#job searching

[thatbadadvice]

Help! I'm a Perfect Genius, but This Potential Employer Asked Me a Boring Interview Question!

Ask A Manager, 13 Feb 2024:

I was rejected from a role for not answering an interview question. I had all the skills they asked for, and the recruiter and hiring manager loved me. I had a final round of interviews — a peer on the hiring team, a peer from another team that I would work closely with, the director of both teams (so my would-be grandboss, which I thought was weird), and then finally a technical test with the hiring manager I had already spoken to. (I don’t know if it matters but I’m male and everyone I interviewed with was female.) The interviews went great, except the grandboss. I asked why she was interviewing me since it was a technical position and she was clearly some kind of middle manager. She told me she had a technical background (although she had been in management 10 years so it’s not like her experience was even relevant), but that she was interviewing for things like communication, ability to prioritize, and soft skills. I still thought it was weird to interview with my boss’s boss. She asked pretty standard (and boring) questions, which I aced. But then she asked me to tell her about the biggest mistake I’ve made in my career and how I handled it. I told her I’m a professional and I don’t make mistakes, and she argued with me! She said everyone makes mistakes, but what matters is how you handle them and prevent the same mistake from happening in the future. I told her maybe she made mistakes as a developer but since I actually went to school for it, I didn’t have that problem. She seemed fine with it and we moved on with the interview. A couple days later, the recruiter emailed me to say they had decided to go with someone else. I asked for feedback on why I wasn’t chosen and she said there were other candidates who were stronger. I wrote back and asked if the grandboss had been the reason I didn’t get the job, and she just told me again that the hiring panel made the decision to hire someone else. I looked the grandboss up on LinkedIn after the rejection and she was a developer at two industry leaders and then an executive at a third. She was also connected to a number of well-known C-level people in our city and industry. I’m thinking of mailing her on LinkedIn to explain why her question was wrong and asking if she’ll consider me for future positions at her company but my wife says it’s a bad idea. What do you think about me mailing her to try to explain?

Sir,

You have been wronged in the most grievous of ways by a coven of retaliatory, self-aggrandizing women who have failed in the extreme to recognize your brilliance, your talent, and above all, your general superiority.

Of course you should mail this mediocre "grandboss" on LinkedIn to inform her of the deep offense she caused you by interviewing you in the first place, let alone doing so using a boring question — indeed, you have a moral and professional obligation to do so in order to preserve your honor and the honor of scores of men like you who have never done a single solitary thing wrong in their lives, ever.

But I beg you to consider doing more. A single, private message to one incompetent bitch may not convey to the necessary parties the depth and breadth of the situation. Many, many people have important lessons to learn from your experience, and I encourage you to share it widely. Consider making a public LinkedIn post, and ensure that it is shareable across platforms. Depending on your financial resources, a billboard with your name, professional headshot, and contact information could go a long way toward ensuring that everyone in your industry who needs to know just how you handled the way these women treated you, does know about it. I hope that in your continuing job search, you are able to connect with potential employers who have a much better grasp of all you bring to the table.

[copperbadge]

I've started to build a bookmark file of jobsearch sites to check regularly, and part of that is looking around at employers local to Chicago. On a whim I went to the careers site of one of the larger corporations headquartered here, and while I was poking around to see what kind of requirements they have for what kind of jobs, I came across the worst tabletop campaign ever:

We’re looking for a data product expert who’s also the ultimate puzzle/dungeon master. Your quest: work with a group of diverse stakeholders to discover key problems to solve and drive consensus, adoption of data standards. The treasure? A faster, more resilient and reliable data system...

That's terrible and funny all on its own, but it gets even better when you know what Large Evil Chicago Corporation I was looking at:

McDonald's.

[bitchesgetriches]

I Just Applied for a Job. How (And When) Should I Follow Up?

Here’s an awful truth: while potential employers expect the world from applicants, they feel absolutely no obligation to reciprocate that courtesy.

In other words: you’re not going to hear back from a lot of jobs for which you apply. Sorry ’bout it.

So if you apply for a job and hear nothing but the howling void in return, be neither surprised nor distressed. They probably got your application! They probably even looked at it! But they also probably don’t think they have time to respond to every applicant.

I’ve applied for many jobs in my life. And I can count on the fingers of one hand how often an employer contacted me to follow up and say they weren’t going to hire me. Most who didn’t want me just ghosted me. So if you don’t get a response, after some time you can safely assume the answer is “No.”

Keep reading.

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[peachdoxie]

The piece of job search "advice" I hate the most is the one where you're "supposed" to tailor your resume to the jobs you're applying for. "Use the verbiage in the job description!!!" Oh yeah? What if I'm fucking desperate for a job and applying for things in a variety of fields? You want me to customize every fucking resume for each of the eight dozen jobs I'm applying for? I hate job searching. Tenth level of hell.

[dchan87]

[limeadeislife]

Like, I see job postings that are like "build relationships and networks! Community organize!" where the qualifications section doesn't technically list any requirements that I can't say I meet, but the job sounds like, even if I were offered it, I would find it exhausting and feel awkward most of the time

And then I see job postings that are like "sit at a quiet desk and do things with Excel sheets", which sounds fine to me and like something I could actually be good at with a little practice. But they require at least an Associate's in Accounting or Finance or Business or Data Science or whatnot, and I don't have that

(And then on the other end of the cerebral <--> hands-on spectrum, I do like some kinds of physical work too, like weeding invasive plants in a park or on a small farm. But I'm pretty sure most of the full-time horticulturalist or farming jobs out there require significantly more skills than being able to pull things out of the ground)

[ladywaterfall]

job listing said "Instead of a traditional cover letter, we want you to describe your answer to these questions: what skills do you have that are important to succeed in this job? What is your motivation for applying to this role?"

...is this not what you usually write in a traditional cover letter??

[justatorturedpoet]

I HAVE MY FIRST JOB INTERVIEW TODAY I AM SO NERVOUS

[blitzsicedcoffee]

Starting to think about how I will have to get a remote job. I don't think I will be able to physically go back to work when this leave ends in two months as I will "just" be starting treatment for my autoimmune disease. (That is if the second Rheumatologist even takes me seriously).

So if anyone knows any trustworthy sites to find remote jobs for those with chronic illness, I appreciate any recommendations. The typical places, I am typically on Indeed and LinkedIn. Indeed sucks for finding remote jobs tbh.

In terms of my experience, I have a lot of typing, data entry, phone, scheduling, and customer service. So I am pretty much primed for anything Virtual assistant-related or data entry, or even chat agent if I have to. I also have a bachelor's degree but dunno if that even matters anymore lol.

[thatbadadvice]

Help! The Ungrateful Youths of Today Don't Appreciate the Value of Anything, and by 'Anything' I Mean the Worthless Shit I Am Trying to Sell Them

Ask A Manager, 12 May 2023:

Several years ago I was frustrated with the way people went about looking for jobs. I’m a small business owner and even before running my own company, I always networked. Through networking I’ve managed to do so much. Today I run six networking groups. Again, several years ago I created a t-shirt designed to network for you. It lists various fields, each with a checkbox by it, and comes with a small sharpie so you can check off the type of job or career you desire. By wearing the t-shirt everywhere you go, it starts the job seeking conversation. I marketed them inexpensively to college grads. I went to colleges, job fairs, and even graduations. Not one t-shirt sold. I was so angry. I was on popular talk shows and in the paper and still nothing. Today I sit with every size t-shirt in my garage. Many ask why I don’t still pursue this idea. They are the ones who got the idea and believe in it. Perhaps I was ahead of my time. I marketed towards college grads who texted as a main form of communication. However, today communication is even worse. Young adults can barely look someone in the eye. Please tell me what your opinion is of my t-shirts. I hoped people would wear them daily and maybe while filling their gas tank this would start a conversation that would change their lives forever. Networking will always be the way to get what you need. Referrals, physicians, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, housekeepers, financial advisors, accountants, babysitters, trainers, real estate agents, tutors, and whatever I have missed. Am I wrong? Would my product help those unable to network?

There is one reason and one reason only that your revolutionary clothing business has failed to see the success it so clearly deserves: young people today are appallingly poor communicators who, for reasons that likely include video games and participation trophies, are actively unwilling to appreciate the awesome one-on-one human connections that can only be made by going about life wearing a t-shirt and hoping someone reads it and decides to enter into a business relationship as a result. Yes indeed, it is specifically and only the modern youths who have refused to purchase your t-shirts who are very, very poor at understanding how to build valuable and meaningful relationships with other humans. There is definitely not anybody else here who is bad at communicating.

Every single person on planet earth who is under the age of, say, 25, lacks the foresight and vision to appreciate the radically lucrative possibilities of wearing the same t-shirt every day every single place they go. Every single person who didn't buy one of your shirts did so because they are young and stupid and don't know a life-changing idea when they see one. But you do! Because you are old and smart, which are the same thing.

After all, you are great at networking and have managed to do incredible things as a result of your great networking skills, such as running six networking groups. If that's not proof positive that networking works, what is?

The only way to know for sure whether your shirts will help poor communicators understand exactly how bad they are at connecting with others may be to try your product out for yourself.

[nabsthevulture]

The dog training place texted me yesterday and said that they would reach out to let me know if they wanted to move forward with me or not

Pls pls pls wish me luck

[bitchesgetriches]

I apologize if this is something you’ve addressed lately. I was laid off recently and have taken advantage of a “career transition service” my old job offered for 90 days. They looked over my resume, so I feel pretty solid on that. I been tailoring my resume and cover letters to each position I apply for.

I’m in the US, have my Bachelors of Science and 5+ years experience in people/team management for a remote company that focused on healthcare AI.

All that said, I feel like I’m doing everything right and getting nowhere. Do you have any advice or insights that could help me out?

Thank you!

That really sucks, honeybee. I'm sorry you're going through this right now.

Here's our best advice for your situation:

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[peachdoxie]

The problem with living just outside a major metropolitan area when job searching is that all the jobs past a certain radius end up being there and it's like noooo I don't want to commute every morning so please just show me the jobs with 15 miles of me that aren't in the city I beg of you

[petits--oiseaux]

Just applied for a new job.

On Friday this past week, my work started affecting me negatively. And not just "I'm mad at work" or "work sucks". I started to feel the apathy that I have for it. I realized that morning that I didn't care what would happen if I didn't reply to students. I didn't care what consequences would come if I didn't do my work. I extended a LOT of energy just getting my normal amount of emails out. It felt like trudging through mud. I cried when I got home because I hate feeling this way about a job I used to be in love with. I never dreaded going into work until now. I don't feel respected. I don't feel important (even though I know they're going to be fucked without me; although, maybe if they made me feel worthy this wouldn't be happening). I don't feel supported. My set of students are forgotten about constantly. I'm plain exhausted from being the only one in my area fighting for these students. I feel bad for leaving future students, but I have to put myself first.

The job I applied for is for a school district in the area. It is working with high school students on their post-secondary opportunities! So, I still get to work with students. I would still get to work side by side some higher ed institutions. I'd be able to do some of the same stuff I am currently doing BUT work directly with students and work with them on multiple types of opportunities. I requested a salary ~6k more than I am making now, but 5k less than their high range.

I haven't applied for a job outside of this university in 9 years. I kinda feel like puking lmao

[never-not-ever]

On second thought I think I might apply to Whole Foods.

[copperbadge]

Hi, Sam! Hoping for some insight as an adult-y, job-experience-having person. Do you think it's possible to get a job as a front desk receptionist with zero real work experience, other than some art commissions in the past, and some time in college but no degree? Or am I better off setting my sights on entry level food/retail jobs to start off with?

So much of it depends on what experience you do have and what you're willing to put on your resume or like...I don't want to say lie, but let's say...gently obfuscate about.

But also, por que no los dos? You can apply for both at the same time. I used to apply for a variety of jobs, and I just had a set resume and a form letter of interest that I'd slightly alter based on what was requested in the job listing.

The real question is whether you have the skillset to work front desk, and whether you can demonstrate somehow on paper that you do. Do you have experience answering phones, working in a call center? Do you know your way around Office suite? (You don't have to prove how, you just have to say you do and then have the most basic of chops to back it up.) Do you have customer service experience? Etc. etc. etc.

Most front desk positions require a college degree, which is frankly ludicrous, so you may find yourself facing a lot of applications that want you to list your degree information. If you can get through with just listing your college experience, I'd do that. But remember, apply for any job where you have even a hope of getting to the interview stage. If you have 60% of what they're asking for, I'd apply.

So here are some questions to ask when building up a resume and a portfolio of your skill sets for any job: Have you ever worked a volunteer job? (You don't have to mark it as volunteer on your resume.) Did you do any kind of workstudy job while you were in college? (This is real work and really counts!) Ever worked for a family business, or done work for a friend, or have you done reasonably extensive beta-reading/editing for fanfic? That's freelance, baby!

So more important than "should I apply to this" is "How do I apply to this reasonably". Applying for any single specific job once you've found one shouldn't take that long, an hour at most; I've got more about that here under the "cover letters and resumes" section. Especially for jobs like front desk, a good cover letter is super important; it's basically a writing sample that tells them a lot about your ability to communicate, your drive, and your intelligence, whether or not that's fair. Remember to emphasize your skills and never, ever mention or excuse your deficiencies; you want to tell them why you're good for the job, not pre-emptively argue with them about why you're not.

I do also recommend, if at all possible, you sit down with your college transcripts and work out how many credits you have. College credits are usually pretty transferrable, and it's worth your time, if you're able, to find a way to complete a degree -- an Associate's degree, particularly through an accredited community or online college, often only takes two years and if you come in with existing credits, probably even less. Studies indicate that having any degree of any kind increases your chances of being hired and also of earning more over your lifetime. I know not everyone has the ability to attend or complete college, and I don't think everyone should, but if you can, even if it's just one course a semester and the degree's a long way off, do consider it.

Good luck, Anon! And hey, if you do end up finding that retail/food customer service is where you're getting offers, there's no shame in that, that's good solid skilled work that will give you more to put on your resume when you're ready to move on.