Barbie Interviews For a JobWednesday, November 30, 2005 Someone recently posted this in a job forum: "When a hiring manager has too many candidates and he does not know who is the best, what do you do to stand out from the crowd? What creative things would you do?" The question is really irrelevant for the most part. A good hiring manager does not get to the point where they have so may great candidates that they just don't know who to hire. It is a ridiculous premise. I suppose there may be a few managers that may like the queue stacked so much that it makes their job much harder, but I am not one of them. This obviously misguided poster goes on to say "Obviously, solve a real life problem for him/her. But what do you know and how do you know that?" Obviously? What? Well, nothing like answering your own question. You rarely have a clue as far as what a real problem would be that you could solve. In most interviews, you just scratch the surface. You would have to have some "mind reading" skills well tuned. Now it gets into the realm of ludicrousity (my own word). This job-seeker goes on to suggest things. (I am starting to wonder if I might be reading a post by Barbie or Ken) The poster says: "Would any of you do this?" "1) write him an email with a long list of your accomplishment to "repeatedly" remind him/her of you capabilities." Yeah, bug the heck out of the hiring manager until s/he is so fed up s/he offers you the job. Great strategic thinking there. "2) Call hiring manager and just talk.....anything " Anything? "Hey Hiring manager, I just called to say, I really like you and .. well what would you like to talk about today? We can talk about anything." "3) Talk to his peers you find their name on interview agenda) if you got their numbers. " Ok, now bug the heck out of his/her peers, so they finally come to the hiring manager asking, "Who is the idiot who keeps calling all of us?" Now we are back to mindreading: "4) Imagine a problem he might have and solve it. Write a project report about it. Or send him a copy of your past project report. " Sounds like something I would have been told to do in High School. "5) cut an article from newspaper about the industry or something he cares about and mail it to him." Oh boy! Won't s/he be surprised? "6) Write a list of things/project work you are interested to do or to learn about once you are hired for the position." And you think you are even in the running at this point? "7) write a little essay about your views on the industry trend/practices/anything and send him a copy." Oh my gosh, I can't take anymore. I was so glad it was the last one. This one had me really laughing. Write a teeny tiny essay..... The poster finally asks: "Do these things sound crazy? If not, what would you add to this list?" Not only do they sound crazy, they are absurd. Period. These suggestions are completely ludicrous. If anything else is added to the list, this very misguided job-seeker will remain unemployed for a very long time. I really feel sorry for this person. I hope they were not original ideas, but those of a lousy career counselor. Wow.... posted at 11/30/2005 08:00:00 PM |
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11 Comments:
Hey, I wrote that book! :)
Well Dave, the cat is out of the bag now! Sorry. ;)
Wow.... that really is some bad advice. Especially about calling the hiring manager to talk about anything and imagining a problem you can solve for him or her. People never cease to amaze me. Glad you're around to point out the bad advice.
My co-worker, Phil, has a friend who has been out of work for months now. Phil got pretty excited when he found an article about things that would help people find jobs. The fist tip the article gave was that "people who go on more interviews get jobs faster." I GUESS that could be useful for people who are so picky they don't go on any interviews, but seriously? If you couldn't figure that out on your own, being unemployed may be the least of your problems, don't you think?
Ugh! I hope whoever posted that was joking.
Hey Man who made that cool blog design?
-Catman
I have actually had people do some of those things. I don't believe I've ever had any one person do ALL of those things.
I've had the 'I'm just calling to chat' person.
I've had the 'let me tell you what you can do to run your business better. Aren't you glad I'm available to work for you?' person.
I've had the 'I'm going to call you at least twice a day to see if you've made the decision to hire me yet.' person.
I've had the cut articles out of the newspaper to prove that I know a whole lot about your type of business person.
None of them got past the first interview - if they even got into an interview to begin with.
Sadly, there ARE people out there like that.
I think whoever posted that probably was Barbie or Ken. There's a job out there for everybody - somewhere. McDonalds?
Beth (just passing through and saw this post)
Geez dude, you're up later than I am... going on 2am here, and I saw you just started a battle
Or did you get up early? :)
LOL, oh this is hilarious Eric, but sadly many of the suggestions are not uncommon.
Taking it one step further, I recall receiving one resume where under "hobbies" she had written "going out drinking and having a good time"!
Mike
Most of those suggestions are mentioned in every "job seeker handbook" out there. And every college grad who didn't go to Harvard reads 'em. I swear, I saw some of those in "What Color Is Your Parachute", which is supposed to be the be-all and end-all book for job hunting.
I haven't followed any of those silly suggestions in my job hunting. True, I'm still unemployed (well, self-employed), but at least it's on MY terms, darn it ...
I am the OP just read your comments about my posting :)
I was hesitant if I want to reply to your comments, but after I read one of your post in the below:
"Always be persistent. The worse thing is that you don't get an interview.
Never say never.
Good luck!"
So I decided to explain. Maybe I did not made my post clear, but I was not trying to make that "black" List of things to follow up as something regular like a thank-you note.
I was in a situation that I like the job very much and the manager had comments that I have very good experience but she changed her tone a couple of days later about my candidacy. I basically knew I had fallen out. I guess I was a trying my last resort without too much hope.....but I would get nothing to lose in this situation. You don't agree?
You said managers are looking for talent and skills.....maybe most of them (men?)are, but not all that true.
I have seen people who was a pilot got a job offer to be a buyer only because the boss likes his looks and personality. So the manager was willing to train him for 6 six months before he was able to start anything at that position.
I heard from a hiring manager who hired someone who bugged her too many times and made her changed her mind.
My brother was in engineering field with no procument qualifications but he wanted to be a buyer. He exaggerated on his resume and went in an interview and got a purchasing manager position. In this case, he does not meet the requirements and have no experience. But guess what, he is doing very well on the position right now and he thought the job responsibilities were not that challenging. They are no rocket science......He picks them very quickly with an engineering mind.
I am trying to say many tasks and job required skills listed are actually very easy to pick up - especially when someone who has the enthusiasm to learn and have similar experience (need not be very very close). Therefore I do believe there are many good candidates actually available.......only the hiring manager does not how to judge and thinking it is hard to find right people. I understand that HM wanted something to backup his decision so he looks for only those candidates who show they have done the exact things in the past - yeah....that's why it's hard to find good candidates for even the simplest job.
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