Searching For That Job

Way back in 1988, I needed to find a job.  I was a college student, who had run out of student loans and had to drop down to a part-time basis in college to afford my ways.  So I decided to look for a job.  Back then, there were many choices:  bookstores, many stores at the mall, and now defunct stores of Lechmere and Ames.  I had decided to work at Woolworth at the mall.  I figured I had a better chance here than any place else, because my father knew the manager Bernie.  The interesting thing was that I got hired on my birthday.  What a wonderful birthday present, I thought.  A FULL-TIME JOB WITH BENEFITS!!  A rarity in today's job market.

Getting hired at HQ was almost as easy, because this company was desperate.  They needed help to keep their full-timers from getting overtime.  I barely had my application submitted and got home when I got a phone call from them wanting to interview me.

Staples, however, was a different story.  I submitted my first application with them shortly after I got the boot from Woolworth.  Heard nothing at that point, but didn't care because I had the job a couple months after at HQ.  After the job at HQ disappeared, I submitted another application to Staples and this time I had my meal ticket.  The person who took my application was a former employee at Woolworth who knew me quite well and was able to get me an interview.  This proves the point that you really need to know someone to get in the door of any company.  About a week later, I got the job.  Ironically, about 6 months after I was employed there, I was told that they didn't have my application on-file and wanted me to fill out a new one for the record.  Was this a warning of things to come?  Maybe it was....

One thing I want to mention is that in all 3 of these jobs, they all had paper applications in which to apply for the job.  Unlike today, where most jobs are applied for online and you are blindly submitting somewhere out there.  Not only that, but with today's Internet applications, the companies can ask quiz type questions to test your knowledge of various things.  One application I filled out a few months ago had 200(!) questions on it besides the standard application items.  This probably all adds up to the fact that I am not currently employed.  Some computer "sees" I am unemployed and for how long, then sees my answers to their endless questions, then says "REJECT" and I never hear from them.  Welcome to the 21st century of hiring...or not hiring as the case may be.....


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