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posh spaz posted:They already gave a tight ($5k window) pay range, which I agreed to in the pre-interview phone call. Is that a red flag? It would make me a little bit uneasy. Pay ranges advertised in job postings and even discussed in interviews aren't some sort of legally binding contract. This isn't your situation but if for example they are advertising 50-55K and find out that you make 35K they may make you an offer of 45, betting that you're probably going to take it 'cause even though it's outside the initial range that's a pretty decent pay raise. They can then make up whatever bullshit reason they want about their funding being cut, emergency spending in the department, whatever it is, because they know they hold all the cards. Honestly you handled it about as well as anyone could have. Its pretty lovely but the best you can do is dodge the question and hope they leave it alone. What your current position pays should have no bearing on what offer they make you. I don't know of a good reason to ask that question than to try to lowball you. Also like you said it depends on benefits, commute, quality of work, work/life balance, loads of other poo poo. I am not going to move to a toxic firm for an extra 5K a year. Idiot managers get get dollar signs in their eyes and assume gross salary is the only thing that matters.
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Oct 13, 2014 01:21
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Relentless posted:Does anybody have any ideas on how to best handle an internal promotion I'm applying for? Can you describe at least in general terms the timeline of how you've moved up through temp/perm employee/? If you only started your most recent position 3 months ago that is generally way too soon because it's not enough time to really learn anything and your boss may resent you leaving so soon. IMO the first step is: if you have a good relationship with your boss talk to him/her and politely bring up, honestly and pleasantly, that you're interested in one of these 2 positions and think you're qualified and see what he/she thinks. Internal transfers/promotions play by a whole different set of rules. I wouldn't worry too much about the experience/degree. Job ads are often wishlists. While it is definitely true that a bachelors is becoming necessary for certain jobs to the point of absurdity you already have a foot in the door in the company. Not sure why you're so worried about jobs that old on your resume -- if you really can't think of a way they make you stand out I might just not include them altogether.
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Oct 14, 2014 05:16
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lookslikerain posted:What's the best way to approach discussing why you left your previous job when it was because of budget cuts and you weren't "fired" as such but asked politely to take a bunch of money and go. Bonus points for not sounding bitter. I am super bitter. Do not be negative or bitter about it in an interview. I KNOW that's hard, especially if you've been there a long time. Honestly, in today's economy you've either been laid off at some point or will be laid off in future! But bringing any negativity into a job interview is only going to hurt you and take up time you can use to sell yourself.
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Oct 15, 2014 17:19
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Ezekiel_980 posted:So I have an interview next week for what I want to be my second job out of college. obviously I should have three references. I have two former coworkers who said they would act as references, for the thrsd is it considered poor taste to use college professors as references for your second job or should I try to find another coworker. 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...) Three is not some magic number or something. I'd take two useful references over three blase ones any day. Really, the people interviewing you are going to want to talk to your boss, but since this is your only/current job you obviously want to keep it confidential.
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Oct 16, 2014 01:40
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Boot and Rally posted: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. This is a common misconception. There are no laws prohibiting any employer from asking you your age, gender, nationality, race, sexual orientation, marital status, etc. Of course, it's perfectly legal for you not to answer any question asked during an interview, but they are legally allowed for your shoe size if they want it. What's illegal is discriminating in hiring decisions based on those protected classes. Whoever for it does the booking. If a company invites you out to interview at their HQ, they typically pay unless they suck and/or are broke. Although it is becoming depressingly more common for companies to abuse the bad economy to make travelers pay.
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Oct 24, 2014 18:03
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Suave Fedora posted:Good Afternoon Richard: Basically a cover letter explains why the addressed is receiving the resume. Rule #1: Do not rehash your resume, or state any facts that are on your resume. State that you're interested in the position of <x> which you found by <y, state WHY you are interested in the company and position, and why you make a good candidate. If you were referred definitely state that in your introduction e.g. "I was referred to you by Jane Smith, who I worked with at Abc Superconductors". Different industries obviously have different norms so you kinda gotta research the position a little. For example I hire people well full knowing they'll probably leave for a better position in 1-2 years and that is totally cool with me, I'm more looking for people that can deal with repetitive work but also has a brain and can troubleshoot and repair lab instruments. So for a entry-level chemist position I have open "I really enjoyed working on the instrumental side of the bench in undergrad" means a lot more than "I want to stay at your company a billion years and then retire there!" Unless you're in a hard salesy position like insurance marketing or something you don't need to appeal to your confidence. Also for gods sakes don't add meaningless fluff like "I am a goal-oriented team player who doesn't mind wearing a lot of different hats". Anybody can say that, it doesn't mean anything.
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Nov 5, 2014 04:29
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Xandu posted:Who told you that would look bad? Go for it. I definitely agree that people *shouldn't* discriminate on stuff like that. Unfortunately, lovely hiring managers try to stick their own personal belief systems into everything rather than hiring the candidate best for the job. Tea.EarlGrey.Hot.: I can't possibly think of anyone holding your experience as a mark against you unless they are some level 9000 misogynist. But if for example you worked at a pro-choice organization a lot of people may very well hold that against you. It's a possibility that his resume might land on the desk of a devout bible-thumper who will fling it away as soon as they get to that line, regardless of whether or not he got great work experience from it. It really sucks but it's the way some people do their screening. Same with LGBT-oriented nonprofits, NORML or other pro-marijuana legalization, hell working in the billing department of a porn company processing payments can even get you binned. Its really just company specific. Like if you organized the gay pride parade it's probably not a good idea to submit that as an accomplishment to a company with "traditional Catholic values".
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Nov 5, 2014 23:13
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SgtScruffy posted:Question - I've found a small consulting company that I think I would really like to work for, and they had two positions open: Project Manager and Associate Project Manager. Associate Manager seemed to be the slightly junior of the two, and I have about 5 years work experience, so I went with applying for Associate Project Manager. Yes, chill for at least a week. You have no idea why the posting has been erased. It depends on their hiring process. Maybe they gather a bunch of resumes and then take down the posting when interviewing (dumb, but I've seen it done before) or maybe they did hire someone or maybe they eliminated the position or maybe they deleted by accident or whatever. You don't really know. Also applying for the more senior position, man I don't know. I'm trying to think of a scenario in which it doesn't scream "I'm applying to everything that will get me into the company" but just drawing a blank. The truth is, if they think you're too qualified for the associate manager role and they know how to hire well they'll offer to interview you for the more senior position anyway (and vice versa). In this small of a company it just doesn't make sense to me to send two applications. It really depends on the job posting and your resume/cover letter and your experience so it's hard to draw generalities. If you do apply for PM wait at least a week or two. Project Manager/Account Manager is just such a general title it's really hard to give advice, heheh. Like 50% of the people I've met in the professional world have that title.
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Nov 7, 2014 21:24
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DelightFun posted:One element of it would potentially involve transporting clients, so I really would need to have a vehicle for that aspect of it. I don't think it's too a big a deal. I definitely sympathize, was in the same situation after graduating and outside of urban areas like NY, bay area, etc, public transport in the US just doesn't cut it for commuting to work. A lot of times "must have a vehicle" means they've had problems with people getting there reliably on time but in this case it may actually be a part of the job. Keep in mind job postings can be hilariously inaccurate sometimes, you wouldn't believe how little attention hr or even hiring managers pay to them ("no that was from 3 years ago and we don't have the eqpt anymore" "yeah i just copied and pasted that from another posting, whoops") etc. Just go to the interview anyway. If the position is good you can always rent a car temporarily once you get your feet on the ground. One thing you definitely have to know is if the position is right about client contact you will generally be expected to have a reasonably decent appearing vehicle and you have to keep it clean. Not saying you need a shiny new benz or something but typically no more than 5 years old. This means higher insurance costs too for obvious reasons, so just make sure to factor that into your own salary negotiations if you get to that point. My car is a 15 year old Chevy coupe that looks like it's been driven through a war zone but I keep it cause it's reliable as hell, insurance is cheap, and I don't have a car payment, but I wouldn't drive around a customer in it. Its stupid but appearances really matter in US corporate culture.
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Nov 15, 2014 16:04
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AA is for Quitters posted:So, when applying to big companies for jobs in different departments (IT and AP/AR)...does it help or hurt to send resumes tailored to the position? I'm thinking help, but if they're both getting read by the same HR people, two resumes both highlighting two very different skillsets may not be preferred, is it? No, you did the right thing. Generally, the hiring manager (your future boss) decides to bring you in for an interview, not HR. HR may do some screening of people who don't meet hard requirements (common example of this is you don't have a degree or cert in a specific field). At that point they submit you to the hiring manager. Of course this assumes a competent HR department.
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Nov 25, 2014 23:36
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Wraith of J.O.I. posted:Got a phone interview tomorrow for a dream job. Anybody have any last-minute tips for phone interviews? I've done a handful before, and I've been doing a lot of research on the organization I'm interviewing with, and I'll be doing some practicing tonight, but drat I'm nervous/anxious. But while phone interviews can be a little impersonal, they are nice in that they're like an open book test, and I'll have a bunch of stuff out to reference if need be (job description, resume, cover letter, bullet-pointed past experiences/success, etc). Really want this position. Hate to be smug or whatever have no idea if it's a dream job or not, you don't work there. I've seen people so burnt by this. Phone interviews are done to confirm that you can communicate on a basic level and aren't a total fraud when it comes to your accomplishments. Go over your resume and make sure you can talk about any of the poo poo on there. Go over the job posting and make sure you can talk about it. It's not gonna last over 10 minutes. If it does they don't know what they're doing. Phone interviews are used to whittle down a stack of like 15-20 resumes to say 3-5 or so to bring in for in-person.
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Dec 4, 2014 00:51
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Wraith of J.O.I. posted:Thanks for the tips everyone. I did dress up (and wore dress shoes!) and it deed feel like I had some psychological component on my side from that. But as for the results: I've been selected for a second "in-person" (Skype due to being out of town) interview! Question for those who have done a lot of interviewing: how many of all the applicants you get, how many do you select for 1st/2nd/3rd round interviews? Kinda curious to see how many it might be down to. I Googled it and I found some that said 7-10 for first round, and then 2-4 for second. Also, any crucial tips for 2nd round interviews? I've got a few days to prepare but any extra info is always helpful. Hard to go into it, it just depends a lot on the company culture and position. What industry, what experience level, general position type (IT desk clerk, financial analyst, what is it?) Lot of difference across industry norms. For me I hire lab chemists and techs either entry-level or with a year or two of experience in a dept of 12 people. I generally start with about 15 resumes and bring them down to 4-5 to bring in, introduce and show around, and talk to in person. I generally don't bring in people a second time unless the departmental director (my boss) really wants to meet with them. It's worked out pretty well for me, no nightmare hires so far. OTOH when you are interviewing for a VP of Sales or other high level exec job it's pretty common to go through 3-4 rounds of interviews, go out to a formal dinner, etc. Some people try to anticipate the really weird poo poo some employers do and stress so much about it, don't. It's not fair to the applicant and some interviewers really are insane/have boundary issues/out of touch with reality (the owner of the business falls into this category in a lot of places I've deal with). What I mean is people get so nervous and freaked out that the interviewer will not like the color tie they wear or that they didn't wash their car (yes, seriously) and obsess over this little poo poo that they will forget the interviewers name or not be able to talk about stuff that's clearly written on their resume. Ask questions. Not just the obvious ones like "What are the hours" or anything else you can find in the job posting. Can't stress this enough. This is a lot harder to do when you're entry level but you should still be able to ask stuff like: "How would you describe the company culture?" "How will my success be measured?" "Can you go through a typical day for someone in this position?" "Do you have any things that annoy you (pet peeves)?" <-- a great one for your boss who you're going to spend 40 hours+ a week with "How would you describe your management style?" "What are the biggest challenges you've seen people struggle with in this job?" Sorry for the corporatespeak, but those really honestly meaningful questions. Obviously dont come in with a list and read them off like a drone.
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Dec 7, 2014 18:55
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Would it be appropriate to ask why the person who vacated the position that is now open left? Yeah, that's fine and can give you some really good insight if you can read people well. I probably wouldn't ask it that way, depends on your rapport with your interviewer. You'll be given a chance to ask questions with any interview with any good organization. If they don't give you this chance run like hell, huge red flag. One of the first things I usually ask is why the position is open after a general question or two stuff like history of the company and the department, and the interviewer themselves. I can't stress it enough: you have to ask in a pleasant inquisitive fashion, not like you're interrogating them. Smile, relax a little, don't stiffen and stare them down, or use aggressive body language (i know this sounds like basic human contact but you'd be surprised how many people I interview who don't get it). Otherwise most people go defensive and won't give you any useful info. For example I've become a little bored of my otherwise fairly decent company and interviewed at other places just to see what's out there. An example exchange for me a few weeks ago went like this: (meet with a quality director who's hiring for a lab manager) (general smalltalk stuff, she asks me about my background and current job and history) Her: So that's pretty much all I wanted to ask, I'm sure you have some questions for me? Me: Yes ma'am, sure do. Can you tell me a little about yourself and your quality background? Her: (spends a few minutes talking about her experience, I ask a question or two here and here (you worked at xyz? that's the same time <my friend> was there, you guys must have run into each other quite a bit) Me: Great, great. So generally first thing I ask, why is this position open -- is it new, is someone moving on? Her: Well actually our current manager isn't a very good fit so I'm looking for a replacement. Obvious red flag there because you aren't supposed to tell people you're interviewing for a position that you're basically getting rid of the predecessor and it turned from talking to my contacts that she was kinda nuts and had some insane turnover. I actually got an offer but turned it down for those reasons. tl;dr: Definitely ask (pleasantly), and you might be surprised at how much info you can get.
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Dec 8, 2014 02:18
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fineX posted:Quick question: I've been invited to go for a "conversation" with some of the senior partners at a small management consulting firm. I know one of the partners because he used to be my boss when we worked together at a mid-size firm, and I passed my resume along to him when he left. What you're describes definitely sounds like tie situation. Slacks, nice shoes, dress shirt, tie, and possibly suit jacket. I've dealt with management consultants but never worked in that field. Knowing nothing else than what you've told me I'd go for a suit,but maybe some business types could weigh in.
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Dec 12, 2014 19:50
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