Well...This past Thursday was rather unfortunate. One notable thing that could be considered positive. The rest mainly negative.
Good:
Friend's birthday. Texted friend and received response. Yay.
Others (Including bad sections):
Job fair in a city about two hours away. I prepared myself well, including professional haircut and shave (yes, this cost money). I wore my nice suit, brought a nice-looking folder, and had twenty resumes ready. What happened? I was not really expecting anything highly positive here, but I was expecting at least professionalism from the company / government representatives who took the time and effort to have a booth there.
Now some of the booth workers were at least nice and professional. A few did take copies of my resume and gave me information themselves. Even though some of these people were not looking for employees of my level of experience (many of them were looking for jobs for which I was overqualified) or specific degree, these people were still nice when I talked with them. Several of the booth workers were not even a bit nice though. For example, I visited three different booths in the section for the state government agencies. All the people there were notably unhelpful (or even quite rude). Some of them pretty much wanted me NOT to talk with them, even before I had a chance to tell them about my level of experience (definitely before I could even say I had my resume with me).
Seriously...Why would they go to this event and act like that...(Yes, I understand it may have been the specific people at the booths, but their representation of their companies -- or government agencies -- was terrible.)
I am going to move on to the next thing now...
While I was waiting for my ride from that job fair, I saw I received an email reply from a potential employer.
About two weeks before that, this person called me to try arranging a job interview. The person was unavailable the following week, but I would get another call after that. I spent a lot of time preparing for the next phone call, as did my family. I took particular care to make sure I knew who this person was (both the name and position in the company -- it turns out this was the company's CEO) so I would be able to have a clear discussion during the next phone call. I actually did not know what the position was I would be interviewing for, but I did spend time on the company's website.
My family and I agreed that I would send an email to this person a few days into that following workweek. I sent the email, and I made sure to be professional and courteous in it. This was the day before I received the reply.
What did the reply say though? It told me the following: 1. The position that I was being considered for had been filled (sure, that happens, but keep reading) -- 2. The implication was that it was filled at least days earlier 3. This person (again, the company's CEO) never informed me at all about this (actually, did not even contact me at all between that first phone call and that email reply). 4. The person did say the company may contact me later this year, but at least two months from now (not to mention the glaring typo in the date given --luckily it was the year, not the month or day -- the year "2108").
I was fully expecting to receive that second phone call, and most likely have a discussion to arrange an interview. My family was as well. …Yep. More unprofessionalism.
I also heard earlier today that my grandfather's pet cat died that Thursday. (Yes, I read the posts on this thread above this...why are so many cats dying / having health issues lately?)
So, in addition to the irritating unprofessionalism I received from such people, my family spent around $75 on my professional haircut and shave, money for gas to drive two hours each way to a different city, and any medical costs that may have been needed for my grandfather's veterinarian. The results? A few possible contacts with the companies that were actually nice to me at the job fair, a large loss of money, and a dead cat that now has my grandfather living alone for the first time in probably over half a century (including the first time living alone since his wife died). ….Why....
EDIT: I somehow forgot something that is both highly irritating and highly noticeable that came back that Thursday. Given what it is, I thought I would have remembered to mention it.
….Advertisements suddenly reappeared on SPPF for me. I have no idea how or why, nor am I aware of any changes to this site / the forums lately. The ads went away for me over six months ago (well before the forum upgrade back in March). I do not know why they left for me back then, but for some reason, they came back on Thursday.
So, once again, I have a large bar for advertising that (along with most ads I see around the internet now) usually has some sort of distracting moving images / videos that often repeat or go on for a lengthy amount of time. Of course this advertising bar is directly above the main forums area, so I (again, like the last time I had ads here) must scroll a notable distance down the page just to get to the highest subsection.
****1. I do not see how this is anyone's fault in particular, especially not anyone connected with this site (just making that clear) -- It seems as if it may be something with my computer (such as settings or whatever)
****2. Compared to the other things that happened that Thursday, this is less significant. (But still...why)