Friday, January 28, 2011

On-line Job Applying Sucks

With a little help from my friends, I figure that job escapade is about not selling myself short by taking a job that is not only beneath me, but has no opportunity attached to it. My gut told me it would not help and I tried to ignore it. I got a heavy-handed reminder that my gut was right.

Boise has a job website called Boise Idaho Jobs that is supposed to be local real jobs. This is an alternative to Craigslist, where most of the jobs listed are scams. Boise Idaho Jobs has it's own jobs that do not look legitimate, but they are easy to spot since they show no company name. A few days ago I looked at an HR job on Boise Idaho Jobs that transferred me to another website for HR jobs. I put in my email and then realized I now signed up on another site, did not apply for the job, and the spam in my email skyrocketed. Now I am only applying for the jobs on Boise Idaho Jobs that direct me to the employer's site or let me email them directly.

Wednesday I applied for a job through Careerbuilder and checked the box that posts my resume on Careerbuilder while I was at it. I used the settings that do not allow potential employers to see my name, phone number, address, or direct email. Within a day, I received emails asking me to apply for jobs selling insurance and a phone message about one of them. Then I got an email about a job for route sales for a direct-to-home frozen food delivery company. Then I got one from a payday advance company. All garbage and how did that insurance company get my number?

I also have my personal information on applications all over the place on-line. Some places even want my social security number, which I am not entering. Has anyone considered the amount of personal information they are soliciting and storing that can be accessed and used to steal my identity? I saw something on TV about people checking applicants out on on-line. If you let everyone see your profile on Facebook, potential employers are looking at it and judging who you are. How would they know which one was you? I changed my Facebook profile to be viewed by Friends Only anyway. This appears to be a setting that changes back to Everyone every time Facebook upgrades, which seems to be all of the time.

The internet has completely destroyed the hiring process and on both sides, the employer's and the job seeker's. This sucks.

One of the reasons for the Great Depression, and maybe the only reason, is that we transitioned from one age to another. We transitioned from the Machine Age to the Industrial Age. The Great Depression was a natural part of change and transition. Now we are in another transition, from the Industrial Age to what? Some people call it the Information Age, but I would rather call it the Inhumanity Age. Computers and the Internet take over, no one communicates in person anymore, everyone loses their humanity, humanity is no longer important. The idea behind The Terminator does not seem so fantastic anymore. Obama wants to be able to shut down the Internet in an "emergency"? I say be my guest. Take a look at the creators of the Information Age, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, these are not great examples of spiritual human beings. Are these the people we will let define the next age?

Mom was supposed to go to Egypt on February 14th. Now it is not looking like she will go, but when I turned on the news this afternoon and saw the rioting I immediately pictured myself negotiating with the US and Egyptian governments for the release of my mother, taken hostage by Egyptian terrorists. She's not even there yet! That's where my mind goes. Even with practice, it is hard to stay in the present. One day at a time.

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