Woe To The Entitlement Generation
A soon-to-be college graduate posted a profanity laced rant on Facebook after she was denied a programming job allegedly because she wore “unprofessional” attire to the job interview.
This is why we can’t have nice things:
So my friend got rejected from a programming job today because she was wearing too much makeup. pic.twitter.com/GwnibrmGoD
— Alanna Bennett (@AlannaBennett) April 15, 2015
Girl. Slow your roll.
I hate to throw my own generation under the bus, but that status precisely sums up why employers hate hiring millenials. We’re entitled. We’re classless. We’re wholly unprepared for the real life outside of college “safe spaces.” (Oh my god. I sound so old. Where’s my cane?!”)
“A woman comes in wearing something mildly sexual and this is somehow indicative of her dedication and work ethic?”
How you present yourself matters. It says a lot about you. That might require investing in an outfit a step above Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 to get the job you want. This isn’t patriarchal oppression. If a dude showed up wearing something “mildly sexual” for a job interview, he’d probably be escorted from the building. It just isn’t the time or place for all that.
RELATED: 20 Stupid Feminist Questions For Men Answered
“This is an office with mostly men where they wear jeans and t-shirts”
Elizabeth Bentivegna
Honey, you ain’t even in the office yet. You haven’t even begun paying your dues. Once you do, you can relax on the dress code. Until then– step up your game at Ann Taylor.
“they would have definitely have hired me based on my techinical [sic] skills and personality.”
That personality doe. Could it be that the employer sensed that you have “DRAMA!” written all over you? You’re not auditioning for the Real Programmers of Silcoin Valley.
“You clearly are too stupid to realize who just turned down.”
Right. More like, “Phew. Dodged that bullet.” You told a company in your desired field to go F themselves on social media. I’m sure the calls from prospective employers are just rolling in because YOU’RE GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD and they better recognize.
Oh, you seem to have forgotten a few details in your social media rant.
You were late to the interview.
That’s like the number one “don’t” of job interviewing.
But you say that you told them you were running late ahead of time. I mean, they should totally be more understanding that you made them wait. After all, it takes time to look “damn good.”
*Finger snap*
The job recruiter did you a favor by telling you what you did wrong. You should have used this as a learning experience to improve for next time but it’s so much easier to blame your mistakes on other people.
#Millenials #EmbarrassedByMyOwnGeneration
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I could not agree with you any more. I love to be comfy and dress for just me, but on interviews I always dress up for the interview, arrive early, and make sure I am put together. In this short window during the interview the seasoned HR person will look for clues about the person they are hiring because there are so many potential issues that can happen once you do hire someone and you find out they are not the right for for the job.
In jobs I applied for and did not get I would call back to find out where I could improve and do better in my interview so I could grow and learn. This girl needs a reality check.
“With your ever ready “OMG women are victims mentality”, they dodged a lawsuit down the road – and that probably came across in your interview.
You want to work in the tech industry, and then you made a spectacle of yourself on social media – probably ruining your reputation in that field. I imagine these people have some experience hiring and your fairly scream “emotionally laden drama rant waiting to happen” – and they probably saw it.
Instead of acting out and going media maybe you need to realize that life is not HS or college and BY YOUR RESPONSE, it’s very clear they did the right thing. You’re not ready to sit at the adult table.”
I agree with everything but the sentence “We’re entitled.” The problem with such people is that they feel entitled to many wonderful things that they are not, in fact, entitled to. Thus, I’d amend to sentence to: “We feel entitled.”
If a man goes to a job interview dressed to look “damn good” as though he were going to a bar to pick up women, he wouldn’t get the job either.
Man or woman, you’re expected to dress professionally (e.g., suit and tie for a man) for a job interview, even if it’s at a place where everyone comes to work dressed casually. That’s just the way it is; it shows the interviewer you are a serious applicant.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
As a former programmer and technical recruiter there are a couple of things with her story that don’t ring true.
1.) Because of legal issues….HR rings this into your head endlessly…..the corporate recruiter ( works for the company versus a contractor) would never tell Ms. Bentivegna that even though she was “qualified,” she was rejected because of her attire. The recruiter most likely would have said, “Thank you for your interest in our company, unfortunately the position that you applied for has been filled. We will keep your resume on file and contact you in the future if another position becomes available.”
2.) (“So my friend got rejected from a programming job today because she was wearing too much makeup. “). If you are a good coder and have a proven track record it doesn’t matter how much makeup you’re wearing (I’ve seen people who looked like they were auditioning for a Kabuki play) or if you have holes in your tee shirt (or Ketchup stains….I’ve seen it all). What counts is that you show examples of your work, describe projects that demonstrate your ability to work on a software engineering team, and know how to solve problems (surviving the whiteboard …you go up in front of the team and solve problems).
Example of a whiteboard scenario:
Given a dictionary that contains mapping of employee and his/her manager like this
Dictionary employees = new Dictionary()
{
{ “A”,”C” },
{ “B”,”C” },
{ “C”,”F” },
{ “D”,”E” },
{ “E”,”F” },
{ “F”,”F” }
};
Write a function to get no of employees under each manager in the hierarchy not just their direct reports.
In the above dictionary the root node/ceo is listed as reporting to himself.
Output should be a Dictionary that contains this
A – 0
B – 0
C – 2
D – 0
E – 1
F – 5
I suspect that she didn’t get the job because she showed a lack of maturity (as demonstrated by her facebook rant) and was not good at programming.
Hi Julie and followers. I’m a female software developer and checked out the requirements for the job with OnShift. It’s quite a list, and I think they were foolish not to hire a well-qualified candidate based on looks. It takes years to develop competence in her areas of expertise, and it would take about 5 minutes for a supervisor to ask her to change her manner of dress.
My guess is that they didn’t hire her because she’s not some size 0 cutie patootie; remember, this is an all-male department. I hope she does find an employer that is more on the ball employee relations-wise.
My guess is it was her attitude, which really upsets the whole work environment…whether it’s a male or female employee.
I took a look at her linkedin profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebentivegna). Her technical experience is as a Webmaster/Web Developer for Oberlin College. Her work experience outside of school was as an Sales Associate at HobbyTown for 5 months. From what I can see, she did not work on any exciting or cutting edge projects.
Under skills, she wrote “Java/Javascript”. This tells me all I’d need to know about her technical skill level (hint: it’s not as high as she wants you to believe).
Also her github profile is rather… sparse. https://github.com/ebentivegna
In a similar position I’d turn her down and tell her it’s because she’s not very impressive technically.
I’m guessing, based on her tweet, that the **real** reason she didn’t get the job was attitude. I’m also guessing that the recruiter she talked to will not be working at OnShift much longer, either, unless there’s a paper trail that proves she said nothing about the candidates’ appearance . . .
“Attitude”… I totally agree. Regarding the recruiter, after reading some of the questionable information on social media, which was probably used to “embellish” a bit, I’m thinking the recruiter’s job is safe. But that’s with a hope that there is a paper trail because there’s no telling what this gal is capable of doing due to her bad (and very immature) attitude. She’s not the type who’d care if she cost a person his/her job. (I wouldn’t doubt that she has a friend who is recommending a lawyer right now.)
Something about this whole thing sounds wrong.
First, I do not believe that a recruiter would state that they did not hire her based on her looks as they are not supposed to make these sorts of judgments and this could lead to a lawsuit.
Second, the whole rant sounds like the sort of thing I hear from my spoiled nephew when he does not get his way. Instead of taking it in stride and trying to better herself she chooses to play the victim and whine about it on social media trying to garner attention for herself.
Third, most employers usually do not tell you whether you got the job the day you are interviewed. They generally just state I am sorry the position was filled good luck with your job search.
Fourth, if she truly felt she was discriminated against, there are certain things she could do to file a complaint.
This sounds like the whining of a spoiled entitled brat that did not get a job. I highly doubt that any other companies will be rolling out the “red” carpet for her to “change the world” at their firm either. She needs to realize a business is operating to turn a profit, they are not there for her to use as a crusade for whatever imaginary wrong this girl seems to be fighting for today.
I hope that one day these entitled brats wake up and realize how good they have it and start contributing instead of expecting everything to be handed to them.
So much of this smacks of bull crap, it’s hard to figure out where to begin. Sheesh, what a monumentally stupid thing to do! Now every job she applies for will be tainted by her online rant. They didn’t not hire her because of her clothing, what utter pap! No recruiter or HR administrator would tell an applicant that. They may tell her she was not a good fit, that she was just not the best candidate or that she didn’t get the job because she was late to the interview. They would never, NEVER, tell her it was because of her outfit.
Her rant proves she is not mentally ready for a real job, and the fact that she so stupidly called out the company by name goes to prove that she lacks the discretion one would hope to find in a mature job candidate.
The first thing 90% of HR admins do is hit the Internet and see what free info can be located on the candidate. This little tantrum will follow her for many years. Businesses need serious people and they can’t afford little girl screaming fits when somebody tells them “no.” For her sake, I hope Burger Heaven doesn’t have WiFi … It may be her only option. At least her outfit won’t be in question.
Her rant makes me think it had more to do with her attitude and ridiculous belief that she was the best candidate they had that day. What a terrible way to start a career search!