Technician Employment Offer Letter: Fill & Download for Free

You may not have noticed it, but most smart employers include in their offer letters a phrase that say something like, “This offer of employment is contingent upon successfully completing a background check.”You don’t say anything about the felony in question, but typically, felonies are pretty serious offenses. And while it may have been more than 7 years ago a hiring decision isn’t a legal process, so the statute of limitations would not apply.I used to recruit for a company that hired field technicians—the kinds of people who come to your home and install telephone/cable/internet service. These folks must drive in order to perform their jobs: it’s an essential part of the position. We had a hard, fast rule: DUI = disqualified. It doesn’t matter how far back it was for us: if it happened at all that was it.Employers are exceedingly risk-averse when it comes to hiring decisions. Anything that isn’t picture-perfect is a possible reason not to consider someone. And if you think that’s bad, it’s even worse when it comes to a loan.

That was my first job, back in 1981, in a multinational company which country of origin I rather omit. I had been an intern for 9 months and right before completed college I was offered a job as a Technical Support Analyst. The company made me a salary offer well below the market, I questioned the value and I got an awful answer: I was very young (20 y/o) and I could not make more than a technician with five years experience. I argued that I was not asked to step into a technician position, so the salary should be compatible with the position and required skills, not what other professionals with different skills and job requirements where paid. I reject the offer and informed that I would work just until the end of that month and hit the road them. After a few days, the director under whom I would work visited our branch and proposed me to accept the initial salary and that, after 3 months, it would be raised to market levels. I was baffled by the proposal! It was a reasonable large multinational computer manufacturer and in no need to save money in that way. Trying to be accommodating, I accepted the offer.Few weeks later I was unexpectedly sent for training in Europe, for 3 1/2 months. When I got back, I realise that my salary was still the same. Since I was told that my director would be in the office latter that week, I decided to wait and inform him that HR probably made a mistake and fogot to raise my salary as still the same.The director ‘s answer was really unexpected: he told me that he always did such promises for every employee and never kept it and would do the same with me. And, not satisfied, he told me that, if I was not satisfied, I could just quit. I thanked him, went to my desk, wrote a handwritten dismissal letter, returned to the director, tossed the letter in front of him and said that I hoped he knew in which orifice of his body should he insert the letter … and I went home !Boy, I felt vindicated not only for me, but also for my fellow coworkers that suffered the same treatment!

This took place in the 1980s. There are the usual scandalous things, like affairs at the office but the most scandalous thing I experienced over the course of about 18 months was when I was working in telecom/datacom in the 80s. The company was making about 100 million dollars revenue and had hired an HR director whom everyone believed was gay. No one cared that he was gay — he was a relatively pleasant fellow who just happened to be effeminate. At that time I was running a technical support organization and we had to hire a new technician and so I needed to work with the HR director. The role was rather technical and required someone with experience with telecommunications, data communications or networking. I went to HR and we put out a req, called the recruiters, put ads in the paper and so forth. I got a number of resumes and selected three worthy candidates. One was an ex-Army data communications specialist; one was a technician defecting from a competitor and one was a recent college graduate with training in networking. Not long after, the HR director gave me a schedule with four people to interview, which perplexed me since I had selected only three.When the time came to interview, all three I had selected proved to be good candidates. Then the fourth candidate came in. He was a pretty boy with over-styled hair and expensive clothing. I had only gotten his resume that day. His experience was as a haberdasher, most recently working selling men’s clothing at Macy’s. I couldn’t understand why he was there. He didn’t even have a college degree. I went through the motions of interviewing him. He knew absolutely nothing about high tech, telecom, datacom, networking or anything else even remotely connected with the job. I rejected him before he even left the building. I selected the ex-Army technician who not only had the skill, but the military bearing and good can-do attitude that goes with being a soldier. My boss signed off on the request and we told the HR director to make the offer. He agreed. The letter went out.On the day he was to begin, the haberdasher arrived, all spiffed out with a new briefcase. He was the one who had been offered the job, not the technician. I was stunned. While he went through orientation with the HR director I ran to my boss and told him the story. He, too, was stunned. He went to the VP of Engineering who ran our department from the top and he said he would investigate it. When he came back later that day he looked us in the eye and said, “Just train him. He’s the new technician.” Apparently the HR director was very good friends with the President. There was nothing we could do.I set up a training for him and dumbed it down as much as possible. He looked completely shell-shocked. He was completely incapable of answering a single question when customers called and ran to my office every single time. When customers came in for training, I inserted him into the classes. He slept through every single one. His way of dealing with customers was to classify every product he came across as “broken” and just gave them an RMA to send it in. Soon I was getting complaints from shipping and repair as a result of the increased volume of work. Every product he sent in was “NFF”, or No Fault Found. But it wasn’t he who got the blame - it was I. Everyone in the group despised him. We had considered a new hire because our call volume was skyrocketing but with him on board everyone’s work load went up higher because they had to deal with his constant stammering and questions. Customer complaints rose. I appealed to my boss but he shrugged and spread his hands. “There’s nothing we can do,” he said, “Make the best of it, we can’t afford a new technician this year.”The new guy came in late and left early. Any complaints to HR about his performance were ignored. He became belligerent because he knew now that he was untouchable. His boyfriend in HR apparently would go to any lengths to protect him. I would love to say that he got his comeuppance somehow but when things were at their worst I got a promotion to Product Manager and left the department. I felt badly about that but it was a huge career move for me. The new manager would just have to deal with the problem.Once in Marketing I was making a good name and career for myself and never thought much about my old role in Tech Support or the loser we were forced to hire. One day we needed to hire a new marketing manager, someone who could write technical copy, deal with magazine editors, manage a circulating library of technical documentation and so on. We cast about in the industry and hired a woman from one of our competitors. She was awesome from the first — friendly, willing to learn, excited and dedicated. Within six months she was part of the team and we were happy to have her.Then there was a major sales meeting in New Seabury and most of management and the sales staff were absent at the meeting for a week. One day I came in and the new marketing manager was crying and cleaning out her desk. I asked her what was wrong but she ignored me and soon left. I went to her boss, who was a senior marketing manager and a very good friend of mine. “What the hell happened?,” I asked her. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, “In fact, I’m not allowed to talk about it.” She was absolutely beside herself with anger. Rumors buzzed, people went from office to office asking why she was gone. Then, the very next day, the haberdasher showed up at her old office with a smile on his face and started unloading his briefcase. The truth came out little by little. While management was away, the HR director had gone through the new marketing manager’s resume piece by piece until he found a direct lie — and then he fired her. In her place he promoted his boyfriend who had reached the pinnacle of failure in Tech Support and wanted out.Everyone was livid. No one would talk to the haberdasher and he felt wounded and hurt. He couldn’t understand why he was being blackballed — he didn’t fire the girl. When management returned the next week our managers went en masse to the President. He was appalled that his friendship with the HR director had been so abused. The HR director was called to a closed-door meeting. We learned later that he had been forced to call the girl he had fired and apologize and offer her her job back. They wouldn’t fire the boyfriend, but they would “create” a role and fund a job just for her. She refused. The President called her and apologized and asked her to come back. She refused. That was the end of that. The haberdasher remained despised and roundly insulted and criticized — but not to his face. His boyfriend in HR could make life miserable for anyone, through payroll “mistakes” and other nuisance retribution.We were all relieved when he finally went to Inside Sales. We never had to deal with him again. He was Sales’ problem now. He was just as useless there as everywhere else, expensive dead weight, someone who never bothered to learn the products or the solutions and didn’t care — he was untouchable. For me, it was the most scandalous thing I’ve ever encountered. There was never any punishment or accountability assigned to the HR director and regardless of how bad the haberdasher was, he also was never held accountable. I learned a valuable lesson that day, one I have never forgotten. Although I was a world-wide expert in telecommunications by that time, my skill couldn’t compete with the most important factor determining success - it’s not what you know, but who you know, that counts.