In Which Pyat Recieves a Message from the Past

[pyat]

I received this email today...


Good Evening!

My name is Clive Rodrigues and I’m a recruiter from Intelligent Minds. First off – Happy New Year to you! I hope 2008 is a banner year for you in every way!

I was trying to reach you regarding a Fulltime job opportunity as a Campaign Manager with one of our clients in Guelph, ON. Please take a look at the requirement & if interested, send me your resume & salary expectations as soon as you can as I would like to submit candidates as soon as possible.

The company is a well known major Internet Marketing and Development firm. They are really looking for a team player, not just a heads down manager. This company would be classified as one of the big success stories of DOTCOM business – yet they still have ping pong tables and other toys (like SEGWAY’s) around the office for employees to blow off steam with. Definitely a challenging (BUT FUN) role for the right person.

I am attaching the job full job description below – to be perfectly up front with you – role is 25 – 35K. Plus a potential bonus of up to 11% of salary – they will not go higher than this. Other perks are available but on salary, that’s where it stands.

If you are interested, regardless of your experience, please send a copy of your resume in MS Word format along with your salary expectations and I will be in touch ASAP!

If this job is not for you but you know someone who might be looking for a great opportunity, please pass it on to them!



Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you soon!


Ping pong tables? Dot com? Segways? $25K??? Clearly, this is a message from Nineteen-Ninety Eight! I should respond to these Yesterday People and warn them about Mr. Hitler Osama bin Laden.

Comments

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

Be afraid, be very afraid. If the company is on the up and up with their perks, it's because they want you to live in the office. The salary leads me to think they're full of it.

The nameless network provider I worked for in the private sector had all sorts of perks like catered dinners and all that to make you forget just how much of your youth you were consigning to them. Man, that was a perfectly horrid job. They drove me all the way into Wep Application development; anything to get back into the academic sector.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the attached job description talks a lot about managing pay per click ad traffic.

But, really, even if it was a job eating ice cream, I'd be leery of a place that pays $25K a year and boasts about their $5000 electric scooter. Sell the scooter, and give me the money. :)

[hannahmorgan.livejournal.com]

That letter sounds like it's straight out of Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland. Or possibly JPod.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

or Dilbert...

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time, I was working for a dotcom. It was the Year It All Went To Hell. There were no raises. No bonuses. Late hours. Heck, we had a shower, why leave at all? We were all waiting on stock options for an IPO that had been postponed, not that any of us had the money.. The sales staff had begun to bail, rats and sinking ships: in the dev department, we all just tried harder, because (we) coders are dumb that way. The last benefit for our working 60-80 hour weeks (on salary w/no overtime) had been company-logo shirts.

Then the boss bought a massive barbeque, so we could do our own lunch parties. Nice! (And cheaper than paying for lunches out, in the long run, too!)

Nice.. until they came around collecting for the burgers.

I was flat broke and quite depressed, so when they didn't pick up on my subtle and embarrassed attempts to say I just wasn't hungry - and tried to badger me into participating - I loudly explained to the entire building that I couldn't afford to buy Company Food as long as I was working there, but I had a really great shirt I would barter with any of my more financially flush coworkers for a burger.

(And thus was born "Snarky Bastard Techferret", who I struggle with every. Damn. Day.)

Five months later, the company was toast: "Can't do severance, we'll pay you to the end of the day, g'bye."

But my, those were tasty burgers.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Nice.. until they came around collecting for the burgers.

Ouch...

I used to work at a crooked online training place. A little while after I left, they took the remaining staff to a Christmas dinner... at end of the dinner it became apparent that they wanted people to pay their own way. There was some grumbling, but people did.

When they got back to the office, four more people were laid off, out of a staff of 15. It's like - could you not have laid them off in the morning, before making them pay for their lunch?

[frogjimmy.livejournal.com]

Those are days I do not miss...

[cdnsplendor.livejournal.com]

I don't recall ever hearing about this.
Then again.. I never once attended any of the christmas parties the crooked owner hosted.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I may be conflating it with another story, come to think of it. But hey, it's a good story, even it isn't true!

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

I really think there need to be better labour regulations for salaried workers. It's not right that employers are allowed to make anyone on a salary work oodles of extra time with no extra pay.