Monday, November 30, 2009

Career Fairs have become SPAM FAIRS!

QuietAgent.com has been sending me job links that lead to other job posting sites that force you to once again register your information so these new job posting sites can once again SPAM you with offers to attend mysterious online colleges.

If you're not already getting spammed by Pyramid Scheme Insurance or Financial Companies who promise you the chance at being a manager, then take all of your leads away from you because you didn't sell enough.

Now I went to search for job fairs and I found one in Chicago through www.nationalcareerfairs.com, but here's the catch. In order to see the list of businesses at the fair, you have to register your information.

Well you'll never guess who's going to be at that fair in Chicago on December 2, 2009.

Besides the military and retail, there is another job search company, several universities I never heard of, A real estate investment sales company, a company that offers training to career trainers, a "institute" that offers computer training for those seeking a computer career.

Basically, Everything described in Barbra Erenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed: on (not) getting by in America" http://www.wesjones.com/ehrenreich.htm

Online Job Search sites make their money by either selling your information, or selling other companies the opportunity to SPAM YOU for them by targeting you with links that offer you everything but a job.

How did I find this crappy Chicago Job fair that turned out to be SPAM TRAP? I searched for career fairs at the site I thought I could trust to keep that garbage away from me. http://www.jobcentral.com/

Start using ".jobs" in your browser search instead of ".com"

Friday, November 27, 2009

New money making tactics emerge from Online Job Listing Services.

I always get infuriated with Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com when they incessantly force you through page after page of application forms for Online College.

It's like walking through a minefield, you must be careful and search for the tiny button that says "No Thanks," because if you don't you will be bombarded with emails and phone calls by people wanting you to enroll in their education or training program.

It becomes easier to find the "No Thanks" button, so they are starting to resort to far worse tactics. Holding your potential job hostage, by forcing you to register with a secondary job listing service before they will allow you to see the job description.

I was notified that I was matched with a job by QuietAgent.com. I clicked on a link that I thought would lead me to a job, instead I was directed to a page of search results from hard2hire.com. The only way I can find out about that job is if I register with yet another job listing service that will SPAM me? No thanks.

My guess is QuietAgent.com is getting paid by hard2hire.com for the redirected clients who register, then Hard2Hire is probably getting paid by their advertisers, who ever the hell they are.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Now This!

Remember when you went to apply for a job and all you really needed was your work history? Did that work for you? That was back in the 1970's. It works when you're fresh out of high school, but not for older workers who were previously laid off.

For a while you only needed three references that you could turn over after the first interview. Then potential employers expect you to turn over your references in advance, even though they may be scam artists or psychotic individuals who might be out to ruin someone's life for the fun of it.

Then, get this, some employers expect you to have other people take time out of their busy schedules to write letters of recommendation to them before they consider an interview.

I'm not going to have my associates write hundreds of letters of recommendations if I apply for hundreds of jobs.

And Now This! Employers are expecting you to spend $40 to get yourself finger printed, then spend over $100 to go to the State's Office of Professional Development and get a "Permanent Employee Registration Card (PERC) card.

I was told by my potential employer (who when asked, told me he worked for some security agency I never heard of) that it would take a couple of weeks for the prints to get through the system, then I would have to go down to the Department of Professional Regulation and apply for a PERC Card.

I never received specific instructions for this process or given the name of someone to contact. I called the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation and the recorded message repeatedly told me to visit their website to apply for a license, but there was no link for license applications to be found on their main page for a PERC card, so I called them back and listened intently through the entire recording until it told me to press '2' for other license inquiries, and it was busy.