CUNY CIVIL SERVICE IS A PIECE OF SHIT

Okay, the reason why you got no blog on Thursday was because I was working off a mad from an interview I went on Wednesday.

I’m gonna go on record to say this: City University’s Civil Service hiring system SUCKS. It’s supposed to be designed to be equal opportunity, but it’s biased, discriminatory, and downright corrupt. After experiencing what I experienced with CUNY’s corrupt hiring practices this Wednesday and over the course of the past four years I can say want nothing else to do with this dirty organization or its slimy people. Now I know why greasy people like Eliot Spitzer run to CUNY to hide out as teachers after they commit their crimes. Behind the veneer of academic intellectualism is a dirty underbelly of the seediest crooks.

A couple of weeks ago I get a letter from CUNY’s Civil Service unit telling me that they were having a mini-hiring pool for an IT Assistant position. It was an entry level job making web pages. Now the job description  given to me with the letter stated that all a person needed was six months experience and knowledge of web pages and websites and stuff like HTML. Easy stuff, stuff I do every day in the posting of this Blog. The position paid $46,000 a year, more money than I’ve ever made in my life.

I was excited. Being unemployed for two years going on three, I truly thought this was my big break. Being A+ Certified, having close to four or five years of experience working with Web pages, (yes a blog is a website, don’t let anyone else fool you into thinking it’s not) I thought I had a serious shot. I finally thought I’d be getting paid to do something I LIKED. So I e-mail my resume to the HR person and a week letter I get my call letter for last Wendesday April 13, at 2:30.

Unfortuantely, I was thoroughly disappointed on Wendesday afternoon. Instead of an interview, I got a lesson on how dishonest some employers are.

When I arrive at The Graduate Center at 2:30, I find the mini hiring pool is actually TEN people. Bad sign. Mini is FIVE. MINI is not TEN.

After the Civil Service people got our attendance and signatures, and introduce themselves, they tell us they’ll be making a decision on who’s getting hired THAT DAY and they want to take care of the paperwork that evening.

Then IT manager who is doing the interviews starts talking in technobabble (Another bad sign) and tells us he wants someone who knows PHP and SQL. Moreover, he wants someone who can work a Linux server and with Open Office software. Not in the job description I was sent.

The kicker to all that technobullshit ITdouchebag told us was the person would be creating webpages working off a TEMPLATE. Come on, Blogger and Wordpress use Templates. Hell, even MySpace uses fucking Templates. Yeah, that requires tremendous amounts of SKILL with PHP and SQL. Shawn’s wonderful HBI certified BS Filter translates technojargon into English perfectly and can understand when someone thinks they’re talking down to him.

Again, NONE of this was detailed in the three-page job description I was sent in the mail or the call letter for the interview. After re-writing the job description on the spot he goes on to tell us that anyone who wants to leave can leave and we’ll still be on the list. WTF???

No, seriously the WHAT THE FUCK?

When the smug ITDouche told us we had the option of leaving it struck a nerve in me. The nerve of this arrogant piece of shit. Like remaining on a civil service list means anything to me. Have some integrity. Show me some damn respect! You call my ass down here, have me get my suit cleaned, spend my night printing resumes and presentation materials, spend $4.50 to ride down on the subway to GO TO THIS FUCKING INTERVIEW and THEN YOU TELL ME I have the OPTION of leaving because HE wants to REWRITE THE FUCKING JOB DESCRIPTION AT THE LAST MINUTE?

FUCK YOU.

The hubris of this fucker! He and all the CUNY Civil Service and HR People read the damn resumes; They knew what people had to offer them. They had TWO DAMN WEEKS to send an e-mail, a phone call or a letter to people cancelling the interviews so they could re-write the position detailing the actual requirements for the position. Now CUNY has cancelled hiring pools of larger groups of people before on shorter notice (a day before) for other entry level positions like the CUNY Office Assistant. It was totally unethical for them to mislead people for TWO WEEKS.

Then after seeing that no one was going anywhere after his pitiful attempt to dissuade people, (Who the hell would leave an interview in the worst job market in decades) ITDouchebag decides to start the interviews. Over the course of an hour and a half, I watch as the four WHITE MALE candidates, a black guy and a Hispanic/African candidate get interviewed. Myself, an Asian guy, and two WOMEN wait…until Around 4:30. Then the people who were interviewed start talking. I learn the five people (They made sure those White Males got their interviews) who were interviewed were CUNY students or CUNY employees. The five who weren’t interviewed were NOT affiliated with CUNY at all.

Around 4:35, The Civil Service people come out and tell us that “while we would love to hire all the candidates, we’ll be getting in touch with the individuals we want to call back. But you’ll remain on the list.” Hey, what happened to “We’ll be hiring the same day?”

That’s when the FUNK radiating from this interview process started to STINK.

So the CUNY employees and students get interviews, but the Non-CUNY employees don’t? FUCK YOUR LIST. YOU HAD ME SPEND $4.50 to COME TO AN INTERVIEW AND DID NOT INTERVIEW ME.What? My $45 FEE not as good as the $45 FEE of CUNY student? My $45 FEE not as good as the money of a White male?

But since I signed my name to your attendance list it LOOKS like you did your job. Looks like you met those EEOC standards. Everything works out on PAPER regardless of the PEOPLE you JERKED AROUND.

GO FUCK YOURSELF CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK.

I guess business as usual at CUNY means doing things without any regards for ethics or integrity. Oh, it’s okay to make people PAY $45 for a civil service fee, mislead them into believing it’s a fair shot at getting a job, send them letters and a job description, have those people send you BACK resumes detailing the skills they offer, then send them letters telling them they have an interview for a  job, get their hopes up, and then when they get there, re-write the job description and try to discourage people from being interviewed, and when that doesn’t work just interview whoever you want and tell everyone to go home? What kind of organization jerks people around like this and thinks it’s okay? I mean, how do these people sleep at night?

Seriously, what I ran into on Wednesday showed me why I would never work for the City University of New York again. The actions of their IT managers in the hiring for this “hiring pool” were egregious and reprehensible. I cannot and will not work for a corrupt and dishonest employer like the City University of New York.

If this is a reflection of the ethics and integrity of the employees of the City University of New York (and I can sadly say it is from the crap I put up with from its CUNY Office Assistant hiring pools and my short time working in their wonderful Science Library) I want nothing else to do with this organization or any Civil Service position. CUNY to me is a seplechure of Public Education. On the outside it presents itself as an institution of academic excellence a while on the inside it’s a cesspool of an organization rife with nepotism, favoritism, and corruption.

If I get any more Civil Service letters for interviews for the City University of New York I know where I’m putting them: IN MY TRASH. I’m advising everyone else to do the same.

When it comes to Civil Service jobs I can tell everyone this: Instead of paying the fees for exams, just keep your money in your pocket. The money would do better if you gave it to a homeless man on the street. At least he'll get a cup of coffee or some crack out of the cash.