On the good side, I just broke the two hundred post mark here on my WordPress blog and yesterday was my best day ever with 132 page views, so many thanks to everyone who’s reading my ramblings and extra thanks to those of you who have taken the time to comment. it feels good to know people are enjoying what I’m writing. Looking at my statistics, it seems the Friday Funnies are the most popular reading (go figure) and the top searches to find my blog are “funny comics, Gothic mansion, Gothic homes”. Strange, I’d think that “boobs” would be in there somewhere because I see an awful lot of searches for that in my daily stats. As long as I’m spouting out little tidbits that no one really cares about, it seems my most popular post is “Friday funny; Healthy Living” with 878 views to it’s credit.
On the bad side, I’m feeling stupid and ignorant at the moment and it’s all the fault of a large chain of pet stores. See, they’re advertising for a General Manager at one of the local stores. I like animals and I have retail management experience, so I was feeling fairly enthusiastic (For a change) as I started their online application process. I filled out all the information they wanted (For the millionth time, why do I bother even having a resume, anyway?) and started on the inevitable “Evaluation test”. I’ve ranted about these things before. Page after page of questions that only prove you’re not stupid enough to actually tell them you’d like to punch customers in the face. This one was one hundred twenty questions long. The first fifty were the standard type questions, “Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: I would enjoy punching customers in the face“. Blah, blah, blah. Then they start getting a bit different and start asking math questions, “What’s the next logical number in the sequence: 1, 6, 36, __” or “If you have a 720 ML container of paint with the following colors in the following proportions….“. I’ve mentioned I hate math, right? I just don’t have a math mind. I’ve tried, but numbers are pointy and make my brain hurt.
Right, so I struggle through increasingly difficult math questions, growling and bitching the entire way, then we get to this lovely little item: “Picture a square table with eight seats placed evenly around it. Bob, Stan, Marty, and Greg are seated one to each side of the table. Alice, Tracy, Rick, and Frank come in. Alice sits between and next to Bob and Frank….“. You get the idea. Basically, you have to diagram the whole thing out and answer questions about where each person would be sitting and such. Sheesh! At this point I wondering if they realize that they’re a freakin’ pet store, for crying out loud! What the hell does ANY of this have to do with retail, or taking care of animals, or anything I’d actually be doing at the store? If it were just a few of these types of questions, that’s be one thing, but we’re talking seventy freakin’ questions! Over half of the evaluation! WTF?!?!
I think I’ll go apply to MIT now. Maybe they’ll ask me about gerbils and puppies on the application.
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June 15, 2008 at 12:01 pm
just rambling
congrats on the 200th post milestone. sorry about that online application. with all the statistics, I would assume you have a “math mind”. I’ve heard that from lots of people: “why do I bother having a resume?”. my take on online applications is they are just testing to see how much patience you have, and not necessarily just with customers.
June 15, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Pandionna
Yep. I love these web sites that also incorrectly cull information from your uploaded resume so that you only have to type in the information anyway. The only thing that’s worse is when they pull the information correctly and then make you complete four pages of “work history” with exactly the same information. I was going to write about that, actually, but I’m getting too depresed with my own bleepin’ search.
As for that big chain, mixed blessing. They could use someone like you who will actually put some care into the animals there. Let’s just say they don’t have the best reputation among retailers, animal advocacy groups, and bird people, and they need people on the inside who would give enough of a damn to do the right things.