Interviewing Tips From Your Future Boss
photo: nbc
‘PaleoSprockets’ is a guest contributor and has been an electrical engineer for over 40 years.
Last year, my team and I interviewed a candidate for a technician position. He didn’t do so well on the technical interviews administered by some Spock-like engineers of mine. This surprised me since I really liked him; he had great experience, and he came with glowing recommendations. But in the end, we ended up not hiring him because of the technical interviews.
A few days after the interview, he did something that impressed the hell out of me and ultimately landed him the job — he thanked me for the interview and asked me if I would tell him how he could do better next time. He said he was not used to rejection and wanted to improve his interviewing technique.
After some deep thought, I pointed out to him something that is important: if you put something on your resume, you should be ready to talk at length about it. His resume included some very specific technical projects that he was unable to explain and that bothered the interviewers.
The First Job: Shotgun Approach
That diploma suuuure looks good, doesn’t it? All that hard work and sacrifice, spelled out in curvy letters and signed by the Governor. But now, after your post-graduation trip to Europe, you can’t even afford a damn frame for that beauty. Time to get some money.
With the economy sitting in a negative first derivative and US companies digging in for the long-haul, getting an entry college-level job is as difficult as it’s ever been in our lifetime.
Now that you’ve got your resume nice and pretty, send it out in bulk. In this job market, I highly advocate the shotgun strategy. Most tech companies these days have a decent career page with a bulk-apply option. Just make sure to attach a somewhat personal cover-letter to mask your job-sluttiness.
The First Job: Resume
photo: the-scientist.com
Let’s just be honest upfront, ok? Unless you’ve cured cancer or invented Facebook, your resume sucks. Seriously guy, it’s just plain rubbish. We all had great high-school GPAs and snagged a few Dean’s Lists. Really? You took Statics AND Dynamics?
Compared to every other Engineering resume in the bin, yours is probably plus or minus half a standard deviation away from the normal. The game is to set yourself apart from all the other bright-eyed NeoSprockets.
Tell Your Friends
