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Re: [PLUG] OT: (outta sight!) making IT in Philly?
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Let me clarify, when I say "Lie" I dont mean you should say "I know
SQL" - when in reality you have zero knowledge of SQL. Thats plain old
stupid.
A better term would be a "white lie". For example:
At your last job you worked with 2 other people and administered 20
Unix machines. Thats the truth.
Resume/Interview version: "At my last job I was in charge of all SysAdm
responsibilities, for over 40 Unix servers. Performed oncall services,
maintained documentation on all servers and their support contracts,
and performance tuned several systems on a routine basis. I was also a
key player in new hardware acquisition, and OS standardization"
Now, as long as your references will concur with this (or your
references are non-technical), the "Lie" version will go much farther
then the truth.
Say you have 6 months of MySQL experience, and you really know your
stuff. But some recruiter will only take resumes that say "3yrs Mysql
Experience". So... You say you have 3yrs of experience.
This are the lies that are needed to get you "ahead". Interviewer's
love to hear about communication and documentation skills. So, say your
great at it. You can't prove anything about it, and its impartial to
begin with. But people love to hear about documentation ability from
you, before they have to ask. Lets face it, a position is available,
somebody somewhere has to look at MANY resumes, you want yours at the
top of the list.
-John
On Mar 12, 2006, at 3:06 PM, Cosmin Nicolaescu wrote:
On Sun, March 12, 2006 2:31 pm, K.S. Bhaskar wrote:
As a hiring manager who still understands the technology enough to
administer my own Linux laptop at work and Linux based network at
home,
let
me offer a small bit of advice: *never* lie. It's legitimate to call
a
half
bottle of wine either half empty or half full, whichever suits you
better
-
it's entirely your choice to present yourself in the way that
highlights
your strengths - but if you lie, I can see right through it even if I
am
personally not an expert in that area, and that's the end of our
discussion
and the end of your chances of being hired by me or my company.
-- Bhaskar
_
I also totally subscribe to the "never lie" policy. While, as Jeff
said,
you can BS on some of the more vague manners, if you're asked a
question
that you don't know the answer, just admit it - would you want to work
at
a job for which you don't know the things they want you to be working
on?.
Also, I found it sinks pretty nice if you ask them what the correct
answer
would be. I was asked terms at some interviews I never heard of. I
admitted, and asked what it means. I also made a note on my notebook to
look it up, and they had absolutely no problem in explaining what the
term
was. I was also offered the job(s) in which this happened. Sometimes
they
don't expect you to know something, just curios if they do (I did that
also a couple of weeks ago when I was interviewing my replacement for
co-op). From my point of view, an applicant should show enthusiasm for
the
job, express in some manner that they want to learn new things and
_never_
lie. I asked one of the people applying for my job a technical
question,
it was obvious to me he had no clue, yet he tried to BS his way out of
it.
We said "Thank you for coming over" and that was that.
I do however know someone who just got hired for a programming job at a
corporation and has _no_ idea how to program, not to mention no
knowledge
of the programming languages needed for the job. I know that because I
TA-ed for him and he also told me he BSed his way through the
interview.
My best guess was that the people interviewing were total morons and
didn't ask him enough questions - I know this guy, and there's no way
I'd
hire him even if I just met him.
Sometimes you might get lucky and get a job without knowing anything
about
it, but that's not, by any means, a guarantee that you'll actually keep
that job - there are bets between the people who know the person
mentioned
above on how long he'll keep the job. Maybe they're aware of his lack
of
skills and are willing to train him (which might also happen to you at
some jobs), but I doubt it..
Bottom line, IMHO - honesty is much more appreciated at an interview,
and
if you don't know things they ask you, learn them so that it doesn't
happen at your next interview.
-Cos
--
GPG key fingerprint = DE9F 4664 E666 2BD1 903E 4F4D EA31 5FB1 C7F9
08C1
_______________________________________________________________________
____
Philadelphia Linux Users Group --
http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements -
http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion --
http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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