Job thread

[Cheddar]

Eldest brother recommended I go into Corporate Finance or Economics, and go to Wall Street to get a gig. I thought it was ridiculous, given my background. He thought accounting would be too boring for me. Does anyone have any opinion on this? I'm starting with a general Business Admin degree with intent to transfer to a 4 year university, which allows me to specialize after that, but I need a practical career doing practical things right now, despite my predilection for theoretical work.

Our finance people are worshipped.  They control everything.  EVERYTHING.

[pxib]

My middle-management level boss quit due to health issues, and I'm the heir apparent for the position. Nobody else in the department is interested and/or qualified, and the idea of somebody with no idea how the department works getting the job is slightly more terrifying than the idea of working a management position... so I'm giving it a go.

If I get it, yay... more direct control over operations, significantly better pay. Downside: Longer hours, additional responsibility, unshielded workplace politics.

If I don't get it, yay... I get to carry on doing the low-stress, low-responsibility job I love. Downside: Be the person best-qualified to train my new boss.

I have never been so meh about a serious employment decision.

Interview's next Thursday.

[Viin]

You might hate it, but it'll be a good experience for you (if you get the job). You can go back to doing 'real' work, but you'd have to find another company to do that most likely.

[shiznitz]

Eldest brother recommended I go into Corporate Finance or Economics, and go to Wall Street to get a gig. I thought it was ridiculous, given my background. He thought accounting would be too boring for me. Does anyone have any opinion on this? I'm starting with a general Business Admin degree with intent to transfer to a 4 year university, which allows me to specialize after that, but I need a practical career doing practical things right now, despite my predilection for theoretical work.

It is a good career if you can manage it. I will warn you that the best jobs are almost impossible to get if you don't have an Ivy League degree or a good connection.  Many people who do not meet that test get in through bank operations or S&P/Moody's and then fight their way into the "real" Wall Street.  Educational pedigree and connections mean a lot, though.  I winced a bit at "with the intent to transfer to a 4 year university" since anything but a 4 year degree will make it harder for you to get a callback.  Still, Wall Street is full of successful people who came from very modest backgrounds so I am not trying to discourage you, just advise as to the challenge.

[Maven]

Challenge is good, but I have no pretension about doing enough school that I'll slide into upper class or something. I'd be happy for a good job, don't need the best.

Wall Street's culture is completely foreign to me (save what I've seen in movies). Given how terribly I got along with people at the casino, I can't see myself thriving in a competitive, high-pressure environment.

[Merusk]

Casino's low-stakes. People scrambling to backstab each other just to keep a job.  I see it at my wife's place of employ all the time because it's a similar low-skill easily-replaced employee environment.

Wall Street they'll just do it for the sheer joy of it.

[Rasix]

I think I'll be introduced to our fourth manager (well 5th, if you count the rerun) in the past 2 years in 15 minutes.  Yay.  Another person to either take no interest or too much interest in what I'm doing.

Well, that.. or we're all getting fired.    I think if it were a firing, they would have booked a conference room.  

edit: The announce the predictable promotion for our manager to 2nd line but.. no first line announcement.  Great.

[Chimpy]

Nah, that is what parking lots are for. 

[Hawkbit]

I just conducted the worst interview I've ever been part of.  I can't go into specifics, but experience has taught me the following unsolicited advice I'm going to share with you:

1.  Don't be late.
2.  If you're late, apologize.  Make it brief, but make sure they know this isn't how you roll all the time.
3.  If you're late, don't call the Customer Service team for directions and walk them through your thought process of where you're at.
4.  If you're late, don't blame the directions we gave you.  The directions are a tool that got all the other candidates there without issue.

5.  Don't chew gum. 
6.  If you decide to chew gum, don't choke on it mid-interview.

7.  Turn your cell phone off.
8.  If you leave your cell phone on and it rings, turn it off. 
9.  If you decide to leave it on and it rings no less than four times in a 20 minute interview, don't let it distract your answer to the question being asked. 

10. If asked "What was your favorite job and why?", the wrong answer is "I don't have much job experience."

11. If asked "Of what accomplishment are you most proud and why?", the wrong answer is "My child.", followed by dead silence.  Also don't follow 15 seconds later with "For all the things I done wrong, I can't believe he still alive."

These are simply some general top tips to keep in mind the next time you're sitting down for an interview. 

[schild]

11. If asked "Of what accomplishment are you most proud and why?", the wrong answer is "My child.", followed by dead silence.  Also don't follow 15 seconds later with "For all the things I done wrong, I can't believe he still alive."

Fuck you, that's amazing.

[Merusk]

Just..

WOW.  You read stories on the internet, but you don't really think they're true.

Reminds me of the last time I asked our HR guy about helicopter parents and the workplace.  I didn't believe the NPR story that some parents call to arrange their kids jobs and try to negotiate from there. He confirmed it.

[Cyrrex]

Hawkbit, you obviously know doing all those things is wrong, so how did it come to that?  Super bad day, or wrong meds?  That last one is god damn amazing.

[Ironwood]

I just conducted the worst interview I've ever been part of.  I can't go into specifics, but experience has taught me the following unsolicited advice I'm going to share with you:

1.  Don't be late.
2.  If you're late, apologize.  Make it brief, but make sure they know this isn't how you roll all the time.
3.  If you're late, don't call the Customer Service team for directions and walk them through your thought process of where you're at.
4.  If you're late, don't blame the directions we gave you.  The directions are a tool that got all the other candidates there without issue.

5.  Don't chew gum. 
6.  If you decide to chew gum, don't choke on it mid-interview.

7.  Turn your cell phone off.
8.  If you leave your cell phone on and it rings, turn it off. 
9.  If you decide to leave it on and it rings no less than four times in a 20 minute interview, don't let it distract your answer to the question being asked. 

10. If asked "What was your favorite job and why?", the wrong answer is "I don't have much job experience."

11. If asked "Of what accomplishment are you most proud and why?", the wrong answer is "My child.", followed by dead silence.  Also don't follow 15 seconds later with "For all the things I done wrong, I can't believe he still alive."

These are simply some general top tips to keep in mind the next time you're sitting down for an interview. 

I'm assuming by conducted, you were the chap doing the interviewing ?

Because if not holy fuck.

[Sky]

I can't believe he don't be givin' me that job. I musta done wrong again.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I can't believe he don't be givin' me that job. I musta done wrong again. He just be hatin' on me 'n not wantin to let me make this place great!

FTFY.

And that interview sounds like a real  time. 

And for the employers - if you call someone and leave them a message about their resume, and they call you back four times over 3 days, why not take the time to actually respond to them. You initiated the contact originally in response to them submitting a resume.  Husband's dealing with this, today is the last day he's going to try getting in touch with this person.

[Ironwood]

While I agree, that usually means position got filled by the chap that answered the phone.

[HaemishM]

While I agree, that usually means position got filled by the chap that answered the phone.

My wife has run into this kind of shit over and over - she'll even go to interviews and second interviews where they tell her she's great but then never call her back or return her calls. Infuriates the piss out of her, not so much that they don't give her the job but won't even respond WHEN SHE CALLS THEM to give her the simple courtesy of saying, "You didn't get it."

[Merusk]

We had a girl lined-up to be our summer intern, resume looked great and she just plain didn't show for the interview. Then didn't call us back when we left a message to check if she was OK.  I need to check with HR and find out if she ever called back..

20 somethings who don't do voicemail are going to find they're unemployed a lot.

[01101010]

My wife has run into this kind of shit over and over - she'll even go to interviews and second interviews where they tell her she's great but then never call her back or return her calls. Infuriates the piss out of her, not so much that they don't give her the job but won't even respond WHEN SHE CALLS THEM to give her the simple courtesy of saying, "You didn't get it."

Just happened to my buddy who flew out to Seattle to interview with REI. He says the interview went well and he was received well, but they never called him back - even after 2 follow-up calls. Amazing to me that companies are not at least courteous about it. Guess a 5 minute call is not cost effective. No... nevermind, it is not amazing at all. Galling might be a better word.

[Hawkbit]

Considering the entire application process is automated, you'd think at the very least an applicant could log in to see a decline.  It's really discourteous to not follow up with someone.  Except the person I interviewed yesterday.  I'm not sure we should follow up at all. No sense opening the door to more crazy.

[Yegolev]

Pre-screening?  Anyone do this for applicants?  Because I'm not sure how to filter properly until we are all in the same room.

[Paelos]

My wife has run into this kind of shit over and over - she'll even go to interviews and second interviews where they tell her she's great but then never call her back or return her calls. Infuriates the piss out of her, not so much that they don't give her the job but won't even respond WHEN SHE CALLS THEM to give her the simple courtesy of saying, "You didn't get it."

Just happened to my buddy who flew out to Seattle to interview with REI. He says the interview went well and he was received well, but they never called him back - even after 2 follow-up calls. Amazing to me that companies are not at least courteous about it. Guess a 5 minute call is not cost effective. No... nevermind, it is not amazing at all. Galling might be a better word.

Happened to me recently. Guy said they were going to call within a week to arrange a meeting. Never called. I followed up 10 days later and got no response. Followed up again after that, and got no response.

This was in email as well. It doesn't even take a phone call. It would just take an email to tell people they were eliminated, and this wasn't a large company.

[Yegolev]

Actually, the worst is when this happens with internal positions.  True story.

[Rasix]

Pre-screening?  Anyone do this for applicants?  Because I'm not sure how to filter properly until we are all in the same room.

Give them a bullshit programming exercise to do over the phone and give them a lunch break's time to do it in.  Works for others. 

[Yegolev]

Yeah, I wish that worked.  Too many ringers out there, also google.

[Paelos]

Called a contact of mine, turns out the company still hasn't hired anybody. It's getting to the point where I wouldn't want the job if this is how they operate anyway, but frankly it's beyond ridiculous that they have been trying to fill what I consider to be a very normal position for 5 months.

[Chimpy]

You obviously don't work at a state University. 5 months is not uncommon to fill a position.

[pxib]

Government in general. The middle-management job for which I have applied (and interviewed for, and have been waiting to hear anything about for almost two weeks) - the only full time position in our department and since there are only seven of us, a not-insubstantial portion of our total hours - has been vacant since the first week of April.

[Paelos]

You obviously don't work at a state University. 5 months is not uncommon to fill a position.

No I work in the real world. 

[Nebu]

No I work in the real world. 

Speaking of the "real world", I've had a number of job interviews in industry where the sole purpose of the interview wasn't to determine if I was qualified for a "job".  The line of questioning makes it stupidly transparent that they're only trying to mine me for proprietary research information during my presentation and lunch.  While it does piss me off sometimes, I get even by eating lobster for nearly every meal at the 5 star hotel they put me up in. 

[Yegolev]

Don't hate the player.

[schild]

No I work in the real world. 

Speaking of the "real world", I've had a number of job interviews in industry where the sole purpose of the interview wasn't to determine if I was qualified for a "job".  The line of questioning makes it stupidly transparent that they're only trying to mine me for proprietary research information during my presentation and lunch.  While it does piss me off sometimes, I get even by eating lobster for nearly every meal at the 5 star hotel they put me up in. 

I ordered 2 full lobsters at one of the meals when Company X acquired Company Y. To this day I still don't know why I was invited to that dinner, but I didn't feel bad for blowing $200+ dollars of someone else's ill-gotten gains.

[shiznitz]

My wife has run into this kind of shit over and over - she'll even go to interviews and second interviews where they tell her she's great but then never call her back or return her calls. Infuriates the piss out of her, not so much that they don't give her the job but won't even respond WHEN SHE CALLS THEM to give her the simple courtesy of saying, "You didn't get it."

Just happened to my buddy who flew out to Seattle to interview with REI. He says the interview went well and he was received well, but they never called him back - even after 2 follow-up calls. Amazing to me that companies are not at least courteous about it. Guess a 5 minute call is not cost effective. No... nevermind, it is not amazing at all. Galling might be a better word.

There are logical reasons for this behavior.  

1) Telling someone why they didn't get the job opens up a potential can of legal worms a mile deep.
2) The number of people rejected vastly outnumbers those who are accepted and the time involved in telling the rejected that they were rejected is more valuably used in other ways.
3) The consequences for not informing the rejected candidates is basically nil.

Looking for works sucks, especially when applying to random companies. The best way to get a new job is stay in touch with people you respect that leave your current company.

[Shannow]

2) The number of people rejected vastly outnumbers those who are accepted and the time involved in telling the rejected that they were rejected is more valuably used in other ways.
3) The consequences for not informing the rejected candidates is basically nil.

I'd say it's more to do with most HR ppl being weasels who don't want to have to make the tough call. Or even the fucking email. It's not about 'valuable use of time' , its about having fucking manners.

[01101010]

There are logical reasons for this behavior.  

1) Telling someone why they didn't get the job opens up a potential can of legal worms a mile deep.
2) The number of people rejected vastly outnumbers those who are accepted and the time involved in telling the rejected that they were rejected is more valuably used in other ways.
3) The consequences for not informing the rejected candidates is basically nil.

Looking for works sucks, especially when applying to random companies. The best way to get a new job is stay in touch with people you respect that leave your current company.

I can completely understand that stuff, but you don't have to explain why a person didn't get a job, just give a canned reply like 'we decided to go in a different direction...', etc and end the dialog there. Shoot an email and wipe your hands of the person. I understand, I just disagree with the process.