Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Variations on this ad have been running in the Cape Cod Times for almost as long as I've been looking for a new position.

Office Administrator Assist in administration of office, human resources and facility operations in a dynamic, fast-paced trade association. Provide admin and project support to CEO and management team. Candidate must possess initiative, flexibility and have proven top-notch organizational and administrative skills. Successful candidate will be a self-starter and team player with premier customer service skills and demonstrated ability to multi-task. Computer proficiency in MS Office is essential. Please email cover letter, resume, salary history and requirements to: cciaorjob@cciaor.com EOE/AA Employer

The ad will disappear for a month or three and then pop up again. I want to know what the deal is, because they're churning through people like crazy. Either their CEO and management team are horrible to work for, they're not paying enough for what the job requires, or they simply have no idea how to hire people.

Knowing Cape employers, my bet is that they have very unrealistic expectations of what the pay should be. If you pay enough, you can usually find someone to work in a demanding or dysfunctional environment. Cape employers typically think that they're doing you a big favor by offering positions that don't require commuting to the city. But, if you have big city expectations and big city personalities, you need to make it worth someone's while. The commute off-Cape simply isn't that far.

I suppose they could simply be selecting one unsuitable candidate after the other, but I must have seen this ad a half a dozen times now. You could pick someone randomly in a room each time and manage to pick at least one person appropriate to the job.

My secret dream? I would love for someone who was one of the candidates or the past employees in this job to find this message and say in the comments what the deal was, what happened. Give up the gossip baby.