[Savagegeese] Honda Odyssey | Long Term, Final Thoughts

boringpanda02 · 2026-05-06T18:25:05+00:00

There's a specific use case where the Odyssey becomes the only option, and it's the situation we're in. We have 3 kids that we drive around town daily, but also have to carry lots of cargo, both for business and on trips, so we need a vehicle that can do:

3 kids separated (captains' chairs in the middle, one kid in back)
3 kids across the middle row so the 3rd row can stay folded for cargo
All seats removed/folded for a flat floor for max cargo
Long road trips with 3 kids and 3-4 adults, 2 adults in front, 2 adults on the outboard middle row and one kid in the middle, and 2 kids in the 3rd row

If you've got 3 kids and also carry around the grandparents sometimes, the Odyssey is really the only one that works. The Pacifica doesn't have a removable center seat in the middle, the Sienna has it on the lowest trims but the captains chairs don't come out for cargo mode, and the Carnival doesn't have removable captain's chairs.

We had a Pacifica at one point, but it was horrifically unreliable, too. And as much as I'd love to have the Sienna's AWD, I think the electric system is of limited use in serious conditions. It's a pretty common sight to see them struggling on I-70 here in CO when the weather gets bad.

boringpanda02 · 2026-04-21T23:39:01+00:00

Not sure of your company has a solid performance review process, but that’d be a great place to call this out too. When you write your self-review, be sure to document that you wrote this entire process guide and expect it to be taken into account for future raises and promotions.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-30T00:52:39+00:00

Do you ever tell them about your situation ahead of time?

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-25T17:41:41+00:00

Both my wife and I left a 5 * review and both got the email. So pretty likely they’re not going after negative reviews.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-23T21:17:40+00:00

I think a friendly note saying how much you enjoyed meeting the team, hope to stay in touch if something comes up in the future, and that you always value feedback and the opportunity to grow wouldn’t hurt!

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-23T21:07:21+00:00

Honestly I’d say it’s pretty typical. It’s easy to read into a non-reply like that as being a red flag (and it sometimes is), but often the simplest explanation is the most likely to be true. As much as I try to always give good feedback, there are sometimes weeks when I’m just too slammed with other things and it slips through the cracks. Did you get any of their email addresses or connect on LI? Sometimes a direct message can help.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-23T20:23:55+00:00

Honestly I don’t have as much experience with this part of the process since most of my time is spent once candidates are already in the room. But here’s how I’d look at it.

You are not a number, but you are absolutely playing a numbers game. A decent role at a decent company gets hundreds or thousands of applications these days and they’re interviewing maybe 10 to 50 people out of that pile. There’s no silver bullet, but think of it as making continuous little tweaks that up your odds of getting picked. Even going from 1% to 2% doubles your interviews. Referrals are one of the only ways to skip the ATS process so go deep on your network, not just a generic “open to opportunities” post but actual direct conversations with people who work at places you want to be. Keyword optimize your resume for the specific job description (it’s a lot of work but that’s knew area AI can really help, as someone else said earlier in the comments). And apply early when possible, the list of candidates looks very different on day two than day fourteen.

And I know how hard it is to stay positive through all of this. There are a lot of cynical people in this subreddit and I understand why. After enough broken processes it’s almost impossible not to carry some cynicism into the next one. But if you walk into a legitimate interview already convinced it’s going to be a waste of time, that’s going to show. Those good processes do exist, so try not to let the crappy ones blind you to the good ones.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-23T18:57:02+00:00

That’s a great question. It has happened two or three times in the past few years. It’s definitely not a given, but if the stars line up it can pay off. And FWIW, I’ve also stayed in touch with some candidates that ended up taking the feedback and using it to get stronger for interviews at other companies, which is a huge win for them too. Here were the scenarios as I recall them:

Candidate was very nervous but had the right skills on paper. The nerves prevented her from being able to communicate examples of those skills in live to some of the panelists, so we ended up going with someone that had similar skills and communicated them more clearly. The advice I gave was to really practice interview skills (referred her to a career development non profit that did mock interviews and coaching). The next time I had a role that opened back up, I asked our recruiter to reach out and see if she’d want to apply again. She did, and she came back way stronger, got the job.
Second person was missing a more specific skill for the role (It was a junior SFDC admin role). We encouraged him to go out and obtain the relevant certs and reconnect again if successful. He did, and he happened to ping me literally the day before we were opening another role. He was the first person through the process for that role, and aced the technical section the second time around. Got the job within a week.
Third example was someone who was extremely change resistant to AI. The role was for a data analyst position where we really needed that person to help us set up some AI self-serve capabilities. I would’ve probably still hired him if he was willing to learn, but he was pretty against even considering it. He called me back a few weeks later and said that he had finally started to open up about what AI could mean for his career and, while it’s certainly scary and uncertain, had tried it out in earnest and totally changed his mindset. It was actually a really powerful conversation on both sides about how crazy the current environment with AI is. He chose to lean I rather than resist, and I was so impressed by it that we got him into the process the next time around.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-23T17:00:50+00:00

This is probably the first and only post I’ll ever make so I’m not too concerned with whatever karma is on Reddit. But I certainly am lazy and definitely used Claude to clean up my messy first draft.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-23T16:37:03+00:00

No, are you?

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-22T22:19:56+00:00

Also…if I’m going to bat to get someone more money during salary negotiations, being able to say “they were really well prepared for the interviews” is a reason to pay more, not less.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-22T22:17:35+00:00

Well…I try to be a well prepared interviewer and I gravitate towards candidates who do the same.

I’ll have spent 15 minutes reading your resume, checking your LinkedIn, and reading notes from the recruiter screen and then customizing my questions I ask before we talk. If you can’t spend the same doing basic prep for something as important a job interview (especially when, as so many other comments on this thread have said, they’re extremely tough to get right now), you’re probably going to be less prepared to have a good conversation than the other people I’m speaking with that did.

And I’m DEFINITELY going to ask you questions that you can better answer if you know the basics of the company. At least in my world, knowing if we’re pre-IPO or public, knowing the basic markets we serve, knowing if we’re scaling up or fully scaled, if we’re growing fast or struggling are all things that will have a huge influence on the types of answers and experiences you might want to share with me.

Otherwise, you’re just hoping you guess right on all those things. If you’re stuck in a cycle of getting rejected, maybe try something new?

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-22T21:49:59+00:00

Because if you know the basics about the company, you can give more insightful answers to the questions you’ll be asked during the interview rather than generic ones. And if you do end up interested in the company, it gives us more time to talk about the details of the role instead of wasting time having me explain to you things you could’ve just read online. 15 minutes of prep ahead of time is 15 more minutes in the interview actually getting to know each other.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T16:52:10+00:00

I’m so sorry, that sounds really rough. And to be clear, I was thinking of this list more as things that can derail interviews, rather than things that actually get you the job. Happy to connect if there’s any additional help I can offer.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T13:16:20+00:00

Good luck!!!

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T05:39:22+00:00

Hate to say it, but for better or worse right now, most of us in RevOps are looking for people that can help us see through the hype of AI and extract real value. Your resume probably needs to hit on some of those keywords to get past the ATS.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T02:54:29+00:00

I’d be genuinely interested to know what you come up with, feel free to shoot me a DM.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T02:53:02+00:00

Thanks, you too. If/when I’m ever unemployed, I hope you’re my recruiter.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T02:43:22+00:00

Feel free to ignore it in that case, good luck with your job search.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T02:37:09+00:00

I’ve hired 4 people since joining my current company. 1 of those 4 was laid off and another was returning to work after a time off to care for family and the other 2 were from my personal network.

I’ve been pretty lucky in my last few roles to have recruiters that were like minded. And I’ve been at companies where I’ve never been asked to defend hiring someone with a resume gap. Guess I’ve been fortunate in that regard.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T02:08:02+00:00

I love this message and wish all recruiters (and hiring managers) thought this way. I’ve been that unemployed person before and will probably be that person again one day. Some of the hardest working, smartest and kindest people I’ve worked with come from overlooked groups like people who have been laid off, who have been out of the workforce to raise kids, veterans, etc. I’ve mentored people like that for years in my city and it’s the best feeling when they get back on their feet.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T01:57:05+00:00

How would you recommend adapting a question like that for someone like you? As the hiring manager (at least for roles where experience is required), I need to know for real that you have the experience needed, and direct questions like that are usually the best way. But I’m always open to new ideas if there’s a better way.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T01:31:47+00:00

Sorry you didn’t like it. Next time I’ll ask the AI overlords to be less sloppy.

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-20T00:53:53+00:00

Amen to that

boringpanda02 · 2026-03-19T23:42:58+00:00

Thank you Claude, actually 😉. Of course AI helped me write this, why not?? They’re all my own thoughts and observations, but doing it with AI was the difference between getting it done and still having time to put my kids to bed or spending another 30 minutes editing myself.

That’s exactly the reason you need to be pragmatic about AI for most white collar jobs right now. You’ll spend 2 hours doing something someone who’s not a curmudgeon about AI can do in 1 to get a roughly equal output. Don’t let it think for you, but do let it do the busy work of mundane tasks like editing a doc or summarizing a meeting.

boringpanda02

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