One Wrong Way to Look for a Pilot Job

Be prepared — and then don’t act outraged when you get an unexpected response.

TelephoneYesterday afternoon, I got a call from a number I didn’t know and answered as I usually do: “Flying M, Maria speaking.”

The caller seemed almost surprised that someone had answered the phone. Maybe I’d answered more quickly than he expected. He stumbled over his words a bit and I recall thinking that he might be someone looking for information about a charter flight. Lots of people who call who have no idea how to ask for what they want get off to a rough start.

But no, eventually he asked for “the boss.” Yes. In those words.

“That’s me.” I replied. Now my brain was wondering what he was selling. Anyone who asks for the owner or the person in charge of parts/maintenance/accounts payable/fill-in-the-blank is trying to sell me some product or service I don’t want. My phone is a cell phone and the number is on the FCC’s Do Not Call list, but that apparently doesn’t stop telemarketers from bothering me multiple times a week.

But no, after some more stumbling over words, I learned that he was a pilot looking for a job.

And that’s when I got annoyed. Here’s a guy who can barely communicate what he wants and obviously did no preparation for his call asking me for a pilot job?

I replied that there were no job openings at my company and that even if I had a job to offer, I wouldn’t offer it to him since he obviously couldn’t be bothered to find out who he was calling before he made a call to ask for a job. I told him he needed to work on his technique.

And then I hung up.

After the initial “I can’t believe how inept job seekers are these days” thought, I got back to what I was doing. I had pilot friends coming for dinner and was prepping for their arrival.

This morning, I got an angry email from the person who’d called. Apparently, he was in the U.S. from his home country (which I don’t think I need to share here), had trained in the U.S., and was outraged that I’d been so rude to him. He said:

I was going to let you know that my approach to you asking for a job was not good at all, I just wasn’t prepared before I called and of all the places I call the owner is never taking the phone.

Interesting that he admitted he wasn’t prepared. And odd that I hadn’t noticed his accent, which really comes through in the wording of his written communication.

He went on to say:

My point with this message is that the way you talked to me was just really disrespectfull [sic], rude and unmotivating for a new pilot.

Apparently, he believed that I should drop everything and give him the polite attention he thought he deserved as he interrupted my day to stumble through his job request. A request made without any advance preparation.

Yes, if he’d bothered to do any research at all on my company before calling to ask for a job, he would have learned that the company is a single pilot Part 135 operator with only one helicopter and one pilot. That should have told him how unlikely it was that I’d be hiring. But at the very least, he would have learned my name and could have used that instead of asking for “the boss.”

Or if he’d read the Help Wanted page on my company’s website, which is linked to the Contact page where he may have gotten my phone number and definitely accessed the contact form he used to email me, he would have seen that I was not hiring.

Yes, I was rude. I’ll admit it. (It’s already been established here and elsewhere that I can be a real bitch sometimes.) But when someone acts like an idiot, how should I respond? By gently coddling him so he makes the same mistake again with the next person he bothers?

Don’t you think this guy will think twice before he makes his next call? That maybe — just maybe — he’ll do a little homework first and learn more about the company he’s calling and whether they’re hiring? Or possibly find out who he should be speaking to to ask for a job?

And am I wrong, but do cold calls ever work when looking for a job? Any job?

The other day, I blogged about the importance of networking for career advancement. Networking can help job seekers make valuable contacts they can use when looking for work. It makes time-wasting cold calls unnecessary.

Am I sorry I was so rude to this guy? Maybe a little. He was probably slightly handicapped by a language issue.

But to me, he wasn’t different from any telemarketer who disrupts my day by trying to sell me something I don’t need or want.

And if he thinks I was rude to him, he should hear me when I’m annoyed at one of them.

Smartphone Trick to Stop Answering Repeat Calls from Telemarketers

Put their numbers in your address book.

These days, my only phone is a cell phone. Although I’m listed on the Do Not Call Registry, apparently telemarketers don’t consult that list before interrupting my work day or dinner or personal time. I get quite a few calls every single day.

I no longer answer calls from “unknown” or obviously fake phone numbers. I figure that if a person blocks their phone number, they’re likely up to no good anyway. If they are legitimate, they can leave a message to prove it.

TelemarketersBut it’s the calls — often repeat calls — from telemarketers using legitimate looking phone numbers that I can do something about. I add them to my address book. Then, the next time they call, I know that answering is a waste of time. I just send it to voicemail.

Adding a telemarketer number after a call is as easy as pushing a few buttons on my smart phone. I don’t even bother entering in the name. Just “t” is enough for me to know. Then, after I sync my phone with my computer’s address book, I merge the telemarketing calls into one record and sync again. The result is a growing list of phone numbers always up-to-date in my phone.

I’m thinking that if a bunch of folks shared known telemarketing numbers, we could prevent first-time answers. So I’m inviting you to share a few telemarketer phone numbers here in comments.

I’d also like to suggest using 800notes.com, whocallsme.com, whocalled.us, www.callwiki.com, and mrnumber.com to look up and report telemarketing calls.

Finally, if you’d like my Telemarketer vCard (complete with skull and crossbones) to get started, you can download it here. I’ll try to update it regularly.

Telemarketing Gone Very Wrong

A telemarketer goes postal on me.

TelephoneAll of my phone numbers are listed in the Do Not Call Registry. I have zero tolerance for telemarketing calls and report every single one I get.

Today, I received a call from 347-982-0051. It was a recording. I pressed 1 and got a company representative. He said he was from YourSearchListing.com. I told him I was on a No Call list and would be reporting his company. They would likely receive a $5,000 fine. I then told him to get a real job and I hung up on him.

I filed the complaint.

Next, I got a call from 714-869-1805. The man on the line was barely understandable. It sounded as if he were looking for someone. I told him he had Flying M Air and asked him if I could help him. He hung up.

I called back, angry. The phone was answered by a recording for YourSearchListing.com, which is “affiliated with Google.” I pressed 7 when prompted and likely wound up with the same guy I spoke to the first time. I told him to stop calling me and hung up.

I filed another complaint.

I was in the supermarket when I got a call from a “private” number. The man on the line, who had some kind of Hispanic accent, asked me if I got his e-mail. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about. He sounded confused. I realized he was the same guy who’d called the second time. He asked if he was speaking to Maria and I told him he wasn’t. He asked again if I was Maria and I denied it. He then said he made a mistake. I told him he probably had a wrong number and hung up.

When I got back to my RV, I found an e-mail message sent using Flying M Air’s contact form with the following text.

Subject: you bitch

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/flying-m-air-c370249.html
look at your link bitch
you should get a real fucken job u peace of shit

I followed the link. It was a compliant against my company on ComplaintsBoard.com:

They took me in a tour and what they did is get a girl to give me a blowjob in the air, they are realy an escort service. At the end of it all i let her give me a blowjob for $100 then i decided to fuck her she loved it. I RECOMEND FOR HORNEY GUYS

I understand now why telemarketers are telemarketers. They lack the simple social skills needed to get real jobs and do real work that benefits others. All they know how to do is interrupt people’s lives and then, when people fight back, pull immature and obscene stunts like this.

On the advice of several Twitter friends, I tracked them down via the BBB and filed a complaint. I included the text you see above.

My advice: Do NOT do any business with YourSearchListing.com. They’re likely as fraudulent as the complaint they filed against me.