Is this really that hard?! (long & ranty)

[Custard Chick]

Alright, so about three weeks ago, I go up to Target and fill out an application. Now if you've never filled out an application at Target, they have these nifty little computers near customer service where you fill everything out and submit it. So I fill everything in, answer their inane little "quiz" questions (A coworker is refusing to do their job, what do you do? A) Beat them within an inch of their life, B) Do their work for them, or C) Tattle on them to your manager!) - you know the bull-honkey.

Later that week my boyfriend answers the ringing phone and, giving me a confused look, hands it to me. For the sake of this exercise, let's say my name is Mary Jane Smith, ok? (Just a note: my real last name is very German and rare, and I have NEVER seen it, or anything resembling it, as a first name.)

Target Drone: "Hi, is this umm… Jane Smith?" (apparently she had asked my boyfriend if “Smith Jane Smith” was available)
Me: "Yeah, it's Mary Smith, hi."
TD: "Blah, blah, blah, can you come in for an interview?"
Me: "Sure, yeah, awesome."

So I go in for an interview (where I am the only well-dressed person there, everyone else is wearing baggy jeans and sweat shirts, and I was also only one of three (out of about ten people total) who spoke English), and end up waiting an hour before my name is even called.

Awesome.

So I go and interview, doing those stupid "Behavioral Style Interview Questions." But I put on a big smile and answer everything to the best of my ability (and what I think they want to hear). Then the interviewer gives me my application to look over and verify. And where ever my name is written it comes out at "Smith Jane Smith." So I go through, cross out the first "Smith" and put "Mary" there, and point this out to the interviewer, who says, "Oh! We'll get that fixed!"

Alright, cool. So we finish, I go back out and wait for my second interview. Basically get asked more inane questions, and get offered a job as cashier. Woohoo! So they give me paperwork to do a drug test and tell me they're going to run a background check on me. Alright, no problem, I'm a good girl, so I've got no problem with that. Go, get my drug test done, all is well.

This was Tuesday.

On Friday, I get a call (right before I'm going out to dinner with my boyfriend, no less), that my background check "did not go through" so I have to call the bg check place.

What?! What does that mean?!

Dinner gets postponed as I frantically dial the bg check place.

And get placed on hold...

For twenty minutes...

When someone finally gets on the phone, I give them all my info, and they tell me my social security number cannot be verified. What?! I immediately start thinking that my identity has been stolen. The lady says I have to fax them a copy of my social security card and my driver's license. Unfortunately, they close at 6, and it's 5:55 now. So I have to wait until Monday.

So Monday rolls around, I run up to Kinko's at 8:00am and fax out the copies of my cards, calling the bg check place to assure that they received the fax.

They did. All is well with the world.

The next day, I call Target. They haven't received it yet. They say it takes 24-48 hours to get them. Alright, I'm fine with that. I wait for them to call me back.

The week ends with no call.

So today (Monday, nearly three weeks AFTER my interview and job offer), I call Target. Still no bg check. I call the bg check place, after waiting nearly 45 minutes total and getting transferred no less than three times, I finally reach someone who can help me.

And what does she tell me?

THAT MY NAME WAS SUBMITTED AS "SMITH JANE SMITH" AND THEREFORE THEY CANNOT RUN A BACKGROUND CHECK UNTIL TARGET SUBMITS THE RIGHT F*@!ING NAME!!

So, I call Target back. Someone pulls up my application and says, "Well you submitted your name as 'Smith Jane Smith' so that's what we sent out."

I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure I know my own name and that it was your computer that fugged up, and I'm pretty sure I TOLD YOU that it needed to be fixed! So the lady verifies my birthday and SSN# and says she resubmitted it.

So I ask, "So my name is Mary Smith in the system now?"

"Oh...No...Umm...Let me call you back."

ARRRRGGGGG!!!1!!eleventy!!!!11!

*throws rocks at Target Drone*

So FINALLY, I get a call back, with them actually asking for "Mary Smith" and she said that all was well now, and that they should be getting the bg check later today or tomorrow.

I'll let you know what happens whenever they may call back...

[Fawn]

Oh My! Wow!

Now going through this:
1. I've been to an interview where there were 10 people waiting in the lobby. 3/4 of those people were not in proper attire for an interview.
2. I walked out after waiting 15 minutes, saying I had just recieved a txt about a family emergency and I'd call them back later (which I never did).
3. I treat an interview the other way around. I am interviewing the company to see whether this is a place I want to be at.
4. I would kill them after learning they didn't fix my name! What morons!
5. SO much stress and you aren't even working yet. Sure you want to work there? Sometimes theres theres a sign from the job gods that it wasn't meant to be. I'm pretty sure I've seen a few of them already in this case! :S

[Custard Chick]

Ugg...I know what you mean Fawn, but I am just SO desperate for some kind of paycheck and this is only seasonal, so I figured a few months wouldn't be that troublesome. I'm still putting out applications for Graphic Design jobs (I just graduated from college this spring w/ a BA in GD), but I haven't heard back from anyone. I think I'm going to call back a few of my more recent applications to see if I can hurry them up and take a job w/ one of them (something I actually WANT to do) and just blow off Target since they obviously just don't care about me.

*siiiiigh* Thanks for the huggles though!

[Tigress]

5. SO much stress and you aren't even working yet. Sure you want to work there? Sometimes theres theres a sign from the job gods that it wasn't meant to be. I'm pretty sure I've seen a few of them already in this case! :S

It could be worse. You could completely total your car en route to the interview. That happened to me a couple of months ago. The guy was nice enough to reschedule for me, but it was pretty evident during the interview that they had written me off already and were just going through the motions.

[Custard Chick]

Getting propositioned for porn at a Panera's...?!

:O That sucks Tigress! I'm so sorry to here that!

Alright, update: no word from Target. So I'm done with them. I went to Panera's this afternoon to fill out an application (there's a sign on the front door saying they're hiring cashiers and sandwich makers, woohoo!) So I go in, ask for an application, and get told that they're online. But manager takes me aside and starts asking me what I'm looking for: hours, days, position, that kind of stuff. I let him know I'm looking for mainly days, M-F. He tells me to sit and he'll be right back.

So I sit. A few minutes later he comes back with a free pop and a paper app. for me to fill out. Yay! That's a good sign, right? He even says, "Well...I'm not technically supposed to do this buuut..." Hehehe!

So I fill out the app. While doing so, a very dark man with a thick African accent comes up to me and asks me if I'm filling out a part-time application. I say yes. He then proceeds to proposition me for what sounds like some kind of porn magazine/TV show thing. (He was saying "six", and with his accent, I could only assume he meant "sex".) I proceed to do this: He then specifically states that it's for African-Americans.

Side-note: I am a white girl. The whitest of the white. Irish white. Approximately 5'3" and 175lbs. on a good day, but I gain weight all over (esp. in my booty and chest), therefore, black men LOVE me.

I stutter a reply, saying that I'm fine with getting a job at Panera's and he luckily drifts away to get his food. So I go back to filling out my app, and after waiting for about 10 minutes after I'm finished, the manager comes back, apologizes for taking so long (dinner rush had just started, completely understandable, 'A+' for apologizing though), takes my app and asks me to come back in at 3:00 on Saturday. I agree happily, say see ya then!, and skip happily back home!

SO, to round-out: Target is out, Panera's is in.

Wish me luck!

[Tigress]

:O That sucks Tigress! I'm so sorry to here that!

Hey, it's all good. Last year, I won a bunch of money, which I used to pay off my car. When I wrecked, it was valued at a little over $10K, which I pocketed, minus the $500 deductible. Used the cash as a hefty down payment on a cute little VW Jetta.

And I start my new job in a little over a week, where hopefully my skills will be a bit more appreciated and I'll won't encounter as much hostility.

So I fill out the app. While doing so, a very dark man with a thick African accent comes up to me and asks me if I'm filling out a part-time application. I say yes. He then proceeds to proposition me for what sounds like some kind of porn magazine/TV show thing. (He was saying "six", and with his accent, I could only assume he meant "sex".) I proceed to do this: He then specifically states that it's for African-Americans.

Side-note: I am a white girl. The whitest of the white. Irish white. Approximately 5'3" and 175lbs. on a good day, but I gain weight all over (esp. in my booty and chest), therefore, black men LOVE me.

Ew... I knew people like that used to slither onto my alma mater's campus all the time and proposition the ladies like that. The school was just a few blocks away from one of the worst slums/housing project in the city and many of our female students were single mothers trying to make ends meet while still trying to get an education. I never got propositioned, mostly because I was going through my Goth-punk "I'll fucking kill you" phase, especially after breaking up with the jealous, possessive asshole I dated during freshman year.

I did get propositioned over the Internet by some guy looking for "fitness models" that he would film working out. It looked pretty sleazy, so I told him "no." He kept pushing, saying he'd pay me $50/hr and I only had to work a for a "couple" of hours on the weekend. But... he was in PA. I'm in NC. $100/wk wouldn't even cover my airfare. Methinks he didn't think out his pitch too well.

[hawkchick11]

I use to work at Panera.. I loved it

Plus you get a discount on food, and at the end of the night everything that is leftover is donated (at least where I worked it was ) to a shelter, some nights they wouldn't want the donation so we got to take what we wanted. The best night ever was the night before Thanksgiving and Christmas eve. I went home with whole coffee cakes and a bunch of rolls.

[Custard Chick]

Another Update!

So, I go to Panera's at 3:00 on Saturday like asked, the GM talk to me and gives me a bunch of paperwork to fill out (tax forms, etc.), then tells me there's a store meeting Sunday at 8:00pm and wants me to come. Awesome! I HAVE A JOB!

So it's Saturday night, I'm cheap (no job, remember?), so I'm hanging out at home watching the Bourne Identity on TV, when, at 9:30pm on a Saturday night, when who calls me?? TARGET! Telling me that orientation is on Wednesday! WTF?!?!

A week and a half with no word what-so-ever as to what was going on with my background, then all of a sudden they want me to act as though everything is hunkey-dorey and come to work for them!? Ugg, if this is how they treat their potential employees, I don't even want to know how they treat their actual employees!

But Panera's looking like an awesome place to work (even though I'd be starting at 5am and I have to work at least one weekend shift/week - no biggie though), the managers are really super nice (one keeps offering me something to drink whenever he sees me) and they're willing to give me the hours I want (day-time).

Wish me luck!

[XCashier]

So, I go to Panera's at 3:00 on Saturday like asked, the GM talk to me and gives me a bunch of paperwork to fill out (tax forms, etc.), then tells me there's a store meeting Sunday at 8:00pm and wants me to come. Awesome! I HAVE A JOB!

So it's Saturday night, I'm cheap (no job, remember?), so I'm hanging out at home watching the Bourne Identity on TV, when, at 9:30pm on a Saturday night, when who calls me?? TARGET! Telling me that orientation is on Wednesday! WTF?!?!

Did you tell the Target person precisely what they could orient, and where?

Panera sounds nice, sounds like they, at least, have got it together. Unlike the Bullseye...

[Fawn]

Yay! Congrats on the Panera job!
Ah! I can't believe the Target called back to you like that! Sooo much ignorance! But, as I said before, it wasn't meant to be (as evidence by a better job somewhere else!)