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Hi guys, I should've figured a thread like this existed, I don't know why I didn't think to check for it. I've been interviewing for Contract Manager positions and similar roles and for the most part when I get to the interviews, I'm kinda killing it, but after that everything goes quiet and I don't hear back at all. The largest gap so far has been around a month and half. I've sent out my one follow up and haven't heard anything. For the most part these are large companies. My feeling is that the economy is very wobbly right now and a lot of companies are rethinking mid-low level positions, but also maybe you guys can tell me I'm delusional and that if I haven't heard back in a month and a half then it's not gonna happen. dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 6, 2022 00:03
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 18:37 |
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I have an interview coming up where the role calls for having good negotiating skills within the context of commercial contracts. The position didn't specifically call for experience in tech. However, I also know that the profile of the interviewer, and of the company in general, is geared towards tech and that having experience in tech related contracts would be a huge plus. The reality is that most of my experience and "big wins" come from stuff like real estate and commercial agreements in general. My experience in tech agreements is for small deals, but I know enough about tech in general that I can confidently talk about the subject, since it's what interests me outside of just work. Do I: a) Present my "big wins" and tell the interviewer that while I might not have that much practical tech experience, I am an experienced negotiator and familiar enough on the topic that I am confident I can translate my current skills to the tech industry. or, b) "Play up" the tech deals I've participated in (not lie, just imply that they were higher stakes than they really were) but also attempt to steer the conversation into the topic of tech knowledge in general and away from the specifics of each deal. For additional context, I'm confident I can sell the "played up" examples, but I think there's a risk that anyone listening to me might wonder why all of that isn't reflected in my CV since there I geared it more towards general negotiating experience.
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Jul 7, 2022 19:17
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Had my interview at BigConsultingFirm. My original interviewer didn’t show and was replaced by someone else last minute who I don’t think was part of the decision making team. 30 min interview that lasted 15 minutes total, I ended up dropping most of my prepared questions because it was clear that they wanted to wrap it up asap. Pros: they explicitly told me that I checked a the boxes for the position and would be saying so to the original interviewer. The interview felt rushed but it felt clear to me that it wasn’t something personal. Cons: this person is not a decision maker so I’m fairly sure at best I earned the right to get a redo of the original interview. Hopefully the original interviewer will decide the role isn’t worth redoing the interview and move me along. dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Jul 11, 2022 |
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Jul 11, 2022 17:31
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I have an interview coming up with a German company opening a US office and both interviewers are German. I've scoped out their LinkedIn profiles and none of them have worked in US companies. Not sure if I should adapt my interview style at all, anyone have experience interviewing with German senior management? Edit: just to be clear, I understand that it will essentially be the same as any interview, and you adapt based on the person before you, just looking for some generalized tips. dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Jul 16, 2022 |
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Jul 16, 2022 21:11
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Lockback posted:Don't be rattled if they cut you off or abruptly change the subject. Try to stay on point more than you'd usually do and be more aware if it's not the right time for banter or chit chat. In my experience German companies have a higher focus on efficiency. If you can organically make fun of the French it probably wouldn't hurt. Thanks for this! Will probably avoid the joke, there's no way I'll land that correctly, lol. Maybe I'll ask them if they have any tips about living in a fascist hellscape.
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Jul 17, 2022 15:15
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I’d probably wear a tie for starters. Management Germans love ties. The role is Data Protection Manager, but the actual people management responsibilities are very low, so technically an IC. Thanks for the tie recommendation, it's been a while since I've interviewed anywhere where that's required.
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Jul 18, 2022 12:47
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For what it's worth, one of the people interviewing is just wearing a shirt and sweater in his LinkedIn profile. The company itself is a big logistics company that's been around for like 40 years. I think I'll split the difference and wear a suit with no tie. Edit: on further reflection, I will wear the tie.
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Jul 18, 2022 13:06
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Trip report: I wore a suit and tie, they did not, but I don't think they cared either way. Other than that, the interview was a mixed bag. Like Kyoon Griffey Jr. said, the interviewers were fairly abrupt but in general the atmosphere was friendly. I think I displayed good subject knowledge and rapport, but there was definitely a gap between their expectations for the role and what I had understood from the job description. They wanted someone that would manage all processes and people for all of NA and LATAM, and I had understood the role to be that of an IC with some minimal management tasks. In my defense, the salary range for the position is a lot more in-line with my expectation, than theirs. For what they expect, they should be offering twice as much if they want someone that competitive. To top it off, just got told I wasn't selected for a position where I was really strong candidate. Spectacular start to the week. Nevertheless, thanks for all the help!
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Jul 18, 2022 17:18
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Just feel like ranting a bit, feel free to ignore this. Big gently caress you to the guy, let's call him Dick, who interviewed me last week, made it clear he didn't want to be there, rushed my interview and told me "you did great, I'm gonna pass on my recommendation, but I'm not a decision maker in this process", and today the hiring manager calls me to tell me that they won't moving on with me because "Dick decided to go with another candidate". Great stuff.
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Jul 18, 2022 21:29
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Yeah, 100%, I’m just venting. The HM didn’t seem to happy with the decision so maybe Dick forced her hand and she namedropped him out of spite or something (Dick wasn’t even supposed to be interviewing me originally).
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Jul 19, 2022 02:01
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Maybe something like, “Person 1, Person 2, hello! I just wanted to reach out and thank you for your time in today’s interview. You were both very clear and I feel like the role is a really good fit for me. P1, you mentioned that you’re going through some issues with the current merger and I just wanted to mention that in my current role I’ve successfully handled a similar transition so that’s something I feel I could hit the ground running on. Thanks again to both, and have a great week!”
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Jul 19, 2022 03:18
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I'm applying to a role at Giant Tech Company for which I'm nominally "over-qualified" and I wonder if this is one of those times that a cover letter might help. The background is that though I'm a US citizen, I lived outside of the US most my life, including graduating college and work experience. Now I'm back in the US because my wife landed a job so I'm trying to take this opportunity to work at a big company, especially in tech, even if it means an entry level job. The reason for this is basically that I love tech and tech issues. My previous work was essentially legal consultancy, which meant I worked by myself most of the time, but I'd often get embedded into corporate teams for specific issues and I had a lot of fun working with other people and felt like I did my best work when I worked within a team where I could give and receive feedback, or access corporate resources to solve problems. In practice this means that I lack the direct corporate experience that more senior roles require, but I would be more than happy to build that up within a company that matches my long-term goals and values. Is conveying this storyline, or some version of it, in a cover letter something that you feel would add value to my application? Or am I just boring the hiring department with irrelevant details?
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Jul 20, 2022 17:23
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Yeah, this is one of the few that accepts cover letters (though marks it as optional), so I wasn't sure.
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Jul 20, 2022 17:31
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I interviewed for a role a few weeks ago that required me to take a test of 50 SAT-like questions. You needed at least 20 questions right. I was sweating, you guys. I know that you're supposed to just skip the ones you don't immediately get, but you could only do 5 at a time and once you passed to the next page, you couldn't go back, which is some bullshit.
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Jul 22, 2022 21:04
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If we're doing CV review do you guys mind if I post mine? This is for contract manager positions which is a hybrid legal/operational role (doesn't strictly require a legal background but is good to have). I mentioned it upthread, but I've lived and worked outside of the US, but with some US focus in my work. An international background isn't necessarily a minus for this type of role, but it does mean you have more to prove.  Edit: also, what's the consensus on adding a line for certifications I'm working towards?
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Jul 28, 2022 19:30
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Thanks for your comments! Super useful, seriously.Magnetic North posted:I think you should consider calling them 'skills' instead of 'highlights' (...) Magnetic North posted:Also, make them shorter and punchier with as few additional clauses as possible. For instance, Negotiation and Strong Interpersonal Skills aren't really related so concatenating them doesn't really work. Magnetic North posted:You mostly have good action words for your resume, but you have a few outliers. Magnetic North posted:Honestly, I don't like that first bullet "Key Player" in the Senior Associate section at all. Magnetic North posted:I also like to organize my sections of accomplishments from "most impressive" to "medium impressive" for impact. They're going to mostly be looking at the top of each entry in all probablity. Lockback posted:I think a different format might help you. Lockback posted:If you've spent some money on books or coursework I'd add it. If it's the bar definitely list it. Dik Hz posted:Why would you include a line about certs you don’t have?  I mention it because a few of the job postings will say something like "should have X certification or be willing to achieve it soon after hiring", and I am literally studying for it. Dik Hz posted:Also, if you’re targeting a resume at a specific job, tailor your bullet points to look as much like the job posting as possible. Straight up use the same action verbs if you can.
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Jul 28, 2022 21:15
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Ok, here's v2. I mostly focused on paring down everything as much as possible and moving whatever I could from the former "highlights" section into the relevant experience bullet. Thanks for any feedback, it really does help! I do show my CV to friends, but their advice is usually "looks great!" which is nice but not useful.  Edit: I know the US citizen thing might look weird, but I've been told a couple of times by recruiters that having it first and upfront kept them from ignoring my CV because they figured someone that worked abroad would need a visa sponsor. dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jul 29, 2022 |
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Jul 29, 2022 00:36
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Dik Hz posted:Your skills section is all bullshit that everyone believes about themselves and not actual skills, except for the languages line. If you absolutely must include it (I wouldn’t), at least move it to the end so you’re not leading with it. I 100% agree with you on a practical level, but I was under the impression that some of this is required to pass the buzzword filters at big orgs? Totally open to being shut down on that. dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Jul 29, 2022 |
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Jul 29, 2022 00:48
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Ok, v3. I really like this one, and also taking out the skills stuff and trying to move it to the experience, where relevant, helped me remember more relevant work experience which now conveniently fits in all the space freed up by not having the skills section.
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Jul 29, 2022 03:16
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Yeah, even without the racism/xenophobia angle, for some reason companies just do not want to gently caress with the visa sponsorhip process even though, as far as I know, it's fairly simple and low risk??
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Jul 29, 2022 15:10
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Is this a freelance recruiter or someone that works for the company itself?
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Jul 29, 2022 23:29
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Be prepared for them to cancel at literally the last minute (maybe even later than that!) with literally no excuse.
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Jul 30, 2022 01:34
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Not the PNW, but I can tell you that Hapag-Lloyd is opening up an office in Atlanta and they were hiring quite aggressively for all sorts of roles. The interviewing team in my case was German and interviewed me from Germany. Might be a good place to throw your CV, if you haven't already.
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Aug 3, 2022 19:53
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One of the things of applying to so many jobs, and trying to tailor each CV at least a little, is that you end up always loving something up because since you start off from a proofread template, you skimp on proofreading the modified version.
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Aug 6, 2022 17:50
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Hey, all. My wife is currently finishing grad school in the US and starting to shop around her CV. I've offered to rework her current version because it's honestly way too verbose and unfocused, in my opinion. The bullet points are that she has around 9 years marketing experience in multinational corporations but always in the LATAM offices. She then quit her job for around 2 years to start her own business, which was going OK until the pandemic hit, at which point she decided to go back to grad school to try and get rehired in multinationals. I guess I'm just wondering if you have any general tips for this kind of role/life-story. Does she add an objective section to give some color to her jump into entrepreneurship and back to corporate life? Does she focus on skills vs. experience? She's been told by the career advisor at her school that with her experience she can afford to have a 2-page CV, but the roles she's aiming are 100k a year mid-level management, I feel like that's not special enough for to gamble on a hiring manager being willing to look at more than one sheet? Any tips welcome. Edit: to clarify, this is for US jobs. She's authorized to work here, which I've clarified at the top of the CV.
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Aug 15, 2022 16:44
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Thanks for the clarification. She's doing an M.A. (I know) but focused on brand management from the business perspective, and her target industry is fashion, so in theory her school and the program have enough name ID to overcome the lack of a proper MBA (let's loving hope). Her experience is mostly "Managed budget for online and offline campaigns of over $2M, including consumer activation, lead generations and POS visual merchandising", and poo poo like that, so I don't think anyone looking at her resume is going to be worried about her being some former designer who thinks she can manage a fashion label because she did an M.A. I'll tell her to contact the school and see if there's a resume workshop or similar. As for management experience in a MNC, she has never formally held the role of manager, but she has led teams within the local subsidiaries of Unilever and a fairly big US company.
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Aug 15, 2022 17:04
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:your relevant story should fit on one page so make it do so Makes sense. No, the school doesn't have an MBA program and I 100% got the same feeling, that they only knew how to deal with jobs that require a visual portfolio and where the resume is kind of an afterthought. Glad to know that the 2-sheet CV isn't a dealbreaker. This is all great feedback. I'm gonna get a new version of her resume done and hopefully share it with you guys to see what you think. Thanks!
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Aug 15, 2022 18:07
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I mentioned a few days ago that my wife has been a marketing/brand manager at LATAM subsidiaries of multinationals most of her life, quit to start her own business, got basically killed by the pandemic, and went back to grad school in the US. This is the latest version of her CV which I've helped her out on. There is still a lot of work I'd do on it, but we had to rush something out due to having to apply to a job opening that was closing literally yesterday where we knew someone in HR who could talk to the right people. I personally don't like the section on her own business, because it feels really small compared to everything else, but on the other hand, it was a small business where the whole point was that she could do it on her own. Any general thoughts or comments are welcome. Thanks!  
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Aug 18, 2022 16:42
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Thanks for the tips. I could've sworn that I'd fixed that bullet to start with an action verb! We could probably get it down to one page, but in this case we had explicit information that 2-page was ok from someone at the company who reviews resumes so we went for it. I'd definitely like to make the whole thing neater and more reader-friendly, however. Hopefully someone can clarify about the non-profit/org work. I personally feel like it's a big asset for her since plus size issues are big deal in most consumer-facing industries, but I can probably rewrite it more neutral wording.
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Aug 18, 2022 20:40
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CarForumPoster posted:IMO this isn't very good given that I'd expect a marketing person to be pretty excellent at both copywriting and marking themselves. Hey, thanks for the feedback. Can't say I'm surprised. I'm gonna sit down with her and try to get her to work on the specifics and numbers on each item and try to get them into something more presentable. The point about stats needing to be more specific and benchmarked against something is 100% right. FWIW, the position she was applying was much more about market research and analysis, which is what she actually worked at the MNCs before she started her business, so we focused more on those bullets given the rush. But reading that I 100% think we need to rework her bullet points and focus them more on the tools and skills she used to determine her market size and target, and marketing approach, and not so much on her numbers which are inevitably going to be weak and bullshitty.
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Aug 19, 2022 02:46
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I'm currently interviewing for a role that requires you to have a bachelor's degree and some relevant experience but is otherwise considered "entry level". Namely, it's a Contracts Analyst job. Other than that, the role has some specific requirements that I fit, such as proficiency in a couple of languages. I had an initial 30-minute HR screening, a first interview, and a skill assessment, all of which went well (at least I think so, I haven't received any specific feedback). Today I had a second and final interview with another person, and it did not go well. I had prepared answers to questions about my time management and organizational skills (which is what the job posting explicitly called for), and the interviewer pressed me on high-level, substantive issues that I had faced in my professional experience. This was completely different from what the first interviewer had pressed me on, and also I wouldn't be expected to actually solve those kinds of issues in my role, just escalate them if they came up. To be clear, these are fair questions given my experience, but they caught me off guard and I had to scramble to give a coherent answer. I've been job searching for a while now, and some of these experiences are from years ago and I couldn't just say nothing for 2 minutes while I organized my thoughts. After that the interview kind of petered out. I was told to expect a decision next week. Is it worth sending an email to the interviewer essentially expanding and providing a few more examples on what he asked? I have good answers to them, but in the moment I froze. For what it's worth, I had good rapport with him and at no point did he say anything negative about me, but I could tell he was looking for something more.
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Dec 9, 2022 20:21
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I'm gonna  the email for some feedback, hope it's ok. It's around 230 words in total, which feels long but also at some point if I trim too much from the answers they stop making any sense.Also for context, the interviewer is English and soccer fanatic. Argentina won today, and England is playing tomorrow. quote:redacted cause I’m not gonna send it. Thanks for the advice! dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Dec 10, 2022 |
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Dec 10, 2022 00:51
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Yeah, that honestly tracks with my gut feeling, I guess I am just fishing for a do-over.
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Dec 10, 2022 01:08
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I'm in the final stages of an interviewing process. In my CV I mentioned I had native proficiency in one language, and "Advanced" proficiency for another. I made sure to mention in the interview that for the "Advanced", my reading and speaking skills were better than my writing skills, and the Hiring Manager seemed OK with that, but it's not a point we spent too much time on. They sent me a couple of online language tests, and I aced the reading for both. The writing section will probably take a few more days to come back, but I expect for my "Advanced" language, the result will be in the middle of the range. Is it worth sending a polite email to the HM reminding them of the reading/writing disparity or do I just let it lie and hope they remember? Mostly I'm concerned about it looking like I tried to pass my skills off as something they are not.
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Dec 20, 2022 20:04
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It's hard to tell. Nominally, yes, writing is important but 99% of my writing would be in English. From how the job was explained to me, even with other countries the documentation is mostly in English, knowing other languages is good for being able to deal with stakeholders, and in my role I honestly would have to escalate any substantial changes to any text, anyway. The job description asked for proficiency in "X and/or Y languages".
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Dec 20, 2022 20:59
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But Doctor, I am insecure and trying to game the process!
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Dec 20, 2022 22:11
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(I won’t send the email, thanks for the advice)
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Dec 20, 2022 22:12
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May I ask why you’re getting so few candidates? Is the position highly technical or something? (I’m not in HR, just curious!)
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Jan 29, 2023 13:53
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I would have expected George Santos to have deleted his LinkedIn by now.
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Feb 19, 2023 19:38
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I had an awkward experience where I told HR I needed to give two weeks notice. They sent me written confirmation that I was selected for the position and my start date would be in two weeks, and then took a week to send me the offer letter. In my case it was fine because the two weeks requirement was just bullshit I fed them to have two weeks off before starting, but I would have been pissed if I had had to make actual decisions during that week of waiting.
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Feb 22, 2023 19:19
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