Fast paced, self starter, blah blah

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Darn, now I've gotten to thinking.

Are there any hiring managers who are not looking for "self starters who thrive in a fast paced, customer oriented sales experience process?" I've never been all that fast, and would like to find the jobs for people who... y'know... just do their job. That self starter customer oriented stuff never worked right with me; I'll stop just short of calling it worker exploitation. At any rate: where should someone like me look for work, who's a friendly and steady worker with some time management issues, who thrives in a stable but not too intensely focused environment, giving the customers a fair shake, exactly what they are paying for?

This is what's been missing since most of the manufacturing jobs went. Here is mostly call centres *shudder*, warehousing/distribution, and retail. There are a few high tech employers but they are laying people off, and the remaining mills and engineering firms are mostly a wee bit sickly.

Dunc

Ah, yes. The ever-increasingly fast-paced society. Most of those people probably have to stay hopped up on meth just to do their jobs at a mediocre level. No wonder the occasional person goes crazy and kills a bunch of people. Humans just weren't meant to withstand this much stress.

Is it just me, or do people like us get all the sh*t jobs? I'd like to work with computers, biology, or zoology, hell, even marine biology. But I wouldn't last one semester in college. I'm a complete idiot when it comes to the math that they require I learn, regardless of the fact that I will never use it. And then I'd have to go through heavy loads of classes. Thats just asking for trouble. My boyfirend and I are both worried about our future because we are both AS, both royally suck at math, and don't want to have to work our fingers to the bone at jobs we hate for minimum wage until we're 72. And we'd only get that far if we're lucky! Employers aren't looking for competent people with minds of their own. Oh, heavens no. They want to own you. And they want to make sure they have to invest as little as possible into you. If they can get away with paying you minimum wages for the rest of your working days, then thats all you'll get. And by the time Bush is done with the country, there'll be no health benefits unless you're a high-level employee making six figures a year. Something that the retail industry isn't going to allow an Aspie to achieve. I'd be lucky to get hired at all.

See, having worked with various exotic animals my whole life, I'd love to work in a pet store, if only to ensure the proper care and conditions of the animals. But places like that don't want to waste time and resources taking proper care of the animals. The animals are just objects to them. Another dollar in the pocket. What they don't realize is that this is bad business practice. Why? I'll tell you.

1. Wouldn't you pay more money for an animal that was healthy and properly cared for? I would.
2. If customers see the setups for the animals, they are likely going to be under the impression that it is the proper way to keep the animal, thus mimicing it.
3. You will sell more equipment that way, as people will be wanting to mimic the setups you have.
4. You will have a good reputation.

I hate the business world.

Even though I have a college degree, my employment experience has been one horror story after the other. My first "real" job ended when the call center closed after one year, giving us four days notice. The second job at a hotel that had been on the same corner for 48 years ended after three months when it also closed, giving us a week's notice. The next job, I couldn't keep because my shift ended at midnight and having no car and public transit not running that late, I had no way home.

I even went so far as to go to New York looking for better work but there, they saw my shyness and my quietness as a liability in a city that values social skills, quickness and aggressiveness over brains so I went back home, taking a low paying call center job that was so stressfull I ended up in a psychiatric hospital for attempting suicide due to the depression, hopelessness and shame I felt for doing worse than my cousin who had a good job and didn't even get his high school diploma. Whenever I look at job ads, most employers request outgoing teamplayers who are people persons with 5 years experience, a driver's license(even though the job doen't require driving), ....for a $6.50 per hour retail job.

My brother's first job was a salesman in a clothing store but when I apply, they won't hire, even though for many high school students, that's their first job. So I don't understand the logic behind that unless they just don't want to hire me because I'm "over-qualified" or worse, they believe I'm incompetent because of AS. I've assured that the work world is set up for the benefit of those who have the right connections due to socializing with many people, those who'll sacrifice themselves for their jobs and play the corporate game of stepping over others to climb higher on the totem pole, not people with intellect, honesty, originality and perserverence. In other words, not a good environment for anyone with AS.

I've given up on trying to fit the world's definition of success because, in spite of my credentials, I'm not sure I'll ever have any modicum of achievment as I can't hide who I am no matter how hard I pretend to be like everyone else. I'm just settling for having enough to pay my bills and maybe save a little for retirement.

I found the same thing. When I tried leaving home i probably accumulated more than 50 rejection letters and I ended up running out of money and having to move back with my parents.

I've pretty much given up all home and am trying to work out how to start my own bussiness instead.

Having no such luck finding employment at the moment, I worked at an australia post sorting office, where the work was very fast paced, to my surprise i managed it. but got cut at the start of the year, staff cuts needed to be made so i was told. Then it's mainly been casual factory work that can last from two wk's to a month. So a few months back i enrolled on a retail course in sales work, giving us basic training in how to sell, team buliding exercise's etc. It really improved my confidence and upon finshing the course i got my certificate in retail 1. now it's just a case of putting this certificate to some use. When i finally get employed again that is.

Yes, but the ones who aren't are looking for people with 10 years of experience in technologies that have only existed for 5 years. At some point I realized that my biggest problems getting hired was this: GET AROUND HR. That's right. If you are being intervied by an HR person, you almost might as well not waste time on the interview. The same probably goes for "hiring managers". You need to get interviews with the people who you are actually going to work with. Then, getting a job is much easier because they will send your resume back to HR which will simply "rubber stamp" it and you never actually have to interview with an HR person, except perhaps as a formality.

This is especially true with my field, technology. People responsable for hiring in tech often know very little about it, and tech draws in unconventional people. HR is trained to weed out unconventional people! I repeat. GET AROUND HR. You'll have a much better time.

How do you do that? Make physical cold-calls at companies. Anybody can hang up a phone. Saying "no" to a qualified applicant who is already there, who you have already shaken hands with? Much harder. Don't stalk potential employers though--limit visits to no more than once every 6 months. Also, learn to spot ads that were not placed by HR. Trust me. If you are looking for work you'll learn to spot them. In particular, the non-HR ad won't be filled with worn-out buzz phrases like the one quoted. Finally, get a temp job. Don't count on your temp job to become permanent--that almost never happens. There are several purposes for the temp job. First, you may just need a little money--who doesn't? Next, even if you were hired at something way below your skill level, you WERE HIRED. This is very important to employers. People need to feel like they are part of the crowd. If you are already working somewhere, even if you're just a gopher, you were at least hired. The person who might give you a "real" job feels much better hiring somebody that has a job. The thinking is, subconsciously "somebody else hired him, so he must be OK. if other people are doing it, it's OK for me to do it too". This is where NT thinking can be used for fun and profit, see? Finally, working at something proves that you're an "industrious" person. This looks better to peole who might hire you, and finally the fact that you are trying to get out of the temp job shows that you are a "go getter". This is the strategy that worked for me. I've got the job thing pretty well in hand now. I just need to get the "outside of work" thing going better.

The code words used by recruitment agencies are almost a subset of the English Language. They have hidden meanings and they all too often refer to areas where I do not have strengths.

The so-called 'Fast Paced Self-Starters' means absolutely nothing when you look at it objectively. It is a kind of short-hand becaue Fast Paced usually means scutting about at Warp 9 for peanuts. As for Self-Starters, that is a meaningless phrase, since everyone is a self-starter when they get out of bed in the mornings (even if it sometimes is mid-morning!).

Also, 'working under pressure' can mean whatever they want it to mean, but mostly it seems to be about not reacting to 20 telephones ringing at once, three different documents that need typing simultaneously, several outstanding requests for 'urgent' documents, a couple of innane chatterers blethering on about EastEnders, Big Brother, Coronation Street or whatever else is pouring from the vacuum tube plus of course, the internal strife and Office Politics.

As regards more experience in a field of technology than is realistically possible, I remember seeing vacancies for Java Programmers stipulating 5 years experience writing in Java. At that time Sun Microsystems had not released the language more than 6 months prior to the vacancy arising.

I just love that. That tells you everything you needed to know about the world of work!!