i am well and truly fucked

[smileyeagle1021]

The call center blacklisted me. I have no way to prove it, but that has to be what happened. I applied for a position with a hotel company's call center for their rewards program assistance line. I have a year and a half of reservations call center work and a year of night audit/guest service experience. Before that was 6 months of rental car experience. And speaking of general customer service I've got 4.5-5 years of customer service experience (including the hotel, call center, and car rental of course). You'd think that I easily meet the requirements for that job...
Nope, I got a very nice email thanking me for my interest, but telling me that they were looking for someone who better met their requirements... There is only one way I can think of that I didn't meet their requirements... and that's if that fucking call center blacklisted me... and if that's the case I am well and truly fucked because that will make it nearly impossible to get any call center job and difficult to get hotel jobs. I don't have experience to get into any other industry (well, fast food would probably take me, but I can't live off of that). I know I've got a job and that is supposed to reassure me, but truly, I am miserable here beyond belief. I hate this shift, I'm tired of my social life being that I get to see my roommates for half an hour a day while I'm getting ready for work, I'm tired of having a job that is nothing but sitting on my ass bored out of my mind, and most of all, I'm tired of being tired. My body is starting to resist sleeping during the day more and more... I am now dependent on sleeping pills to be able to sleep during the day and I don't know how long that will work. That and as any of you who have read my posts in general work chat and morons in management know, this place doesn't even qualify as a dump... dumps have low standards, this place has no standards... except the unrealistic artificial ones set by management. If it says anything, my mother when she visits, refuses to stay at the hotel, even getting the employee rate. She would much rather spend $30-40 more to stay at a different hotel... I think that speaks more volumes than anything I could post.

[Kittish]

I do wish you well in the search for a new job. There is always the possibility that the call center you applied at got just swamped with applications, and more or less hired the first halfway suitable ones they got, and yours was further down in the stack. The email sounds like a pretty generic one (I've gotten lots like that, too, for positions I was EXTREMELY qualified for). Keep putting in applications, even to the point of (if you haven't found something else by then) putting in another app at the same place in a month. One place I know of (in Nebraska), you pretty much have to be persistant to get a job with them, as in putting in applications every month for several months. I never was that determined to get a job with that particular place, though.

[Jester]

Smiley, relax. Odds are good that you did not get blacklisted. As an example, I am supremely qualified to work in a bar or restaurant, with more years of experience than some of my coworkers (and some CSers) have had years in their lives. And that includes many years of training others to work in the same industry. And despite that, when I have been jobhunting, there have been many places that didn't get back to me, went with someone else, whatever the case may be.

Remember, there is always someone more qualified than you, and also there is the fact that sometimes they go with someone with less experience but who interviewed better with the interviewer. And there are several other possibilities that I can't even think of this early in my morning.

You haven't been blacklisted, you just didn't get the job. As has been pointed out, the email sounded rather generic, so don't get your panties in a bind over it. Just keep on truckin' in your search for a new job.

Besides, blacklisted? What could you have possibly done to have them blacklist you? Can you think of anything rationally that would cause them to do that? Did you beat the boss's youngest child over the head with a math textbook? Did you send all the employees pornographic birthday cards? Did you force the staff to watch a "Big Brother" marathon? No? I didn't think so. So relax.

[smileyeagle1021]

What could you have possibly done to have them blacklist you?

I sent am email that was CCed to pretty much everyone in management (both at our call center plus the corporate offices) calling the IT manager a "fucking moron"

does that sound like something serious enough to get blacklisted... considering the call centers are trying to justify their existence and not getting outsourced by showing the high quality of their employees to have one pull a stunt like that and send proof to the corporate bigwigs that control center budgets... yeah...

And I didn't even get an interview... and I doubt they were inundated with that many applicants since the job openings weren't very well advertised.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I truly did fuck up badly at the call center, and I have the feeling that karma hasn't finished fucking with me in return.

[Pedersen]

Smiley, here's a Google search you should use. Using the services of one of these companies will tell you what is actually being said to other companies about you.

reference check company for job seekers

That will let you at least know that much definitively.

[42_42_42]

Well, look at it this way, you don't exactly like the work you're doing. Just because you feel as if this is the only work you're qualified to do, doesn't mean that it is the work for you. Is there something that you're really interested in or passionate about? Maybe this is your oppurtunity to do something you'd really love.

/Just tryin' to look on the bright side of things.

[JLRodgers]

I've found you never know what the hell companies are thinking... I applied for one job as a manager (over the place) that was social services based....

My qualifications involved: management experience, running own business, software design, food service (with a food service license), psychology degree (and getting another one), and I've even worked with the people at the place before (the residents, not the people in ch arge) - they "know" me.

Job required: experience managing others, finding people to create new software (they needed some they said, one main job was to find a way to get it done without spending money), someone to help in the kitchen sometimes and understand kitchen policies, having worked with the people in question, and a psych degree (or social services).


I never got a call or letter denying me the job. I seriously doubt the person they hired had the same experience as I did. Given how the interviews were setup, they called in at least 32 people for interviews, who knows how many weren't.

[Kusanagi]

Even if they don't blacklist you, all that needs to happen is this:

New Employer: Is he rehireable?
Old Employer: No.

99% of employers don't care the reason for not being rehireable, just that you are.

[tropicsgoddess]

I dunno about the email they sent back to you considering how tight the job market is these days. Sorry about that, Smiley. Do you know anybody that would give you a good reference?

[Jester]

I sent am email that was CCed to pretty much everyone in management (both at our call center plus the corporate offices) calling the IT manager a "fucking moron"

Okay, I grant you that that particular stunt might well get someone blacklisted from getting a job with that company. Wow. Just....wow.

[Evil Queen]

Except mine. Problem is, I don't have a hotel to call my own yet. I'm working on it though!

Good luck Smiley! I know you'll get a good job soon.

[Bella_Vixen]

This may or may not help but...

When I applied for the job I have now, the posting said "MUST have grocery retail experience." I had never worked in a grocery store in my life* and they not only hired me, but started me off with a higher salary then most of the people in the store.





*unless you count the stint I did bagging groceries when I was 9 years old.