If You Work On The East Coat, I Probably Hate Your HR Department; (or: The Rant From The Jobless Curator)

Today I applied for thirteen jobs. Surprisingly, this is not the highest number of jobs applied for in one day by yours truly. Also, I get to apply for about ten more tomorrow, what a fantastic way to spend a weekend.

I am tired of the HR runaround. I have a certificate in human resources (no, seriously, I got certified in it.) I understand how it works. How the power play works. I know you’re in charge and until you offer me a position, I have no power. I understood this twenty job applications ago, and even fifty job applications ago. But now that we’re in into the seventies, I am tired.

At first I just did cold applications. There was no pressure. I was still in England and hoping something would come along so we could transition smoothly when moving back to America. This was actually my most successful time and I became a finalist for two positions. This was before I started networking and desperately contacting organizations.

Now I attempt to apply for positions using a 360 degree system. I apply. I email a confirmation. I call a week later. I send application materials to the manager I would work under if hired. I check the status with HR. Most are shocked that I call on the phone. I was taught that if you want to be noticed, you don’t email. Thus I call. Each time they react surprised, interrupted, and sometimes are just plain rude (one snapped at me ‘you just have to be patient’ and hung up, only after I simply asked to confirm that she had only received my application.)

For one application, which was a form filled out online, the system would not allow my cover letter to upload. I tried everything. Finally, I emailed it to the HR email listed explaining it would not upload and needed to be attached to my application. I received a return email, like all the rest asking me not to respond to this automated message and also explaining that no application materials can be sent through email, only the online system.

Frustrated, I called the HR department (which was not easy, many don’t list phone numbers,) and explained, to an answering machine, the situation. Twenty minutes later instead of being called back, I receive another ‘do not respond to this’ email explaining they got my messages and all is well with the cover letter (a few weeks later they sent another automated email to inform me I would not be hired.)

While I’m ranting, I’ll just go ahead and say I HATE when online applications make you fill out an entirely new resume piece by piece, instead of just having you upload your perfectly nicely typed and beautifully designed resume. It took me over an hour on one such site today just to copy and paste each item from my resume into their system. And at the end of it all, after hundreds of hours of work at this, I am still without permanent employment.

Can’t a girl catch a break?