TimeTrade

Twenty years ago, the title of “manager” generally evoked a great deal of respect, at least from me it did…someone who had worked their way up to a “manager” more often than not had their act together, knew their stuff, and did a good job. Fast forward to today…in case you haven’t noticed, the qualifications to be a manager now are to (1) be under the age of 30 and (2) have a hot supermodel-type photo on your LinkedIn profile. And that’s pretty much it. Now when I hear the word “manager,” I laugh.

I applied for a design job they advertised back in July 2014. I received an email from their HR rep telling me the marketing manager would like to schedule a phone interview with me. She included a link to a webpage to schedule this call. I picked Friday at 10am. After scheduling the call, I found out I needed to leave my house at 10:30, but didn’t think this would be an issue as no telephone screening I’ve had has ever lasted more than 15 minutes.

Friday at 10am arrives and I'm waiting for the marketing manager's phone call...and waiting...and waiting. At 10:15 I sent her an email saying I've got another appointment to run to, do we need to reschedule...? She finally replies at 10:30 with "sorry I was stuck in another meeting."

I really don't know why this sort of behavior still surprises me...seriously, she didn't have the common sense or decency to send me an email a little sooner as soon as she saw she wasn't going to make our 10am call? Everyone has their mobile device with them in meetings these days for just such a reason so there's NO excuse for this.

But, I took a deep breath and accepted her offer to reschedule the call, which we had the following Monday. She only had one question for me, "How long have you been using Photoshop?" What a dumb question. I said I've been using it since v4 back in the mid 1990s. Since she didn't know what else to ask me, I shared my observations about how to improve their website which was at that time marked by some useless generic stock photography that does not convey anything, and that rather than spotlighting their big client story (Staples) they've buried it down at the bottom of the page, and there isn't even a link to a page or whitepaper about it. After the call, I spent a little time creating a custom 3D animation just to show them a quick idea of what can be done with their brand (silly me, trying to be proactive here!). I attached this to my thank-you email which I sent the next day. I received NO response to this. The next day I sent a follow-up email just to confirm she had received the previous one, because sometimes "odd" attachments can trigger removal by corporate antivirus programs. That's all I asked for, did you get that email...? And, again, NO response.

Two weeks later I received a generic rejection email from her.

I replied back, "I think this is for the best. You were very rude and unprofessional when you kept me waiting for our phone call, and you couldn't even acknowledge receiving the file I emailed you." She shot back, "Thank you for proving I made the right decision in not adding you to my team!" 

I find it overwhelmingly disturbing that this unprofessional inexperienced girl (she was no older than 25 at the time according to LinkedIn) not only enjoys having a job – with the title of manager, no less -- while so many smart talented people don't, but also that her job is to decide who gets hired in this world.

I sent a nasty letter to their CEO. I received no reply, but they did snoop on my LinkedIn profile (why do this, I just can’t understand, the time to review my background is long past). Clearly this is just another example of Stinkassachusetts trying so hard to emulate SillyCon Valley, just hire a bunch of twentydumbthings to get things done (funny, I don't see anyone under the age of 30 on their Management or Board of Directors page). Good luck with that.