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spanko posted:I've been looking for a full time job for about a year and I very rarely get contacted about anything I apply for. If someone could look at my resume and give me some advice that would be great. Here is a VERY basic critique. Hope this helps! 
Goon Approved Resume and CV Writing Service
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Sep 3, 2013 22:38
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I'm still waiting to hear back for an interview I had nearly two weeks ago, but today I had a recruiter call me offering me an interview on Thursday for a position that I'm pretty qualified for. How up-front should I be in this interview about the fact that I have another pending hiring decision on my head? I could see it going one of two ways: A. If I do well they might think "oh we better make a decision on this guy soon before someone else scoops him up", and if they're leaning towards hiring me then that pushes them further in that direction. B. If I come out with it they might think "look at this smug jerk, if he's waiting on another offer he'll probably get it/be happier there", and if they're leaning away from hiring me then that pushes them further towards that decision. I feel like scenario A is the more likely of the two but at this point I'm not leaving anything to chance. My hope is that it won't come up at all, but if they ask or if it slips out then what do you think?
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Sep 3, 2013 22:39
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C-Euro posted:I'm still waiting to hear back for an interview I had nearly two weeks ago, but today I had a recruiter call me offering me an interview on Thursday for a position that I'm pretty qualified for. How up-front should I be in this interview about the fact that I have another pending hiring decision on my head? I could see it going one of two ways: If you do get an offer from company A a day after you interview with company B it is completely acceptable to call company B, let them know you have an offer, and ask where you stand. (or vice versa). Just remember, you don't have an offer until you have an offer.
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Sep 3, 2013 22:56
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I nailed a second interview at a big corporate firm on Monday - but today it's Wednesday and I didn't hear anything yesterday. Should I be worried? Or does it usually take a couple of days to get a call offering the job?
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Sep 3, 2013 23:01
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CelestialScribe posted:I nailed a second interview at a big corporate firm on Monday - but today it's Wednesday and I didn't hear anything yesterday. If it's Wednesday where you are it's early Wednesday. Those things can take a few days or weeks; did they give you a time frame? When I got hired for the job I have now, it took about six weeks from the first in-person to actually starting, and a solid two weeks between the "You got the job!" and "Oh hey here's a job offer with salary figures." This is probably longuer than usual however.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:05
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CelestialScribe posted:I nailed a second interview at a big corporate firm on Monday - but today it's Wednesday and I didn't hear anything yesterday. It doesn't mean anything. It can take weeks for offer paperwork to go through. I would be more concerned about worklife balance if they're interviewing you on a national holiday.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:05
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seacat posted:It doesn't mean anything. It can take weeks for offer paperwork to go through. I'm in Australia! Good to know nothing is wrong though. CelestialScribe fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 3, 2013 23:56
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CelestialScribe posted:I'm in Australia! Good to know nothing is wrong though. Sorry for being myopic  Not strictly speaking about you, but there's a common theme of post-interview stressing and hand-wringing ITT. I've only been in a hiring manager position for about a year but I strongly suggest that after an interview you move on psychologically and continue your search. I completely sympathize since I was a struggling science grad barely four years ago and would constantly overthink everything, "followed up" too much, lost sleep at nights agonizing, etc. Seriously, after you hand in an app, after an interview, after a second interview, after a recruiter chat, whatever, even if you are 1000% sure an offer is coming, you'd be doing yourself a favor to move on. Seeing it from the other side, hiring just takes more time than candidates think. In just a little over a year at I've seen the budget for a position been revoked overnight to alot money for industrial equipment, offer letter delayed for 2 weeks (!) because the only HR person (small company) had a family medical emergency and our company made the retarded decision that only HR could make the official offer, going to the third-string candidate five weeks after the initial interview after the first two dropped out, and my top pick candidate for a lab technician being vetoed by my boss (who has since then been fired) to hire someone who was a total fuckup and quit showing up two weeks in. All that poo poo sucks, it's unfair, not the candidate's fault, and to be fair my company is fairly mismanaged, and I'm not saying it will happen to you, but that's a slice of what makes offers take so long. Seriously, after a good app or interview give yourself a pat on the back (if good), vent a little and shake it off (if bad), and change focus to your next application. It's easier said than done especially when you need to pay the bills. But if you can steel yourself to do it you will have a more successful job search as a result. Here's a link I recommend from former nonprofit manager Alison Green on the subject (her blog in general is quite good, actually): http://www.askamanager.org/2012/07/how-long-should-you-wait-to-move-on-when-you-havent-heard-back-from-an-employer.html
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Sep 4, 2013 01:00
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I am currently hunting for some work and I am having a hard time distilling my experience into something that is "comfortably readable" by the type of person that would be reading my resume. I'm in the military but I'm currently hunting for a civilian job. I'm concerned that by keeping it short, I'm underscoring a lot of critical elements of the job, such as the coordination and planning that goes into running a section. I feel those skills would qualify me for an entry level management/supervisory position. I also find it hard to quantify my success. In particular, I kind of gloss over training because I don't think any employers want to hear how I taught guys to shoot things and such.My Resume posted:As an example: Does the above make sense/look good? CADPAT fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 16:37
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I'm sure a lot of that comes from me, and a lot of my nervousness comes from the fact that I left grad school back in June and thought that with a graduate degree I would have an easier time finding work, but companies keep turning me down for having no industry experience (and I was told this in at least two rejections, including one I just got today). Combine that with the fact that I have no money saved up (grad school) and how until recently my girlfriend and I (living together) have fought almost daily, and a job will fix this and let me actually start living my life. It's as if I'm being punished for doing what I thought I wanted to do, as all evidence I've gotten from job-hunting has told me that I was better off entering the workforce right out of college instead of going to grad school to try and become an even better future employee. And this is in STEM, which is supposed to flush with new jobs. Whatever. Now to an actual question- Is there any conceivable circumstance where, as a man, I could get away with not wearing a sport coat to an interview? I have an interview for a six month contract (likely contract-to-hire) position that another recruiter just set me up for, and I've been wearing the same outfit to every interview I've done since April because it's my one outfit with a sport coat. I have other dress shirt/pants/shoes/tie combos that looks like, but the coat only really goes with one pair of pants, shirt and shoes. Should I just play it safe and wear the same thing again? VV It's a chemistry laboratory job. When I went to my last lab interview wearing the aforementioned suit I was complimented by the secretary for dressing "the right way", and I don't know if that was meant for dressing up or going all the way with a coat and everything. C-Euro fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 17:06
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Not sure where you live and what you're applying for, but most jobs I got, I was not wearing a full suit to an interview. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're the best candidate, I really can't imagine what a difference a sport coat would make unless that's the dress that is normally worn in that work environment.
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Sep 4, 2013 17:46
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I was tremendously overdressed for my financial job interview when I was wearing a suit. It was awkward, but I was offered the job. Now, I do have a question and I'm not sure where to put it. Since it's somewhat related to negotiations for a job, I'll try here. The group I'll be working with when I start couldn't decide what job title to give me, either desk quant or research analyst. I didn't really care then which of the two it was, but in hindsight, I'd much prefer desk quant. Desk quants have much higher salaries than research analysts, and it's more prestigious. It also more specifically describes my actual role. However, the job title in the offer (which I signed, oops) was research analyst. My impression was that nobody there really cared what the actual job title was, so if I had asked earlier it probably could have been changed easily. Now that I've signed the offer, and it's about a month after the interview, would it make me look bad to ask if it can be changed? I worry about looking somewhat ridiculous, and possibly signalling that I'm already trying to set myself up for my next job. I'm not, actually, this job seems like a perfect fit, but I could see how they could get that impression. I appreciate any of your thoughts on this.
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Sep 4, 2013 20:32
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ohgodwhat posted:I was tremendously overdressed for my financial job interview when I was wearing a suit. It was awkward, but I was offered the job. I'm sort of in a similar situation...I was going to hold out until annual review time (not too far off) and see what happens there. Seems like a decent idea to me v0v
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Sep 4, 2013 20:54
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Did you start at the job already? I haven't, so I'd rather get it fixed before I actually start than wait.
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Sep 4, 2013 20:59
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ohgodwhat posted:Did you start at the job already? I haven't, so I'd rather get it fixed before I actually start than wait. Oh, I missed that part in your post, sorry. Yeah, I already started. In your case, I guess the tricky part is politely inquiring about that job title...if you're really unlucky, there might be all sorts of internal differences at the company in the titles (i.e. they can only hire x number of each, things like that). I'll leave it to someone better spoken/written to suggest how to do that.
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Sep 4, 2013 21:17
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Well, I don't think there's any issue like that. Really, it came across like they weren't really sure what to call it, which is why I don't think it would have been a big deal if I had said then that I preferred one over the other. Now it's a month later though and it just seems a bit weirder... I don't want to be that guy before I even start. They already worked with me a lot on the start date.
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Sep 4, 2013 21:19
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So I finally got a callback and it turned into a super short phone interview. The job sounds remarkably similar to what I'm doing now expect they asked if I am familiar with HTLM. I just kind of said the super basics (meaning I can bold something on this forum) since I was a bit surprised. Should I make it more clear that I have just about no experience with it if/when they call back?
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Sep 5, 2013 00:30
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CADPAT posted:Not sure where you live and what you're applying for, but most jobs I got, I was not wearing a full suit to an interview. ohgodwhat posted:I was tremendously overdressed for my financial job interview when I was wearing a suit. It was awkward, but I was offered the job. I've always felt overdressed in that outfit but everything I've read about interviewing says to err on the side of overdressing or it outright says "wear a suit". I've just had that suit for years and I'm getting sick of it, and starting to (jokingly) wonder if the reason I can't get hired is because it's ugly or something. I guess if I wear something new, the worst thing that could happen is the same as before, which is not getting the job. E: Follow-up- they were interviewing four or five other candidates today for a couple of similar positions, and of the other men only one had a sport coat. So either I'm safe, or we're all hosed 
C-Euro fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Sep 5, 2013 |
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Sep 5, 2013 00:37
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So I've been with my company for almost eight years, and watched it get progressively worse. At this point, I am just sick of it. Moreover, I know that I am seriously underpaid for my knowledge and experience. I've started preparing my resume, but I had a couple of questions. 1) What is the consensus on one to two page resumes? It seems like most of the resume's I've seen are one page. When I showed one of my friends my resume, he laughed and said if I've been working for eight years, I should have more than one pages worth of experience. Is it a bad thing to be over one page if it is filled with solid content? 2) When I was in college, I won a bunch of public speaking awards. (Like gold medal winner in persuasive speaking) Even though it was years ago, is that still worth mentioning on a resume? It seems like a pretty solid skill, but I don't know if I am just kidding myself and it is like putting my GPA or some National Honors Society member bullshit on my resume. 3) Do I even bother to put computer skills? I mention in my description creating Power Point presentations for training purposes, so it seems to me that it is just redundant and removing it would save space. It's been 8 years since I've done a resume, and I got that job because my mom is friends with my old boss anyway. It is an unsettling thought. P.S. When it comes to the interview process, I assume that asking questions is a good thing? I am in no hurry to work, and I want to make sure that if I do leave, it is a good fit. Does that sound right? I'm kind of an intense guy in real life, and I like having a clear understanding of how things work.
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Sep 5, 2013 06:32
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I'm a Registered Nurse and after two years of working on a general medical floor, I am transferring into the ICU. The ICU manager told me unofficially that HR will be emailing me an offer for the new position. More than likely the email will link to an internal company page that will have details of the new position plus wage. Any tips for negotiating a salary when transferring within a company? If the offer comes by email, do I negotiate my salary by email? It is a large, non-profit hospital. I'll be taking the position either way because it is a large advancement for my career but I do believe I am currently underpaid and would like to chance for more. Thanks.
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Sep 5, 2013 15:22
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Sataere posted:So I've been with my company for almost eight years, and watched it get progressively worse. At this point, I am just sick of it. Moreover, I know that I am seriously underpaid for my knowledge and experience. I've started preparing my resume, but I had a couple of questions. 1.) A 2 page resume is fine for someone who has 8 years of experience. Only recent college grads are not allowed to have two page resumes. 2.) I wouldn't bother. Only people applying for internships or entry level jobs with no work experience use college extra-curricular achievements as a filler. If you want to showcase your public speaking skills, mention in your experience that you give oral presentations to your boss/CEO/board ect. 3.) If you need the space, remove it. The first thing a recruiter sees is work experience. If he likes your work experience, hes not going to suddenly toss the resume just because he/she cant confirm whether you heard of Excel. I think programming/IT jobs are the exception though. And yes always ask questions. Good questions can really demonstrate your interest in the company and the job itself to the recruiter.
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Sep 5, 2013 16:29
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Sataere posted:So I've been with my company for almost eight years, and watched it get progressively worse. At this point, I am just sick of it. Moreover, I know that I am seriously underpaid for my knowledge and experience. I've started preparing my resume, but I had a couple of questions. My opinions on these qustions: 1- Two pages is fine if it's full of relevant content. If you're applying to be a sandwich artist at Subway listing 5 bullets about how good you are working the fryers is pointless because subway has no fryers. Relevant accomplishments should be listed, not a list of job duties. 2- If the job requires public speaking, throw it on there. Corporate Trainer, Salesperson, whatever. If you're not going to be speaking, I would probably leave it off. You've been working for 8 years, your college degree and experience carries no value anymore to be honest. 3- Some computer skills are just assumed for certain positions. If you're going into a training job or something that requires lots of presentations list it, if not, it doesn't matter. If using the computer software is part of the job, put it on, but listing that you know 4 kinds of linux, 3 browsers and 2 office suites is not necessary. Interview questions. Before you go to an interview you should do your homework on the company. Who are they? What do they do? What markets do they serve? What team would you be joining? Things like that. Asking questions and showing interest is a good thing. Don't interrogate, but knowing a little bit about things is very good. What can you tell me about the team I would be joining?
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Sep 5, 2013 16:46
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Thanks for the advice, guys. Nice to know I am thinking about this the right way.
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Sep 5, 2013 19:21
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If anyone could give my resume a quick look over that would be great: http://www.etherealnet.ca/sa/saresume.rtf I realize that I did mention a fair amount about my duties, but I tried to balance duties vs. accomplishments due to the fact that people may not actually know what the duties for some of my jobs were. Also this particular resume is for a federal job, so I have to include a whole bunch of specific stuff that's included in a 30 page "essential criteria" booklet, so that's why its 3 pages. I would defenitely trim it down to 2 for anything else.
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Sep 6, 2013 20:35
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So after 3 years of self employment, part time while watching my kids the other time, I've been applying all over the place and have had half a dozen or so interviews. A few of these I felt really good about, a few of them I never followed up after the thank you email because I either didn't do well in the interview or wasn't that interested. Now its back to grinding out online applications and resume submissions. Why in the everloving gently caress does every single company do this: Upload your resume Attempt to parse the information so it fits into their terrible website Ruin any and all formatting Place random, odd errors all over your descriptions/experience/etc? Either have us upload the resume or don't. I have seen some companies whose software takes a section of my resume, say EDUCATION and will change it to eduCATioN and other weird lower/upper case errors. If you should have a bullet point on your resume, you'd better believe that's getting changed to a little ? box on the website. Are people seriously submitting their resumes in file types other than doc/x or pdf? Okay they probably are but why can't these websites simply handle a docx file? Are companies aware of how poorly their software typically parses a resume? And don't even get me started on those horrible sites where you click an open job description, but if you click BACK, then you have to enter all of your search information again, usually starting with North America, United States, State, Region, City, etc...
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Sep 8, 2013 17:03
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johnny sack posted:So after 3 years of self employment, part time while watching my kids the other time, I've been applying all over the place and have had half a dozen or so interviews. A few of these I felt really good about, a few of them I never followed up after the thank you email because I either didn't do well in the interview or wasn't that interested. I am dealing with this issue almost every day. Same as you state: upload resume, then the software categorizes it. It often takes short term contracting and think it's a separate job, asking for "rate of pay at the beginning and end, and reasons for leaving," when I've completed these company contracts and have letters and letters of reference to prove it. If the software sees certain nouns and verbs - it classifies these into a separate job when it was actually not. Some online applications are 6-7-8 electronic pages long: filling in the same info that is exactly on the resume. And these are for low paying jobs (I have about 2 months before I plan on moving to another state). Often, the online program that requires you to register on a forum-like website are for jobs that do not require any use technology. Some of these online applications are not user-friendly even though I've been using the internet for 20 years. I have even ended some applications and quit, to receive a couple of emails a day or two later reminding me that "your application to XYZ company is not completed yet. We look forward to receiving it." I could see large companies putting up the hoops to jump through so they don't just receive "one-click" resumes form casually interested applicants as the unemployment and underemployment rate is so high. But they way it is done is so bad. Networking has always been important but it's so much more important that today. Positive Optimyst fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 9, 2013 23:24
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Still no word on that interview. HR manager says interviews went great. (Last interview was last Monday). Called last Thursday, she said it went well, that she was just trying to finalise stuff with the partners and that she would call later that day or Friday. Didn't happen. She didn't call yesterday either. I sent an email this morning, but this is a Big 4 accounting firm. I'm starting to get worried that maybe they want to withdraw the offer or are just having second thoughts? It's just rude. Why tell me you are going to call when you don't? Either tell me I have the gig or not, it's not rocket science.
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Sep 10, 2013 02:15
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Not sure if this is the right thread to ask questions about internship resumes, but I may as well ask anyway: I'm a non-traditional student transferring to university after finishing up in community college for the past two years. Prior to community college, I worked in the legal field (unrelated to my current major in engineering). I've been told to seek summer internships starting in the fall, so I figure I'll probably start working on my resume right now. However, a lot of employers have a hard GPA cutoff for internships. Since I start at the university this month, I technically don't have a GPA at my new institution quite yet. Is it OK to specify the GPA from my previous school and state that I am in the process of taking coursework relevant to my major which is being recruited? Additionally, how is one supposed to list their skills on an internship resume? I have experience in legal work, but no work experience related to engineering, so I'm relying on my coursework. Do I list which courses I'll be taking over the year in preparation for the summer?
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Sep 10, 2013 02:33
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Is there any way to cover up holes in experience in application forms without looking like an absolute idiot? I've got a form with a pretty extensive Skills and achievements section to fill in. I've got some pretty decent internships I can use to show most of the competencies, but I cannot find a way to answer the sections on Teamwork and Client Focus - my first internship was working with one other guy in a cancer research lab, my second was working almost entirely independently on some product design and logistics, so I've had exactly no contact with clients. Is "i've never done this, but here's how I would" an appropriate answer? Because it sounds pretty terrible.
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Sep 10, 2013 16:28
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You and one other guy is a team.
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Sep 10, 2013 16:34
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That came out pretty garbled, that's what I get for posting when I'm angry. Gonna cool-off before I try the form again. My main issue is how do I blag Client Focus when I've literally never spoken to a client, and never been in an area of an organisation that has anything to do with clients? vvvv I'd never thought of it that way. I always assumed client was someone external to the organisation. I'll have a think on that. Thanks. Strom Cuzewon fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 16:54
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There's always a client; you're not working in a vacuum. Doing in-house IT? Your clients are the other department. Doing production? Your client is marketing and distribution. Doing lab work? The client is whoever ordered the lab work. A lot of people think client means customer or john, while it's probably more accurate to say it means "whoever enjoys or use the fruit of your labor".
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Sep 10, 2013 16:57
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I used to work for one of those big financial institutions that didn't survive the 2008 crash, and I'm wondering how to handle this on my resume? Obviously I shouldn't add, "it never became insolvent while I worked there," but should I really just ignore it? I'm not applying for banking jobs, but anyone reviewing my resume is likely to have heard of the place and know it came to a calamitous end.
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Sep 11, 2013 01:55
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Unless you were somehow implicated in the implosion, I wouldn't worry about it. Companies go bankrupt, people get laid off, life moves on.
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Sep 11, 2013 01:58
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What if the crash was his fault?  But yeah, don't worry about it.
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Sep 11, 2013 02:05
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Last week I went to interview for a position, and rather having me come in and speak to people one-on-one there were four or five other candidates also interviewing for the same/similar positions (they were contracts) so we ended up doing a sort of speed-dating thing where each candidate rotated through turns speaking to people in the company. I was worried that in the whirlwind interview process that this ended up being, I would perhaps get lost or mixed up with the other candidates when it came time to make a choice (especially since I was referred to by another candidate's name multiple times during the interview process). Combined with the fact that I didn't get the position, I have to ask- what are some ways to make you more memorable to interviewers when they're screening multiple candidates? Would it be weird if, before the interview, I wrote down what I was wearing on the back of my business cards to give out at the end (nothing elaborate, just "blue shirt red tie" for example). I'm beginning to think that I keep losing job offers in the interview stage and I want to better stand out from candidates, yet I've read so many guides on how to interview properly that they're starting to repeat themselves, and I don't know if I'm too stupid to actually learn what the guides are teaching me or if I'm just horribly unlucky.
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Sep 11, 2013 04:36
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Shave your head honestly it just seems like some bad luck, that was a terrible way to interview new people and not something you should fret about.
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Sep 11, 2013 05:54
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Yeah, both sides agreed that it was a rushed process and could have been done better (it was put together by a staffing agency), but I'm wondering if there are other ways to stand out more, even for a more ideal situation where a half-dozen candidates are interviewed one at a time over the course of a few days. Obviously your answers and actions during an interview are supposed to set you apart if done well, but I don't get feedback on those other than "we're not offering you the job" so I'm looking for other potential edges. Your suggestion to shave my head has me wondering another thing- normally when it's time for a haircut I'll just pull out my clippers and buzz my hair down. Can a good, even buzzcut look professional in an interview, or do I need to keep getting a nice haircut once a month for that month's interview circuit?
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Sep 11, 2013 06:26
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Anyone want to volunteer to review my resume? I modified it according to suggestions in the thread but I'm not really in the same job league as anyone here so I'd prefer to email it.
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Sep 11, 2013 11:02
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I'll take a look at it, but I'm not good at entry level/first job resumes and I work in the IT field so I'm not good with creative/artistic resumes.
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Sep 11, 2013 16:14
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