I don’t remember the last time I actually had a job interview. Definitely a few decades ago. I usually got my job through a former coworker who remembered my capabilities and what it was like to work with me. I’ve had resumes printed, and a portfolio of my art work, but I don’t recall ever using them. On a few occasions I was called from a place I had previously worked, and asked to come back. All in all, over the years, I’ve turned down more jobs than I’ve accepted. And I’ve never called anyone, asking for a job.
Airplane.
Meaning is???
I boarded an airplane somewhere else. It flew here. I disembarked. Voila! I am in Bangkok.
What’s the title of the thread? Oh, never mind.
#1. I was given a temp assignment here, and after 12 months they made me permanent. I’ve now been here about five years and been moved up a pay grade as I’ve expanded the scope of the role.
I must admit, my life view is very different to yours. I’ve rarely viewed any aspect of life as being a competition. I’ve always been more inwardly focused on (a) doing things that I enjoy or that bring enjoyment to others and (b) exploring what I am personally capable of. So I want to be the best that I can be, but not in a way that I compare myself to others.
Started with #1
I was 26, had a GED after dropping out of HS years back and started at a customer service postion within a banking call center. 18 months after I started, they were looking for volunteers to go to India to cross train our call center that was there. I overcame many fears and threw my name into the ring. I was selected. Upon my return, I was promoted to a supervisor, then a year later to Team Manager.
I then realized that managing in a call center is like working at a day care center and looked for a more professional role within the bank. Now, at just under 10 years with the company, I am an AVP Product Manager with a role specific to risk management.
Oh, and I am in college full time working towards a degree (1 year in now).
It started with luck. An opportunity came up and I jumped on it. After that, it became about becoming the best I could be at each role I have held in the last 10 years (not always as easy as it seems when you despise certain job roles).
Being resourceful and willing to take on ‘not well defined’ tasks and running with them were two big factors.
That would explain why no one here works with any jerks.
I’d like to ask though, havent there been times when you have had to compete with for a particular position of promotion?
I find it interesting that nobody here has had a position that where say, they interviewed 20 candidates and brought people back for 2nd or even 3rd interviews to weed out people in order to find the absolutely best person?
See below.
Some of those interviews had well more than 20 candidates, and I have been through up to 3 rounds of panel and/or one-on-one interviews before landing a job. I know that some people get jobs by knowing someone or being in the right place at the right time, but I thought the way I outlined was pretty much the standard in the business world.
My first job out of college, I worked for room and board as a full-time volunteer. That led to me getting hired by the organization. I went to grad school and then back to volunteering full-time for a year. That was enough social services experience that with my college degree I could get a paying job in a human svcs org. And the next one. Then I moved up here and my college plus experience got me my first position here. I don’t know how many other people applied but I didn’t know anyone in this area. Since then I’ve moved around within the institution – the position before this one, I was “recruited” to join a term project and the person I worked for there created another position for me working for her.
So in short, some jobs I got as a stranger with a degree from a top school, and recent internal moves probably based on folks knowing me.
Lots of bad decisions.
I interviewed for a different position at my company several years ago. I must have made a good impression on the hiring director because even though I was turned down for that job when a different job opened up a few months later the hiring director remembered my personality, thought it was a match and offered me the job.
My other job I got because they needed someone on short notice.
Unemployment sucks.
Sure, I’ve been in that situation several times - and in fact, I’m going through something a bit like it right now (I’m one of a shortlist of 2).
Still, it isn’t necessarily about explicitly ‘beating the others’ - Often you won’t even know anything about the others - it’s about being the best you can be.
Anyone who has landed a position that had multiple applicants “beat everyone out”.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that person was the best. It just means that they made the best first impression. Often times, all the applicants are equally qualified and it all rests on subjective criteria. Like, do you come across as likeable? Do you seem hip to the workplace culture? Does the hiring manager know you?
The vengeance of a vindictive god.
Most of my experience has been working with consulting firms like the ones on this list. They tend to have a fairly rigorous process for selecting candidates, including selective campus recruiting, high academic standards, multiple phone screens and interviews, case interviews (i.e. how many manholes are there in Manhattan and why are they round?), presentations and technical quizzes.
At the more junior levels, they might not interview 20 candidates to pick the right one. It’s more like they will interview 20 candidates out of 100 resumes through their recruiting process and select 5 or so.
“Knowing” someone helps you get through the process. But typically you know someone at one of these firms from business school, industry reputation or another consulting firm.
I’ve had several of jobs where the company had been looking to fill the position for a long time and picked me. Although in retrospect, I’m not sure if it’s because I’m so awesome or because I’m the only person who would actually take the job.