Money is the drug that corporations gives to make you forget about your dreams
I tried making a bold move this morning and emailed the HR manager directly after finding their name on LinkedIn and figuring out the company's email format through Google.
I applied about a month ago and no one got back to me, even though my experience closely matches what they're looking for. I kept the message brief, mentioned the position, and attached my resume again.
About 40 minutes later, they replied saying that my experience seemed like a great fit and asked to schedule a call. I fully expected the email to be ignored, so the response really surprised me.
The interview is scheduled for Thursday morning. Reaching out directly probably isn't appropriate in every situation, but if you're qualified and communicate respectfully, it might be worth a try. Wish me luck, because I really hope this is the opportunity I've been waiting for.
Throwaway because a few people I know follow my main. About 14 months ago, I had a good job at a small SaaS company and was making decent money. The CEO was unpleasant, but I barely had to deal with him, and honestly I liked the people I worked with. I had also just closed on an apartment and put a painful chunk of my life savings into fixing it up and finishing it.
A recruiter messaged me about a role with a much higher salary. I wasn't really looking seriously in the first place, but I figured there was no harm in taking a call. I did 3 interviews, and the next one was supposed to be with the cofounder. Somehow, the cofounder knew my CEO. He called him and told him I was interviewing. I was fired almost immediately with no severance.
Since then, I've been applying to more jobs than I can keep track of, and I've done a ridiculous number of interviews. A lot of places had 5+ rounds. After about 4 months, I finally got an offer, but instead of it being remote like they told me at first, they wanted me in an office on the other side of the country for nine months before I could work from home. I said no because I assumed something else would come along soon. And it never did.
The hiring process was a nightmare. One manager asked me what my parents did for work, then rejected me because they were looking for someone who "understood the meaning of high achievement from a young age." Another company had me do a full product teardown as part of the interview, then ghosted me for weeks, and later I saw parts of it in their sales deck. And that's not even counting the people who showed up 20 minutes late, or canceled at the last minute, or disappeared after saying I was moving forward.
For a while I thought it was finally over. I accepted an offer even though it was 35% lower than the range they had given me at first. I was going to have to commute by bus and train for almost 3 hours a day, but I didn't have options, so I said yes.
At the start of this week, they told me the offer had been rescinded because of budget changes. They also said they wouldn't reimburse me for the $260 monthly transit pass I had already bought for the commute. My old company is doing just fine, and most of my former coworkers are still there, and somehow none of them got touched by all this mess.
I'm now almost out of money, and unemployment ran out months ago. The home I was so proud to have bought is listed for sale. My wife, who tried to be supportive at first, recently left me and said she can't understand how someone can go this long without finding a job or providing a stable life.
I was given an official warning that my job could be in jeopardy because of claims that there is a terrible bad smell!
I have to put up with 2 more months at this company so I can be eligible to receive my pension. If I leave the job before then, my pension will be reduced by about 45%, or maybe more.
This time, my boss called me into his office and gave me a formal written warning saying that I have bad body odor and terrible breath. He said that several employees had come to him and complained that they can barely sit next to me or be in the same room with me. The Regional HR Manager was there too, and then he started giving me an embarrassing speech about basic hygiene.
I told both of them that my hygiene, health, and appearance are very important to me. I take a shower every day, use good soap and deodorant, brush my teeth 3 times a day, use mouthwash, and keep my clothes clean with a well-known detergent in a relatively new washer and dryer. I also don't wear my work clothes again between washes. They basically smirked and said they weren't convinced.
After that, I asked people I trust, both at work and outside of work, whether I had bad breath or body odor. Every single one of them said no, not at all.
My lawyer says the next step is for me to request a formal workplace investigation, with a neutral outside person interviewing employees to find out whether there is any truth behind these smell accusations. They also need to look into the hostile workplace situation, because my boss is constantly yelling at me, and now it's clear that he's inventing reasons to push me out. The whole thing just keeps getting worse.
