Job Applicants

[Syndrn]

We're running a help wanted ad and the most important part reads:

Route Driver, must be able to lift 80 lbs, clean driving record.

Here's the first 5 people to call about the job!

Me: Giving address and directions to office
Guy1: Wow! I live in ******** (30 minute drive) Don't you think that's too far to drive to work?
Me: Well, only you can make that determination. If you feel that it's too far to drive then it may not be what you're looking for.

The next 3 calls went like this!

By clean driving record do you mean no tickets?
Would 2 speeding tickets count?
I have a careless backing and careless operating, does that matter?

That 5th call went like this!

How often would I be lifting 80 lbs?

This was after I told him that it was delivering salt for water softeners!

[draftermatt]

We get that too. We'll put "concrete exp necessary" and get calls from carpenters, fast food workers, etc who have no idea what we do, they're just calling everyone.

[Rapscallion]

Heh - one of our recruitment drives a while back stipulated that we would only give positions from that round of intake to people with HGV (heavy goods vehicle) licenses.

We had any number of people asking if we'd train them up...

Er, yeah, right...

Rapscallion

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Route Driver, must be able to lift 80 lbs, clean driving record.


Me: Giving address and directions to office
Guy1: Wow! I live in ******** (30 minute drive) Don't you think that's too far to drive to work?
Me: Well, only you can make that determination. If you feel that it's too far to drive then it may not be what you're looking for.

First of all, 30 minutes drive is not long.
Secondly, the job requires DRIVING. You're driving to work to drive summore. what's 30 minutes if you're driving all day?

[Gurndigarn]

First of all, 30 minutes drive is not long.
Secondly, the job requires DRIVING. You're driving to work to drive summore. what's 30 minutes if you're driving all day?

Oh, you don't want the answer to that one. Especially not after I spent an hour and a half both ways to get to a fifteen minute service call.

[Giggle Goose]

Guy1: Wow! I live in ******** (30 minute drive) Don't you think that's too far to drive to work?

Uhh, OK, he's applying to a job, isn't the employer supposed to be doing the "sizing up" here? I mean, there's nothing wrong with asking questions, but it seems to me that this person is carrying the "I would be doing you guys a favor by commuting" attitude, which isn't really a good idea when getting someone to hire you.

[Luna]

I once put an ad on the mall website for the bookstore in the help wanted section.

It read something along the lines of:


Love books? Love getting a discount on books? Need a part-time job? Come apply at (bookstore)! We're looking for outgoing reliable individuals who meet the following requirements to fill part-time closing shift positions:
*must be able to work weekends
*must be legally able to work past 11pm
*team oriented and open to working in every department of store including cafe


So what kind of applicants did I get? These are example of both phone interviews as well as stop bys and just glancing through applicants:
*So I can work from 4-7pm, is that good?
*Eww, I have to serve food too?
*Why do I have to work til 11pm (Because thats when the store closes!) Oh, so I go home at 11pm? (No, we go home when the store is cleaned.)
*Availability: 9am-2pm Monday through Thursday.
*Would like to work ONLY in music department - will NOT work in any other department.

and I could go on and on...
why bother applying if what you want doesn't meet what the company is specifically asking for in the slightest? Oh wait - I'm assuming that people applying for a BOOKSTORE position would be able to read. LOL. My bad.

[myswtghst]

I'm still annoyed by my coworkers who piss and moan about their schedules. When you accept the job in the call center, you are explicitly told that you will have a shifting schedule (not always the same shift, but within a set, first shift time frame), you will not always get the shifts you want, that scheduling is determined by seniority, and that everyone is expected to pitch in.

Yet I still hear complaints from the newbies that they have to work late one day a month, that they don't want to work any holidays, and that they can't possibly pick up someone else's shift. Granted, I'm known for being overly flexible (about scheduling! ) but still...that doesn't seem like much to me, especially if you were told it was coming at the beginning.

[repsac]

My favorite of all time came when I was a HC at Lowe's. This guy looks up from the computerized applications and says to me quote:

It says if you were convicted of a felony. What if you're just charged with one?

[zzapp the witch]

Its actually quite easy to get charged with a felony these days. And at no personal fault of your own. /looks innocent

[BusyBee]

In regards to "[something] exp necessary" in ads, just from my own experience in getting close to desperately wanting a job...
If I saw something saying "[something] exp nec" and I didn't have that experience but was otherwise good for the job, I may have applied if either a) I had experience in something very like it, or b) I didn't think it would be a huge ordeal to learn it on the job.
That said, if an ad said anything like"[something] licence required", or "clean [something] record", or made stipulations about when the applicants must be able to work and such, I didn't bother applying then. That would've just been silly

[Rapscallion]

In the example I cited of HGV drivers, the licence for that costs a substantial amount of money for the training and test. We're talking well into four figures. One of the casual workers proudly boasted to his peers that he wanted us to teach him to drive a reach truck and to drive HGV so he could earn more elsewhere. He didn't last long after that.

Rapscallion

[Gurndigarn]

One of the casual workers proudly boasted to his peers that he wanted us to teach him to drive a reach truck and to drive HGV so he could earn more elsewhere. He didn't last long after that.

He... did this at the place you work at now? That is essentially a co-op? That was... not wise. But a wonderful example of natural selection at work.

[AirHostess]

I used to work in recruitment, ah the stories I could tell!

[Banrion]

I used to work in recruitment, ah the stories I could tell!

WELL???? Let's hear 'em!