# The Job Hunt! Grab Your Spear! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082 "2005-04-13T04:05:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082/21 "2005-05-14T13:57:01Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > Don’t stop searching. I agree. > [@lorene](#): > > In fact, the more offers you can have simultaneously, the better your position. Couldn’t I just make up a few offers to improve my position? > [@lorene](#): > > Call or email everyone you know who might have a contact in this company and see if you can get both some inside info and someone to put in a good word for you. If you are that well connected, the interview is a formality. Usually (95% of the time) people don’t know a damn person inside and are walking in cold. > [@lorene](#): > > Prepare some questions/statements in case they call do a phone screen first—nothing worse than being caught ill-prepared. If you’ve qualified for the interview then your skills are a pretty good match. The only questions you need to ask is: “What are some of the biggest challenges you currently face?”, “What would be my role in this organization?”. No matter what they say in responce, your answer is, “I can help.” > [@lorene](#): > > “Can you give me an example of a time you showed intiative in your job and it resulted in increased productivity for your employer” or something like that. Potential employers want to know your skills, sure, but they really want to know what results you can achieve with those skills. I’ve started at entry level programmer positions and over the many years have interviewd for a long series of jobs right up to senior level management. Anybody asking this question in an interview immediately shows their cards as being a rookie. I’ve contributed in any number of ways to many organizations and short of improving processes and solving immediate problems I hesitate to give specifics, because… If you are having problems with scope creep on a project, my past experience with tuning the shit out of a database or a nightly batch process is not going to help you one bit. In fact it will mean nothing to you at all. The question you should be asking is “What’s your biggest problem?”, the aswer you should be giving is, “I know how to solve this. I can help.” Period. Answering vague questions about how I was a hero once upon a time is pointless. Lead the client in the inteview to tell you about the actual problems they are facing. Then make sure they know you can solve them. Yeah… I’m cynical about job interview processes… so what. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082/22 "2005-05-14T13:59:32Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > Yeeeeeeeeeee-Haw! > > I got the job! > > Many thanks to all who offered advice! 🙂🙂🙂 Good for you! Well done. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082/23 "2005-05-14T18:25:27Z")
I feel a little picked on. Am I supposed to feel picked on? You know, I don’t have a lot of faith in the interviewing process, either, a lot of the time. Most of my clients who get jobs get them because they prepare like hell, though. They make it their business to anticipate every question the interviewer might ask, and every possible reason why they _might be_ disqualified for the position, and find examples of their skills and reasons why the interviewer _shouldn’t_ disqualify them. This includes answering rookie questions, annoying questions, and just plain stupid questions. But when you really want and need a job, you go through the interviewing circus becasue you have to. > [@QuickSilver](#): > > If you are that well connected, the interview is a formality. Usually (95% of the time) people don’t know a damn person inside and are walking in cold. I disagree with the part about the interviewing being a formality if you are able to get the name of someone, anyone inside the company. If you belong to a professional organization or a networking group, you may have an acquaintance who can get you some information like the name of the person you should follow up with or the fact that the person interviewing you is well-known in the company for hating Tuesday afternoons or _whatever_ . That certainly doesn’t mean that that acquaintance would be able to do anything beyond giving you that information, or even that they’d be in a position to influence the decision-making process in any way. Anyhow, sorry if I hijacked. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082/24 "2005-05-14T18:51:46Z")
Count me in as someone waiting for an answer after the interview. This would be the perfect position for me so even though I’m not exactly out on the market I’m still hanging all my hopes on it. I like the job so much that It’s really a pay cut for me. I felt like the interview went so well. I was calm and felt like myself the entire time. Thankfully they didn’t ask vague questions because I think they’re sort of no win questions. Anyhow, I should know by tuesday. It’s for a township so the board of supervisors has to approve whoever the admin. picks for the job. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082/25 "2005-05-14T22:57:00Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > I feel a little picked on. Am I supposed to feel picked on? Nah. You just hit an exposed nerve is all. I appologize for being abrupt with you. 🙂 > [@lorene](#): > > You know, I don’t have a lot of faith in the interviewing process, either, a lot of the time. Thank you for being honest. > [@lorene](#): > > But when you really want and need a job, you go through the interviewing circus becasue you have to. Yup, it a necessary evil. > [@lorene](#): > > That certainly doesn’t mean that that acquaintance would be able to do anything beyond giving you that information, or even that they’d be in a position to influence the decision-making process in any way. A word of caution here. Choose your acquintences carefully. I have had the misfortune of losing out on oppotunities because the casual acquintance was intimidated by my higher level of expertise and I missed out on opportunities for an interview. ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082/26 "2005-05-15T00:08:43Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > Yeeeeeeeeeee-Haw! > > I got the job! > > Many thanks to all who offered advice! 🙂🙂🙂 Whoo-HOO! Congratulations, **wevets**! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082/27 "2005-05-15T00:17:18Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > The only advice I could give is so straightforward as to be worthless as “advice”: just be yourself. Don’t focus on giving a good interview, just focus on communicating. I know that when I’m trying to give a good impression, or making myself sound better than I am, or just plain being _tactful_, I give so many pauses and stutters and delayed responses while I try to think of the right thing to say, that it becomes obvious I’m not saying what I mean. > > And it actually ends up being calming – once I realized that I suck at being anything other than totally direct, I can just be completely direct, put it all out there on the table, and not worry about it. If you’re worried about saying the right thing at the interview, then you’re going to have to be worried about saying the right thing all throughout the job, and your heart will explode from the stress. Just relax, and keep in mind that the interview is as much for you to get information from them as it is for them to “judge” you. I couldn’t agree more. I used to go into Stepford Employee mode everytime I went for an interview, but I’ve found I do much better when I act like myself. So many people focus on being interviewed that they forget they’re conducting interviews of their own, finding out whether they really want to work for the company. If you’re not yourself and you end up taking the job, then you’re stuck. You either have to keep pretending the whole time you’re there or risk being told that you’re not the person the company thought you were. It’s not worth the aggravation. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082/28 "2005-05-15T07:29:07Z")
Best of luck to you, **SolGrundy** and **Rooves**! Good work leading up to those interviews can really pay off! I hope you get the jobs you want! 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-job-hunt-grab-your-spear/299082.md?page=1)