Inhuman Resouces

Every once in a while, the idea of working for myself scares me into doing something foolish. Like looking for a "real" job.

As the bills piled up last week, I became one of those Desperate Boomers. I searched a Careers page on a professional organization's web site and found a new job posting. I clicked on the site's Apply button and was taken directly to an internationally known bank's own HR site. Amazingly, the job description perfectly matched the free-lance project that I was currently doing for a client. Oh, Lucky Day!

After filling out a form, I clicked on the bank's Apply button. Nothing. So, I went back and did the whole process again. Nothing. I restarted and went directly to the site, and searched using the bank's own title, job number, location, etc. No results.

I went back to the organization site and confirmed that the posting date had been one day before. then followed the link again and hit Apply. Nothing.

I used the bank's HR and IT contact addresses. I registered and attached my resume, but could not connect it to this perfect job posting. Then, I worked my network to see what I could find out about the job. Nobody had heard anything about it, except that the person who previously had done the job had "left the bank."

Was it a mirage? Yesterday, I noticed that the posting had disappeared from the organization's site and still did not show on the bank's site. Today, I received a long system generated email describing some of the technical things I could try in order to "Apply," evidently for a job that no longer existed within the same company.

Veterans of this process will know some of the reasons these things occur: the job was posted before an agreed upon date, the job was filled internally before posting, or, most likely, the posting drew so many applications that the system did an auto-shut-down.

A friend asked me this morning, "Why would you ever want to work for a company as stupid as that one?" Exactly. Some companies make this process so exasperating, they should call it Inhuman Resources. They make it like Cash for Clunkers, and you, Pilgrims, are The Clunkers, not the new model.

I love my client. I love my bill pile. I promise not to do this again.

But, I probably will. Life, just when you arrive, you want to go home.