A Little Interviewing Advice
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Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Little Interviewing Advice
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"After all, companies lie in interviews almost as much as candidates"!
How very true and sad that is! In retrospect I feel I was very naive and gullible when I started out and it's taken me years to reluctantly realize that much as I would like to believe the best about people (they say that's what companies are made of), they inevitably seem to let you down! :crying:
As for being honest in the interview - absolutely!!! I often equate the whole interviewing/hiring process to that of dating/marriage and there can be nothing worse than finding yourself stuck in a bad marriage after an all too brief honeymoon!:w00t:
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
Teamwork is overrated. I think the skillset and the willingness to learn new skills is more important. I have yet to see an employer value teamwork highly. They speak highly of teamwork but really don't have any idea of how to implement it.
I always love the job ads that state two exact opposites:
1. Must be a team player.
2. Must work independently.
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This was hanging in our elevators this morning...
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OCTom (6/30/2011)
Teamwork is overrated. I think the skillset and the willingness to learn new skills is more important. I have yet to see an employer value teamwork highly. They speak highly of teamwork but really don't have any idea of how to implement it.I always love the job ads that state two exact opposites:
1. Must be a team player.
2. Must work independently.
Yeah, I always laugh at those ones.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
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OCTom (6/30/2011)
Teamwork is overrated. I think the skillset and the willingness to learn new skills is more important. I have yet to see an employer value teamwork highly. They speak highly of teamwork but really don't have any idea of how to implement it.I always love the job ads that state two exact opposites:
1. Must be a team player.
2. Must work independently.
I concur. Certainly you have to have integrity and good communications skills, but I think leadership qualities coupled with technical expertise and experience is far more valuable. A person like this naturally learns new skills and maintains keeps their skillset current.
Team players are great but they reach their peak effectiveness when they have competent leadership.... and good leadership is often hard to find.
The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival.
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I agree that it is best to be honest, but the tone of this article would have been much more fitting back in 05 when it was published in the height of the boom than it is in 11 in the early stages of the recovery when good jobs are still golden.
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I don't understand why you'd want to be honest with a prospective employer. As long as you're sure you can bluff your way through whatever you're lying about, go for it.
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sushila (6/30/2011)
"After all, companies lie in interviews almost as much as candidates"!How very true and sad that is!
Sad, yes. True, not if we leave the phrase "almost as much" in the sentence. I have never lied in an interview, so from my perspective companies lie FAR MORE than candidates. From everyone I know I would say that is still true, even though some of them have lied. Personally my faith in business is not very good because I feel they are more concerned with short term profit than with doing the right thing, which would lead to better long term profits. When you lie, whether you are the candidate or the employer, you are ensuring future issues.
Dave
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OCTom (6/30/2011)
Teamwork is overrated. I think the skillset and the willingness to learn new skills is more important. I have yet to see an employer value teamwork highly. They speak highly of teamwork but really don't have any idea of how to implement it.I always love the job ads that state two exact opposites:
1. Must be a team player.
2. Must work independently.
Not only that, but employers tend to talk about valuing teamwork, but do everything they can to destroy it. Best example - everyone gets the same raise, whether they take 20 breaks a day for a cigarette or work 80 hours a week.
Dave
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Freddie-304292 (6/30/2011)
I don't understand why you'd want to be honest with a prospective employer. As long as you're sure you can bluff your way through whatever you're lying about, go for it.GRIN
Dave
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OCTom (6/30/2011)
Teamwork is overrated. I think the skillset and the willingness to learn new skills is more important. I have yet to see an employer value teamwork highly. They speak highly of teamwork but really don't have any idea of how to implement it.I always love the job ads that state two exact opposites:
1. Must be a team player.
2. Must work independently.
Sometimes when an employer says teamwork, what they really mean is:
Be a sport and "take one for the team" when asked.
Job interviews are a lot like dating; you've got two people sitting across the table from one another, and each could be looking for a long term relationship, looking to play the field, or just clueless about what they want. Also, each could be honest, dishonest, or just delusional.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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Eric M Russell (6/30/2011)
Job interviews are a lot like dating; you've got two people sitting across the table from one another, and each could be looking for a long term relationship, looking to play the field, or just clueless about what they want. Also, each could be honest, dishonest, or just delusional.True enough. Plus, half the time when they talk about teamwork it really means: "Don't point out any deficiencies in our designs or try to suggest better ways of doing what we've been doing forever, it might offend someone on the 'team'". 😀
The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival.
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Eric M Russell (6/30/2011)
OCTom (6/30/2011)
Teamwork is overrated. I think the skillset and the willingness to learn new skills is more important. I have yet to see an employer value teamwork highly. They speak highly of teamwork but really don't have any idea of how to implement it.I always love the job ads that state two exact opposites:
1. Must be a team player.
2. Must work independently.
Sometimes when an employer says teamwork, what they really mean is:
Be a sport and "take one for the team" when asked.
Job interviews are a lot like dating; you've got two people sitting across the table from one another, and each could be looking for a long term relationship, looking to play the field, or just clueless about what they want. Also, each could be honest, dishonest, or just delusional.
Yes. I have usually found that teamwork is a one-way street. Take one for the team but don't expect anything back. The best "team" I was on was one that occurred naturally.
There were five of us who gravitated toward each other. We liked each other's company and enjoyed helping each other out. We were not friends outside of work, but, in that environment we were.
Management broke us up by assigning us to different physical locations. One of the middle managers thought we were enjoying our work too much. 🙁 It was one of the saddest moments in my working life.
I left shortly after. My managers were shocked when I said I was leaving because they broke up the team. They were completely clueless.
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In my experience when a manager talks about "teamwork" it typically translates into something along the lines of conformity and group-think. Innovation and improvement over current ways of doing things are usually looked down upon in environments that support those types of ideas.
There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community.
--Plato
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