Re: [PLUG] OT: Help with finding employment please?

[Steven M Cherry <smc@cherrys.org>]

> 
> From my point of view, interviewing must be less stressful but more difficult than
> being interviewed. I know it's the impression that counts, but how accurate do you
> think your perceptions were, considering that an interview is like taking a fish
> out water to examine its natural behavior?

This is always the difficult part.  As an interviewer, you have to understand
that your candidate is under an extreme amount of stress, and may not be able
to call to mind everything that they would under more normal circumstances.
Some interviewers enjoyed that aspect of it because it gave them some sort
of strange sense of power.  That always pissed me off.  However you have
to understand that people like that /do/ exist and you have to be willing
to deal with them as you look for a job.

I tried to get as much of a clear impression as I could about the candidate
by asking very concrete questions.  Oh, there was always the odd "How well
do you think you work with others" kind of fluff question.  But mostly, it
was things like "write me a standard C++ class with public, protected, and
private attributes and methods".  Those are the kind of things that the
candidate is either going to know or not know, regardless of their environment.

> 
> In the past, honesty seemed to produce a negative return. I've gotten calls for
> jobs that I really wanted and was qualified for for the most part, but I always
> blow the first, second, or third interviews. One line that I remember is saying
> that there's more to the world than Micro$soft!

All I can say is that each interview is going to be different.  Each 
interviewer is going to be looking for different things.  Do your homework
before you go into the interview.  Look at the company's web site.  Try and
figure out where their technology focus is.  Try to download and play with
some of their products.  Check out as much of their literature as possible.
This will not only give you a better background going into the interview, it
will give you a better idea just how much you /really/ want this job.

> 
> I wouldn't say that I'm quick, but I am thorough. I believe a technical job is all
> about finding solutions (and avoiding problems) as opposed to already knowing
> everything. So, a good background and a lot of interest is important.

I agree with you there.  It's important to keep your interest up in lots
of different areas.  You never know when cross pollenation from one area
to another is going to help you out.

> 
> Is the getting the interviewer a date with a super model a good failover solution?

I've never been offered that, but you never know.  Like I said, cross
pollenation from /all/ areas is a good thing ;-)

Steven

-- 
==================================================================
== Steven M. Cherry                            smc@cherrys.org  ==
==                 http://family.cherrys.org/steven/index.html  ==
==================================================================

______________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group       -      http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  -  http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug