Job Hunt Thread

[BigSqwert]

It's actually really, really hard to get into the FBI.

I actually passed the first exam to get in. But at the time I was only 2 years out of college with just a little audit experience so they never called me back fpr any specific roles that needed to be filled and subsequent testing.

 

I'd imagine if I updated my qualifications and experience, they'd be interested in what I have to offer now.

Edited February 13, 2011 by BigSqwert

[farmteam]

You can make anything a positive experience if you choose to make it that way

 

This.

 

Side note: I feel half my posts now are me quoting something and saying "this" or "ding ding ding" in agreement. I should really be more original.

[CubsSuck1]

I am also graduating this June with a supply chain degree. Happy to report I accepted a full time offer back in October!

[HuskyCaucasian]

In the last week I have had two different people contact me from the University of Iowa about job openings. I have an over the phone interview scheduled for next Wednesday for one of them. I wanted to do it in person, but my schedule doesnt allow me to get out of town for the next week and they wanted to get the interview in by Wednesday.

 

The other position is currently contacting my references and I expect a call for an interview in the next week.

 

Very exciting

Edited February 18, 2011 by Athomeboy_2000

[NorthSideSox72]

It's actually really, really hard to get into the FBI.

I'm very much aware of the process.

 

[StrangeSox]

Is anyone else weirded out by the TV and radio commercials to join the CIA as a clandestine operative?

[Buehrle>Wood]

2nd round interview tomorrow for a big bank internship. Nervous.

[iamshack]

2nd round interview tomorrow for a big bank internship. Nervous.

Good luck! Just pretend like you already have a great internship and they are trying to steal you away!

[Buehrle>Wood]

Thanks.

 

For anyone who has made it to a 2nd round interview for an internship, do they tend to ask a lot of technical questions then? Or is that saved for job interviews? I've had a ton of 1st round interviews where no technical problems are asked and 1 other second round interview where they didn't ask basically anything.

[Chisoxfn]

Thanks.

 

For anyone who has made it to a 2nd round interview for an internship, do they tend to ask a lot of technical questions then? Or is that saved for job interviews? I've had a ton of 1st round interviews where no technical problems are asked and 1 other second round interview where they didn't ask basically anything.

I'm going to assume that since it is for an internship that there won't be a lot of technical questions. The reality is you are going to be pretty green as of now. I think it will be more behavioral type of questions and just talking through things you accomplished, how you work as a team, etc.

[southsider2k5]

Thanks.

 

For anyone who has made it to a 2nd round interview for an internship, do they tend to ask a lot of technical questions then? Or is that saved for job interviews? I've had a ton of 1st round interviews where no technical problems are asked and 1 other second round interview where they didn't ask basically anything.

 

Honestly in an internship they assume you know nothing, and they will have to train you from scratch.

[bigruss]

Thanks.

 

For anyone who has made it to a 2nd round interview for an internship, do they tend to ask a lot of technical questions then? Or is that saved for job interviews? I've had a ton of 1st round interviews where no technical problems are asked and 1 other second round interview where they didn't ask basically anything.

Depends on the job you're going after, in the IT world yes they will ask you some, I would say about 25% would be technical (and that of course varies, same with the amount of weight they put on those answers). Investment banking is another field that would most likely ask a bit of technical questions.

 

But for the most part I would only expect behavioral questions, be ready with the STARS format and have plenty of examples of past experiences to pull from.

[bigruss]

Does anybody have a good resource for salary comparisons? I know of glassdoor.com, but it's not always a great site for research.

 

How would you guys go about researching salaries?

[Y2HH]

Does anybody have a good resource for salary comparisons? I know of glassdoor.com, but it's not always a great site for research.

 

How would you guys go about researching salaries?

 

It's hard, because most people who fill out such surveys lie...which can mess up the entire comparison process.

 

The best way I've found is to have friends in the industry who will tell you what they make, etc...it's really REALLY hard to get a real answer on what a going rate is...because it depends on far too many factors.

[bigruss]

It's hard, because most people who fill out such surveys lie...which can mess up the entire comparison process.

 

The best way I've found is to have friends in the industry who will tell you what they make, etc...it's really REALLY hard to get a real answer on what a going rate is...because it depends on far too many factors.

Yea, I have some resources from U of I that tell me the median of what my major makes, I guess I can go off of that but it's a relatively small major (Information Systems/Information Technology through the Business Admin department) but that makes it harder since I don't have too many friends in the field that just graduated and are in the area that Im going into. I have a lot of friends in consulting but basically none that went right into an IT department, and I don't feel comfortable or feel it would be right at all to ask some coworkers from my internship what they made out of college (they are about 1-3 years out of school) since I would be working with them and I grew up with the rule that you don't ask how much someone makes (even though I don't have a problem telling someone who asks politely).

[HuskyCaucasian]

A job I applied for sent me an email three weeks ago that they would be "contacting references" soon. Two weeks ago they called all of them. Should I follow up with an email and show how eager I am about the job, or let it playout? I dont want to seem "pushy" about getting an interview.

[southsider2k5]

A job I applied for sent me an email three weeks ago that they would be "contacting references" soon. Two weeks ago they called all of them. Should I follow up with an email and show how eager I am about the job, or let it playout? I dont want to seem "pushy" about getting an interview.

 

Email is the least pushy way of contact. I often contact people through email once you get outside of the window that the company gives you for their process.

[Chi Town Sox]

If anyone knows, do companies still look for words per minute on a resume? If I only typed like 50 wpm I would not bother putting it but I am up around 100

 

I am trying to just add a few extra things under additional skills and whatnot

[Y2HH]

If anyone knows, do companies still look for words per minute on a resume? If I only typed like 50 wpm I would not bother putting it but I am up around 100

 

I am trying to just add a few extra things under additional skills and whatnot

 

If the job requires diction or typing skills, yes, it matters...if not, not really. Like for a standard IT job, it wouldn't matter. If you were a secretary, however, it would.

[Chi Town Sox]

If the job requires diction or typing skills, yes, it matters...if not, not really. Like for a standard IT job, it wouldn't matter. If you were a secretary, however, it would.

 

 

Thanks, i should have put that this is mostly for marketing positions. Where I would be sending out promotion e-mails and all that good junk, etc.

 

[Y2HH]

Thanks, i should have put that this is mostly for marketing positions. Where I would be sending out promotion e-mails and all that good junk, etc.

 

When it comes to a persons resume, and this is from a person that interviews people from time to time, sometimes, less is more.

 

Things I hate and immediately notice when going through resumes:

 

1) Super busy resumes filled with nonsense that nobody cares about, strewn about the entire surface of the paper as to make it look more impressive than it actually is. To me, that shows the person is trying to throw stuff at the wall rather than being concise about what it is they can actually do. On a resume, WHITE space = good. I want to know the basics about you by glancing at the top half of page 1, and if I can't...I'll find another one that can.

 

2) Resume fabrication whores that do nothing but flatter themselves in their "scope of work"/experience section with gobs of what I call "impossibilities". For example, a person claiming they installed a network of 50,000 servers, spread over 14 states. Reason: Because no you didn't...you assisted many other people with such an implementation, but you didn't do it yourself, so don't make it sound like you did.

 

3) The "Impossible Skillset liar-face". Example Skillset: Windows 7, Windows XP, *nix (Linux/Unix), Mac OSX, VAX, Mainframe, C++, Java, C#, Scripting, Perl, PHP, HTML, Cisco Routers/Firewalls, Checkpoint, etc... Basically, they claim to know everything about everything related to a specific industry. These are immediately dismissed, because no you don't...and if you did, you wouldn't have to look for jobs...ever, because jobs would look for you.

 

4) The "I work at every company for 1 year and move on, and in that 1 year, I did 50,000,000 things" exaggerator. This is the guy/gal that has a list of previous employment that reads like an encyclopedia. 9 months here. 8 months there. 1 year here. 11 months there. This means you can't hold a job, or you are a unloyal b****face (which is fine to look out for yourself, but don't let your past employment spell this out in big bold letters), because I'll take a chance on someone that might be more loyal out of the box. Oh, and somehow, during their short little stint at the company, they somehow accomplished 5 years worth of work/projects...which again...no, they didn't.

 

5) The "10 Pound Resume" dickface. If I need to work out with Rock in order to lift your stupid resume, you aren't working here. There is some information you do not need to include...such as where you worked 20 years ago. If there is a need for me to go that far back in your employment history, I'll ask for it...but if it's going to make you're resume more than 2 pages, just stop.

 

6) The "MVP Award" Whoremonger. A.K.A: I was a superstar MVP employee at all of my previous places of employment and won awards for being so awesome, yet I need a new job. Why? If you were so awesomely invaluable, why didn't they promote you to some position that paid you millions of dollars to assure that they kept your awesome services?

 

-----

 

If it's on your resume, it's open game. For example, if you claim you can type 90WPM, you might run into an interviewer like myself that says...ok, show me the money, Jerry. So if you printed it, you'd better be able to do it...and not only do it, but do it under pressure, such as in an interview.

 

I have many tips for resumes/interviews, but so much of this skill is in feeling out your interviewer...and figuring out what they like, and somehow talking about it.

 

For example, I got my first job in the IT industry because the interviewer found out, during the interview, that I played the game Quake online.

Edited March 14, 2011 by Y2HH

[Chi Town Sox]

When it comes to a persons resume, and this is from a person that interviews people from time to time, sometimes, less is more.

 

Things I hate and immediately notice when going through resumes:

 

1) Super busy resumes filled with nonsense that nobody cares about, strewn about the entire surface of the paper as to make it look more impressive than it actually is. To me, that shows the person is trying to throw stuff at the wall rather than being concise about what it is they can actually do. On a resume, WHITE space = good. I want to know the basics about you by glancing at the top half of page 1, and if I can't...I'll find another one that can.

 

2) Resume fabrication whores that do nothing but flatter themselves in their "scope of work"/experience section with gobs of what I call "impossibilities". For example, a person claiming they installed a network of 50,000 servers, spread over 14 states. Reason: Because no you didn't...you assisted many other people with such an implementation, but you didn't do it yourself, so don't make it sound like you did.

 

3) The "Impossible Skillset liar-face". Example Skillset: Windows 7, Windows XP, *nix (Linux/Unix), Mac OSX, VAX, Mainframe, C++, Java, C#, Scripting, Perl, PHP, HTML, Cisco Routers/Firewalls, Checkpoint, etc... Basically, they claim to know everything about everything related to a specific industry. These are immediately dismissed, because no you don't...and if you did, you wouldn't have to look for jobs...ever, because jobs would look for you.

 

4) The "I work at every company for 1 year and move on, and in that 1 year, I did 50,000,000 things" exaggerator. This is the guy/gal that has a list of previous employment that reads like an encyclopedia. 9 months here. 8 months there. 1 year here. 11 months there. This means you can't hold a job, or you are a unloyal b****face (which is fine to look out for yourself, but don't let your past employment spell this out in big bold letters), because I'll take a chance on someone that might be more loyal out of the box. Oh, and somehow, during their short little stint at the company, they somehow accomplished 5 years worth of work/projects...which again...no, they didn't.

 

5) The "10 Pound Resume" dickface. If I need to work out with Rock in order to lift your stupid resume, you aren't working here. There is some information you do not need to include...such as where you worked 20 years ago. If there is a need for me to go that far back in your employment history, I'll ask for it...but if it's going to make you're resume more than 2 pages, just stop.

 

6) The "MVP Award" Whoremonger. A.K.A: I was a superstar MVP employee at all of my previous places of employment and won awards for being so awesome, yet I need a new job. Why? If you were so awesomely invaluable, why didn't they promote you to some position that paid you millions of dollars to assure that they kept your awesome services?

 

-----

 

If it's on your resume, it's open game. For example, if you claim you can type 90WPM, you might run into an interviewer like myself that says...ok, show me the money, Jerry. So if you printed it, you'd better be able to do it...and not only do it, but do it under pressure, such as in an interview.

 

I have many tips for resumes/interviews, but so much of this skill is in feeling out your interviewer...and figuring out what they like, and somehow talking about it.

 

For example, I got my first job in the IT industry because the interviewer found out, during the interview, that I played the game Quake online.

 

 

I LOL'ed at the 10 pound resume dickface LMAO

 

For good measure, this morning I did a typing test and topped out at 128 with no mistakes, I'll show the interviewer the money with no problem

 

Yes, I totally agree with the white is better, I had (still have) a job throughout my college years that many people only get into when they are very experienced in our field. I could make the resume five pages long but any normal human would realize that the company just most likely isn't going to read it all. I condensed it to one page

[Iwritecode]

3) The "Impossible Skillset liar-face". Example Skillset: Windows 7, Windows XP, *nix (Linux/Unix), Mac OSX, VAX, Mainframe, C++, Java, C#, Scripting, Perl, PHP, HTML, Cisco Routers/Firewalls, Checkpoint, etc... Basically, they claim to know everything about everything related to a specific industry. These are immediately dismissed, because no you don't...and if you did, you wouldn't have to look for jobs...ever, because jobs would look for you.

 

I swear I've seen job openings that have required that much skill and more.

 

I never applied at those places because it's probably just a company that needs a "computer guy" and they really have no idea what skills are needed for the position.

[Y2HH]

I swear I've seen job openings that have required that much skill and more.

 

I never applied at those places because it's probably just a company that needs a "computer guy" and they really have no idea what skills are needed for the position.

 

Same.

[The Gooch]

When it comes to a persons resume, and this is from a person that interviews people from time to time, sometimes, less is more.

 

Things I hate and immediately notice when going through resumes:

 

1) Super busy resumes filled with nonsense that nobody cares about, strewn about the entire surface of the paper as to make it look more impressive than it actually is. To me, that shows the person is trying to throw stuff at the wall rather than being concise about what it is they can actually do. On a resume, WHITE space = good. I want to know the basics about you by glancing at the top half of page 1, and if I can't...I'll find another one that can.

 

2) Resume fabrication whores that do nothing but flatter themselves in their "scope of work"/experience section with gobs of what I call "impossibilities". For example, a person claiming they installed a network of 50,000 servers, spread over 14 states. Reason: Because no you didn't...you assisted many other people with such an implementation, but you didn't do it yourself, so don't make it sound like you did.

 

3) The "Impossible Skillset liar-face". Example Skillset: Windows 7, Windows XP, *nix (Linux/Unix), Mac OSX, VAX, Mainframe, C++, Java, C#, Scripting, Perl, PHP, HTML, Cisco Routers/Firewalls, Checkpoint, etc... Basically, they claim to know everything about everything related to a specific industry. These are immediately dismissed, because no you don't...and if you did, you wouldn't have to look for jobs...ever, because jobs would look for you.

 

4) The "I work at every company for 1 year and move on, and in that 1 year, I did 50,000,000 things" exaggerator. This is the guy/gal that has a list of previous employment that reads like an encyclopedia. 9 months here. 8 months there. 1 year here. 11 months there. This means you can't hold a job, or you are a unloyal b****face (which is fine to look out for yourself, but don't let your past employment spell this out in big bold letters), because I'll take a chance on someone that might be more loyal out of the box. Oh, and somehow, during their short little stint at the company, they somehow accomplished 5 years worth of work/projects...which again...no, they didn't.

 

5) The "10 Pound Resume" dickface. If I need to work out with Rock in order to lift your stupid resume, you aren't working here. There is some information you do not need to include...such as where you worked 20 years ago. If there is a need for me to go that far back in your employment history, I'll ask for it...but if it's going to make you're resume more than 2 pages, just stop.

 

6) The "MVP Award" Whoremonger. A.K.A: I was a superstar MVP employee at all of my previous places of employment and won awards for being so awesome, yet I need a new job. Why? If you were so awesomely invaluable, why didn't they promote you to some position that paid you millions of dollars to assure that they kept your awesome services?

 

-----

 

If it's on your resume, it's open game. For example, if you claim you can type 90WPM, you might run into an interviewer like myself that says...ok, show me the money, Jerry. So if you printed it, you'd better be able to do it...and not only do it, but do it under pressure, such as in an interview.

 

I have many tips for resumes/interviews, but so much of this skill is in feeling out your interviewer...and figuring out what they like, and somehow talking about it.

 

For example, I got my first job in the IT industry because the interviewer found out, during the interview, that I played the game Quake online.

 

I am a human resources intern and I spend a lot of time reviewing resumes. I see a lot of what you see and I agree with most of what you said. I might have limited experience, but have noticed a lot of what you are talking about. I actually saw a resume a few weeks back for an administrative position where the woman listed her karate achievements on her resume (example: 3rd place in tournament 2006). I don't know what she was going for there.

 

I would like to add to your list as well. I am quite confused as to why companies still demand cover letters. Every single one says the same thing. It is an overview of the resume, followed by "I know that I would be a great fit for your organization" and "I look forward to hearing from you" I don't even read them except to confirm that the person applying can write complete sentences.

 

I truly want to thank you for this post. You just listed what goes through my mind every day. Eight page resumes and handling over $50,000 in cash does not impress me. When I get the chance to start interviewing, I will definitely have many questions on applicants' actual involvement with these large projects of managing 9,000 employees, or my favorite "increasing revenue by 75% since I was hired." Also if you can't fit your accomplishments on one or two pages (with a few exceptions for certain professions), then it has a good chance of not even reaching the hiring manager.

 

As for your last tip of figuring out what the interviewer is interested in and talking about: You are absolutely correct and that is probably one of the best tips that can be offered. However, that also has a lot to do with what is wrong with the selection process in many HR departments. "Gut feelings" and "verbal cues" are two of the most commonly used selection method with no validity. No matter how well someone thinks that they can "feel someone out" and "pick a good fit for the organization," they probably don't do it very well. There are much better selection methods available that are much more cost efficient in the end.