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seacat posted:Wouldn't say it's bad taste, I doubt using professors would hurt you but it wouldn't help you much either. Have you worked with these professors closely (like would they even remember you?) How long since you've been out of school (there are people whose first job last 6 months and some who stay for 6 years...) I still talk to my graduate adviser on a semi regular basis.
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Oct 16, 2014 02:33
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I'm an attorney. I have an standard "flaw" to use when asked about my flaws, I say that sometimes I have issues trying to make my answers clear and in a non-lawyer language, but over time I've improved and try to check my reports/mails to make them as clear as possible. Today I had an interview and I was asked to give 2 flaws, so I said that when I work with a group or with an intern, I try to control the situation, like if I didn't trust others to do their job correctly (I was trying to sound bossy but not paranoid or unwilling to work in a team). Are those flaws ok?
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Oct 16, 2014 07:08
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radlum posted:I'm an attorney. I have an standard "flaw" to use when asked about my flaws, I say that sometimes I have issues trying to make my answers clear and in a non-lawyer language, but over time I've improved and try to check my reports/mails to make them as clear as possible. They're as good as I've heard. (disclaimer I am a hiring manager but not in law and understand that lawyerworld is different in many extremely significant ways). I wouldn't even say trying to control the situation is that much of a weakness unless you don't know what you're doing. It is an attribute of a good leader to take charge. If you are responsible for an intern of course you would take charge. It doesn't mean you have to be a dick about it and shout orders at people or whatever. Honest answer: that question is loving awful and there is no good answer that helps either side. Thank GOD I've never had to use one of those canned lists of interview questions when hiring because it seems that crap is always on there along with "Where do you see yourself in 5 years". You don't expect people to report their own weaknesses. They'll (a) lie, (b) give a strength disguised as a weakness or (c) get nervous and stressed out and begin to resent you before you've even developed any sort of professional connection. A much better way is to get them to tell you about the biggest challenges or situations they've dealt with in past jobs and how they've handled them.
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Oct 16, 2014 12:20
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seacat posted:Honest answer: that question is loving awful and there is no good answer that helps either side. Thank GOD I've never had to use one of those canned lists of interview questions when hiring because it seems that crap is always on there along with "Where do you see yourself in 5 years". You don't expect people to report their own weaknesses. They'll (a) lie, (b) give a strength disguised as a weakness or (c) get nervous and stressed out and begin to resent you before you've even developed any sort of professional connection. A much better way is to get them to tell you about the biggest challenges or situations they've dealt with in past jobs and how they've handled them. For the "where do you see yourself in 5 years" question, is there a good answer for that? I feel that saying some sort of leadership position makes it sounds like your saying "how soon can I get into management" and "more experienced in my current role" sounds like no ambition.
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Oct 16, 2014 12:38
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Ezekiel_980 posted:For the "where do you see yourself in 5 years" question, is there a good answer for that? I feel that saying some sort of leadership position makes it sounds like your saying "how soon can I get into management" and "more experienced in my current role" sounds like no ambition. Neither of those are bad answers. There's nothing wrong with wanting to get into management (most people just want management positions because in the vast majority of the American private sector that's the only way to get any decent raises/bonuses). A bad answer is "I'm not sure" or even "I have absolutely no idea" even though it's true for probably like the majority of candidates. 5 years is a long time. A lot of things can happen in 5 years. I don't like the question -- It will at best get you a generic answer of someone's ambitions. How the hell are you supposed to answer that during an interview when you don't know the work environment, people you'll be working with, in many cases even what your day-to-day job would be like? How about throwing the question back at the interviewer -- is this job going to be here in 5 years, are there going to be opportunities to advance or get raises in 5 years, etc? They can't see the future either. The best way as an interviewer to understand what people hope for in the long term is to ask people what they enjoy about their work, what they find rewarding, what they want to do more of. Some people just want a stable job and a paycheck and there is nothing wrong with that if they do a good job. Some people like technical stuff, some people like leadership, some like socializing, it depends on what the position is. The best thing to do is answer honestly but also sound like you have some sort of plan. The vast majority of hiring managers, and 100% of the good ones, understand that any one position is at longest a 1-3 year commitment barring emergency circumstances like health problems, without increased compensation.
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Oct 16, 2014 14:54
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I live in south Florida, and I am being flown out for a interview in Michigan where it will probably be around 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit. Right now I only have my suit, and I am wondering what else can I wear to fight the cold. The suit was put together in south Florida, so its mostly cotton. Would a cardigan over my dress shirt be appropriate? This is for a engineering position with lots of old dudes, so I must keep it as conservative as possible. I could also just wear another jacket till I get to the building and just walk in with my suit.
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Oct 17, 2014 04:46
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seacat posted:How about throwing the question back at the interviewer -- is this job going to be here in 5 years, are there going to be opportunities to advance or get raises in 5 years, etc? I actually did that at a job interview I had this morning. The guy replied "You'll either be making a lot more money or you'll be gone." Fair 'nuff.
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Oct 17, 2014 04:50
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So talking to the friends who work at the place I'm interviewing at they both mentioned that the company might be hesitant to hire me because I have a masters. One of them said it was because they think I will leave for more money and the other because they think I might get bored. This particular position is a QC Tech position where most of the people working it have BS degrees in chemistry. My masters is in chemistry and in this age with the overabundance of PhD's a masters is kinda useless and often seen as a consolation prize if you don't finish your dissertation. I don't think I can flat out say the truth that I think the degree is useless and was a poor life choice. How can I spin this into a strength and a selling point to the interviewers?
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Oct 17, 2014 12:50
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Xeom posted:I live in south Florida, and I am being flown out for a interview in Michigan where it will probably be around 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit. Right now I only have my suit, and I am wondering what else can I wear to fight the cold. The suit was put together in south Florida, so its mostly cotton. Would a cardigan over my dress shirt be appropriate? Are you planning on hiking somewhere? The walk from your hotel to your car and then from the car to the building should be a couple of minutes, not long enough to be uncomfortable in a suit. If that's unacceptable, the conservative option would be to wear an overcoat, less conservative would be a sweater.
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Oct 17, 2014 14:15
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Ezekiel_980 posted:So talking to the friends who work at the place I'm interviewing at they both mentioned that the company might be hesitant to hire me because I have a masters. One of them said it was because they think I will leave for more money and the other because they think I might get bored. This particular position is a QC Tech position where most of the people working it have BS degrees in chemistry. My masters is in chemistry and in this age with the overabundance of PhD's a masters is kinda useless and often seen as a consolation prize if you don't finish your dissertation. I don't think I can flat out say the truth that I think the degree is useless and was a poor life choice. How can I spin this into a strength and a selling point to the interviewers? I'm a QC chem lab manager in cosmetics mfg. What's the industry (pharma, food, cosmetics?) and do you know what the job tasks are? A QC tech position definitely varies in responsibility depending on that. Since you said they hire BS-level chemists for it you would probably be running some more complex testing than the job title implies. At my company for example the techs run do raw material sampling, help on the lines, collect sample swabs, and run simple tests like torque, fill weight, pH, visc, etc, and the analytical chemists do instrumental analysis and more in-depth work. Both of the points your friends bring up are right on and exactly what your interviewers would think when they see a MS. The best thing to do is to address it as soon as you can. What are your goals -- do you just want a job to pay the bills, are you actually interested in quality, do you want to get into plant management, etc? What was your masters topic? Also, I personally don't think there's anything wrong with admitting you made a mistake by going to grad school as long as you aren't bitter or negative about it. Plenty of people drop out of PhD programs with a masters for perfectly valid reasons. It's really not that big a deal. An alternative might be just to leave the masters off your resume and not bring it up. Although it would create a gap, in this post economic crash world that's not nearly as big a deal as it used to be. I can't tell from your post though if you actively pursued a terminal masters or left a PhD program with a masters halfway through (you really don't want a gap of more than a year).
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Oct 17, 2014 16:16
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seacat posted:I'm a QC chem lab manager in cosmetics mfg. The Job its a QC for polymers and other materials used in building supplies. Surprisingly its 95% wet chem which I guess is why they want someone with a degree so that they know how to titrate. From what I have gleamed talking to people who worked it before is "Analytically wet chemist" would be a better description. I was talking to a former coworker whos in the group now and she said that a person they hired with a MS recently and just said they were looking for something new. Which is some ways is what I'm looking to do while making more money. Regarding the degree, For me it was a terminal masters original plan was after it to move onto a PhD since I felt at the time I was a tough sell to PhD program. Later I decided that research isn't what I like and paying off some bills might be a better idea. In retrospect the masters was a waste since the degree hasn't done squat for me except cause trouble and cost me money.
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Oct 17, 2014 17:22
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I currently have a supervisor job for a small start-up that's essentially a political call center. After election day, the company's going to be going through some pretty significant changes, and there is a management position opening up. Both myself and the other current supervisor are going to be applying, and have been asked for cover letters/resumes. Is there anything in particular that changes when I'm applying for a position within the company as opposed to applying with a new company? Another potentially complicating in factor is that most of my jobs in the past 3.5 years have been working for either the HR person who is running the hiring process, or for the current managers who are leaving after election day. Is there anything to be aware/careful of because of that?
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Oct 17, 2014 19:04
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Ezekiel_980 posted:The Job its a QC for polymers and other materials used in building supplies. Surprisingly its 95% wet chem which I guess is why they want someone with a degree so that they know how to titrate. From what I have gleamed talking to people who worked it before is "Analytically wet chemist" would be a better description. You'd actually be surprised how hard simple wet-chem stuff is to the average non-chem major. I've had a nontrivial amount of facepalms explaining simple acid-base, complexometric, potentiometric, etc titrations to biochem/microbiology/other hard science majors who I thought really could learn better. Go figure. As far as employability goes, a hard chem degree won't make you rich on its own but it's definitely an asset. I don't think the masters will hold you back. A PhD definitely would -- I wouldn't bring in anyone with one for this type of job. Your plan sounds fine. Like 90% of chem majors start off in quality. Entry level quality jobs generally pay OK (some pay pretty drat well -- depends on the company), and generally arn't dead end jobs unless the company just sucks rear end.. Some people hate quality, I can definitely understand that. Your goal is to get an interview, definitely use your network. You might seriously consider removing your masters from your resume and only bringing it up when they ask about the time gap. "I wanted to see if academic research was for me and decided it wasn't for me" is a perfectly good answer.
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Oct 17, 2014 19:37
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seacat posted:You'd actually be surprised how hard simple wet-chem stuff is to the average non-chem major. I've had a nontrivial amount of facepalms explaining simple acid-base, complexometric, potentiometric, etc titrations to biochem/microbiology/other hard science majors who I thought really could learn better. Go figure. As far as employability goes, a hard chem degree won't make you rich on its own but it's definitely an asset. Trying to teach those bio/physic majors chem is grad school drove me to drink... Seeing as one of my friends there brought the resume to the managers desk its too late to leave off the masters, my focus was in NMR but since the only way to get a decent job in it is with a phd which I think is a fools errand, I'll explain that I am looking for something different.
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Oct 17, 2014 22:53
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Ezekiel_980 posted:Trying to teach those bio/physic majors chem is grad school drove me to drink... I feel you my undergrad job was NMR/organic synthesis for 3 years. It's an amazing technique that I truly love but there are like 3 NMR openings in the USA at any given time and they all require PhDs and there is an major oversupply of organic chemists with NMR experience too so if you want to spend like 8 years of your life (BS+PhD) getting an education for a 1:10 shot at a job that uses that education you can go into it I guess! (you did the sane thing by dropping out) The most plentiful jobs for chem in pharma, food, cosmetics, and beverages, as well as any analytical chem lab (the industries I'm familiar with) are in HPLC (LC/MS is great for those who can afford it), GC/FID, UV-VIS, IR, and ICP/MS. You may not be interested in any of those but if you want to be employable they are good skills to pick up down the line.
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Oct 17, 2014 23:04
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seacat posted:I feel you my undergrad job was NMR/organic synthesis for 3 years. It's an amazing technique that I truly love but there are like 3 NMR openings in the USA at any given time and they all require PhDs and there is an major oversupply of organic chemists with NMR experience too so if you want to spend like 8 years of your life (BS+PhD) getting an education for a 1:10 shot at a job that uses that education you can go into it I guess! (you did the sane thing by dropping out) Yeah my current employer is in pharma and we have close to 40 people who do HPLC exclusively. If i could suggest any one technique to someone to learn it would be HPLC. I asked to transfer into a HPLC or QC group but my supervisor and manager said no because "we are very happy with the job your doing right now in the NMR group".
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Oct 17, 2014 23:34
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I just got a call by a Human Resources firm for the psychological evaluation part of a government job I'm applying for. I was told there was an individual part (three hours) and a group part (two hours). Any idea what kind of tests they could do in the group part? I've never that kind of evaluation.
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Oct 17, 2014 23:47
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I am not sure how to approach questions about "teamwork". Specifically, if you come from a field that is traditionally thought of as independent you are stuck with the assumption that you won't fit into the corporate culture. Can someone please explain to me what corporate teamwork looks like so I can better represent myself in that regard? For reference my work environment is the following. A meeting has occurred in which certain goals have been decided on. This is usually a small part of a larger meeting. After the meeting, those of us on the project will then get together and spitball ideas on how to get it done. Then we decide who would do it best, considering time, skills or whatever. If we can delegate it down directly, we do that. If we can delegate it down by training the delegate to do it, so that we never have to do it again, we do that. Independent of whoever has to do it we usually meet up two or three times a week to talk about how the task is progressing and any ideas that need changing. If we need to change who needs to do it, we do that. If it needs more attention, we do that. Overall, we try to talk as much as is necessary to get the thing done. If the person stuck performing the task says "I got this" we let it go. Given the stereotype that has been placed on me, I am at a loss to how much more team oriented I could be. Still I suppose I could be? Any anecdotes or general advice would be much appreciated.
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Oct 21, 2014 03:10
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My partner recently got asked to apply for a position that she's quite qualified for in her field. The interview went well, they expressed interest in her, then told her to contact them with a salary request. After looking at what she needed she requested roughly median for what similar jobs pay in this region ($52K) and she was told that the request was too high and she didn't hear back for a while, and then they told her they were looking at other applicants. Today she received an email saying that they couldn't go higher than about $30K (which is less than she makes now and there's no way she could even survive on that). I suggested she ask for $41K instead, which is just above what she currently makes but with the longer commute to the new job it will probably come up roughly equal. But she thinks this job will be a much better opportunity (since it's in her field) and would place her in a decent place for future positions. She was THINKING about accepting less than she currently makes for experience and opportunity but I think that's horseshit. Is that a good strategy (going for something in the middle)? Is there something she should be considering regarding salary negotiations that she isn't thinking of?
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Oct 21, 2014 04:40
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Dolphin posted:My partner recently got asked to apply for a position that she's quite qualified for in her field. The interview went well, they expressed interest in her, then told her to contact them with a salary request. After looking at what she needed she requested roughly median for what similar jobs pay in this region ($52K) and she was told that the request was too high and she didn't hear back for a while, and then they told her they were looking at other applicants. Today she received an email saying that they couldn't go higher than about $30K (which is less than she makes now and there's no way she could even survive on that). I suggested she ask for $41K instead, which is just above what she currently makes but with the longer commute to the new job it will probably come up roughly equal. But she thinks this job will be a much better opportunity (since it's in her field) and would place her in a decent place for future positions. She was THINKING about accepting less than she currently makes for experience and opportunity but I think that's horseshit. This won't be the only opportunity that comes along.
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Oct 21, 2014 05:14
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Also note that since they came back to her, no one else has been willing to work for $30k either. The fact that they offered so much less than the median in their area is a huge red flag and she should proooobably consider telling them to pay on par with the industry or gently caress off.
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Oct 21, 2014 05:27
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Dolphin posted:
Small company? Sounds like they are putting her through a lot of negotiation theater. Saying 'hey we were looking to only pay LOWBALL_OFFER and we are talking to other people' is just to throw her off balance and make her accept way less than she should. Meeting in the middle is still way less than market rate, so its still a not a good idea. Does she really think working for a company saying 'we can't going higher than' 57% lower than median is going to be pleasant? On the other hand she could try to negotiate on soft targets (hours worked, vacation days) as well as the first post goes into, but this seems like a place to walk by.
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Oct 21, 2014 05:35
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Does anybody have information on automated video interviews? I've had two companies ask me to go to a website and record answers to the questions they have set up, and it really feels pretty weird to talk into a webcam without any feedback. Are these things becoming really common now?
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Oct 21, 2014 14:43
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Xyven posted:Does anybody have information on automated video interviews? I've had two companies ask me to go to a website and record answers to the questions they have set up, and it really feels pretty weird to talk into a webcam without any feedback. Are these things becoming really common now? I've done a few and found them pretty easy. All the ones I did let you do practice questions where they would give you example questions, you'd record your answers, and it would play them back for you. This also gave you a chance to adjust your audio/video settings and check what background stuff was showing up. You could do the practices as many times as you wanted. I practiced a few times to loosen up and then always did well on the real recordings. I felt they were way easier than phone interviews. I always received an in-person interview after them. Loosen up with practice questions, don't fall over yourself while speaking, make eye contact with the camera, and you should out perform everyone else also doing an automated one.
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Oct 21, 2014 18:10
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I'm applying to an internal job posting, hoping to hop from my current department where my job is ok to a department that has a position open that's way more relevant to my experience and interests. I've talked to the hiring manager of that department before and emailed him recently expressing my interest in the position. Do I still have to write a cover letter? I feel weird talking about myself to people I've already met who already know about my experience and current job duties.
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Oct 22, 2014 01:15
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I'm applying to an internal job posting, hoping to hop from my current department where my job is ok to a department that has a position open that's way more relevant to my experience and interests. I've talked to the hiring manager of that department before and emailed him recently expressing my interest in the position. Do I still have to write a cover letter? I feel weird talking about myself to people I've already met who already know about my experience and current job duties. I have seen people get passed over for jobs because they didn't take the internal posting 'seriously.' It doesn't make any sense because everyone there knows you anyway, but HR has to fill their time somehow, write a cover letter.
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Oct 22, 2014 03:10
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MickeyFinn posted:I have seen people get passed over for jobs because they didn't take the internal posting 'seriously.' It doesn't make any sense because everyone there knows you anyway, but HR has to fill their time somehow, write a cover letter. Further to this point, do you think writing a cover letter will hurt your chances?
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Oct 22, 2014 13:11
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I wrote one, just in a different format than applying cold since introducing myself again would seem kind of silly. I just outlined why my previous experience would make me a good fit for the job and pointed out some stuff I've done they might not have known about.
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Oct 23, 2014 00:53
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I had an examination and interview at an HR firm (for a job in a Law Firm). I had the usual logic, math, figures and other tests, no big deal. Then, the bane of my existence reappeared, the dreaded "draw a person in this paper and then draw a person under the rain in this other paper". Besides the idea of giving the person an umbrella and ground, I don't know what else to do in that kind of tests. Any ideas? Then, came the further scourge of muy unemployment, the DISC test (from a group of 4 pick the quality that you are the most alike and the least alike). I know that kind of test is used to see if my personality is correct for the job I'm applying, yet I wonder if there are wrong answers for the test.
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Oct 23, 2014 20:08
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radlum posted:I wonder if there are wrong answers for the test. Of course there are. Pre-employment psychological screenings administered by dilettantes have high validity. If you have trouble with those kinds of tests, it's because you have deep-seated personal failings and probably shouldn't ever be employed.
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Oct 23, 2014 20:38
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posh spaz posted:Of course there are. Pre-employment psychological screenings administered by dilettantes have high validity. If you have trouble with those kinds of tests, it's because you have deep-seated personal failings and probably shouldn't ever be employed. I took one of those tests for a job at a restaurant and scored horribly*, they hired me anyway and in two years I was running the place. I don't have a lot of confidence in the ability of those tests to predict anything either. Although I guess if you are drawing people with animal features, you are an 8 year-old kid who is likely to start fires when you become a teenager. That is probably the wrong answer. * I accidentally skipped a multiple choice question, and was told that white out wouldn't interfere with the fax and so I could just white out the incorrect answer and re-bubble the answer I wanted. Lo-and-behold, I got 100% before the mistake and zero afterward.
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Oct 23, 2014 22:00
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Well the online one that every lovely job ever requires can very much test whether or not you're actually reading the questions since they keep re-asking questions with slightly different wording. Also if you reply "I have trouble talking to new people" you probably won't get a sales job or something but eh 
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Oct 23, 2014 22:04
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posh spaz posted:Of course there are. Pre-employment psychological screenings administered by dilettantes have high validity. If you have trouble with those kinds of tests, it's because you have deep-seated personal failings and probably shouldn't ever be employed. Of the 4 jobs I've had, only one had a psychological screening, so you might be onto something.
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Oct 23, 2014 23:02
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radlum posted:I had an examination and interview at an HR firm (for a job in a Law Firm). I had the usual logic, math, figures and other tests, no big deal. Then, the bane of my existence reappeared, the dreaded "draw a person in this paper and then draw a person under the rain in this other paper". Besides the idea of giving the person an umbrella and ground, I don't know what else to do in that kind of tests. Any ideas? draw-a-person is literally the punchline to jokes in the field that develops these kinds of tests; that should be all you need to know about asinine the company in question was. (It's also normally given to children, not adults in the workplace.) DAP in the rain is used as a (bad) screen for clinical depression. Why on earth a company would give it is beyond me.
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Oct 24, 2014 00:11
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So I'm going for a low level library job that has a strong focus on customer service. I have 4+ years in customer service and even got an award. But I have no idea what I should say/write to talk up this experience. Can any HR types tell me what you'd be looking for in "a customer focused individual"? The last job I went for I got to the late interview stage so I must have been doing something right. Just wanted to know if there was anything I could add/talk up that I hadn't thought of.
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Oct 24, 2014 05:02
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Is it considered bad form when applying to a job via email to request consideration for another open position at the same company at the same time? The two positions are very similar.
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Oct 24, 2014 15:12
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opengl128 posted:Is it considered bad form when applying to a job via email to request consideration for another open position at the same company at the same time? The two positions are very similar. I don't think it is particularly. Are they both for the same department? And is it a big company? If either of those is true then the chances are they're going to consider you for both positions anyway if your skillset matches them both.
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Oct 24, 2014 15:40
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opengl128 posted:Is it considered bad form when applying to a job via email to request consideration for another open position at the same company at the same time? The two positions are very similar. There's nothing wrong with applying to two positions at the same company; it happens all the time. In fact it a pretty common occurrence that you might interview for one position, and the interviewers might decide you might be much better for another opening. However they have to be separate applications: IE, don't say you're applying for both of them in the same e-mail (even if it's the same department and even if the hiring manager is the same), write a separate cover letter for each, generally treat them separately. A good hiring manager if you are genuinely interested (or can convincingly pretend you are genuinely interested  ) in more than one job.Of course I guess you might run the risk of running into office politics (for example applying in two departments who hate each other) but there's no way to know that from the outside anyway so you might as well not worry about it in addition to the thousands of other things that are out of your control in the hiring process.
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Oct 24, 2014 15:42
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Is it a standard policy to not communicate with an applicant post interview? Of the three interviews I've had lately, only one even send me a "you didn't get the job" email, and no one has ever responded to any type of follow up emails/calls.
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Oct 24, 2014 17:56
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Who usually books travel when being brought in for an interview? It strikes me a potential problem for the company if they insist they do it and thus skirt laws by allowing them access to information like: gender, age and nationality.
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Oct 24, 2014 17:57
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