It’s off to work I go! I promised a new and improved rant on the horrors of working and I got just the fodder for it last week. My lovely friend Michelle (of previous SoapBox fame) recommended that I go and talk to her recruitment firm, who shall remain nameless (damned lawyers!). So, since I am about to slack myself right out of my mind, I decided to go.
I made the trek to Midtown last Thursday, rather morosely, having been burned by recruiters before, doncha know. I do the 3 tons of crap paperwork that they sling at you when you walk in the door and wait for the chick to ‘interview’ me. While I’m still in the front area, some guy comes out and asks if I’m a Mac tech. I go in with Ms. Recruiter and she asks me about my skillset, yada yada yada. Then she introduces the guy from the lobby as her ‘associate’ and says that he has a Mac job that they couldn’t find anybody for. “Well, woohoo!” I think to myself.
The project is installing a network at this graphics company on Piedmont. Sounds interesting, but with no real info, it’s hard to tell. The guy gives me a diagram and a list of client concerns, tells me to park on the street and off I go.
I get there and the person I get hooked up with has NO IDEA what is going on. So, I proceed to diagnose the Mac that is really acting up and I discover that the hard drive is pretty much toast. I ask for software to a) fix the driver and b) reload the drive if I have to reformat it. Well, that is the end of the helpful employees. They are so freaked out that I asked for their software that they go and HIDE!!! Really!
I’m really put off now, but I realize that they are just users and they can’t help acting like old women, so I plod on, listing hardware, evaluating the network, etc. 5pm arrives, so I leave. No one even escorts me out. And companies wonder how stuff gets stolen??? Geez!
I get to my car to find a $25 parking ticket (from parking where Mr. Recruiter TOLD me to) and I’m totally OVER IT. It was an omen. But I do the proposal anyway.
I call Mr. Recruiter on Monday and he gives me the ole shuck and jive about whether or not the client is going to do the project or not. I figure that they are not, but he won’t say–and he gets real pissy about the paperwork that HE GAVE ME without copying for himself first and wants me to deliver it back to him (of course I’m not about to go back down there). Then I get spammed for a PC job that is ENTRY level AND he rags me about the damn paperwork again. ARRRRRGH!!!
When I call to find out what the hell is going on, he doesn’t return my call, so I sent him a flame of an email and BCC’d it to the original chick that sicked this guy on me. She called me back, apologized, and whined “We really are different than those other firms! Really! I don’t know what happened! He is one of the best account reps here!”
I’ll tell ya what happened: NOTHING UNUSUAL. Recruiters are the scourge of the computer industry and they should be banned. They have minimal knowledge, too many clients and treat us, their HOSTS, like pieces of meat. The little parasites have more important things to do than get us the info we need to do the job or FILTER their incessant spams. Oh, no, WE are supposed to find people for THEM and be happy that we are lucky enough to have them sucking the life out of us. I detest them all and I can’t believe I even talked to one again!
The only good thing is that I billed ’em for my time wasted AND the parking ticket. Cha-ching!
AAAAAAH, nothing like a good RANT to clear out all that resentment! :-D