|
What's the best way to explain a long stretch of unemployment? I have an interview later this week and I've been unemployed since August of last year when my last contract ended and a hiring freeze prevented any sort of extension. It wasn't for lack of trying, I just don't have a lot of experience or education (about two and a half years relevant experience, and just a bachelors degree and post-grad certificate) compared to a lot of the competition in my city. I avoided taking a "for now" job by eating through all my savings, borrowing money from my parents and living an incredibly frugal lifestyle. I had some other interviews in that time frame but nothing panned out... Somehow the time just went by so quickly. I've been going through the process of planning on returning to school in September for something totally different and giving up on this career path (I don't particularly like it from my past experiences working in it, but I need money badly), but then this company called me to come in for an interview. I'm not getting my hopes up or anything (learned not to do that a long time ago), but this company is hiring like crazy because its experiencing huge growth in a new industry and also one of the people interviewing me is a graduate of the same post-grad certificate program that I am. It's been so long since I've worked that I feel like an imposter just thinking about going to the interview. How do I explain that I couldn't find a job in that time to them without looking like a total loving loser? I was thinking about lying to them and saying something like I've been helping some friends/family with their (unrelated) businesses, which is something I did do in the past.
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2019 19:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 21:38 |
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:Apple EarPods for headphones. Make sure to find a place in your house that doesn’t have a bunch of poo poo on the walls behind you and lighting so that you don’t look like a demon. test the lighting early. I worked remotely for a year and ended up buying cheap LED stage lights because I couldn't find a spot in my apartment that wasn't too dark or a way to light it that didn't make me look like a renaissance painting or Zordon.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2019 20:16
|
|
|
Millow posted:What's the best way to explain a long stretch of unemployment? I have an interview later this week and I've been unemployed since August of last year when my last contract ended and a hiring freeze prevented any sort of extension. It wasn't for lack of trying, I just don't have a lot of experience or education (about two and a half years relevant experience, and just a bachelors degree and post-grad certificate) compared to a lot of the competition in my city. I avoided taking a "for now" job by eating through all my savings, borrowing money from my parents and living an incredibly frugal lifestyle. I had some other interviews in that time frame but nothing panned out... Somehow the time just went by so quickly.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2019 01:15
|
|
|
Agree with the above, but will add that as an interviewer, I have no problem with an employment gap, but I definitely want to ascertain whether you've been doing anything productive with your time over the past year and a half and will ask questions to that end.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2019 01:43
|
|
|
Eric the Mauve posted:Agree with the above, but will add that as an interviewer, I have no problem with an employment gap, but I definitely want to ascertain whether you've been doing anything productive with your time over the past year and a half and will ask questions to that end. Yeah this. I took some time and spent it learning XYZ is a fine answer. Basically you want to not make them think you were getting stoned and watching cartoons, and being vague isn't going to do that. It's rare for it to be a big problem though. Multiple gaps can be a problem though. If you have that consider lying
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2019 13:38
|
|
|
My job has been using increasingly arcane titles to describe me - Business Analyst to Decision Support Analyst to Performance Risk Management Analyst as of last week. Should I use my official title on my resume, or the equivalent common description? Which is more helpful to a hiring manager?
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2019 21:14
|
|
|
Tibalt posted:My job has been using increasingly arcane titles to describe me - Business Analyst to Decision Support Analyst to Performance Risk Management Analyst as of last week. I've always used a resume title that'd still be accurate but which has more relevance to the job I want to get. How do you know what that is for you? Two ways that work: More generic/less targeted resume, use the description on BLS.gov. For example: Youre a 7 yr experience Mech E who just wants a job and dont care if you do HVAC, Thermal Analysis, Lab Testing, whatever. Use Mechanical Engineer 3, or Senior Mechanical Engineer. You want a specific job: For example, youre a 7 yr experienced Mech E who wants to do thermal analysis for planes. Do this: 1) Find the reqs for 3 or 4 jobs you want in the industries you want. 2) Look up the title used in the reqs on glassdoor and see how many results come up. 3-4 is a very small sample, but when you look on glass door you can see how many other big companies are using those titles. In this case it looks like you should use Senior Thermal Mechanical Engineer in my area which lets you both keyword stuff and rank higher than alternatives. (e.g. CFD engineer might be an alternative, but has fewer hits)
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2019 22:19
|
|
|
BattleMoose posted:Also trying to get into Data Science from an Academic background. Side question (since you don't have PMs enabled): how were your annualized total returns while you were trading? That's something I always wondered about being able to do one day because of my programming stuff but never had the
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2019 22:49
|
|
|
BattleMoose posted:Also trying to get into Data Science from an Academic background. Three pages late but Insight Data Science is literally exactly for you.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2019 22:51
|
|
|
Tibalt posted:My job has been using increasingly arcane titles to describe me - Business Analyst to Decision Support Analyst to Performance Risk Management Analyst as of last week. Be accurate to the job, not what they called you. Feel free to fudge the title a bit, but keep it within your skillset. You can always verbally say in an interview. "My title had been these three things but it's basically XYZ". I'd go with business analyst or data analyst depending on what you think is closest but then again I have known directors who would totally get off on "decision analyst" or "risk analyst" so up to you. All those things are in the same family so I don't think you'll get chewed out for picking whatever you like.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2019 11:56
|
|
|
Hey so if I managed to forget to mention an on-job-description skill in a phone screen with an HR drone (it's on my resume kinda prominently though) would it be terrible to send a quick thank you email and mention it in there somehow?
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2019 23:23
|
|
|
Shugojin posted:Hey so if I managed to forget to mention an on-job-description skill in a phone screen with an HR drone (it's on my resume kinda prominently though) would it be terrible to send a quick thank you email and mention it in there somehow? Yeah, that's the best way to do it. Don't press it too hard (it's likely the HR drone wouldn't have caught it anyway) but a quick "Hey, I didn't get a chance to mention xyz" is fine in those.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2019 01:43
|
|
|
bowser posted:I've made some changes to my resume based on the OP, would anyone mind giving it a look over and providing some feedback? My goal is to work for either the biomedical (device maintenance/repair) department of a hospital or one of the big companies in the field like GE, Philips, Stryker, or Medtronic. I know you're supposed to emphasize numbers and metrics but I'm having difficulty figuring out how to do that for my line of work. I spent some time editing this one and I came up with this. Still open to any feedback. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2019 02:46
|
|
|
Lockback posted:Yeah, that's the best way to do it. Don't press it too hard (it's likely the HR drone wouldn't have caught it anyway) but a quick "Hey, I didn't get a chance to mention xyz" is fine in those. Okay, thanks!
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2019 15:46
|
|
|
The waiting is the worst. Just tell me if the offer is coming or not!!
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2019 19:31
|
|
|
How do you set goals for yourself when job-hunting? Been pretty demoralized about it all lately and need some way to feel like I'm actually accomplishing stuff instead of just spinning my wheels. "Send out X resumes per day/week/etc." seems too basic, but something like "get Y screens or interviews per week/month etc." seems too far out of my own control. I just want to feel like i' m actually doing something as I trudge through this bullshit with no end in sight.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2019 14:10
|
|
|
For me, it's more about a process than a goal. A process is, every day I'm going to spend X amount of time job searching, Y amount of time honing my resume and linkedin and etc., Z amount of time studying or doing some kind of self-enrichment activity, and so forth. I think creating a plan for yourself and then sticking with it day to day is more effective than just having a goal but no purposeful road map to get there. That's what works for me. Everyone is different. e: And also try really hard to find some kind of social activity to engage in regularly, at least once or twice a week, because networking isn't everything, it's the only thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2019 14:19
|
|
|
bowser posted:I spent some time editing this one and I came up with this. Still open to any feedback. My opinion, not based in a ton of experience: I'm a mech E undergrad so IDK your market but if I saw someone with this resume I'd think they were pretty well qualified for a field service tech job, particularly with your first degree. As far as how to state numbers, IMO having numbers is better than not having numbers even if they don't mean a whole lot. Could be as simple as "completed service calls for X customers per week with positive feedback on outcomes". Is X a lot? A little? Who knows. But I'd like that someone is stating that they measure their outcomes quantitatively. While your job may be fixing medical equipment, ultimately your job is making money for the company. The people who think about how their job does that, and states things in those terms on their resume, are off to a good start application wise. That said I bet there's some weaseling in that resume. If you could answer questions like this: You said you got fewer calls. How much fewer? You said you kept projects on schedule and budget, what were the CPIs/SPIs before and after you joined? You'd be promoted quickly I bet, but you'd definitely be a stand out hire. If you can't, how do you know what you're saying is true? C-Euro posted:How do you set goals for yourself when job-hunting? Been pretty demoralized about it all lately and need some way to feel like I'm actually accomplishing stuff instead of just spinning my wheels. "Send out X resumes per day/week/etc." seems too basic, but something like "get Y screens or interviews per week/month etc." seems too far out of my own control. I just want to feel like i' m actually doing something as I trudge through this bullshit with no end in sight. The kinda obvious ways: Apply for N jobs, with 2 of them being "high effort" application (e.g. tailored cover letter and or resume). Agree that get X interview for week is out of your control. CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Apr 13, 2019 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2019 15:07
|
|
|
I want to pick up a second job part-time at least for a while to get myself out of some financial poo poo. The thing is that I currently work in IT and have since 2014, my resume is stuffed with technical stuff. Do I dumb it down? Should I just include in the cover letter section that I'm looking for a second job? Hopefully seeing high-responsibility stuff on there would make them want to hire me just because doing poo poo like managing budget reports for $300 million in projects shows I can show up on time and take pizzas to people's houses, but I don't want them to circular file my application immediately because it seems weird that I'm applying for something like that as a STEMlord.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2019 20:54
|
|
|
If you are trying to get a pizza delivery job then don't worry about your resume. Go into the pizza store, request an application, and fill it out onsite with the bare minimum about who you are and what you work. Then when they immediately interview you, you tell them you are a professional looking to cart pizzas around as a side gig during off hours as a second job to your professional life. Enjoy your second job. *Unless you aren't directly talking about being a pizza delivery/fast food/counter service
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2019 22:13
|
|
|
22 Eargesplitten posted:I want to pick up a second job part-time at least for a while to get myself out of some financial poo poo. The thing is that I currently work in IT and have since 2014, my resume is stuffed with technical stuff. Do I dumb it down? Should I just include in the cover letter section that I'm looking for a second job? Hopefully seeing high-responsibility stuff on there would make them want to hire me just because doing poo poo like managing budget reports for $300 million in projects shows I can show up on time and take pizzas to people's houses, but I don't want them to circular file my application immediately because it seems weird that I'm applying for something like that as a STEMlord. Why wouldnt you do gig economy poo poo if you have a useful skill? Something on fiverr or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2019 00:02
|
|
|
Unless you’re already starting out with connections/significant people to vouch for you, you’ll probably make more money more reliably delivering pizzas than doing anything on fiverr and its ilk. Remember to actually do some math and factor in the wear and tear on your car when you consider how much you’ll actually make in-pocket delivering pizzas though. Depending where you live and what you drive, you might be just as well off staying in the kitchen scrubbing dishes all night for $9/hour, and with less bullshit and less danger involved
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2019 00:13
|
|
|
I would like to do delivery driving, actually. I did that up until the point I got my first IT job and really enjoyed it. I’ve got a Toyota hybrid that will probably lose about $1,000-1,500 in value over the next 50k miles and that gets 37-40MPG in town so costs on it are minimal. I currently don’t have much in the way of IT skills that can be used in a freelance environment, most of what I’ve done applies more to bigger companies that need consistent infrastructure support. I am working on improving my coding, though. It would be nice to be able to do a bit of that as freelance work. Some of the places that have online applications actually want me to submit a resume, which seems weird, but it’s a thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2019 21:26
|
|
|
I recently applied to a job with a resume made by an outside service. I haven't heard from this company in over twenty days, does it make sense to call the company with a resume I made my self and say HAHA ACTUALLY! the service made the resume after a brief interview, it paints a broad brush and doesn't touch on the technical details of my expertise. But I don't want to supersed a professional, not when I could save the details for the job interview itself.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2019 23:22
|
|
|
skullhead tethyis posted:I recently applied to a job with a resume made by an outside service. I haven't heard from this company in over twenty days, does it make sense to call the company with a resume I made my self and say HAHA ACTUALLY! I had a company make my resume and I threw it in the trash, as a hiring manager I thought it was pretty bad. I stole like 5% from it and got rid of the rest. My experience is there was nothing professional about that service. It's unlikely it was the difference maker for 1 particular job, but if you think its missing stuff you're probably right.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2019 00:24
|
|
|
ok cool As a hiring manager how should I explain "that's not representative of me use this one instead" potentially derailing a decision I have no idea if they've made or not. should I just re-apply? this company is local, I'm strongly considering dropping it off in person (after calling of course). Would this make an impression or just add to the confusion?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2019 01:22
|
|
|
You probably shouldn’t do that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2019 01:39
|
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:You probably shouldn’t do that. aright still, re-apply or no?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2019 02:43
|
|
|
Eric the Mauve posted:For me, it's more about a process than a goal. A process is, every day I'm going to spend X amount of time job searching, Y amount of time honing my resume and linkedin and etc., Z amount of time studying or doing some kind of self-enrichment activity, and so forth. I think creating a plan for yourself and then sticking with it day to day is more effective than just having a goal but no purposeful road map to get there. No I think this is sound advice. The times when I've been more active about job-hunting I've followed some rudimentary schedule of "do X minutes of work towards getting your next job a day", even if it's just a few minutes a day. I do have regularly-occurring social events, but they're rarely specific to job hunting. I do get little bits of that here and there though. I just need to figure out what I actually want to do with my life, because that's a question I cannot answer and it terrifies me that I can't answer it. I have some weird self-loathing when it comes to career work and I don't really know how to get over it  it's why I struggle to network as much as I could or should, I hate talking about myself.
C-Euro fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Apr 15, 2019 |
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2019 04:13
|
|
|
skullhead tethyis posted:aright still, re-apply or no? Probably not. Do you know anyone at that company? If so ask them. If not, sit tight. If you get a call from their recruiter you can say you have a resume that has more detail of they prefer, but sending out multiple copies is weird. If you don't even get a call feel good knowing the resume likely wasn't enough anyway. Since you really wanted this job you took time and wrote a good, personalized cover letter right? I don't suggest doing that for every job, but whenever you find something that looks like a good fit, don't use a template. I can always tell the difference and a good, personalized cover letter that talked about why this person was a fit for my job on particular has been enough to get someone in the "call back" pile.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2019 05:16
|
|
|
good advice I'll keep that in mind if I get a call back
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2019 19:39
|
|
|
Many years ago I used resumetointerviews.com which was run by an SA goon. It really helped get my resume in shape and increased my chances of getting a job. I heard the guy sold it and now it's run by another mob. Do folks still recommend resumetointerviews? Do you guys recommend any other resume service? I hope this hasn't been asked a million times in here, if it has sorry!
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2019 05:39
|
|
|
Suspicious Lump posted:Many years ago I used resumetointerviews.com which was run by an SA goon. It really helped get my resume in shape and increased my chances of getting a job. I heard the guy sold it and now it's run by another mob. Do folks still recommend resumetointerviews? Do you guys recommend any other resume service? There is no resume service often recommended by the thread. R2Is has fallen out of popularity. Just post that sucker and ask for feedback.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2019 10:13
|
|
|
Suspicious Lump posted:Many years ago I used resumetointerviews.com which was run by an SA goon. It really helped get my resume in shape and increased my chances of getting a job. I heard the guy sold it and now it's run by another mob. Do folks still recommend resumetointerviews? Do you guys recommend any other resume service? I used him/R2I back in the day as well - I hadn't realized he sold it but good for him if so, he's probably living it up traveling around the world these days. I'm also in the process of evaluating several resume/LI profile services right now - I've received a few samples that are pretty good that I could share via imgur or whatever if people would like. How much are you willing to spend? Most decent ones I've found are like $250-350 with higher level or executive-focused ones about double that. Usually doing your LinkedIn profile is around $150 and about $100 for a cover letter. I've found one or two that also will submit your resume into a huge pool of like VC or PE firms for potential openings. I think mine is ok right now with plenty of metrics, action verbs, keywords etc. Several recruiters have told me it's pretty good but I feel like I'm in need of a good editor as I have a tendency to be wordy and overly detailed, which turns my resume (and this post!) into an eye-chart. Plus, since this thing has been Frankenstein'ed over 10 years, the formatting is all janky and I think it gets messed up when ATS's are trying to read i:.    Any feedback is welcome! It probably merits a separate post but I have a final on-site interview next week in SF with the VP and CEO of these guys. I'm lukewarm on them, especially since they were recently acquired by a PE firm, but it likely wouldn't be a bad gig per se. I'm conflicted since I'm not in a hurry or in dire financial straits but I've been out of work for 2 months now so I'm debating on whether or not to accept this job if they offer it and then just keep interviewing/looking but I don't know how well that'd be perceived.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2019 00:47
|
|
|
velocirapstar posted:
Are you in Phoenix thinking about moving to the Bay Area (RWC)? You do not want to move to the Bay Area for a job you consider shaky unless it’s shaky because you also want to start a startup...even then...
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2019 01:06
|
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:There is no resume service often recommended by the thread. R2Is has fallen out of popularity. Just post that sucker and ask for feedback. velocirapstar posted:I used him/R2I back in the day as well - I hadn't realized he sold it but good for him if so, he's probably living it up traveling around the world these days. Totally post the samples you have on hand. That would helpful.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2019 04:55
|
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:Are you in Phoenix thinking about moving to the Bay Area (RWC)? You do not want to move to the Bay Area for a job you consider shaky unless it’s shaky because you also want to start a startup...even then... No, definitely not. I'm in software/tech so have worked for several companies in the Bay Area and spent a ton of time there, with this one is HQ'd in RWC as you alluded to. I'm remote covering the Southwest generally but for final interviews, they usually fly you out. And I have no desire to deal with the insane cost of living there. This is shaky not because of the company or even the job itself per se, rather that I'm not as excited about the opportunity as I probably should be if I'm really interested - they're decently regarded in their space (in Leader of Gartner Magic Quadrant for EPM) but that area isn't what I enjoy so much, while their product is higher transaction volume/lower ESP and much smaller sized companies to work with, neither of which are my forte. To your point (and an aside/FYI for others interested in joining a startup, might be worth a new, separate thread) and this is e/n but I did a LOT of due diligence and the one I just left/got canned by seemed about as solid as you can find given it was:
I could go on but not even 2 months into the job, he tells me that I "have a terrible attitude and your performance is even worse." I learned later from the 3rd guy hired there that this is a familiar retort for others who somehow didn't make the VP look good or he wanted to blame for something. That should've been a big flag for me to jump ship then but I figured, "I'm only 45 days in and I'm helping build this organization and Go-to-Market for the long-term, just keep your head down and work." A little over a month later and less than 3 months into the job, I'm preparing for a webinar that I'd created from scratch in 2 weeks and due to host with our largest customer the next morning when I get a call from my boss. You guessed it - I'm terminated. Did I mention that A) "Empathy" was one of their company values and B) they did this 2 weeks before my wife was due to deliver a baby, which management knew about...? Fortunately, I was able to negotiate 2 months of benefits and severance but was all-in-all a lovely experience that I hope I (and others) can learn from. I have some others pieces of advice from that but I've meandered enough /en
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2019 19:57
|
|
|
velocirapstar posted:en story I PM'd you. Also that loving sucks. I had a similar experience at a big company where I got hired and clicked well with my bosses boss, but not my actual boss. Similar story ensued. That group (which was a small R&D group at a big tech company) ended up having 125% turnover in 2 years. Not a single person who was there when I was hired, including my boss, was there 2 years later. There's absolutely nothing worse than having a poo poo boss. CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Apr 17, 2019 |
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2019 20:39
|
|
|
velocirapstar posted:
Some resume feedback for you... Overall: -The thing is an unreadable wall of text spanning 3 pages with no design consideration. -Its full of buzzwords that don't add much. In fact it starts that way. What is a dynamic person? -If everything is bold, nothing is bold. Dramatically reduce how often you bold text so it stands out. -Its so drat long. You can say the same more impactfully in two pages. -Your job titles get lost. Increase their font size -You do a good job of using numbers and being impact focused. -Languages: (plural) -Make sure your zip code is in a nice part of town or remove it. -Your areas of expertise is good keyword stuffing but too long to read. It doesnt have numbers, unlike your job description. Massively shorten it, move it to the bottom, or kill it. (Probably kill it) If you keep it make it something like...Responsible for closing $51M in sales for 5 companies in 5 years. -You seem like a good sales candidate. Sales people move jobs a lot so your recent job hopping is NBD imo. -Did I mention its unreadable due to formatting and too long? CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Apr 17, 2019 |
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2019 21:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 21:38 |
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:Some resume feedback for you... This, I counted 7 different ways you emphasized different things:
Also, your formatting isn't consistent between sections. For example, the years are sometimes bold italics and sometimes just bold. But, yeah, it's way too dense. Nobody's going to get past the first page without already making a decision about whether they want to move you on to the next stage or not. So you might as well give them the information they want in an easy to scan format right away.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2019 22:26
|
|