"Executive Position" (sorry, long and slightly rantish)

[booger]

We get people checking up on their applications at the customer service desk quite often. We send them back to our Personnel department usually, but if it's a question I can get answered for them quickly, I will take their name and get the info from Personnel so they can be on their merry way. Sometimes, people don't even finish their application or fill it out properly. Behold this gem...

Lady: person in 20s, maybe my age, wearing a nice suit, carrying a folder, has way too much makeup and a condescending tone
Me: Master of the straight face

Lady: Can I speak to your HR please?
Me: What is this regarding?
Lady: Employment
Me: Ok, have you filled out an application at the kiosk yet? *points to application computer*
Lady: No, this is for an EXECUTIVE position.
Me: *fake smiles* Ok, just let me see who I need to find to talk to you. *trots off*

I go over to the front end managers and tell them what the lady just told me. They stifle laughter and get a manager to come up front to talk to the lady. It take a few minutes before the manager finally shows up...

Manager: How can I help you?
Lady: I'm here to inquire about an EXECUTIVE position.
Manager: Well, you can apply for management...
Lady: I just moved here and I'm here till the middle of June, I really would like an executive position...
Manager: We are hiring, we usually promote management from within the company, however.
Lady: So how can I get hired in something executive?
Manager: The management course takes 6 to 8 weeks to complete, and after that you'd be placed at a store in our district, which is *rattles off parts of 3 states comprising a rather large area*
Lady: So could I work here?
Manager: We aren't hiring for management here, it would be somewhere in the district, I commute from 45 minutes away. I could get you the number of our district manager.
Lady: I have a Bachelor's Degree...
*manager takes lady's resume and tells her he will give it to whoever he needed to give it to, lady says thanks and walks away*



I was shooting evil looks of death from behind my eyes and fake smiling on the outside. This lady was ridiculous! She thinks she can go into this very large retail establishment and be hired the boss of the place right off the street? I have a Bachelor's degree and management experience in a restaurant and they didn't even care- they hired me as a cashier. I work with many people who were bosses at former jobs, and who have higher degrees than I do, and they are working for peanuts. Plus, most of them don't come in with a half pound of makeup.

I mean, cheers to her for being a go getter and all, but if she had bothered to do her research she would know that most management is hired from within the company. This isn't a big secret- it says this when you apply on the kiosk like everyone else, and sometimes in the ads in the paper when our store is hiring. And the fact that she just moved is not an excuse. There are locations of this store all over the world. I don't get why someone wouldn't do a bit of research before going into a place and acting like you are better than everyone else. She probably wouldn't last a week doing the work that I do.

I am not against people trying hard to get a job. She was dressed nice and that gets some points. I am against people not doing their research. I am against people being condescending and thinking they don't need to put in an application like everyone else because they are "educated" or special or something. Blech.

[Best Made Tacos]

Heh, reminds me of a time when I was a phone monkey at a large banking organisation. Had an angry customer who was snarking at me for a $30 fee that was a result of overdrawing her account - I did the usual spiel "No, we won't refund it, no it's not a mistake, yes that is the same fee charged to everyone, no we can't stop your account overdrawing again, yes it does suck, but that's policy for ya, etc" and she told me the bank was heartless to do this to an unemployed person.
To lighten the mood, I said jokingly "Well, we're hiring for the call centre right now if that interests you!" It did, apparently, and her tone changed quickly.
I transferred her to HR, but during the wait she tentatively asked me "Do you enjoy your work?" and I wryly replied "It has its moments" - we were basically the frontline people who got all the crappy calls and were expected to resolve them with few resources. I was amused at how quickly her attitude changed - the prospect of ending up a co-worker of the person you just chewed out will do that.

Never heard if she got hired, it's a big centre, but when I got really awful customers I would fantasise about forcing them to work a few shifts with me! And having to please the customer EVERY time, upon pain of jail time. I'm sure they'd sputter and flounder and fail miserably.

[Banrion]

That's better than the random, unsolicited resumes I get in the mail 5-6 times a year. All people wanting to be hired a VP level or above. Guess where all those resumes go?

Straight to the recycle bin!

[Boozy]

Here's a nice rule of thumb for those poor misguided souls:

If you're qualified to be a vice-president or higher with a multinational corporation, said corporation will find you.

[air914]

Wow. She didn't need the snobby attitude. Guess she doesn't realize how things work...... you usually don't get hired straight out of college for Executive Positions... unless you were something really great in college and you got an internship and maybe had recommendations to a company.......

Good for her for showing up dressed appropriately, having a resume, and at least having some clue of the type of position she wanted..... but the attitude was unnecessary. She could've just asked for clarification, like "Is the Kiosk for all open positions in the company or is it primarily for retail employees & store management? I'm interested in an Executive Level Position - would I go straight to an HR person for that? What is that person's name and how may I reach him/her?"

See that seems much nicer

[Talon]

Let's see: Big chip on shoulder, completely clueless on day-to-day operations? She sounds perfect for corporate-level management

[csdrone]

Let's see: Big chip on shoulder, completely clueless on day-to-day operations? She sounds perfect for corporate-level management

Oh how true that is! I wonder how much fun she would be as a co-worker.....

[braindead]

It really aggravates me that people refuse to follow the system. This lack of respect for the system of things creates general suckiness and a huge sense of entitlement. I don't like following stupid policies or rules any more than anyone else but they are there to keep crap organized. A great big newspaper whack to those who think they are above following the normal procedure. We all encounter this on some level be it someone trying to ignore a refund policy or those people that want to talk to management before they let customer service try and help them. We all hate procedures and policies that aren't in our favor but that doesn't mean we get to just ignore them.

Sorry for the rant but people like that lady bug the hell out of me.

[upsidedown_orchid]

I get people like that applying all the time. They have unrealistic expectations. At my company, you've got to work your way up. We have, in the 25 years we've been in buisness, never hired management from the outside. We will promote across departments, but not off the street.

You gotta put in the time.

[Rapscallion]

Manager: We are hiring, we usually promote management from within the company, however.

Does this mean you end up with managers who actually know what they're doing? I can but hope.

Rapscallion

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Does this mean you end up with managers who actually know what they're doing? I can but hope.

Rapscallion

That's a scary concept - in this country however, is old fashioned.

Companies used to promote from within their ranks, but now (and I've learned this from being w/the Kitty almost 3 years now) is that there's NO hope of getting promoted.

That's because they'd rather hire from other companies - and it's not just store management positions and above either. It can be any position.

That's how I got shifted out of my former position and into another store working as a backup scan person/cashier.