Getting a new job

Phlegmak

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You know what? You don't, so I'm going to tell you. I'm getting a new job. It's the same career but a new workplace. That's not the important part. The important part is that doing around 20 phone + in-person interviews is like going on 20 blind dates. Ug. It's a tiring and stressful experience.

So, to uh, make this a discussion, how about, you, um, tell us about your unpleasant interviews?
 
I thought you made mad cash at your job? Looking for even greener pastures?
 
I'm getting a job grading work in symbolic logic classes!
 
I thought you made mad cash at your job? Looking for even greener pastures?
I hate my current job. They changed me from a programmer to a guy who writes and reads documentation. Bleah. And I want to move to Manhattan for the sake of my wife. She wants to move there. My plan is to live there for a minimum of 1 year, maybe 2, and move elsewhere.
 
Seattle baby! I worked at a reinsurance broker but now work at the convention and visitor's bureau. more money, better workplace, more cool people.

interviews are nothing. I had one interview and BAM! Got the job
 
I usually act like I don't care if I get the job or not during interviews (as in, I'm happy where I'm at, and if you're going to lure me away you'd better make it worth my while). That way, they don't get the vibe that you're unhappy at your current job, which of course can indicate a number of potential undesirable things. It's when your over anxious, and are obviously trying hard & reaching... that raises warning flags. Plus if you're stressing out just talking to somebody, what does that say about your capacity to handle various workloads?

I've been pretty successful. Granted, there are bosses out there that want you to constantly be sucking up... and they don't like my approach. But it works both ways; I don't want to work for them anyway. And chances are if I did, they would take my constantly NEVER sucking up the wrong way, and start looking to get rid of me. Those are the kind of people you don't want to work for. So during interviews... they think they're screening me, but little do they realize I'm doing the same.

And I've had an investigator tell me to my face (after 2 hours of being 'under the bright light' so to speak) that he "couldn't read me for $h*^". So, I make these people think what I want them to, while I screen them checking for my own requirements. I can be pretty manipulative... I have this power to make people want - whatever I want them to want. Power of persuasion, or suggestion, who knows. Or maybe they just bend to my iron will.

Oh btw, don't let them degrade you, or get stupid/cute. "Describe yourself in 3 words." ... "I... am... good". ..."How did you prepare for this interview?" ..."Well, I did a lot of thinking, about how I might answer a bunch of random questions... that you might ask". :rolleyes:

It's all one big silly game. At the end of the day I seriously laugh at ALL of it. Stress? What's the point. Might as well laugh a bit now, as well.
 
You know what? You don't, so I'm going to tell you. I'm getting a new job. It's the same career but a new workplace. That's not the important part. The important part is that doing around 20 phone + in-person interviews is like going on 20 blind dates. Ug. It's a tiring and stressful experience.

I'm doing the same thing right now. Sucks, don't it? :(
 
To hell with working. Working is for chumps. I've made my career choice. As soon as I get my degree, I'm retiring. I thought about working, but nah, not for me. Instead, I'm going to go on welfare, take trips to Reno, cruises to Alaska, play some canasta, maybe some bridge, and move into a housing co-op and whine about how my family never visits me. That sounds like a perfectly valid career choice to me.
 
To hell with working. Working is for chumps. I've made my career choice. As soon as I get my degree, I'm retiring. I thought about working, but nah, not for me. Instead, I'm going to go on welfare, take trips to Reno, cruises to Alaska, play some canasta, maybe some bridge, and move into a housing co-op and whine about how my family never visits me. That sounds like a perfectly valid career choice to me.
Good luck with that.
 
Okay, so this happened to me while I was in University.

The way my program was set up is that it lasted 5 years - You'd go to school for a term (4 months), then go to work for 4 , then school, work, etc. until you were done. No vacations.

During each school term you'd apply to jobs - through a system set up by the University. We had the largest co-op program in the world - and companies from all over the world (especially in computer/it/engineering fields) provided employment opportunities.. You'd drop in your resume into whatever boxes you wanted (the postings were on another wall), and then you'd get 10-30 interviews each term (on average). You go to the interviews, you rank the jobs, the employers rank the people they interviewed - and the computer then matched up people with jobs. I believe the hiring rate was around 97%.

When I first started this process in 1st year, I found it to be quite.. intimidating. I HATED interviews with a passion.. but the amount of interviews we went through made the process.. common. I got pretty good at the whole thing - it really helped me after I was done school.

The frequency of interviews also made it easy to go into one of these things cool and relaxed.. Hey, if you mess up this one - there's 5 more this week, and 10 more next week. The most nervous I was ever at an interview was an interview via satellite with Electronic Arts.. that was just.. different.

But I digress.

I got an interview in town (Waterloo), with some 'digital photo' company. They were located in town, so they didn't have an interview room set up on campus - you had to go to their place of business to get interviewed. So i arrived on campus - asked the secretary for the address, double-checked it on the wall, got on my bike, and went to look for the place. You might say - but warpus! It's an interview! You should have scoped the place out well in advance so you knew where it was! You don't really care about things like that when you have 15 interviews in 2 weeks. You check your schedule, you go to the interviews, sometimes not even knowing much about the company. That's what we had to do - there was schoolwork to deal with as well, not to mention drinking.

So in any case, I get to the address.. and sure enough, it's some digital photography type place.. but it looks CLOSED.. I knock on the door to no avail - nobody's opening the door.

I was confused.. what the hell is going on? Businesses NEVER do this here - students would have complained and the University might have thrown them out of the program... especially if it was a smaller business - which this one appeared to be. So after 5 minutes of knocking I noticed another door - upstairs.. you kinda had to go up a hill and take these stairs.. and it looked residential - but I figured that the owner of the business lived upstairs, having his place of business downstairs.. hey,maybe he just slept in! or something.

So I went to that door and knocked.. An older couple answered the door

me: "I'm here for the interview"
guy: ".. ... what interview?"
me: "It's for *what i thought i'd be doing*"
guy: "Oh, that'd be downstairs, but the business closed down. and I wasn't aware of any interviews"
me: "closed down?!??"
guy: "yeah. the owner passed away and the business closed down"
me: " ....."

*awkward silence*

me: "he's dead?"
guy: "he's dead"
me: "well.. uhm.. thanks"

so I get back to campus and go see the secretary.. we're supposed to notify her/the co-op department if you miss any interviews, otherwise you get kicked out of the program. missing interviews = bad. but on the way up I realized that she must have given me the wrong address - which by coincidence turned out to be a similar type of business - who's owner just passed away.. what are teh chances of that?/?

in any case, I get to campus, I check the printouts on the wall.. and sure enough, the address wasn't 582 (or whatever it was) King street.. but 582 King street S.. as in.. SOUTH...

So I go up to the secretary

me: "I missed my interview"
her: "That's okay. What's the reason?"
me: "the guy DIED"

*awkard silence*

I just left it at that...
 
I usually act like I don't care if I get the job or not during interviews (as in, I'm happy where I'm at, and if you're going to lure me away you'd better make it worth my while). That way, they don't get the vibe that you're unhappy at your current job, which of course can indicate a number of potential undesirable things. It's when your over anxious, and are obviously trying hard & reaching... that raises warning flags. Plus if you're stressing out just talking to somebody, what does that say about your capacity to handle various workloads?

I've been pretty successful. Granted, there are bosses out there that want you to constantly be sucking up... and they don't like my approach. But it works both ways; I don't want to work for them anyway. And chances are if I did, they would take my constantly NEVER sucking up the wrong way, and start looking to get rid of me. Those are the kind of people you don't want to work for. So during interviews... they think they're screening me, but little do they realize I'm doing the same.

And I've had an investigator tell me to my face (after 2 hours of being 'under the bright light' so to speak) that he "couldn't read me for $h*^". So, I make these people think what I want them to, while I screen them checking for my own requirements. I can be pretty manipulative... I have this power to make people want - whatever I want them to want. Power of persuasion, or suggestion, who knows. Or maybe they just bend to my iron will.

Oh btw, don't let them degrade you, or get stupid/cute. "Describe yourself in 3 words." ... "I... am... good". ..."How did you prepare for this interview?" ..."Well, I did a lot of thinking, about how I might answer a bunch of random questions... that you might ask". :rolleyes:

It's all one big silly game. At the end of the day I seriously laugh at ALL of it. Stress? What's the point. Might as well laugh a bit now, as well.

actually i think this all stems from you being a 6'5" former marine. ;)
 
I'm always bumbling and stuttering in interviews but the current job I'm working at I was unusually coherent.
 
My friend who is a machine engineer (don't know the real english name for it) went for an interview in Belgium and he had like a nervous melt down.

He said he felt very strange like he left his body and was watching himself yap on about how "he sees machines as works of art, very beautiful but at the same time mystifying, no one can tell how they work or why, yet the fact that they do is pure magic, and so on".

This from an engineer. He didn't get the job and we had a good laugh at him.

He is employed now.
 
Good luck on switching jobs, Phlegmark! Calling around and interview situations were also a problem for me when I was younger. Staying composed and calm and not rushing answers but taking time to think it through is imo most imprtant during an interview.

I am starting after my PhD in chemistry at a new company this November. I was in the lucky situation that my "hard skills" made the companies wanting to hire me. I wrote an e-mail at the 2 most interesting offers, got an invitation from both of them and could, in the end choose the job with the better conditions.
So: proper education pays off, folks!

:lol: :lol: :lol: @ Jawz´s story. I know myself chemists and also mechanical engineers (I think that´s the proper name in English) who act weird under pressure in face-to-face situations. When I was scientific staff at Uni I made some oral examinations and even though I was really kind, students were afraid to look into my eyes, trying to keep distance and on one occasion a girl nearly collapsed :eek: (no, it was not because I smell or so ;) )
Angst essen Seele auf :yup:
 
I'm about to start looking for a new job again. I hated it last time, and I'm dreading it this time.
 
I just got a new job, that I really enjoy. I guess I'm in the minority..I really like interviews. I have been hired for every single job I got an interview for. I think that sitting down and actually talking to people really showcases my real strengths. Guess it helps that I'm a performer at heart, so I don't typically get nervous in front of people.
 
I just got a new job, that I really enjoy. I guess I'm in the minority..I really like interviews. I have been hired for every single job I got an interview for. I think that sitting down and actually talking to people really showcases my real strengths. Guess it helps that I'm a performer at heart, so I don't typically get nervous in front of people.

I agrees. Interviews, public speaking, etc... I love all of it!
 
On a more serious note, I've got the most important interview of a lifetime coming up in about 3 weeks. It's the full monty... the whole "show up for the first time at a big, high tech, busy facility... and tell us why you deserve to join our elite team... meanwhile we are heavily scrutinizing everything you say (and how you say them), and throwing a list of prepared questions at you, all designed to probe you for any potential 'undesirable personality characteristics'."

It's not NASA, but for all intents and purposes, you guys should think of it as NASA. Though where I'm going, the pucker factor is ever more intense, and everyone is on edge. I'm typically pretty confident & stress free, but I know I'm not Superman. I know d@mn well when I'm in over my head, and I'm surrounded by an environment that is more sophisticated than anything I've had experience in before. Thus you can start to feel kinda 'small', compared to the grandeur of such a distinguished workplace.

But at the same time, I know it's all over-rated. I know people that work in that field, I know others that are about to come onboard - and a lot of them are dumb as rocks, AND scatter-brains at the same time. In all reality, I'd be a highly valued asset to them, with a lot of potential. Whether or not THEY see it that way, all depends. It depends on... the d@mned HR people.

Anyway, to heck with it. If I'm really so great, I should be able to find my OWN way, right? What's the point of working for a living? Just making money. Well, if I can do that effectively on my own, then why bother with this rat race? See, I'm working on it... it takes time.
 
I sent my resume to NASA. I wanted to be a computer scientist for them. They rejected me. :(

I have a situation. I already made my decision. I have the choice between two jobs. I have to state my decision within 2 days.

Job A at Company A: Small, young company; therefore, not necessarily likely to stay around forever. Good benefits. My future boss seems like a very nice guy, and laid back.
Job B at Company B: Gigantic, old company; therefore, much more likely to stick around until I die. Spectacular benefits. My future boss seems like a nice guy, but a little rough around the edges.

The pay at each company is roughly the same, but Company B pays slightly more. The work I would do at each is roughly the same. The commute time to each is roughly the same. The area that both companies are in is roughly the same.

So, which should I take. I made my decision already which I will explain:
Spoiler :

I'm going with the small company. I hate bureaucracy and I hate internal company politics. Larger companies have more of both. Also, the boss at company A is nicer. I don't intend to stay at either company forever, so I don't care about the longevity.
 
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