I responded to a job ad on Craig's List in November for an Academic Advisor position at Kaplan University.
I got a call from a nice young lady by the name of Sadie Fatima and we set up an appointment for me to come in on a monday for an appointment. First, I took a series of tests as a prerequisite and passed that phase of the interview.
On monday Sadie was ill and not at work and this Recruiter by the name of Carolyn called in the morning and said they were busy and could they reschedule.
I said okay even though I had rescheduled some other appointments and we agreed to an appointment the next day.
The next morning Carolyn calls again and wants to move the appointment up and I agree and then realize there is no train that will get me down there at that time, and I call and leave a message that I will try to get down there on time.
So, I leave my house immediately and take the subway down there. The subway keeps getting delayed and after two hours and fifteen minutes (a normal travel time of one hour) I get there but I'm ten minutes late. I apologize for the inconvenience and fill out an application and wait for Carolyn to come out and she does but she now has another applicant to take as that person just got there but was on time.
I understand that, but then this young guy named Brian Grojean (I think that's his last name) comes out, gives me a fish handshake, doesn't even look me in the eyes and chastise's me for being late and I explain what happened and he says he's sorry for the long travel time down there but their booked and have no one to see me.
I say I understand and I leave. I know being late for an initial interview never looks good. It would be nice though if they hadn't kept changing the appointment as I had to make calls to reschedule other appointments before I headed down there.
And he mentioned that many of the applicants were running late that day because of the weather. I did wonder why they were able to see them when they were late, but not me.
A few days later, I came down there for an appointment with Carolyn and found her to be very pleasant. I explained what happened and she was fine with that.
I felt the appointment went quite well and would probably get an offer for employment, but was stunned when she called me the next day and said they were going to pass on me.
I asked if I failed any of the tests and she said no. I asked if I did bad on the interview with her and she said no. I asked if it was because I was late the first time and she said no, and I asked if there was something wrong with my experience or credentials and she said no, so I asked her then why are they passing on me and she said, they just are.
Being over 50 and getting passed on all the time because of my age, I asked it's not because of my age is it? And there was a long pause and no answer, so I asked that again and she said no.
I said okay, that's your call and hung up.
The next day I get a call from her but I'm out and she leaves me a voice mail message that they aren't hiring anyone now and that the January class for new hires is being canceled and likewise for hiring anyone in February and March.
Now, I know BS when I hear it and that was clearly BS. They spent weeks and weeks having open house seminars and interviewing hundreds of people for Academic Advisor Positions to start in January, and now she's saying that they are putting a freeze on that.
What an insult to my intelligence. She's just saying that because she's concerned about what I asked. She's trying to cover up because I mentioned something about age, and she's concerned about a possible age discrimination suit, and she thinks that if she she tells me this lame story I'll go away.
I e-mailed Sadie Fatima and asked her to e-mail me back how many people they have working there over the age of 50 but I got no reply. The silence speaks volumes.
Let me just say this: I'm 55 and I have been successful in Sales for thirty years working for fortune 500 companies like: Minolta, 3M Company, and Wachovia. I have also been in management with a staff of telemarketers working under me, owned a Moving Company and have close to three years of college credits under my belt.
I've won awards for achieving hard to reach sales goals and in positions every bit as hard if not harder than enrolling students at Kaplan. I think I can do this job, but I get passed on - What a crock.
No, it was all about my age. Nothing else. White male, over 50, let's pass on him.
In fact, if I was some hot looking young blonde woman I guarantee you Brian would've found time and a place for us to interview and would've hired her in a heart beat.
I was all set to let this slide and put it behind me when something interesting happened tonight. I was on Career Builder and looking at jobs and saw Kaplan advertising for new Academic Advisors Positions and it mentioned they are having a training class starting January 14th.
Carolyn is black and close in age to me so I could be wrong about the age discrimination, but she is a liar and that you can't argue with.
I came across this Web sight where Kaplan has a less than stellar reputation, and I would like to thank all the ex-employee's and students that have reported their experiences here.
I'm actually glad I didn't get hired. Their narrow minded bigotry turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me.
But I am going to write the President of Kaplan about this incident and I'm probably going to contact to the EEOC.
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