Max Bottaro

“Mistakes are lessons with emotions attached.”

-Robert Kiyosaki

It’s officially summer, and the hunt for a summer job is in full swing. I’m upset with myself for not setting something up ahead of time, but I really did try. I spent more than a few afternoons perusing through job listings online, sending out résumés, cover letters, and even an occasional follow up call. I probably applied to over 15 different jobs. I wasn’t keeping tabs, but I heard back from maybe 10, and got meetings with maybe 6. Some wouldn’t even talk to me because I wasn’t in the area, and a lot of companies didn’t want to hire and train an employee who was going to leave in the fall. This makes financial sense, but it sucks for me. To give myself credit, I did hit the ground running. Starting Monday I had 3 interviews.

The past few days have been downright awful. I truly hope people reading this will learn from my mistakes, which in retrospect seem obvious. Don’t be a victim of hindsight bias, this could happen to anyone desperate for a job (and no, I didn’t sell my body).

First of all, here are a few things to be VERY weary of when searching for jobs online

· Companies with multiple listings on a website, or different title listings with similar job descriptions

· Companies that list on multiple sites

· Jobs that seem to good to be true (e.g. 17.70 and hour, base rate- like Vector, I’ll get to you unscrupulous, dodgy, mastermind bastards in a second)

· Companies where it is REALLY easy to get an interview, or that send out impersonal e-mail invites to get you in for an interview (if it looks like it might be a template with you name as a header, it probably is)

· Companies where 2^nd interviews and job offers come really easy (by this time you should have caught on)

· Companies that have headers like “due to massive growth” or “because of expansion, we are looking fro new talented employees.”

The problem with jobs that have uber high turnover rates and need to go out and actively market themselves to potential employees is that they probably have a pyramid corporate structure. While pyramid schemes can actually be lucrative at the top, the bottom SUCKS, and they don’t create any real value, its all about the upper echelon recruiting more pawns to leech off, and then those pawns finding others they can leech off. Don’t be a part of this; create wealth through value, not unscrupulous behavior. If a job ad looks more like an advertisement, and if the employer seems like they are mass marketing to potential employees, I’d say steer clear.