What do you do?

Especially in today's world where virtually any answer is a Google search away. In fact, just knowing how to properly use Google to seek out the right information is probably more important these days than almost any undergraduate degree.

Draegan_sl said:

My favorite interview question is "What are three words you would use to describe yourself?" My answer should be "Why don't you ask a question that actually fucking means something. This interview is done."

I would never want to work for a management team that thinks that kind of question gets you a good candidate.

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I have never been asked any of these types of questions. They ask about two things in almost all of the ones I have had in 25 years. One, tell me about your work experience and what you typically do. Two, tell us about the other companies you have worked for and what are they doing to solve problem"X" and do you know if the equipment they bought actually worked as we're looking to buy something as well.

I'm not sure what I would say if they asked that question. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't pursue the job any further. I guess it also depends on who you interview with. Most times it's a company with less than 40 people in the office so you get interviewed by the people you will work for or with.

God I hate waiting for an answer after a final interview. There's nothing more nerve wracking.

Heylel_sl said:

God I hate waiting for an answer after a final interview. There's nothing more nerve wracking.

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Have thank you notes fallen out of favor a few days after an interview?

Dear Soulless Corporation Chinese Overlords,

Thank you for allowing me the opprotuinty to gaze upon the mud I will be eagerly licking off the soles of ur shoes. I am not a smart man, or a wealthy one, and even just the faint hope of this job is the best thing to happen to me in three months. You guys are jawsome.

Do not respond to this email,
Noodlemod

Cad_sl said:

Generally yes. If you want to send them its still fine, but the thinking is that nobody changes their mind based on thank you notes, except for in the negative if you typo the notes or say something stupid. Nobody says well, I hated that guy, but this thank you note is sincere so I'll give him the nod. But people say dumb shit in thank you notes and leave a bad impression.

So yea I'd skip the notes.

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They're useful only in the sense that it brings your name to mind for the hiring manager. That's the extent of "standing out" that it nets you. I still send them after every interview simply to acknowledge the time that people took, and to be comprehensive. I don't expect it to actually change anything.

I'm hoping I'll hear something from all these interviews by the end of the week, but I'm expecting something like Monday to be more realistic. It'll suck having it hanging over the weekend, but that's life. I feel like after scheduling 5 separate interviews within a two week period, they're clearly interested enough to proceed. Nothing I said or did derailed the process, and no one ever gave any hint of a negative reaction. I'll be a little annoyed if I wasted all of that time for nothing. What's confusing me is that I still haven't spoken to anyone from HR, and there's been no discussion of salary since the initial recruitment call asked for a ballpark figure. They haven't asked for any references either. I assume that all waits for the hiring manager to decide whether to move forward.

I've sent thank you notes 2 times and received job offers for both those times, so I continue doing it now.

Maybe it has no bearing, but I still like to do it.

I have to admit to being uncultured. I've never sent a thank you note for an interview.

Honestly, I didn't even know that was a thing.

I send a thank you note, only because the people who interview me normally have 10,000 things going at once. Almost every time I sent one I heard back. They just had so much stuff going on they didn't do it till they got my note. Some of them I call. If you got interviewed with 50 other people I probably wouldn't. If it was a down to a few people or you were the final interview I would, but that's just me. If you get interviewed by someone in HR I wouldn't do it either.

If it was very corporate I wouldn't. I got interviewed about two years ago on a job I had sent a resume in a year before the interview. I sent a thank you note and I heard back from the guy. I really wasn't interested in the job. But he threw out a new proposal for doing some contract consulting. I declined and he wanted to know why. I told him their schedule and timeline was unmeetable in it's current form. I really wanted to tell him that the British weren't really going to get along with landowners in MS, but I didn't. I also wanted to say you need to hire a semi intelligent redneck to be your liason.

Dad sent me a newspaper clipping. They didn't meet their deadline. They were a year behind at the time of the writing. They let $1 million worth of product ruin in the meantime.

I should send him an email now that I am out of work and they still haven't started now that I think about it.

CnCGOD_sl said:

Imposter syndrome is real, I see it all the time at my current company. Really bright guys feel like they are just making shit up because the depth and breadth required to be a master is so much. The thing is, they are doing great work.

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Yeah, logically Iknow I shouldn't be this way, I carry our vulnerability management, I'm doinga lot of great work, maybe I just don't communicate it enough or something idk. I am trying to work on that, realize that a lot of these guys I think are brilliant in the industry are either brilliant in one super specific thing or they have been prepping for months/years for that one thing you saw them do.

Offer came in. It's pretty fuckin killer. 65% over my current salary, annual bonus of 10%, full-time telework with a computer supplied by the company.

I honestly don't even know how to counter that without sounding arrogant.

Congrats on the job, that's a pretty sweet offer.

On the flip side, it's officially been a month and a half since I quit my 90% work-from-home, 85k/year job to take a 50k job that I have to drive to every day. I could not be happier. I don't have nearly as much spending cash, but damn if I'm not just in a great mood all the time since I'm doing what I love and actually look forward to going into work every day.

What bugged you so much about working from home that often?

Cad_sl said:

You don't have to counter. If you're happy with the offer just take it.

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Oh, I plan to. We have to work out a few details with regards to start date and some existing travel commitments with my current position (conference presentations, etc.), but otherwise I'm gonna take it and run.

I'll be going from ~68k with lots of vacation benefits and a pension contribution, to 105k, full-time telework, annual bonuses, and a bit less vacation. Insurance benefits appear to be roughly analogous. After taxes and accounting for expenses I no longer have (parking, 50+ mile round trip commute), I should be looking at a couple thousand extra per month.

Heylel_sl said:

What bugged you so much about working from home that often?

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It was the job that I hated (government contracting stuff), I didn't mind working from home. Although, now that I'm back in an office, I do enjoy the interaction and socialization and I realize how much I was missing it sitting alone in my apartment all day every day. Some days I wouldn't shower, wouldn't shave, and wouldn't leave the house. I'd just sit in front of my computer all day every day. That Oatmeal comic is real.

I can see that. In spite of being at home, I expect I'll be interacting with the team around the country quite a bit. My new role is going to be conducting accessibility research on education software, so I'll be either remotely testing or working in person with volunteer participants quite a bit, and also working with designers around the country. Plus traveling to conduct some trainings, presentations, conferences, etc. It won't just be sitting around with no pants on.

Heylel_sl said:

I can see that. In spite of being at home, I expect I'll be interacting with the team around the country quite a bit. My new role is going to be conducting accessibility research on education software, so I'll be either remotely testing or working in person with volunteer participants quite a bit, and also working with designers around the country. Plus traveling to conduct some trainings, presentations, conferences, etc. It won't just be sitting around with no pants on.

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Congrats!

Is that the job that I looked at your resume?