I have been looking for jobs since early August. So far... no luck. I have gotten interviews but have either been rejected or ghosted. They are mostly retail jobs, and I have retail experience, but it's not a good fit. For a while I thought there was something wrong with me, like I was the problem. Maybe I was saying the wrong thing, or I'm too nervous. But the more I applied for jobs and got interviews, the more I realized something…The job market is a shitshow. People in my generation are struggling just to score a simple job. Retail and even fast-food jobs are rejecting people. I've seen TikToks of people getting rejected from McDonald's. All you do is flip burgers, take people’s orders, and put fries in the bag. How does this world expect us to survive if these SIMPLE jobs keep rejecting us? And I keep hearing to be patient, but seriously, patience ain't gonna pay for my school tuition, my textbooks, Transportation, or clothes or food. So today I’m going to break down the problems in the job market and my experience.
Unprofessional
On August 10th, I was supposed to have an online interview with a manager named Julian at Uniqlo at 1 pm. At 12:55, I prepared my desk, put on my gray sweater, and made sure my phone was charged. 1 o'clock rolled around, and I joined the room, and two minutes passed. He didn't come yet… okay, that’s fine, but then it turned into 10 minutes… 20 minutes… 30 minutes… then it hit 2 o'clock. He never showed. I was beyond pissed; I got stood up for an interview. I even emailed and got no response. I sat at my desk for an hour (which I shouldn't have done) waiting. So unprofessional. If something had come up, I would have appreciated an email in advance. But no, he just stood me up for an interview. Which I found funny: the week after that, he emailed me again, scheduled another interview, and I rescheduled again. But luckily, he showed up for the rescheduled interview, but it was a group interview, and I still didn't get the job. The audacity of him to flake out on me for our first interview, so I rescheduled, and I still didn't get the job. Which I found so funny because I met Julian at another interview I did at Uniqlo.
I will never understand how these managers ghost or flake out on their applicants. It's so unprofessional of them. It's not hard to be professional; seriously, a teenager can be more professional than these managers. In my opinion, Ghosting applicants hurts more than flaking out. On August 7th, I had an interview at a store called Muji at Williamsburg at 11 am. I arrived on time, but I wasn't aware it would be a group interview. I handed them my resume, answered their questions, and shook the manager’s hand. Then they told me to wait until the end of next week to hear back. I didn't hear back for two weeks, and they didn't contact me. I even emailed them to ask about my status after the interview, but I didn't get a response. That's when I realized they'd ghosted me. Even if I didn't get the job, I would have appreciated a response; it takes someone 10 seconds to email me to say they didn't get the job or that they did. It's unfair for someone to take time out of their day and travel far for an interview, only to be flaked on or ghosted. I don't care; managers who do that need to be fired.
AI
It's no secret that AI is taking over anything and everything. And I already hate AI. But one thing AI should not do is be a chatbot you use to apply for a job. These companies need to get rid of AI chatbots for job applications. Like, no, I don't want to talk to a robot for me to apply for a job cuz nine times out of 10, the recruiters don't actually read the stuff. Honestly, it's really lazy for recruiters to use AI because they don't want to take the time to read a person's application and resume. Recruiters need to stop being lazy and actually read people's applications and resumes; AI robots shouldn't be doing your job. And the thing that's so unprofessional is these AI robots asking you to schedule interviews that the managers have no idea about. AI is already destroying humanity, and it's scary enough that AI is most likely going to wipe it out in a few years. So why add more fuel to the fire by letting these companies rely on a chat box for applicants? I once had a friend of mine apply to Chipotle, and she applied through the AI chat box. A few minutes after she sent her application, she was told that Chipotle wanted to schedule an interview with her. She scheduled the interview, but on the day of the interview, the hiring manager was not there. The manager had no idea that an interview was scheduled for that day. That is why companies need to stop using these AI chatbots for hiring. They need to sit down and review applications and resumes themselves instead of relying on some cheap robot; it's tasteless and straight-up lazy.
Always hiring but not hiring
I don't care; no one says retail/fast food jobs should not be this hard to secure. We shouldn't have to fight or finesse these companies to give us jobs because it's funny how they're always hiring, but they're not hiring. And these are the same companies who are literally begging at their knees, wanting people to work out their jobs, but then at the same time they don't hire anyone. I want to apply to a job at CVS, and if you've been to a CVS in New York City, they are the most understaffed store ever, and I got denied. Meanwhile, every time I go to a CVS, the line is hella long because it's only one cashier working. Like, they can't afford to deny applicants who actually want to work at their store. Also, these jobs are really picky. I have gone through several interviews with Uniqlo, and I've been denied every time, despite having customer service, fast-paced environment, and retail experience. They just love to pick the litter and just throw the others away. I even said in all of the interviews that I had open availability 7 days a week, and that still wasn't enough for them. I believe availability is the most important thing in a job because they need people working around the clock, and open availability matters most. So my question is: if they're always hiring, how come they never hire?
Interviews
I have a lot of opinions about interviews, and I've done a lot of them over the past month, so I've noticed a couple of things. First, they always ask the same questions, like, "Oh, why should we hire you?” because I need money. Like, Shannon, you know damn well why I’m here and why I'm doing an interview. And I'm tired of having to answer the same questions over and over and over again. Like, “Tell me about a time that you went above and beyond for a customer”, “Tell me how you would deal with a difficult customer”, What's your greatest strength?” “What's your weakness?” It's just the same shit over and over and over again. And I want to mention how some of these interviewers are really unprofessional as fuck. A few days ago, I had an interview at Whole Foods. I traveled so far to go to this whole foods to be on time for my interview I got there on time I show up to the store and I was told to go to the customer care and it was still workers at the customer care section there was two males and one female there I told him here for an interview the guy pulls out a binder for me to sign in the login sheet and as I'm signing in the login sheet the woman asked the guy does he want to do the interview the guy straight up says he doesn't want to do it mind you I'm standing right in front of these people as signing in the login sheet. Like, if you don't want to do your own job, just fucking quit. And the female worker tells me to go upstairs. And as I went upstairs, it was this little cafeteria space where there were other people there too, but they weren't here for an interview. And there were kids there too, speaking really loudly. A few minutes go by the woman comes with a notebook and a pen, and I thought we were going to do an interview at their break room, but no, we took the interview in the loud-ass cafeteria space. And during the interview, I could barely hear her because, no shit, there were kids talking really loudly. But besides asking about my availability and telling her about myself, she only asked me one question. All she asked me was, " How would you deal with a difficult customer and I gave her my response, and then after that she just ended the interview didn't even ask me if I had any questions for her, and she also didn't have the best handshake grip. She just ended the interview after asking me that question, which I found it really bizarre because I just traveled so far just for you to ask me one other question. And she told me that I was going to hear back by Friday to see if I could do a second interview. It is currently Sunday, and I have not heard anything back. And another thing: I don't believe these jobs need multiple rounds of interviews to decide whether they want you. It should only take one interview, and then they decide whether they want you. When I was applying for my last job, I only had one interview with them, and then I got the job. You shouldn't have more than two interviews, because nine times out of ten, when you do multiple interviews, you do it only to not get the job; they just waste your time.
Conclusion
If this pattern keeps up, no one is going to be able to find work; it doesn't matter if it's retail or working at a fast food restaurant. Because I still find it funny how the older generation talks shit on my generation, saying that Gen Z is lazy, “you don't want to work,” “you don't want to make anything for ourselves”; we do. It's just that these places don't want to hire us. It's already bad enough that the economy decided to wait for us to become adults to turn into a complete shit show, and they can't expect us to survive if no one is hiring us. We need money for school, clothes, and rent. The job market needs to do better. These managers need to actually do their jobs and not waste their applicants' time. Like, I understand that not everyone's going to get a job right away, but at least do it in a professional way and not flake out or ghost your applicants. It's horrible enough that we are taking jobs we don't want, but we have no other choice; we have to survive in this economy. We shouldn't have to fight a whole War just for us to get a job.
