Pet Peeve

[This post recevies a special co-title of Epic Fail]

So, for anyone (anyone? anyone?) reading this thing with some regularity, you probably remember my mention of a StyleCareers career fair coming up, yeah? Yeaaah, about that. While I should probably not automatically label it as #epicfail, to say it was frustrating and exhausting is an understatement. Over the course of five hours, I spoke with four (yes, four) companies, and spent 97% of that time standing in line. It was the ultimate clusterfuck, and while there were over a dozen, closer to two dozen, companies there, the lines were insane. You could not figure out what line was for which company, where a line ended, how long the line truly was.


The downfall of my career fair choice was one particular company. This company's career website has never ever worked on my computer. Even with reliable, awesome Firefox, when I would go to submit my resume, well, epic fail! This company had four or five associate or assistant jobs listed among which they were looking for, and considering many companies had maybe one, if any, entry-ish level opportunuties, it became a must for this career fair. When I got in line, I had an idea that the line itself was long; unfortunately, it was also oddly split by one of the student volunteers working the event. So, for an hour or two, the split part of the line was simply screwed over. While I understand why she [supposedly] split it, to keep the stairway clear for entry and exit, the volunteers were generally incompetent.

Every hour, I would think "Dammit, I really should give up on this line, but I've already been here x hours. I don't want to waste the time spent in line already." But, the result of the wait in line was horribly, horribly depressing and annoying. The guy I finally spoke with glanced at the portfolio for a minute or two, returned my resume (they weren't taking any, I discovered) and then told me to apply for job xyz online.

Really? REALLY?! I just waited in line for four hours to be told to go apply online? Is this the motherfucking NCSU College of Textiles Career Fair? [Aside: that's pretty much what every company that visits the CoT fair tells you to do when they visit. Go to the company's career website.] Ok, seriously, I understand online applications, and they make life easier usually. But if this is how you run your damned business, maybe it's a good thing your website always fails for me. And when I, quite politely, told him one reason I waited in line this entire time is because the website never works for me, he basically told me to go use a PC. Oh, thanks. I appreciate that.

Two of the other three companies I talked with weren't hiring right away, but there are some possibilities. The last wasn't hiring lower level positions - I saw the textile designer position, got excited, waited in their long line and got three quarters of the way through it before realizing that I probably wasn't what they were looking for.

So, I went into this career fair naive and excited and left feeling more jaded and tired than I have in a while. Aaaaand, the search continues...