Does this briefcase make my hips look big?
I applied for a position a few weeks ago where all of the candidates showed up wearing suits and had briefcases, myself included. The HR lady even commented about it. I thought a suit and tie was standard..
I applied for a position a few weeks ago where all of the candidates showed up wearing suits and had briefcases, myself included. The HR lady even commented about it. I thought a suit and tie was standard..
But most don’t. There are many fine young folks out there ready to fill our shoes.
It doesn't matter if you think you will just be asking the floor clerk for an app, or if you think you are meeting the President of the company, go in the door the FIRST time expecting that they just lost an employee five minutes ago, and are desperate for a new worker. Even if it only happens 1% of the time, you never know when a manager might be the one handing out the applications, and he may have 10 minutes to interview on the spot. That is not the time you want to be dressed in your favorite rock group T shirt, or you faded, ripped jeans, with flip flops on. And above all, take a shower before asking for that application!
I've never had a candidate show up in flip-flops and T-shirt, had a kid in tow, or took a cell phone call in the middle of the interview. This kind of stuff just doesn't happen to me. 99% of interviews are hum-drum affairs where the candidate always plays it safe. The most exciting interview I had was when a candidate vowed that I'd be a fool not to hire him and that his goal upon being hired would be to "get me promoted so he could take my job." That kind of confidence was refreshing - he never did take my job (and get me promoted) but he did end up being one of my better hires.
I can't help but think this article is a total fabrication, concocted by a bored journalist who couldn't find a real story to write about.
I’m not sure what I’m most shocked by... the behavior of the idiots these companies selected to interview, or the fact that there were that many job opportunities to mention for the article.
I think that number is a litte low - more like 500 job seekers for every opening - it maybe narrowed down to five for the initial interview but there are a lot more than five for for every job opening.
I am guilty of being rude at the interview, but I was not being unintentionally rude. The interview was going very well and we were discussing compensation. The position was advertised as having “good wages.” When I discovered that his idea of good wages was two bits over minimum wage and about two thirds of the prevailing wage for that job in that area at the time I was more than a little incensed. I snatched my application right out of his hand, opened the door so the people filling out apps could hear and loudly told him pretty much how I felt about his false advertising and wasting my time. “Pretty much” because I left out all obscenity and profanity. After that I stormed out of the office, with two or three other applicants behind me.
And from personal experience from a candidate I once interviewed, remove any body piercings on the your face before the interview.
The weirdest one, was a young candidate that told me that if he did not get the job his Dad was going to call me. It was like a threat. He did not get the job, and his Dad did call.
About 1 minute into an interview, a college candidate took a 2 minute cell call. I thanked him for coming in and returned him to HR. Interview over.
Best interview was a lady who just had the best, “never say die” attitude, I have ever seen. She was Hispanic and was the first in her family to go to college. She said "I can do this." and I believed her. Didn't have the best grades in college but we hired her and she was great.
I read them. How can people be that silly and unprofessional? They’re trying to make a joke out of the whole process. No one is that dumb.
I always HEAR about such cases, but I have never heard of these things actually happening. Urban legends..
That's not a really common microscope to use --usually that's for something to do with physics, academic research, or making a type of advanced silicon chip.
I beamed and exclaimed, "You can use an SEM, wow..!"
She said, "I just used my friend's resume..."
This answer completely astonished me --embellishing sure, but simply using the resume of ANOTHER PERSON...?
Like something out of the Twilight Zone, my colleagues continued interviewing her and even expressed annoyance that this would give me pause.
How about vacant, 24 year old female HR clowns who say things like, “I don’t know about that stuff, I don’t work on the shop floor.”
"You should also take out all your funky piercings and hide your tattoos," says career coach Cynthia Shapiro, who is also a former human-resources executive. "Even if you wear a business suit, if you have a piercing through your lip" it doesn't look good.
That fact that this even needs to be said is very discouraging...
For entry-level jobs, most people need an attitude adjustment. All through their schooling, everything has been about them—their development, their needs, their interests . . . Now it is about the company’s needs. Read up on the company and figure out how you would fit in.
Older applicants can use that too: don’t mention any of your own reasons for wanting the job; just focus on how you can help them out. This may seem so basic that it’s not worth even mentioning.
Dressing right is crucial. Get someone to advise you if you think you might need help. I looked for a job for months, traveling from NJ to NY in a black dress, which is what I thought NY women wore to work. One day the black dresses were in the cleaners and I wore my old cotton paisley suit. I got the job.
A woman applied for a job at my brother’s CPA firm. The interview was going well until she dropped a bomb, “I need Tuesday mornings off for my tennis lesson.” She did not get the job.