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All but the worst companies understand that applicants are living their lives and may already have commitments. Just tell them at the offer stage and let them sort it out.
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Sep 30, 2022 15:51
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Yeah it sounds way more logical when you put it like that. I guess I just needed someone to pull me out of my own head. Thanks! I will now avoid a stupid mistake.
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Sep 30, 2022 15:54
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Also, depending on your state, they legally have to let you go and may even have to pay you. Look up your local laws.
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Oct 1, 2022 01:29
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Had an interview for an Embedded Systems Engineer role at a startup company that went well. They invited me to a "final interview" with the CEO and noted that it would be 60 mins. I had a first interview that was 90 minutes long where they went over the company, the role, and my work experience plus a bunch of hypothetical questions to test my knowledge. Im not sure what this final interview with the CEO is going to be and how I should prepare for it. any ideas? My concern is, even if its a casual one, sixty minutes is pretty long for a video interview with the CEO.
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Oct 1, 2022 04:35
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Spambort posted:Had an interview for an Embedded Systems Engineer role at a startup company that went well. They invited me to a "final interview" with the CEO and noted that it would be 60 mins. I had a first interview that was 90 minutes long where they went over the company, the role, and my work experience plus a bunch of hypothetical questions to test my knowledge. Im not sure what this final interview with the CEO is going to be and how I should prepare for it. any ideas? My concern is, even if its a casual one, sixty minutes is pretty long for a video interview with the CEO. Do you have a more specific question? A startup could be anything from a <10 person company to a 1000+ person company, and thins change wildly as that size increases.
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Oct 1, 2022 05:03
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CarForumPoster posted:Do you have a more specific question? I was looking for any suggestions or advice on calls with CEOs, i've hadn't had a chance to speak with a bigger boss and not sure what to expect since I already got put through the ringer on the initial long call with the engineering lead. Also I believe theyre sub-40 employee team and looking to train some entry-level engineers for the position which is me in this case.
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Oct 1, 2022 05:50
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Spambort posted:Had an interview for an Embedded Systems Engineer role at a startup company that went well. They invited me to a "final interview" with the CEO and noted that it would be 60 mins. I had a first interview that was 90 minutes long where they went over the company, the role, and my work experience plus a bunch of hypothetical questions to test my knowledge. Im not sure what this final interview with the CEO is going to be and how I should prepare for it. any ideas? My concern is, even if its a casual one, sixty minutes is pretty long for a video interview with the CEO. Be yourself. If they passed you to the CEO, they think you’re the one and it’s a vibe check. Be able to talk to them about the industry, and vision for the future. What is the most optimistic 5 year vision you have for the business/industry? What challenges do you see and how will you help overcome them? This is working the refs. Google the guy, find out if he’s given any talks and what the content was. What does he post about on LinkedIn. That sort of stuff. Show off your soft skills.
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Oct 1, 2022 06:24
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It probably won't be 60 minutes but if it is it'll mostly be chitchat and high level resume walkthrough. I'd maybe prep some good 30 second explanations of projects you've worked on and make sure you have a good answer to something in the vein of "what's the biggest thing we need to do differently here?" When talking up the exec chain the best advice is "bigger pictures, smaller words". You won't have pictures to keep what you say bright and simple, go as deep as he does.
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Oct 1, 2022 06:54
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Spambort posted:I was looking for any suggestions or advice on calls with CEOs, i've hadn't had a chance to speak with a bigger boss and not sure what to expect since I already got put through the ringer on the initial long call with the engineering lead. Also I believe theyre sub-40 employee team and looking to train some entry-level engineers for the position which is me in this case. Small company CEO is hard to give good advice on. If you have the same background as the CEO you could get exactly what Lockback described or they could try to quiz you. If you ARENT of the same background (e.g. they have a finance degree and youre an engineer or in Sales) its likely you wont get a technical interview and will be interview along other lines such as culture fit. Tight, upbeat answers is what you want.
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Oct 1, 2022 23:53
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"Hey so what made you found this company doing these things that you wanna hire a widget maker like me?" seems like a good way to get the CEO of a startup to fill 60 minutes for you.
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Oct 2, 2022 04:02
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Arquinsiel posted:"Hey so what made you found this company doing these things that you wanna hire a widget maker like me?" seems like a good way to get the CEO of a startup to fill 60 minutes for you. Oh my god I had a 30 minute interview where the motherfucker bloviated on for 22 minutes about the company, previous iterations, history, etc etc. It's like: motherfucker, I know you're also selling yourself and your company but displaying yourself as inconsiderate and self obsessed isn't the best way to do that.
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Oct 2, 2022 11:29
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Sorry for the relative silence after the good resume advice but life happened. I was fired today. I am trying to keep busy so I don't collapse into a gibbering pile of failure and existential terror. I've tried to trim a significant amount of fat off my resume and fix some action tenses. Having trouble really jazzing up my former job since my entire time there was 8 months so I can't say I was the bees knees as I clearly wasn't. Any further advice is appreciated. https://imgur.com/a/0gHdESI
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Oct 3, 2022 18:40
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Morand posted:Sorry for the relative silence after the good resume advice but life happened. You were at your previous employer for almost a decade, you tried something new and it didn't work out. I think as long as you can clearly say why it didn't and ask questions in your next interviews to avoid that mistake, I think you can get a mulligan. Mulligan is null and void if you did illegal or inappropriate things.
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Oct 3, 2022 19:04
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Morand posted:Sorry for the relative silence after the good resume advice but life happened. Sorry dude, every indication seems to be that you just landed in kind of a poo poo situation. It happens. Can you share what you're looking for for that next job? That will help crafting your resume.
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Oct 3, 2022 19:10
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Coco13 posted:You were at your previous employer for almost a decade, you tried something new and it didn't work out. I think as long as you can clearly say why it didn't and ask questions in your next interviews to avoid that mistake, I think you can get a mulligan. I didn't steal or sabatoge or do anything beyond make stupid potentially ADHD mistakes. I'm just really upset. Lockback posted:Sorry dude, every indication seems to be that you just landed in kind of a poo poo situation. It happens. I need to narrow down a goal. My background is in access control and poo poo so I figure that's my best bet but I've had 2 pretty poo poo experiences and my confidence is kinda just hosed. In my meeting today they told me I freeze if I don't know what to do and it was true, especially the last 2 or so weeks. I was so afraid of loving up because of all the poo poo I was afraid to try and this is the rabbit hole I keep going into and out of today. Friday was so bad I knew I was hosed at the end of it and today wouldn't go well. It didn't make it any easier to experience. Right now my goal is general punch up and fat trimming. I can tweak here and there depending on a specific job
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Oct 3, 2022 19:22
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Coco13 posted:You were at your previous employer for almost a decade, you tried something new and it didn't work out. I think as long as you can clearly say why it didn't and ask questions in your next interviews to avoid that mistake, I think you can get a mulligan. He was fired so his job could be given to the supervisor's kid IIRC. They trumped up some mistakes for a flimsy justification but had already hired the failson. Kinda gave the game away there.
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Oct 3, 2022 19:26
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Morand posted:Right now my goal is general punch up and fat trimming. I can tweak here and there depending on a specific job I mean, its definitely better. I have some suggestions but it really matters what you're looking for next. My suggestions for a DB Analyst will be different and in conflict with suggestions for an enterprise systems analyst/admin.
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Oct 3, 2022 19:35
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Morand posted:Sorry for the relative silence after the good resume advice but life happened. You have 12 years of experience and an IT degree. You'll be aight. You can figure out how to turn this into a good thing, it'll involve some risks and some legwork but you can do it. Resume is not great though, you got work to do if you wanna go from a 10% interview rate to a 30% interview rate. Feedback on this draft: - It is a particularly ugly (appearance wise) resume. - I'm not one to bin for typos but yours doesn't inspire confidence in your attention to detail. Serious typographical flaws. - It appears unorganized because of the mix of paragraphs and bullets, poor use of whitespace, inconsistent alignment, and not using font size and bold to properly tell the eye where to look. - Pick paragraphs or bullets. If you pick paragraphs tell a clear, concise story in a "show, don't tell" way. This is harder than using bullets. Prob use bullets. - Suggest Size 12, Bold for company name, 14 bold, italic for your title below it no line spacing, size 12 not bold for location, centered, then dates right aligned. Include months and years. Jan 2022 - Oct 2022, Mar 2010 to Feb 2013, etc. Should look like the below image. - Skills in IT is often seen as mostly for keyword stuffing and I am in that camp. Suggest moving to bottom. Those aren't super common IT terms either, suggest stuffing in some better keywords, tailored to the job reqs you want. Like find your top 5 job reqs and make sure your skills aligns with what a strong candidate would have skills wise. - Suggest including year you graduated each school. Suggest formatting it similarly to how I described above. - Education section looks messy. Why is it centered when nothing else is? Format things consistently I need to look at 100+ resumes per week please give my eyes a break. - Maybe its the redacting but there appears to Be Spurious capitalization. - When I hear "Lead Programmer" I think of writing code but it doesnt sound like that is what you are doing. Referring to yourself as a programmer if you're not writing code is super confusing. I dont know if you're an IT help desk monkey who makes access cards or a software dev. If you are writing code, you should probably include what languages youre using. E.g. "Authored PowerShell scripts to automate janitoring of CCure 800 system that saved approximately 500hrs/yr." - You use a lot of words to express thoughts in an unclear way. When you try to align them with a business impact its kinda...I dont quite get it or buy it as a real impact. Here's an example: You say: "Worked with Campus networking team to completely revamp clearance structure into smaller more streamlined groups, eliminating confusion over old naming schema and improving security by eliminating redundant clearances". My issues with this: It sounds like you renamed some groups. This sounds like a 20 minute task. WTF is a "network clearance?" 28 words and 217 characters, but I can't really picture what you did at all. I think a possible restatement that may be clearer and more succinct could be: "Created and implemented process that eliminated duplicate network access authorizations, greatly reducing deactivation mistakes." - This is kinda a meh statement but at least a non ccure user can get an idea of what the deal is, why it mattered and is uses half the words and characters to do so.  EDIT: Make sure whatever email you use is professional. People can and will look you up. first.last2@gmail.com is great. narutofan21@gmail.com is not, especially if I can find a ton of other weirdo profiles using that email if I have access to various data brokers. CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Oct 3, 2022 |
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Oct 3, 2022 20:22
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My email is literally just my initials and some numbers. So if I was John Henry Smith it might look like JHS156@gmail.com. (This is not my name or email) I figured out a long time ago that there was no room for cute emails on resumes. I will re-read the rest of your advice and try again. But you are right in that I didn’t program persay. In a nutshell the program I had tells the access control system what to do. I’d tell it that there is a door attached to this controller the lock for the door is controlled by this output and it has a door sensor here and maybe also an exit sensor here. When it alarms it should do this and go here. It wasn’t coding but it was still kinda programming but it didn’t use power shell or anything. This has been my eternal struggle with my resume TBH. I think I’ll just completely start over. Oh and even though I was called a database engineer I didn’t do poo poo with databases beyond installing them, it’s a misleading title but that’s what the company called the position. It was higher level programming like what I did at my 10 year job but they also expected me to know wiring and how to run it which I did not. I’ll aim more that I did high level configuration for large schools and clients. That may work.
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Oct 3, 2022 21:11
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Morand posted:I didn't steal or sabatoge or do anything beyond make stupid potentially ADHD mistakes. I'm just really upset.
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Oct 3, 2022 22:09
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Dik Hz posted:Don’t beat yourself up over lovely management and nepotism. It’s likely the heat you took over the mistake was post hoc rationalization to put the poo poo manager’s failson in your role. Your tenure in your previous role should speak to that. Exactly this. Don't say that in interviews though, stick to "it was an exciting opportunity but unfortunately there were unforeseen changes and it didn't work out, I did learn X, Y, and Z so it was still a valuable experience," and such.
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Oct 3, 2022 22:37
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Eric the Mauve posted:Exactly this. Don't say that in interviews though, stick to "it was an exciting opportunity but unfortunately there were unforeseen changes and it didn't work out, I did learn X, Y, and Z so it was still a valuable experience," and such. Also, practice saying it. Say it a lot. If you have to describe a negative work experience in the best possible light, it might be hard; it's likely emotionally charged and depending on your stance on honesty it may feel deceptive even if it's really not. Practice going over the version you will share during interviews until it doesn't have any edge anymore. It may even take an interview or three to finally overcome the nerves, depending on your personal disposition. But once you're over the shock of the actual job loss, practice practice practice.
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Oct 3, 2022 22:45
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Morand posted:I didn't steal or sabatoge or do anything beyond make stupid potentially ADHD mistakes. I'm just really upset. Oh yeah, re-reading your posts you are on solid ground. My first job out of college, I thought I was a lock for a promotion, but they went with a new hire with less qualifications. Soon after, my "position was eliminated." Soon after that, I found out the person they hired for the job I wanted was sleeping with the head of the department. Don't worry, there's a happy ending - he left his wife and kids for her and they're married now. Moral of the story, what happened to you isn't unique. You were put in a really weird, uncomfortable spot, you tried acting professionally but your work environment wasn't interested in that. You'll probably have to address it during an interview, maybe something like "I thought the prior job was going well, I received a very good 6-month review, but soon after the workplace environment changed and I didn't quite feel like it was a fit anymore."
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Oct 3, 2022 22:47
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I'd focus more on specific externalities honestly. "The company was great, but the Database Engineer position required knowledge of wiring runs, electrical design, etc. This was unfortunately not a good fit for either of us but I am glad for the opportunity and now looking for that next long-term landing spot." If they ask "Database Engineer did wiring?" You can kinda joke like "I know, right? I suggested maybe changing their job posting" with a smile. That keeps things positive and makes you look like someone who can handle situations without being a detractor. I worry a little about vague "unforeseen changes", that would sound a little red flaggy to me. So I'd suggest a little specific but keep it positive. For what it's worth, I don't think hiring managers will be too concerned given your whole history.
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Oct 4, 2022 14:21
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Imagine saying the words "the company was great" when you were just terminated for nepotism. Are there any dicks I can choke on instead? Seems easier to swallow than that much of my pride.
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Oct 5, 2022 02:34
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I've been the guy in an interview who didn't know that "the company broke the law and we ended up in court where I got a lot of money" as the answer to both "why did you leave $JOB?" and "what have you been doing since?" was a bad idea. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up.
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Oct 5, 2022 12:26
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If you answer "They hired the supe's son and, like, they totally had it out for me to free up the spot" I promise it will be way more whiny and petulant than you think.
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Oct 5, 2022 13:27
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Lockback posted:If you answer "They hired the supe's son and, like, they totally had it out for me to free up the spot" I promise it will be way more whiny and petulant than you think. yeah for sure do not provide the actual reason you don't need to say the joint was great if it wasn't, though.
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Oct 5, 2022 14:12
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Do interviewers really care? In all my interviews it's not asked or just a throwaway before moving on. When I interview people I don't ask. But maybe it's different in different industries?
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Oct 5, 2022 14:37
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:yeah for sure do not provide the actual reason +1 This is what I was getting at. Xguard86 posted:Do interviewers really care? Yes, various flavors of this question are very important for weeding out the unhinged, useless, etc that can spin a good resume. If its clear from talking to you that this isn't a big risk, you might not get asked or you might get "token asked", where it doesn't seem like they care because they already have data that says "this isn't a huge risk with Xguard86". Also people are BAD at interviewing, myself included probably.
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Oct 5, 2022 14:53
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Xguard86 posted:Do interviewers really care? You absolutely ought to ask because you get some loving insane people poo poo off of otherwise qualified candidates. And being able to spin a bad situation or respond to an uncomfortable question and provide the right level of context and detail is an important skill.
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Oct 5, 2022 15:25
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I've always just said something like: "time changes everyone and everything, and I belong somewhere else now-it's not a good fit for me anymore." I also always ask this on the off chance someone reveals they're a nightmare, so there's that
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Oct 5, 2022 15:32
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Xguard86 posted:Do interviewers really care? If I saw someone's last job was only 6 months yeah, I'd ask about it and would definitely be weighing quite a bit on the answer. The 10 year job wouldn't be a big deal, I understand why you'd leave there. I have had more than 1 person tell me that multiple jobs "The boss hated me" which is a huge red flag. Mr. Mercury posted:I've always just said something like: "time changes everyone and everything, and I belong somewhere else now-it's not a good fit for me anymore." This is fine in general but if your last job was only 6 months that would be a pretty weak response.
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Oct 5, 2022 15:40
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Your answer is a gamble. Your win condition is that the interviewer moves on without holding the thing against you, not what the strongest response is.
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Oct 5, 2022 15:45
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Mr. Mercury posted:Your answer is a gamble. Your win condition is that the interviewer moves on without holding the thing against you, not what the strongest response is. I don't understand what this means. If you're actively trying to deflect and move on from something like "The last position I had didn't last a year" without giving a good response, that is very obvious. It might not sink your interview but its way better to have a good story. Telling a good story is like 90% of interviewing (and resumes).
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Oct 5, 2022 15:54
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CarForumPoster posted:You have 12 years of experience and an IT degree. You'll be aight. You can figure out how to turn this into a good thing, it'll involve some risks and some legwork but you can do it. Reading your post reminded me that a lot of your fundamental recommendations are reflected in google's tech writing couse. The first part(s) take ~3hrs and are invaluable IMO https://developers.google.com/tech-writing
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Oct 5, 2022 17:35
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Xguard86 posted:Do interviewers really care? I kinda disagree with the other responses to this. Good answers don’t matter because all but the most unhinged candidates have a canned answer to the “Why did you leave?” question. It’s kinda like “What’s your biggest weakness?” or “Tell me about a time you handled conflict.” In that regard.
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Oct 5, 2022 17:43
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"Why did you leave" has a specific contextual component that the others do not, and people are absolutely way more inclined to let their weird freak flag fly on that than either of the other questions you posted. In part, there isn't a series of canned answers online that people can crib off of because it is situationally dependent, so the candidate actually does have to develop something slightly original. They may have a canned answer, but they had to can it themselves, and a lot of time the canned answer sucks.
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Oct 5, 2022 17:55
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Mr. Mercury posted:Your answer is a gamble. Your win condition is that the interviewer moves on without holding the thing against you, not what the strongest response is. Your answer wasn't very good lol I'd ask follow up questions to that vague trash for sure. You would not meet the win condition. Also "not hold it against you" is a stupid win condition. You can build momentum in an interview, "not being held against you" is not the best one can do. There are perfectly good reasons slightly or significantly improve my view of someone as a candidate for why they left a job after 6 months: - I've been studying [thing my entry level req is for] and moving to that role wasnt possible in previous job. So excited to start. - I started a business and boy marketing was harder than I thought. Since you all do that so well, I'm excited to focus on what i do best. - I went on maternity leave and last place was too small for FMLA. Understandable, ces la vie. I'm excited to get back to work. - My spouse/partner got an amazing opportunity and my last place was in office only. I was sad to leave but this seems really well aligned with what I did there. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:a lot of time the canned answer sucks. +1 again. Of the people who got hard fired for performance <1 yr, maybe 50% of them have a good canned answer for this. We're straight up telling our goon friend here what to say and he failed to spin it properly even though it its an open book test with the teachers notes right there. CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Oct 5, 2022 |
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Oct 5, 2022 18:32
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CarForumPoster posted:Your answer wasn't very good lol I'd ask follow up questions to that vague trash for sure. You would not meet the win condition. Also "not hold it against you" is a stupid win condition. You can build momentum in an interview, "not being held against you" is not the best one can do. I don't care what you'd do, given the post. Steering the conversation into why the past position isn't a fit for you rather than "what caused X" gives you more control over where the conversation goes. This is a needlessly stupid and hostile post until the last sentence. "Defuse problem" is a great starting point to build momentum because it either ends that line of inquiry or gives you the ability to steer it elsewhere. Mr. Mercury fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Oct 5, 2022 |
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Oct 5, 2022 18:48
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