Job Interviews And No Callbacks

I understand that companies are busy, but why say something that you don't mean. I've been for a few job interviews lately, and every one of them seemed to go well. Each one filled with laughing, joking, and generally just an easy going atmosphere. I'm one of those people that just doesn't get nervous at all in interviews. The way I see it, be yourself and remember, later on the same day it will all be over and its just another experience that I'll look back on and think to myself - remember when I went to that interview. It's basically nothing but a tiny event in a much bigger picture that is your life.

So much so, that even on the same day it occurred, once over, it's already history in my own - life and times - adventure journey. One more experience to add to the many others. If it was meant to be I'll be working there, if it wasn't then I won't. Please don't take this to mean that I don't care about the jobs I'm going for. If I didn't want the job I wouldn't go for the interview in the first place. it's just my outlook on life.

 

When I was working. I loved those Dandelion Wishes

Strange things have been happening to me lately. Good things. A waking up, or heightened awareness so to speak. To say its been an eye opening experience is an understatement. Maybe its an age related thing, where you finally start to understand what and who is important in this world, and what and who is really controlling most of what we see and hear. But that's for another post. Back to work.

Have I become unemployable

How hard has it become to get a job that you could literally train a monkey to do. In my experience, it's now harder than ever before. The employers seem to think that these jobs are like gold dust, and you must be prepared to chop an arm off to work for them. However, the funny thing is, when you see some of the people who actually work there, they look like they've just come off the set of the film - The Hills Have Eyes.

Just think, those Hills Have Eyes looking "individuals", who can hardly string a sentence together, actually aced the interview and got the job. I find this absolutely crazy. Things seem to be very backwards lately. It's almost like they don't want people who can talk and have a decent vocabulary to work for them. Maybe that is the case for me, because the jobs I'm applying to, and getting interviews for, involve manual labour.

Even though I'm basically from the streets of Birmingham, brought up on a housing estate, I still have very good manners and a decent vocabulary. They probably listen to me talk and think, nah, he uses big words, he won't fit in, he's gonna alienate the Hills Have Eyesers. In one of my recent interviews, which was for a warehouse role at TNT in Nobel Way, Aston, Birmingham (UK), I messed up big time. I used the word Clarify.

As soon as I did, the TWO interviewers (Yes, two interviewers for a job moving boxes) both sat back that little bit further in their chairs and their faces were like, wow, you just blew it mate. I decrypted their facial expressions into word format, and they basically translated to: "Mate, what are you doing here. We're looking for illiterate knuckledraggers who can hardly speak, not people who have the capacity to do more than read a label and move a box". Damn, I've been busted.

Don't ring us, we'll ring you

To clarify (hahaha I had to), I didn't get the job. But you would have thought I did by the time the end of the interview came. One of the interviewers even said, yeah, I'm putting you first on the list, right at the top. Hmm. Don't you just hate fake people. I do. And that brings me to the meaning of this post. Job Interviews and no callbacks. Despite the promises, the great rapport in the interviews, laughing, getting along well etc, letting me know the outcome of the interview "Either way" via a phone call has become the fake people's method of secretly saying you haven't been successful. I find it all very amusing, but also rather sad on their part.

What happened to those salt of the earth people. You know, the ones who are honest and tell it like it is. You know, the ones who say, I'll call you tomorrow and let you know, and they actually call because they are people of their word, straight shooters. There are a few detrimental character traits that I really dislike in a person. Two of those are liars and people NOT of their word. I think this is because I am an honest man, a person of my word. If I say I'll meet you or phone you, I will 100% stick to what I said. So when I don't get the same treatment back it really annoys me.

Name and shame

I think it's about time to name and shame the companies that I have spent money travelling to, and gone out of my way for, only to be treated with a level of disrespect that I feel really lets these companies down. And speaks volumes about the people they employ. All companies mentioned in this post have one thing in common. They all have employees working for them who basically lie to visitors / potential employees. So, without further ado.

Already mentioned above: TNT, Nobel Way, Aston, Birmingham. Promised to put me at the top of the list and call me back within a week. Never happened. Thanks Benn (AKA Bulky Bullet). He reminded me of someone I used to know. His nickname was Bullet. Only Benn the interviewer was a bit more of a meat head. So I nicknamed him bulky bullet. Or another name that's just come to mind while typing this: Bullet the meat head. Much more fitting.

Clearabee, Hastingwood Industrial Park, Wood Lane, Birmingham B24 9QR. I specifically asked "When will you be letting people know if they were successful or not". The chirpy but as fake as they come Clearabee employee answered in no uncertain terms, you will be informed "Either Way" tomorrow on whether you got the job or not. Never happened.

Castle Doors Ltd, Unit 19, Ford Industrial Park, Dunlop Way, Birmingham B35 7AR. Again, the promise of "I'll let you know tomorrow Either Way" was never kept. Also, Lee, the interviewer, needs to work on his language skills. Fu**ing this and Fu**ing that. Swearing in an interview while in mid conversation is never a good thing. It instantly puts the professionalism of the company they represent into question. I don't care how down to earth or naturally himself he was trying to be. That's no way to conduct business let me tell you.

Actually, come to think of it, after writing this, maybe I don't want to work with a bunch of liars. Who knows what other undesirable character traits I would have been exposing myself to. -Interwire.

More Indeed Jobs That Don't Exist

Where is the line drawn when it comes to taking advantage of people who are going through hard times? Is there a limit, some moral ground, where companies will reach a point where their combined consciences will make an appearance and they will think to themselves - Nah, we can't do that, it's too unfair on the people.

Well, sorry to break the bad news, but it appears that any level of moral ground, empathy, or even plain old respect, has been replaced by an almost blood thirsty lust for money. And they don't care what lies they have to tell you to get it, just as long as they get that money.

As the title says, More Indeed Jobs That Don't Exist. What I'm talking about here, is the companies that are not just advertising fake jobs, as discussed here, but also looking to get people already short on cash to start travelling around to training centers in the hope of landing a job, only to be left disappointed when they realise they have been completely taken advantage of.  Need more confirmation of this, tempted to apply? Just read some of the reviews. One star ratings all the way.

By that stage, the company that sent the person on the training course have completed their slice of the transaction (getting the person receiving some kind of Government assistance to go on a training course that leads nowhere), and that's the deal done, regardless of what happens next. Just so long as the course is completed. For each person they refer to the scheme, they get paid.

So they advertise jobs that don't exist to generate the leads, get desperate people to sign up for the course, waste the individuals time by sending them to a "training center" everyday, with the promise of a job at the end of it of course, then cast the person aside afterwards. With no job or anything else gained other than money for the fraudulent company that sent them on the fake job course.
 

Benefit Scam Job Training

These companies make me sick. One company that was advertising in this manner on Indeed, is the Castle View Group. I applied for one of their "Vacancies". Surprisingly, I got a call back! That's sarcasm by the way. The representative for Castle View Group had her script mastered and proceeded to read the dummy cards to me. Sounded promising - Sounds like I'll be in work by Monday! Then, the last question: Are you claiming any Government assistance at all, any benefits.

I said no, nothing. Why? Oh, no reason, she said. Suddenly, the woman wanted to end the call. And she did. The excuse of - OK, I've got all the information I need from you for now, someone will be calling you back tomorrow. That callback never came. And I'm glad it didn't. Because a few clicks of research later and I quickly discover what the Castle View Group is all about.

Not claiming benefits equates to me being ineligible for the scam course they wanted to send me on. Ultimately translating to me having no commission potential, meaning I was useless to them. Surely there is a law against this type of false advertising, not to mention defrauding Government funds by using immoral means to generate leads. Seem crazy that these companies actually get away with it.

More Disclosure Required

However, there has been a small change in the way Castle View Group now advertise on Indeed, or any site for the matter. Perhaps with all the complaints, Indeed, or maybe even company regulators made them change the wording in their ads, so it now reads as " Castle View Group - Training". I find this very funny, because I can almost guarantee you, from that small but extremely significant change, their fraudulent, purposely vague lead generation machine has taken a huge hit. And profits are certainly not what they once were when they weren't using full disclosure, and not telling people they were being sent on a useless training course.

Also be aware: Obviously, to reach a wider audience, this company is using other job websites to post their ads. One of those is Totaljobs. The ads show up on Indeed because most of the big job sites are using an RSS feed or API to display the results from other websites. Just something to be aware of.

Tom Hanks And The Celebrity Status Pass

I'm not a big user of social media, but the other day I ended up on Twitter. More specifically, on Tom Hanks' time line, where peoples tweets show up if they mention in their tweet anything relating to Tom Hanks. From the time line I clicked through to Tom Hanks' Twitter account, and while the first thing to surprise me was wow, he's got over 15 million followers, the second and main sticking point was how ridiculously weird, bland and boring his tweets were. Check out one of his latest masterpieces below. If you can't see it, disable your Adblocker or tracking protection.

Manhattan Still Life. Hanx pic.twitter.com/JLh5yLnvBf

— Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) September 7, 2018

His tweets mostly consist of pictures of lost / misplaced items, like gloves, socks and shoes. All of the images have some wording accompanying them, like a caption. Mostly along the lines of - Who's sock is this, where's the foot.. He seems to have some kind of obsession with lost items. All very odd. But the strangest thing about all this is that each tweet he posts, no matter how unbelievably strange and meaningless, gets thousands of likes and retweets. Why is that.. He's a celebrity of course, and he has the Celebrity Status Pedestal Pass.

What's going on?, London via /r/Graffiti https://t.co/qBn95aMiYs #Graffiti #Streetart #urbanphotography #graffitiart pic.twitter.com/DyeLEhvXBK

— Urban Diode (@UrbanDiode) September 20, 2018

If a non-celebrity posted those exact same tweets they wouldn't receive not one like or retweet and would probably get labelled as a bit of a weirdo. Well perhaps the "normal" non-celebrity would get one or two likes from a few friendly sympathisers, I mean followers, but that's about it. Hanks, or Hanx as he calls himself, gets thousands. With 15 million + followers I suppose the percentage rate of his engagement is low in comparison.

But I'm shocked that what he posts even gets a few hundred likes from millions of followers. It's only because of who he is perceived by the public to be, a film star, that people just like or retweet for the sake of it. He could probably post a tweet of himself killing a helpless animal, setting an old granny's hair on fire with a blowtorch, or throwing someone off the top a building and it would get thousands of likes. Looking at the rate of engagement his silly tweets get, nothing would surprise me. Actually, come to think of it, that's actually classed as entertainment these days. My bad. - Interwire

Beware Of Fake Jobs On Indeed UK

Indeed, the job search website, has become a prime location for shady companies to use in order to fish for leads / personal details. And the sad thing about it is, it's extremely effective. How do I know this? From personal experience. Almost every time I apply for a job on Indeed UK, the next day there's several new unknown numbers calling me up. And they all have the same thing in common. They are all spam calls.

Admittedly, out of laziness, or just convenience, I have been using Indeed quite a lot to apply for jobs. So when it comes to the other job sites, like Totaljobs, Jobsite etc, I'm not sure how well they handle the fake job problem. But I will say, I have used other websites, including Totaljobs, a few months ago and never had any problems with fake jobs. So maybe their listing processes are more strict.

With Indeed UK its so blatantly obvious. I apply for jobs, and the next day I'm inundated with spam mobile calls. Their rules and regulations for listing a job must be as easy as listing an item for sale on Gumtree. I don't give my phone number or details out to anyone. But they are on my CV, and of course, that is being sent to every job or "employer" (scammer) that I am applying to.

And the next day (I usually apply for jobs on the night) I'm getting calls from strange numbers. Usually I wouldn't answer them, but with the hope that it may be good news about a job I recently applied for, I feel compelled to answer the phone. After dealing with this for a while, and being let down every time, my compelled, excited frame of mind has frizzled away and been replaced by suspicion. Now I don't even answer the phone anymore if the incoming call is from a number I don't recognise.

After the call has ended, and the missed call has been logged, I go and do a search on the Internet for the number. What do I find? Complaints from other people on sites like who-called.co.uk. With close to all the calls I receive after applying for jobs on Indeed, basically all of them are spam, either related to PPI, fake phone contracts, car crashes that never happened, or some other ridiculous lie.

Some of these scammers are now using smarter tactics. Rather than just phoning up using strange numbers, like 0303, or the one that rang me today, 0441280811434, a select few now take the location details of where a person is from, such as Birmingham, London etc, and send those details to the target victims local scamming call center. So in my case the numbers calling me start with 0121, which is the area code for Birmingham.

Their success rate from doing this must have sky rocketed. But that won't last long once people become aware of their sneaky tactic. It didn't take long for me to realise what they were up to. And now, regardless of the area code, I won't answer before I've researched the number online. If its legit I will call them back.

What's the answer to this growing issue? I'm pretty sure new laws were recently put in place that were meant to prevent this kind of thing happening anymore, but the cold callers haven't seemed to take much notice. Like their calls to me, it's fallen on deaf ears.

I've considered removing most of my personal details from my CV, including using a phone number that I don't care about, and a throw away email address. But what I have started to implement already is researching the companies that are advertising on Indeed that I'm interested in applying to, and instead of using Indeed to apply, going over to the employers company website and submitting my application there instead.

Either that or I only apply to jobs that have a "Apply on Company website" button. The jobs that have the "Easily apply for this job" next to them, or any job where an individual sends the CV through Indeed are, in my experience, the ones much more likely to be fake. Indeed really need to address this problem as it seems to be happening more often.

And I mean, just think of all the details these low life companies are getting from using this method to generate potential leads. There is so much information about an individual on a CV. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a hundred cloned people out there who are now using my details as fake identity.

You Can't Even Eat An Orange Anymore

You would think that Oranges were one of the safest fruits to eat. After all, they have a protective layer, the peel, protecting them. Well it turns out now, that even Oranges are not safe anymore. They are sprayed with potentially dangerous pesticides. I first discovered this when reading the label on a bag of Oranges being sold at an Aldi Superstore in the UK.

The Oranges in question were imported from Africa and the label stated that they were sprayed with thiabendazole and imazalil. I thought this seemed odd because I have never seen a heads up message like this on a bag of Oranges before. So when I got home I decided to do some quick research.

My findings: These pesticides are more than likely toxic to humans. So now you can't even eat an Orange anymore without being paranoid that its actually doing you more harm than good.

Oh simple things, where have you gone..

Most people would probably say: The pesticides are on the outer layer, the peel, so they're not going to do any harm unless you're someone who eats the peel. That is true to some extent, but tests have indicated that some of the imazalil does get through to the pulp of the Orange and is being ingested. 

It may only be a small amount, but imazalil is harmful to humans, and no amount of this pesticide being consumed is acceptable. Especially unknowingly when eating something perceived as healthy. I mean, how many people actually read that small, deemed irrelevant label on a bag of Oranges. I only happened to read it by chance.

Even more concerning is the fact that it is also very hard to actually get rid of. More tests were done where different methods of washing the Oranges were performed to see if any of them would be 100% effective at removing all traces of the pesticides. The results concluded that none of the washing methods, which included washing with soap, hot water, and even an Ultrasonic bath, were successful in removing both pesticides completely. 

In fact, the more hazardous of the two pesticides (imazalil) was the one that was the most persistent and could not be fully removed with any of the washing methods used in the test. Read the PDF test paper.

Now, I don't know if or how dangerous thiabendazole and imazalil are to humans when handled, but just thinking about how many times I myself have handled oranges, not washed my hands afterwards, and then sat down to eat or picked some plaque from a tooth is quite concerning. 

Is Organic any better? Does every big superstore buy from fruit suppliers that use toxic chemicals on their produce. Are any exempt? If so, comment below. These days it seems like nothing is safe anymore. Profit, and a disregard for human health has taken over almost everything. As small as this issue might be in the grand scheme of things, it's just another thing to be aware of. The tightrope is getting thinner - Interwire.