So I was meeting a friend after I’d been for drinks at a wine bar in sanjou with a girlfriend. I wasn’t drunk or anything but we’d had about two bottles between us. So my other friend - let’s call him K - was coming to pick me up on his motorbike which is an american style so he was waiting for me outside a conbini.

So I’ve ridden bikes before so many times. So I make to sit on the back and the muffler on that bike was much higher up than any other I’ve ridden before. Me being a total clutz my bare leg got completely stuck to the burning hot exhaust pipe (after K had been doing over 100kmp/h just 5 minutes ago). I figured it was nothing so didn’t look at my leg for about ten minutes but then noticed my entire right leg was like shaking violently.

And then I saw the gross giant blister that was already there. Second degree burns woohoo!
This was three days ago and unfortunately I was scared to wash it or do anything for two days but yesterday I literally could walk anymore so I went to the dermatologist.

He said it should heal in two months and probably no scarring but pigmentation that will fade over time. Also there was some damage to minor veins in my leg so that’s why I can’t put any pressure on it (I.e walk properly) without severe pain. I want crutches for the first time in my life haha.

I would upload a picture but it’s too gross.

I doubt you guys wanna see that.

Anyway K has been helping me out- took me to the doctor/ brought me to yakiniku in a taxi (lol that made me feel better) / helping around the house. Unfortunately he’s going to Tokyo on Monday to continue his job hunting interviews but will be back by Tuesday.

Know your bike mufflers, kids!

messiestobjects:

pleasedonotcallmyduckagoose:

fluffyblue-multifandommess:

pleasedonotcallmyduckagoose:

I said recovering from illness to explain the 7 year depression gap in my CV and they were just like ok u healthy now? cool. and moved on. It’s that easy

OP I’m so glad it went that well for you!

But it’s not always that easy. Sometimes you’re not completely recovered, just recovered enough that you can start working / going to school (uni, vocational, trade, etc) again (full time, even!). So you say, “I’m feeling good, and I’m being treated by a great team so I won’t relapse”. You’re vague on purpose because it’s none of their business what exactly is going on. They still ask if it’s mental or physical health issue. You tell them because you don’t know if you’re obligated to answer and you worry that not wanting to answer is an answer of itself. They make a note and you don’t know if this will be a factor when they consider whether or not to take you. You think it probably will. You know you’ll never know if this was The Thing that got you the “no”. You know you’d never be able to prove to anyone that it was.

It isn’t easy. I wish it were.

Bro I’m not recovered. Legally they cant ask about your illness and you dont have to tell them.

op’s initial point is meant exactly for the people who are having the issues the second person said. you do not say anything about “so that i don’t relapse,” ever, for any reason. you say simply “i was recovering from a health issue/illness/injury” and you leave it at that. you do not talk at all about what kind of illness, you do not say anything about where you are in the process, you do not get specific at all, you say that you spent that time recovering from an illness.

if they try to weasel answers out of you by asking whether you’re able to perform the job duties, you drag it back round to interviewspeak - “absolutely, i am so excited to be here and apply for this opportunity. [literally job duty from the description] is one of my passions/talents/areas of expertise, and i think this would be a great place for me to learn even more.”

if they really press, you just say, “i’m sorry, that’s a bit personal, but i’m really glad i’m able to work now, and i’m excited to see how i can provide/sharpen/hone xyz talent at this company” or whatever.“ you stay as nonspecific as you can, and you do not fall for any friendly questions, EVEN IF THEY USE WOKE SPEAK and make you think they’re Not Like Other Employers.

ayeforscotland:

ayeforscotland:

ayeforscotland:

ayeforscotland:

ayeforscotland:

ayeforscotland:

ayeforscotland:

Browsing jobs and came across this unhinged banger of a job description containing the following:

“This is NOT a role for someone who wants to coast into the office everyday and make a few calls and hope that that is enough, this is not a role for someone who doesn’t feel the PAIN personally when they fail or let the team down.”

I’m a passionate person and like to throw myself at work. I absolutely adored the job I unfortunately just lost, we were doing some really amazing things and really putting Scotland on the map.

HR’s hardest job in the company was actually forcing people to take their holidays. There was nothing I wanted to do more than wake up the day after and just get back to doing what I did.

I’m really gutted that working somewhere so great has actually shielded me from the horrible reality of looking at other companies who are arrogant enough to think I should have this immediate desire to fall on the sword for them.

Other grievances so far consist of “Commission-Only” roles being places into every single salary bracket category.

If it’s Commission-Only then the salary is effectively £0. It’s also just a massive red flag.

New grievance:

FULLY REMOTE*

*Must be able and willing to commute to our office at least once a week

Starting salary - £18K

Requirements - Fluent in 3 languages

Best one so far.

“Edinburgh, Scotland [Fully Remote]

• Must be willing to relocate to Canada”

Okay, another thing, sorry this is just becoming a list of hell.

We need to separate the two very different definitions of remote into two separate terms.

On one hand, you have remote work meaning work from home. But you also have companies saying remote work is driving up and down the UK. These are two different things and shouldn’t both be labelled remote.

I did 3 job interviews for this shop assistant position. Yes, that is correct, 3 job interviews - one with the local manager, one with a manager from another store and then lastly back to manager no.1 for the final one. I needed a shitload of documents too. This whole fun ride took 2 weeks… and the result?

They didn’t even have the decency to call me and tell me I wasn’t “the right candidate” or whatever. Manners maketh man, right?

“For this position we are looking for someone with a university degree - Master’s or PhD, at least 12 years of experience in folding clothes and putting them on shelves, who speaks 8 languages and has a minimum of 2 Olympic medals.”

Yeah, right. I love when a shop assistant (who is apparently desperately awaiting a promotion) is talking down to me because hey, she does retail.

intj-confessions:

bitchesgetriches:

mixingpumpkins:

unfriendlyblackwitch:

anarchapella:

Please fucking lie to your employer. Like they don’t need to know your mental health issues or what drugs you do. Ffs

its not lying if its to employers or cops

and look up ur rights on what they can and cannot ask u many places ban asking about ur record and transportation status and things like that resources will also tell u how they reword sketchy questions so ur prepared

Hey. Take it from a former HR person… this goes double right now.

I just spent some time putting in some job applications myself (not for HR, lol) and got about 15 interviews. And idk if it’s because of COVID uncertainty or if places just don’t fucking care anymore because they know people are desperate for work, but the amount of straight up illegal shit my interviewers asked me was appalling.

(That’s not even counting the questions that were technically legal but clearly fishing for information they’re not legally allowed to ask.)

A tame example? Two questions into a phone interview, the guy on the other end of the line asked: “How old are you?”

I said “Excuse me?” - giving him a chance to rethink that.

He didn’t. “How old are you?”

“Sir, you are not allowed to ask me that question.”

“Well, I want to know. I’m asking.”

“And you’re legally not allowed to ask me that. I’m not required to tell you my age.”

At that point, I guess he managed to remember an old HR bulletin or something (I hope to god he wasn’t actually HR himself), and he said, “Well, I need to know if you’re over the age of 18.” (Which is what he should have asked in the first place… or not, since that was in the application that he could have read.)

“Yes. I’m over the age of 18.” 

And we moved on. Two questions later, he tried another illegal question. I called him on it again and ended the interview, citing that a workplace with such a clear disregard for the law, especially upon first contact with a potential employee, was not going to be a good fit. (They offered me the job anyway, lol. I didn’t send a thank-you or a response.)

At a different interview, the majority of questions were “fishing” questions - just looking for that info they’re not actually allowed to ask. (This person was also either not really HR or an HR person who was exceptionally bad at their job.)

I could tell they were getting frustrated when I dodged answering the personal stuff, and they actually got extremely upset when I mentioned later in the interview (re: less relevant work experience) I had worked in HR. They were super flustered for the remainder of our time, and I watched them skip over questions on their sheet they had clearly planned on asking. They KNEW they were being sketchy and were counting on me not knowing anything about HR - or my rights - and so they got upset when I did.

These were super tame examples. I’m begging you, if you’re job searching right now, PLEASE know your rights. Please know what interviewers are allowed to ask.

Please don’t volunteer information or elaborate more than you’re required to about personal things. Save your words (and everyone’s time) by elaborating why you’re good for the position/what you can do.

I may create a resource list on this shit later but PLEASE PLEASE KNOW THIS STUFF BEFORE YOU TALK TO AN EMPLOYER. This goes for anywhere you’re interviewing as well as your current employer. This also goes for HR. HR may be the person you go to when shitty stuff happens, but that doesn’t mean they’re your friend (or competent).

They don’t need to know your age (beyond 16+, 18+, or 21+, depending on the job). They don’t need to know your medical history. (For the love of god, do NOT answer the “have you been diagnosed with depression?” question.) They don’t need to know if you have kids or whatever. They don’t need to know a LOT of those things that may appear on an application, including your veteran status, whether you’re on/have been on unemployment, etc. They’re not entitled to know specifics about your transportation (unless you’re using that transportation for the job, like Uber/delivery drivers). Look this up for your state/the job’s state.

Beware questions like “What year did you graduate?” if you’re like me and don’t put dates on your resume (I just put amount of time spent at employers, not dates of employment). They’re fishing for your age. It’s “Oh, you know, 100 years ago,” if you feel comfortable making a joke, or “About [generic number, like 5 or 10] years ago” if not.

Also beware things like the “What do you do in your free time?” question, even if you already work there. This is not a friendly getting-to-know-you question. This is a basis for judgement. Not up to an invisible standard? They’re going to be biased against you for pay raises, promotions, etc. Mention kids/lots of family/social engagements? That’s a tick against you for not being the kind of person who lives to work (yes, it’s gross and stupid). Mention lots of solitary things? Cool, that’s their mental note to ask more from you because you’re “not doing anything anyway.” By all means, be friendly with your coworkers/talk about shared interests if you want, but it is none of your boss’s business, and be aware what could get back to them. 

Don’t. Tell. Employers. Shit.

We wrote up a handy list of those illegal questions here:

10 Questions You Should Never Be Asked in a Job Interview 

Hopefully people already know this by now, but I saw way too often back when I worked in retail. Don’t add your coworkers or boss on social media. Yes, your coworkers too. You don’t want to accidentally say something to them or have them see a post and mention it to your boss. I’ve seen it happen.

the-haiku-bot:

beaft:

beaft:

i hate job hunting more than anything else in the world

me: i’d like a job, please

the person who gives out the jobs (actually an oversized march hare sitting behind a desk, dictating to a crow that taps out the letters with its beak):

“If Employmente ye do seek,
Attend this interview next week;

Four tasks you must perform for me,
And once that’s done, a further three.

Pass the test, and twelve days hence,
You may receive your recompense.

But heed my warning: if you fail,
We’ll send you naught but a stock email.”

But heed my warning:

if you fail, We’ll send you naught

but a stock email.”

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

Um… HELLO??

the fuck do you MEAN “with or without reasonable accommodation” 

mysharona1987:

I’ve always had a tendency to overthink, but when I’m in a NEET state I feel like I could drown in my thoughts.

I once read that Japanese people say 「 地震は日本の宿命だ 」(”earthquakes are Japan’s destiny”),  accepting that their country exists on top of actively shifting tectonic plates, and the associated risks are an inevitable part of that. Instead of pitying themselves for their ill-fate, they just yield to fact and do their best prepare for each and every shock. It’s just such a Japanese way of seeing things and having a humble attitude.

Well, in a similar vein I want to say「就活と恋活を苦労するのは私の宿命だ」 (”the struggle to find a permanent job and someone to spend my life with are my destiny”). I just have to accept this truth and work with it, rather than pitting myself against it as if things shouldn’t be this way. The fact is, it is and there’s nothing I can do to control that. I can do everything in my power to be the smartest, hard-working, most loving person in the world, but ultimately it’s not for me to decide if the company will employ me, or if that person will love me. It seems like it’s my lot in life that both of these things will be forever hard to acquire for me, and I have to accept that. I have a lot to be thankful already, and God help me if I fail to appreciate them by futilely fighting what cannot be changed. As Eckhart Tolle says, “Nonresistance is the key to the greatest power in the universe”.

And, even more importantly to me, as what the Bible says in my favourite book: “Notice the way God does things; then fall into line. Don’t fight the ways of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13)

Amen.

lolotehe:

thecyndimistuff:

thecyndimistuff:

my English prof teaching abt cover letters today and me trying not to bring up the luke skywalker cover letter post:

@serialreblogger​ here you go:

the-real-numbers:

the-real-numbers:

hil-arrr-y:

Two job-hunting resources that changed my life:

This cover letter post on askamanger.com.
A job interview guide written by Alison Green, who runs askamanager.

Shout-out to @ms-demeanor for putting these on my dash again, I’d like to add this exceptional interview question “answer guide” that explains traps and “the best” way to answer over 64 common questions. I don’t know who to attribute it to, but here it is: PDF from tri valley one-stop career center.

Hey some of these answer templates helped J get an offer letter from her dream job; strongly recommend you read them if you’re job hunting

It’s not bad enough that a shitty credit history and poor credit score can keep you out of housing or a desperately needed loan. It can also keep you out of a job.

That’s right: It is entirely legal for a potential employer to require a credit check as part of their hiring process.

Some employers try to justify this discriminatory hiring practice. They think a credit check is a good way to measure a job candidate’s “trustworthiness and reliability.” Because no trustworthy or reliable person ever missed a credit card payment, amirite?

Credit reports and credit scores, as an institution, were invented to show banks and lenders how capable a person is of paying their debts. That is their only purpose—they’re not a substitute for a Myers Briggs type or a job placement exam.

How this is a discriminatory hiring practice

According to psychologists at the University of New Mexico, credit checks actually introduce racial discrimination into the hiring process. This is because racial minorities tend to have lower credit scores.

And why is that? The premise “brown people are just naturally worse at money” is inherently racist. So we can assume, therefore, that credit scores are themselves a racially biased system.

So including a credit check in the hiring process is basically like…

Even if credit scores aren’t racist… your credit score is not your employer’s business! Just as what you do with your uterus is between you and your doctor, so your credit score should be a private matter between you and your bank.

A lot of people have poor credit scores due to past mistakes and misfortunes. That shit stays on a credit report for years! And the snowballing effect of bad credit often makes it very difficult to repair credit once it’s broken. (You get turned down for financial assistance and opportunities because of bad credit, so you sink further into poverty, debt, and bad credit, preventing you from accessing financial assistance and opportunities.)

A divorce wrecking your credit score should have no bearing on your candidacy during the hiring process. Signing up for a predatory store credit card when you were young and ignorant about finances should not prevent you from getting a job.

A notable proponent of this most blatant of discriminatory hiring practices is the financial industry’s own Voldemort Dave Ramsey. But then, he also famously asks to speak to interviewees’ spouses before hiring them. So he’s not exactly concerned with ethical hiring practices.

-Beware These 5 (Perfectly Legal) Discriminatory Hiring Practices

Dressing Appropriately for Networking Events

Or

My Time Has Come

Uh oh. Is this a costume contest? Is there… prize??? I must have… all the prize.

I have alerted them. They know to prepare themselves. But for what, they have no idea.

Behold, my wardrobe for a networking event next week. Taking inspiration from one of nature’s most elegant *cough* creatures

Photo credit: Melvin Jaison on ebird [link]

I bring to you:

The flamingo: is a hat. The body sits atop my head. It was a clearance Halloween item I purchased for $2 because… I mean, $2!

Anyways. Hopefully the flamingo hat will work magic because… uh yeah my unemployment benefits run out in a couple weeks, things are looking scary my friends

August 22, 2019

I don’t know what real clothes look like anymore. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I feel like I’ve forgotten how to put myself together. After spending four weeks in yoga pants, five days a week, and desperately avoiding having to put on clothes other than sweaters or leggings, I now can’t even remember what I used to wear to work on a daily basis. Damn you, yoga teacher training and general laziness.

I’ve had a few interviews in the past two weeks and it’s been a struggle to force jeans onto my legs. And I’ve lost 6 pounds in the past month (yay!), so it’s not that they no longer fit! To quote the poet Cher Horowitz, they’re just “so binding.”

I had an interview today for a temp job in the HR department of a fashion company and when I went out it was a fashion company, my first thought was, “oh shit.” I wasn’t sure how I was going to convince these people that I gave two fucks about fashion when I clearly don’t. I ultimately decided upon a 5+ year old black wrap dress from Old Navy with black boots and a hot pink leather jacket. 

(Let’s not talk about how the recruiter gave me the wrong address for their offices and the offices are actually located an hour+ away from me via subway. In the end, I chose not to go or to reschedule. Because the fashion industry sucks and Whitehall Street is really hella far away.)

How should I rectify the situation? I thought an inventory review of my closet was in order.IS in order. Meaning, I have yet to do it. But I will. Soon enough. After a season of leggings and sweaters, I have no idea what else is left in my closet. Does that happen to anyone else?

Nevertheless, here’s to trying to dress like an actual human being again. 

Does it look bad not to put an education section on a resume? The resume itself is a stupid formality that wouldn’t have been necessary 10 years ago because the kinds of jobs I apply for are the ones that you normally would just walk in and fill out a paper application for, but now everyone demands a damn resume even for minimum wage jobs. I have no college education, and including my high school information would reveal my age. Job history doesn’t, because I’m only going back to 2006.

I’d like to downplay the fact that I have no education (beyond a diploma which is obvious from my job history anyway) and leave my age vague until I actually get an interview. So is it OK to stick with skills and job history or do I have to actually put down that I graduated high school in 1997 and that’s all I’ve got?

job hunting, sending resumes, filling in applications (that contain the exact same information as your resume), undergoing assessment tests (plural) and having several interviews are such fun.

said no one ever.