"Misselling" of a job role?

Adam · 2 Jun 2011 at 07:22

So my girlfriend started a job yesterday in an industry which is notoriously difficult to break in to. She went for an interview last week and was unsuccessful but they later offered her a more junior position but with the promise of her being first choice for the next position that comes up in the senior rile.

She turns up and things were very badly organised, she was thrown on reception without any training of their systems or knowledge of the organisation with the premise that she would sample each part of the organisation. They all went to lunch and left her to it, she had absolutely no idea what she was doing and no one to help her despite clients calling to book appointments and asking to be put through to various people. When she asked for more information on the role she was promised she was fobbed off and no one would give her a direct answer.

Her friend works for another company and was told that this company had lost their receptionist but managed to hire another on Friday (when my girlfriend was offered the job). So my girlfriend seems to have been given the receptionist role despite being promised a completely different role! There was no contract etc available when she arrived and the whole thing was a shambles.

I told her not to go back today, luckily she got her old job back while she can look for another position. I have never heard of this happening before, is this common?

markweatherill · 2 Jun 2011 at 07:38

Adam said:
notoriously difficult to break in to.

Tower of London? Fort Knox?

BringTheRain · 2 Jun 2011 at 07:39

"Worst i have a new girlfriend thread ever"

The company probably thought they should fill the receptionist job first. I have been offered a higher job role once, turned out the job was **** anyway and quit.

Dunks · 2 Jun 2011 at 07:41

If the industry is that hard to break into, maybe she'd be better off staying put?

Adam · 2 Jun 2011 at 07:46

BringTheRain said:
"Worst i have a new girlfriend thread ever"

Err what? That doesn't make any sense.

BringTheRain said:
The company probably thought they should fill the receptionist job first. I have been offered a higher job role once, turned out the job was **** anyway and quit.

I suspected they would hope she would stay put. Unfortunately they did nothing to make her feel welcome and didn't offer sufficient training to do her job.

Dunks said:
If the industry is that hard to break into, maybe she'd be better off staying put?

Not very ambitious though? She has spent a lot of money at uni and another £10k course afterwards, it seems a bit of a waste not to pursue her career.

Mr^B · 2 Jun 2011 at 07:52

Depends what the industry is, nothing is worth being treated like that.

I don't think she was mis-sold at all, I think she had been left on her own without training probably because she didn't pipe up and say "you can't leave me here, I have no idea what to do!"

Adam · 2 Jun 2011 at 07:56

Mr^B said:
Depends what the industry is, nothing is worth being treated like that.

I don't think she was mis-sold at all, I think she had been left on her own without training probably because she didn't pipe up and say "you can't leave me here, I have no idea what to do!"

Oh she did but it fell on deaf ears. They all went off to lunch and left her alone with no one to help her. Not on in my opinion.

She was definitely told she would be doing another role (via a phone conversation and email) but it really sounds like she was their new receptionist!

AHarvey · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:01

Wouldn't be HR by any chance? I know that is a pita to get in to.

If she thinks she's been done over, tell her to stick the job and find something else, or hold out until she finds something else.

Mr^B · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:03

Perhaps she just had to cover briefly due to illness or something else.

Did she sign a contract? Did she get a full list of her roles and responsibilities along with the contract? If so, then she has some comeback.

It depends, again, on the industry (which still hasn't actually been mentioned, what is it, adult entertainment? Why the secrecy?) as I suspect the answer to whether she has to just suck it and see (fnarrr) will depend very much on what job she *actually* wants to end up doing.

Vonhelmet · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:07

What is the industry?

[TW]Fox · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:15

They said they were offering her a junior role, this clearly wasn't going to mean Assistant Director of Finance, was it?

Edrof · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:20

vonhelmet said:
What is the industry?

J-FRO · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:27

Well, as OP is reluctant to tell us the industry, why don't we narrow it down ourselves?

Could be law related, costs ~£8k to do the GDL and ~£11k to do the LPC after a degree.

What other expensive post grad courses are there?

Vonhelmet · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:42

J-FRO said:
Well, as OP is reluctant to tell us the industry, why don't we narrow it down ourselves?

Could be law related, costs ~£8k to do the GDL and ~£11k to do the LPC after a degree.

What other expensive post grad courses are there?

You name it. Any half decent finance related qualification will run you about £10k in training and exam fees.

Adam · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:42

It's in the law industry, she is training to become a solicitor.

[TW]Fox;19276704 said:
They said they were offering her a junior role, this clearly wasn't going to mean Assistant Director of Finance, was it?

No, not at all. She wasn't naive enough to believe she'd be going in as a director. However, the position she was offered was not as a receptionist.

Edrof · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:47

Surely solicitors would never screw anyone over!

J-FRO · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:51

Boom! I win!

Not to be rude or anything, but did she seriously think that that was the way to get into a law firm? By just accepting any old role on the premise that there would be a more senior one coming along later?
The only other role that would come close to benefitting a law student who wants to become a solicitor is to become a paralegal, and thats only because if you spend 2 years as a paralegal you can slash 6 months of your training contract.

I'm assuming she's searching for a training contract and this just sounds like a high street law firm to me the way it seems so unorganised.

Number_25 · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:57

Should be grateful that they offered her a job?

Adam · 2 Jun 2011 at 08:58

J-FRO said:
Boom! I win!

Not to be rude or anything, but did she seriously think that that was the way to get into a law firm? By just accepting any old role on the premise that there would be a more senior one coming along later?
The only other role that would come close to benefitting a law student who wants to become a solicitor is to become a paralegal, and thats only because if you spend 2 years as a paralegal you can slash 6 months of your training contract.

I'm assuming she's searching for a training contract and this just sounds like a high street law firm to me the way it seems so unorganised.

Well what else is she meant to do? She has applied for lots of jobs, from the outside it seems like a very competitive industry. A lot of her friends who did the same courses are also struggling to find anything.

These guys gave her an opportunity, they sounded as if they were looking to expand and said there is a strong chance she would be offered a training contract towards the end of the year. It sounded exactly what she was looking for and she was very excited about it.

Adam · 2 Jun 2011 at 09:00

Number_25 said:
Should be grateful that they offered her a job?

Yeah, I'd be happy if I was offered an IT role then put on reception. As long as I have a job, who cares right? My long term career prospects don't matter all that does matter is they offered me a job :rolleyes: