Has anyone in a quota based environment ever went through this? I'm a recruiter and I haven't had any luck placing anyone in nearly 4 months. With that being said, I've had more activity than any person in the office in terms of candidate calls, interviews, offers, etc. I just have had horrible luck, everything from counter offers, candidates taking other offers bc my client took forever to generate a job offer, clients not wanting to extend an offer to a candidate because he was overweight....it's been rough. What makes it worse is others in the office our starting to make alot of placements and are not encountering the same type of issues. I been stressed out for months now worrying about getting let go, I just bought a house 2 months ago and can't be without a job. This whole situation has screwed me up mentally too, it takes so much just to get up in the morning, come into work knowing that you are the bottom producer despite how hard you have tried and how close you have gotten, and listen to people all day celerbate victories and talk about what they are fixing to do with their commission checks. I been recruiting/sales for 4 years and have gone through dry spells but nothing like this.
Whoa. For a minute there I thought you meant "quota surfing the interwebs... blah blah not being able to surf ClutchFans... etc., etc." and immediately thought I'd be DOOMED if that ever happened. But... no... no quota for working... or workers... but we DID have a freeze where I work for a long time... when the State of Texas was having an economic depression. We just didn't hire more peeps instead of cutting jobs. And we also didn't go to outside training, no over time, we were asked for no extra-long vacations, etc. Anyway... have your upper management peeps or your boss told you that you're in danger of being "let go"? I wouldn't worry about it too much if they haven't shown signs... at least let them know you're trying your best. Hang in there, brother. Hang in there.
I've studiously avoided jobs that would compensate me for my actual performance for precisely this reason. I'm sorry I can't relate, but I imagine it's not a good feeling. I wouldn't think your job would be in danger (not that I'd know). If you've been productive for them before, and your other metrics of activity show you're still trying, I would think management would recognize it's just a dry spell.
I feel for ya, man. I could never do a job that is based off sales and commission...*shudders* Hang in there and best of luck is all I can tell you.
Oh, man. I feel you on that. I was a recruiter for a few years back in the late 90’s. That is a tough way to make a living, as I’m sure you know. You can spend months working on the same placement just to have it fall apart for the most inane reason. Even if you make a placement, you can’t spend any time celebrating unless you have something else in the pipeline or else you’re next month is going to be a big zero. What have you done for me lately? Working on straight commission is hell. Never again. Keep your head up, man. Keep hitting those phones!
Thanks guys, it's not even so much that I been on a dry spell and feel endangered of losing my job, it's just tough trying so hard and seeing others have success, and you know you can't be a downer so you have to be happy and congratulate ppl, boy is that hard when you haven't made jack squate in 4 months.
Hey same here, we had some crap named "Project Igloo" placed on our company and about 3 months later our COO was fired! What a great company to work for, eh. And we've had lay offs on and on for the last 1 year, massive lay offs. So I feel for you bro (OP). Keep ya head up.
Well I can sorta relate.... 1) My wife lost her business and has been (we believe) effectively blackballed by her last principal to ever get a teaching job again - so she is working 2 days a week at a daycare in town making 9.50 an hour. Quite a step down from being an elementary school teacher 2) I did not get a raise this past year due to the economy and with us having a baby born in January of '09 and her losing her business (see #1), this was probably the worst time for me to not get a raise. I'll talk more about this one in just a minute. 3) I have to work as an adjunct professor for the local community college and teach math classes on-line. It is not bad pay and it is sorely needed for us to make it. The goal was to do it as something on the side and put it in savings but it hasn't worked out that way (obviously). Back to #2 - there are people I work with that do not have the education I have (I have a bachelor's, a MBA, and almost another master's) nor the skill set but they are getting promoted left and right and making more money than they should be making. Working in HR can definitely be depressing sometimes because you learn about these things and they want to make you just throw up. But I mean what can I do? I can't quit due to the terrible job market and besides if the market was better, it wouldn't be like I could find another job like the one I have that pays the same or better. If I did find one, I would have to move my family and that really isn't an option at this point. So, my company has me over a barrel and I think they realize that and that pisses me off to no end. Don't even get me started on it...
I actually have been trying to get into HR, my background sort of relates since I have the recruiting aspect, I just dont know all the HR laws and probaly not as tech saavy as companies would like. I have applied for several HR coordinator positions but no luck.
I work in benefits (sorta scary thought, yea I know) but I also do a lot of stuff with training and attrition. I am the glorified data specialist in HR and do a lot of work with queries in People Soft. We have a couple of people who do recruiting but they also do stuff in compensation. I would keep trying - do you have a bachelor's? The reason why I ask is that 3 of the 4 people that do recruiting/compensation for my company have their bachelor's and they are in HR or business admin with an emphasis in HR.
