Hiring freeze or blowing smoke?

I recently got a job offer for a desktop support position through a recruiting agency. I was originally slated to begin on Monday. On friday I was told that the compny that I would be working at had instituted a hiring freeze and since the purchase order for my job hadn't been completed yet the job was being put on hold. The company is a large well known corporation.
Within hours of my hearing this news the job boards I have alerts on (indeed and simply hired ) had a flood of postings from this large corporation. All the postings were old and most of the links turned up that the job was not available. Coincidence or not? 8 job posting from the same company at the same time seems like more than a coincidence.
Do you guys think the recruiters were telling the truth about the hiring freeze or blowing smoke? I tried googling about the company having a hiring freeze and got zip.

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Comments

msteinhilber

I propose solution C to your paradox.

The recruiter you were working with has no humility and his mind kicked into self-preservation mode once he realized he screwed up and there never really was a job available. He blamed the company instead of owning up to his own screw up, knowing you'd probably not be able to find out the truth anyways.

earweed

Never thought of that. Makes me feel even worse.
Guess I probably learned a really hard lesson here. Getting an offer letter and doing all the other paperwork doesn't mean squat if you're dealing with a recruiter. Until the recruiter confirms to you that they have the purchase order for your job completed don't take any actions,
I put in notice at both my jobs. Guess I need to get another crap non-IT job quick to pay the bills.

Repo Man

msteinhilber wrote: »

I propose solution C to your paradox.

The recruiter you were working with has no humility and his mind kicked into self-preservation mode once he realized he screwed up and there never really was a job available. He blamed the company instead of owning up to his own screw up, knowing you'd probably not be able to find out the truth anyways.

Also possible that the company lost the contract.

N2IT

earweed wrote: »

Never thought of that. Makes me feel even worse.
Guess I probably learned a really hard lesson here. Getting an offer letter and doing all the other paperwork doesn't mean squat if you're dealing with a recruiter. Until the recruiter confirms to you that they have the purchase order for your job completed don't take any actions,
I put in notice at both my jobs. Guess I need to get another crap non-IT job quick to pay the bills.

Man that is rough.

Wish you the best bro!

Excellent1

earweed wrote: »

Never thought of that. Makes me feel even worse.
Guess I probably learned a really hard lesson here. Getting an offer letter and doing all the other paperwork doesn't mean squat if you're dealing with a recruiter. Until the recruiter confirms to you that they have the purchase order for your job completed don't take any actions,
I put in notice at both my jobs. Guess I need to get another crap non-IT job quick to pay the bills.

That really sucks, sorry to hear that, man. Thanks for sharing this, as I'm sure someone will read this and be saved some potential heartache down the road. Best of luck to you.

earweed

NOTE: If dealing with a recruiter for a job make sure they have a purchase order for your job IN HAND prior to putting in notice at your present job.

N2IT

earweed wrote: »

NOTE: If dealing with a recruiter for a job make sure they have a purchase order for your job IN HAND prior to putting in notice at your present job.

Can you ask for your old job back?

earweed

The wal mart job (main job) they already hired my replacement and told me to reapply for a new job. Already done. The other job which was just part time I'm sure I can get back but it's really unsteady and I don't really care to keep it anyway.
This is a hard lesson. Apparently an offer letter through a recruiter doesn't mean anything.

rogue2shadow

earweed wrote: »

The wal mart job (main job) they already hired my replacement and told me to reapply for a new job. Already done. The other job which was just part time I'm sure I can get back but it's really unsteady and I don't really care to keep it anyway.
This is a hard lesson. Apparently an offer letter through a recruiter doesn't mean anything.

Thats disheartening. Sorry to hear it bro.

eMeS

If you want to shoot me a PM and let me know who the end employer was going to be.

I have a large customer in Alabama and I suspect this might be them. If it is I'll gladly poke around and see if I can find out anything.

MS

earweed

It's small compensation but the recruiting company did foot the bill for a drug test and background check.

za3bour

Sorry to hear that, hope that it's for better though

veritas_libertas

Ouch

I hope everything works out.

tpatt100

Yeah that kind of stuff makes me nervous all the time. I hope my next job is a direct hire position, I am tired of being a contractor.

it_consultant

This is a crappy situation, I have been in similar scenarios. Based on your candor and disposition that I can infer from your postings, I think you would make an excellent employee anywhere you go.

Paul Boz

I would never drop out of a fulltime gig to do contract work. I would only take contract work if unemployed or if there was a guarantee for contract to hire. I would also never resign my current position without an offer letter FROM THE EMPLOYER - either a letter to hire directly or a purchase order for your services.

Thxlbx

Best of luck earweed, you will land on your feet!

earweed

Paul Boz wrote: »

I would never drop out of a fulltime gig to do contract work. I would only take contract work if unemployed or if there was a guarantee for contract to hire. I would also never resign my current position without an offer letter FROM THE EMPLOYER - either a letter to hire directly or a purchase order for your services.

This was for an IT job where my old job was non-IT. I didn't realize they had to have a PO (first time dealing with a recruiter) and especially never thought about the fact that they might screw me.
I already have another job. Another crap job that'll pay the bills. I work at the BP station nights now. Just a slight pay cut from my old job but the manager has trouble getting people to come in nights so said I can probably get plenty of OT.

phantasm

earweed wrote: »

This was for an IT job where my old job was non-IT. I didn't realize they had to have a PO (first time dealing with a recruiter) and especially never thought about the fact that they might screw me.
I already have another job. Another crap job that'll pay the bills. Call me Appoo now as I work at the BP station nights now. Just a slight pay cut from my old job but the manager has trouble getting people to come in nights so said I can probably get plenty of OT.

A job is a job man, don't knock it. It may not be ideal but consider yourself lucky to be employed. There are plenty of people without a paycheck right now.

it_consultant

I'll be honest, with respect to what Paul Boz said, I have taken contracting jobs without a PO number and I was fine. If they sent earweed to get a background check and drug test then they must have been serious about the opportunity at some point.

Were you working with a national staffing agency?

earweed

Yeah they are national and to be honest I have never dealt with a recruiter and didn't know about any PO having to be obtained. I'm not gonna mention the recruitment agencies name though as I don't want the mods getting mad or anything. I thought since they did the drug test and background check the job was in the bag. I thought that recruiters had to already have a contract before they could have me sign an offer letter. Rough lesson learned.

ssampier

That sucks. Lesson learned: no contract work for you (unless they are offering gobs and gobs of money).

I really enjoy your posts. You claim to have no IT experience, but you just get stuff.

snokerpoker

I went in for an interview once and then the manager told me the HR dept put a hiring freeze on and the position was no longer available. I found it to be odd and almost got the impression he just didn't want to tell me I didn't get the job for whatever reason..... it's really hard to say.

earweed

The recruiter (actually the recruiters boss, the VP at the recruiting company) justgot hold of me and said that they are still in contact to see when and if the hiring freeze will be lifted. They said the hiring freeze is only on Desktop support positions, though I don't know why I corporation the size that I'm going to would put a freeze on such a miniscule portion of their business. Especially a corporation which has had some really good gains in the market.

varelg

How much of your private data do they have on file? I mean, whoever ran background check?

earweed

enough to run a background check which is pretty much everything. It is a national recruiting firm. They already did the background check and drug screen.

jetdynamics

I have never deal with any recruiter but thanks for giving us a heads up on what to look for, Anyway some few advice I can share...If your not sure with the new job you can probably take a vacation notice from your existing employer until you really started with your new job...Then if its real and if you really enjoy what you're doing then submit a resignation notice to your existing employer , That gives you in a safe position of not quiting immediately on your existing job and at least learning out first your new job, Either way just always think what is best and safe for you not to burn bridge both ways...

varelg

I'd use some of those protection services that monitor your personal financial data (SSN, credit score, credit cards etc.) but that's just paranoid me. It looks odd when they went through all that paperwork with background check (provided they really DID the check) and then give you that answer out of nowhere.

earweed

I do have creditreport.com and their agenvy they use did show up as checking my CR.
I'm actually linkedin to a VP of recruiting at the actual company that supposedly has the hiring freeze and messaged him to ask about the freeze. Maybe he'll know if there actually is a freeze. The recruiter contacting me saying that they are still waiting to hear if the freeze is being lifted kind of gives me a feeling they may be telling the truth, but I'm still doubtful. The recruiter said the freeze is only on a small portion of IT job classes.

kurosaki00

I had somewhat a recruiter bad experience once.
The outsourcing company called me to see if I was interested in a job and wanted to manage my case/resume etc etc. I told them ok.
Lets call this company "Second Point" lol
Second point provided my resume and data to the company called "Wuahei" (which has a very like Cisco ish CLI) (lol not real name either)
and I got an interview. Went I went there as always I took a couple of my resumes and transcripts etc etc the standard.
When I was interviewing the guy said, is that your resume? Can I see it?
I'm like sure, I brought this for you just in case.
He was like... wow all this...
Me: what? what happened?
He: The recruiting company cut off so much from your resume, I didnt know you had experience in this and that.
Me: o_O what!?

I went through 2 more interviews and I never got the job because the recruiting company never sealed a good "$$$$" for my case... so yeah. Care with recruiting companies.