Workin' for a living
Yesterday I had a bit of a phone interview for a senior secretary position (is it still common practice outside of Buffalo to use the word "secretary"?). I think I did quite well, and the interviewer seemed pleased with my responses. At the end of the phone call, he said that he'd let me know about further interviews as soon as he could, but that he had to more phone interviewing. He said that he got 400 responses to the job ad, and that he'd narrowed that down to 75 resumes. I am happy to be one of the 75, but I was shocked at how many resumes he had to skim through to get to this point.
I know that I shouldn't be so surprised, given the economy. Even when we're not in a recession, I know that there are always people trying to find office work (all too often, I'm one of those people), but at my last two jobs, whenever we looked for new people, we'd get 10, maybe 15 resumes at best. Now, neither of my last two companies were as high-profile as the one that just called me, but 400?!?
In light of this reminder that I will have to go back to work sometime soon, I present you with a few blogs I stumbled on today.
The first is a rather inspiring blog written by a homeless woman - The Girls Guide to Homelessness. Should I ever get depressed about my job and money situation (hasn't happened yet, but you never know), or even for an interesting read, I'll come to this blog for the kick in the pants I need.
The second blog is sort of a mish-mash of all things assistant-related - save the assistants. I especially enjoyed this entry, for those who think that sexism is dead in the workplace.
I have an interview story, similar but not quite as bad. The guy didn't hit on me or outright say that I had to be willing to be harassed, but he did ask me if I was married, if I had children (having children apparently always means that you can never work late), if I was OK working with mostly men, because usually women are too sensitive to work in a male-dominated atmosphere. This guy went on and on in the same vein, that it would be my job to fit into the boys' club and my fault if I didn't, that I'd better not get too "female" at work.
I was so desperate for a job that I sped to a company half an hour away as fast as was legally possible - this guy gave me next to no notice for this interview. By the end of the interview, I could barely conceal my disgust. What really got me was, while this throwback of a guy went on and on about how I shouldn't expect to act female if I got hired, a woman (his assistant?) sat next to him, so prim, so quiet.
One of the few jobs I was happy to NOT get.
I know that I shouldn't be so surprised, given the economy. Even when we're not in a recession, I know that there are always people trying to find office work (all too often, I'm one of those people), but at my last two jobs, whenever we looked for new people, we'd get 10, maybe 15 resumes at best. Now, neither of my last two companies were as high-profile as the one that just called me, but 400?!?
In light of this reminder that I will have to go back to work sometime soon, I present you with a few blogs I stumbled on today.
The first is a rather inspiring blog written by a homeless woman - The Girls Guide to Homelessness. Should I ever get depressed about my job and money situation (hasn't happened yet, but you never know), or even for an interesting read, I'll come to this blog for the kick in the pants I need.
The second blog is sort of a mish-mash of all things assistant-related - save the assistants. I especially enjoyed this entry, for those who think that sexism is dead in the workplace.
I have an interview story, similar but not quite as bad. The guy didn't hit on me or outright say that I had to be willing to be harassed, but he did ask me if I was married, if I had children (having children apparently always means that you can never work late), if I was OK working with mostly men, because usually women are too sensitive to work in a male-dominated atmosphere. This guy went on and on in the same vein, that it would be my job to fit into the boys' club and my fault if I didn't, that I'd better not get too "female" at work.
I was so desperate for a job that I sped to a company half an hour away as fast as was legally possible - this guy gave me next to no notice for this interview. By the end of the interview, I could barely conceal my disgust. What really got me was, while this throwback of a guy went on and on about how I shouldn't expect to act female if I got hired, a woman (his assistant?) sat next to him, so prim, so quiet.
One of the few jobs I was happy to NOT get.
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