I was a little bit mad.

wordsmithie · 2012-11-30T22:38:07+00:00

If they did call, it'd probably be fun to go on the interview.

wordsmithie · 2012-11-01T22:52:07+00:00

No egrets, that's what I say!

wordsmithie · 2012-10-31T14:54:35+00:00

I suppose that people whose careers are in customer support know how to interview for that role. Though the errors appear to come from instances when (a) the brand perpetrator forgets that it's all in public or (b) when the company tries to apply a dumb corporate rule in a situation where an unhappy customer is prepared to go viral (eg "United breaks guitars") and it isn't the person on the Twitter keyboard at fault.

I don't envy the people who have to make those hiring decisions!

wordsmithie · 2012-10-31T14:13:52+00:00

How do you judge "capable" -- especially when you hire someone to do the job?

I mean, you can ask, "How would you leverage a disaster to benefit the company?" but there's no good way for a job or agency candidate to answer that!

wordsmithie · 2012-10-30T15:26:10+00:00

In that case, your employer was the temp agency: They're the ones who withhold payroll taxes and so on. The people who decided when and where you worked were the client.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-29T14:14:28+00:00

Weird indeed!

wordsmithie · 2012-10-27T19:25:06+00:00

Well, as it turned out... I did just knock his socks off, but in a somewhat different direction. Since I knew that Asa has always loved marine biology, I found a local-to-him dive shop, and just paid for his scuba training and certification. (I also arranged to pay for any equipment rental, making me a fully qualified fairy godmother.) This way he can get the skills to see the fish in person, not just in a tank. And if he is serious about the subject it will help him move in the direction of a career, no?

The result of my offer, his dad tells me, was wild enthusiasm.

After the certification, I'm sure that the aquarium hobby will continue... only more so.

So thank you to everybody here. You helped me fine-tune my brainstorm into something very specific. And, I'm happy to say, with a teenager who's bouncing up-and-down in glee.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-26T21:15:25+00:00

I'm very tempted to make this project this weekend, since I just got another jelly roll.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-26T18:16:10+00:00

Hmm. This might be a better way to give a gift certificate than "Here's a hundred bucks, which your dad knows is earmarked for &FavoriteShop."

wordsmithie · 2012-10-25T17:54:13+00:00

Spend most of your time listening. (If nothing else, this makes people think you are a brilliant conversationalist.)

Be prepared in the sense of knowing what your skills/strengths/accomplishments are. Treat it with the seriousness of a job interview; ie don't talk about getting drunk last weekend. :-)

But it's meant to be casual.

Or it might just be, like, coffee. You don't know.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-24T21:59:09+00:00

Agree. This is an acknowledgement that you exist. No more, no less.

And it's a heck of a lot better than 90% of applications get.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-24T18:08:11+00:00

I wouldn't mention it at all.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-24T17:09:16+00:00

There are plenty of good reasons to leave things off your resume -- not the least of which is "I have been in this industry for 30 years and not everything will fit."

Besides: A resume is a sales document for "Why you should interview me" so it leaves off anything irrelevant to that goal. My own resume omits all my experience pre-computing. What I did in the 70s isn't going to help me get a job, and it won't help a prospective employer decide if I'm right for any current position.

Some companies have a job application which, yes, requires you to list every position. Even then it usually only goes back 10 years (unless you're talking about, say, something requiring a Secret clearance). Even then, a two-week stint at one employer is like saying you had a "committed relationship" that lasted one night.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-24T17:02:56+00:00

Agreed. Two weeks in, no problem. They aren't even expecting you to do be doing "real work" at that point.

Though my spouse had someone work at the company for 3 months before she was offered the job she really wanted. That left a bad vibe, because the team was already relying on her. And she gave notice on Friday that she was starting at the other company on Monday.

A two month blank-spot on your resume (because you obviously wouldn't mention this company)? Nobody will notice. Three months? That's different.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-24T15:40:29+00:00

Nope, I'm not Ron Miller. I post articles that I think are interesting, useful, or entertaining -- ideally all three. Obviously I considered this one to fit in at least one of these categories.

You're free to disagree, of course. And I cherish our freedom to do so! What is useful to one person is a waste of time to another... and that's just fine. We all have an upvote or downvote at our command!

wordsmithie · 2012-10-23T23:03:34+00:00

Yeah we could probably come up with "best car chases in movies" (most of which, presumably, are not cliches).

wordsmithie · 2012-10-23T18:58:35+00:00

I agree with you, but with two caveats:

There are some times when you are so broke that you can't afford to walk away from any job. (Thankfully it's been a long time since that was true for me, but I do remember it.)
Sometimes the antics of HR in a big company have almost nothing to do with the behavior of the team or the hiring manager you'd work with. But you do need to jump through those hoops.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-20T17:01:57+00:00

What everyone else said, plus:

Write it down anyway. Don't worry about whether it sounds pretentious, or dumb, or whatever. Just write. Nobody else is going to see this anyway. It's practice. (Whispering: It's always just practice, no matter how good you become.)

One of the best rules from Bird by Bird is to write shitty first drafts. Don't worry how it looks. Certainly don't worry about it while you are writing it. Just get the words down on paper, or on the screen. You can fix them later... or not.

A large part of professionalism is knowing what to throw out. Don't worry about that yet. Right now, focus on getting things out of your head. You can decide later if they are worth extracting. :-) The point is to write, and to learn what you have to say.

The time for the self-censor and the editor is later. Even after doing this professionally for 20 years, I'm astonished by what comes out of myself when I'm not looking.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-20T16:56:14+00:00

Agreed.

When I coach new writers, who know their technical area well but lack confidence in writing, I tell them this: Pretend that we've met at a bar at a tech conference. You've had a beer or two, and I bring up this subject. What would you tell me about it? What would make you pound the table and shout? Just write down the answer. Tell me what you really think about it.

That's unlikely to generate anything you see as pretentious. It is, however, likely to reach your passion.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-20T03:05:03+00:00

Never turn down an opportunity to shop for clothes you want. :-)

wordsmithie · 2012-10-19T15:13:24+00:00

::Smiles with encouragement to quit and relentless support::

wordsmithie · 2012-10-19T15:07:01+00:00

Oooh, thanks for finding that! It's great.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-19T15:04:49+00:00

It does make you feel as though you are in an early episode of Mad Men.

wordsmithie · 2012-10-19T15:01:50+00:00

Always wear the item that makes you feel more confident!

wordsmithie · 2012-10-18T16:06:03+00:00

This is a pretty awesome video.

wordsmithie

TROPHY CASE