer over in the corner. In a side alcove of the office was a desk and a beat-up computer of the same vintage she had on her desk. I sit down at it, and it's got a 5 1/4 floppy, running Windows 3.1 with plain VGA graphics, and to apply to a job I click on the icon which starts Netscape 1.1 (Summer of 2003, remember).
I start to fill out the application, but I pause when I get to the part where I have to enter my SSN. I notice that it is not a secure connection, no HTTPS protocol in use. I tell the secretary that this is not secure and I am concerned about putting my SSN and other vital data over an unencrypted connection.
In her raspy voice she tells me that's the application, and only people at the home office look at it so it's as secure as it gets.
I take a long look around the place and realize just how bad the place feels and think about what it would be like to work for a place like this. As I'm doing this, the computer gives me a Blue Screen of Death and crashes. When it reboots, it gets stuck rebooting and gave some archaic error messages.
The secretary says she'll have to put in a request to corporate for them to contact a "repairman" and send one out. She tells me that in a couple of weeks the should have that computer up and running again if I want to come back and apply then.
I get up, and leave quickly making a point to never even think of working there ever again.
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