A few days ago, I placed the following help wanted ad in an Armenian employment website.

Our company seeks new workers. Applicants must have a college education and mastery of Armenian, Russian and English and a working knowledge of MS Office...

I was interested to see what salary job seekers would accept. In my ad, I stated that the starting salary would be 60,000 AMD per month. Given that the average salary in Armenia, as of September 2011, is 115,000, I was surprised by the overwhelming number of CV’s sent in.

31 year-old Hayk (I’ve changed the names) graduated from Yerevan State University with a degree in Applied Mathematics. He met all the job criteria and also knew MS Access and HTML.

Marianna wrote in saying that she not only masters Armenian, Russian and English, but Spanish as well.

Varduhie noted that she worked as an English teacher in school and is a graduate of the Abovyan Pedagogical Institute. She claims to master English, Russian and German.

Siranoush, a graduate of the Yerevan State Economics University, noted that she’d be willing to leave her current job at a well-known insurance firm if accepted. I visited the website of the insurance form and saw that the company had opening to fill and that the requirements were basically the same as I set out in my phony ad.

Lousineh, a 25 year-old, studied at the Department of Sociology at Yerevan State University. She’s worked as a public affairs expert at a news outlet, a social worker at an international NGO, and an interviewer at two investigative agencies.

One can assume that the wages at the above mentioned jobs do not reach 115,000 or at least do not surpass 60,000.

Ani holds two university degrees. Not only did she graduate from the Russian Language Department at Yerevan State University but took extension classes for banking at the Yerevan State Economics University.

Respondents meeting all my requirements didn’t seem to mind that the name of the company nor a job description was given in the ad I placed. Maybe they just overlooked the fact in their euphoria over possibly landing a job. Most of the applicants also attached a photo with their resumes.

The next day I placed another “Help Wanted” ad in the same website. This time the salary was dropped to 40,000 AMD. The requirements were the same.

I wanted to see if the new ad would solicit any response from job seekers willing to put up with a salary bordering on the minimum.

I received 15 resumes for the new ad.

If the resumes are factual, unlike my two ads, then employers in Armenia can find qualified workers, replete with university degrees and mastering several foreign languages, who are ready to work for a pittance.

Marineh Madatyan

Yerevan State University Journalism Faculty; 4th Year