Hospitality, the one industry where experience counts against you...
Almost 5 months now and nary a nibble, it's harder and harder to pound the streets looking for work, being interviewed by people who have less experience in life - period, than I do in the industry. No industry counts age as a disadvantage as much as customer service, and the online recruiters sending me jobs at mall kiosks and minimum wage isn't boosting my ego much either. I'm definitely an underachiever, but it isn't that bad, not yet, not with the lucrative fall-back in April.
The daughter, just landed her second serving job, 18 years old with all of the attendant life and serving experience, but she's pretty, "we'll train her...".
In the last 20 years I haven't had a job that hasn't offered to have me back, wouldn't be happy to have me back, and given that I have a job guaranteed in April, but not what I want, so I keep looking.
JOEY TOMATOES.
I'm not one to answer cattle calls, I got the email, the "GROUP INTERVIEW", gave it a miss, then talked to someone I knew who actually needed a job and attended.
Hospitality - it's about people - it's not exactly like most other businesses, where you sell a product, no, hospitality the people that you're ordering from, the servers, staff, they're part of the product. Group interviews - I get that they're great for the company - but - frankly - they're lousy for the prospective employee - and give a fair indication of the treatment you can expect on the slight chance you're chosen to work from them. Which is why I don't attend.
The cattle-call at Joey Tomatoes - as recounted to me - (and I'm pretty sure there's no elaboration or embellishment here). 3 Groups of 12, each being "interviewed" for 10 minutes apiece by the manager and the "Chef".
A tangent here. I've worked with some pretty competent and talented chefs. If you're at Joey's cooking pizzas and pastas from the recipes the company provides you don't call yourself a chef. You're a cook. And if you for a moment believe the wall of canned tomatoes are an advertisement for "Fresh" I suggest you refer to your dictionary.
Back to the interview. 10 minutes for each group of 12 - 10 minutes cut short by the 2 minutes the manager and chef take to introduce themselves. That leaves 8 minutes for 12 people to make the best impression possible answering the questions the manager/chef lobs at them. Neither the manager or Chef make notes, so there's a bit of a mystery as to how they know who's who.
Between the manager and chef - 30 minutes apiece - 1 hour total, to "interview" 35 prospective candidates. People are conscious of the time, and everyone tries to "hoard the mike". They have 1 position to fill. And they have three more sessions scheduled - a total of 105 people "interviewed" for 1 position. The people being interviewed - probably largely unemployed, some maybe looking to upgrade or switch their employment - conservatively they've each invested an hour and a half to be here - attend the interview, transport, apply, etc. Conservatively. Between the candidates - easily 150 hours plus invested to attend the interviews. Joeys management - outside total of 3 hours between manager and chef to interview these candidates. At the end they advise the interviewees that they'll only contact the candidate they select, "Don't call us, we'll call you...", fair return for your interest in working there. They set the bar for their self-importance, and you fed into it by attending.
Frankly, I hear the story and I feel the pain - the fact that Joey's is playing upon the bad economy, the desperation of job seekers, and the "Well, isn't it great for them" mentality doesn't cut it - we should probably think about what's great for us, and that might be burning Joey Tomatoes down.
In any event - it would be better to get a job in Calgary - but not on those terms, Calgary, it's right about now got the politicians, the mayor, the premier it deserves, it's a tire-fire of late stage capitalism and if I have to leave to get employment there won't be any tears shed.