Just got denied from another job. So glad I have a college degree. <_<

I'm off to the hardware store to go get some drywall so I can punch holes in it.

This unemployed thing is really starting to get to me.

Make sure every CV you send off is customised to that particular company and position. Read their job spec., and clearly show how you are what they are looking for in both the CV and cover letter (I was told to always write a cover letter). It makes the process a bit longer, but having a CV tailored to every job you apply for by highlighting the skills and qualities which are specific to that position looks much better. And after a while, you get used to writing what you know they are looking for. This can also help for interviews too, as when you're writing your CV you are thinking about examples when you've done something they are interested in, and questions like that in interviews is common.
Good luck to everyone job hunting - I've been there and it svcks.

I know exactly how you feel (just went through another round of the "we'll interview you, but we won't hire you, and we won't bother returning your calls for days on end" dance myself). If I chip in for the drywall, will you buy some extra for me to punch? :dry:

Lol, that cheers me up a bit. Unemployed dry wall punching party at my place wahoo!

Okay I gotta get back on the job huntin' horse.

Anyone have any tips for job interviews?

I have a another round of interviews coming up and I feel like I'm messing up somewhere.

FYI i've read all the monster.com stuff so i know the generic advice. Please let me know what worked for you when landing a job. If your a manager or in HR or deal w/ hiring, I'd love to hear your opinion

Some problems I'm having:

* Talking about myself / work achievements. I'm a humble guy so I feel like I'm bragging or being arrogant when I speak of past achievements. What is a good way to do this w/ out sounding arrogant or bragging.

*Some of my job experience is 10+ yrs old. Specifically, customer service experience. How do I make this relevant?

*Being sincere vs. telling them what they want to hear. My initial reaction is to be sincere, but honestly all the jobs are so damn competitive that I feel I need to "tell them what they want to hear" just to stay competitive for the job. Where's the balance?

*What to wear? I'm applying for all kinds of stuff from food service, office work, or customer service, warehouse stuff. Should I dress the same for all these types of jobs?

Thanks in advance.

it's a shame how college's can still advertise by saying their diplomas/degrees will get (guarantee) you a job

What is a CV?

Seriously. Gotta go for that master's degree, straight up. I'm back in school to pursue a degree in radiography and was hoping to get something non entry level, but at this point I'll take anything, sad but true

The thing that will help you the most is if you can get your resume into the hands of the hiring manager via contacts you have (even friend of a friend type contacts). Basically if the hiring manager receives your resume from someone they know then that automatically puts it ahead of resumes received through other avenues (mail, dropped off with receptionist, online application, etc). For your resume itself assume that the person reading it will spend no more than 30 seconds on it (and that's if you're lucky). You want the overall look of it to be as organized and professional as possible (this is just the look, not even the content, as this will create a lingering impression in the first half-second of the person looking at the resume). Any relevant work experience should be the first thing on the resume (many people like to start with education, but education is often no more than a prerequisite for a job, while work experience is a critical differentiating factor between candidates), and any particularly relevant work experience should include a few sub-points outlining responsibilities in your previous job that could differentiate you from other candidates. The education section should be quite brief, enough that the reader can quickly determine you meet their basic requirements, but not much more- any academic distinctions or awards beyond GPA, unless directly relevant to the job you're applying for, should be saved for the end of the resume (the section that probably won't even be read). Extra-curricular activities that show skills applicable to the job you're applying to (e.g. organizational or strong interpersonal skills) can help you quite a bit, but if your extra-curricular activities don't show such skills then including them on the resume is basically a waste of space. A good way to evaluate your finished resume is to put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager- imagine it's 4:30 after a long day of work and you have a stack of 30 resumes to look through and pick out 3 people to bring in for an interview; will your resume stand out enough to be picked as one of those three?


I've interviewed a fair number of candidates at my current job, so here's my take on the whole thing. There are basically two things that the person interviewing you will be trying to determine: first, will you be competent at the work you're being hired for, and second, are you a person that they'd like to work with. The first one mostly depends on your skill-set and the questions used to evaluate this tend to be pretty straight-forward. Unless your skill-set is lacking or for some reason you have a hard time getting across that you're competent then there's not much to worry about here. Also, unless you're applying to a fairly technical position and you're a real superstar at what you do then there's not much room here to differentiate yourself from other candidates. The second part, whether you're someone they'd like to work with, is a bit trickier and also where candidate differentiation happens (at least between similarly qualified candidates). The best advice I can give here is to just try to have a natural conversation with the interviewer. Don't simply wait for them to fire questions at you or come across as just having prepared questions and statements you're firing at them, try to keep it a conversation with a natural back-and-forth flow. Since a lot of the conversation will be about work-related things this is your opportunity to bring up various anecdotes from your previous jobs that show you'd be a good person to work with. Another thing that really makes candidates stand out is if they show a lot of enthusiasm for what they do. This doesn't have to be enthusiasm for whatever you'll be doing in the particular job (and if the job is something fairly mundane then trying to force enthusiasm will just make you seem disingenuous), but rather just enthusiasm for things in previous jobs you enjoyed, or even enthusiasm in hobbies you have. Basically if you can get across the perception that you're someone who gets interested in things and really takes initiative pursuing those things then that will almost always help you out, a lot.

Thanks for that phoenix.

Most of the jobs I've gotten have always been through a contact, so this is the first time I'm going in with no referral. I live in San Francisco , dense population, and it is really competitive for any job. But I guess that is anywhere U.S.A. right now.

That second part was quite helpful. Skill set, are you competent?, and can people get along with you. I'll try to focus on that. Honestly, I think I'm gonna rehearse being interviewed so I get used to keeping the conversation flowing. That awkward silence kills me

Got two more interviews next week, hopefully I can nail the interviews.

simply put, it's a different format for resumes

You've got that right. I live in a semi-dense urban/suburban area; the total population including suburbs and outlying townships is maybe 150K. About a month or so back I interviewed for a 4-days-a-week receptionist job that paid $10 an hour. During the interview, the interviewer let it slip that they'd had over 500 resumes come in during the four days they'd listed the opening in the local classifieds. hmy:

Given that, I'm kind of glad I made it as far as the first round of interviews with that one, even if I didn't get the job.

Here's hoping you nail those interviews! :foodndrink:

Curriculum Vitae...it's a resume :shrug:

So sad, alot of people with degrees and masters for school, and thier job is flipping burgers. So why did we go to school in the first place? :shakehead:


Thank you very much.

There's always enlisting!

I've been wondering that as well. My girlfriend has no college education, but yet makes more than i ever did because of her commitment to her company. She's been able to slowly climb the ladder and now she's a manager.

I was a journalism major (not like that is a big money maker), worked in the industry for around 8 years, then got laid off. Now it seems that all my job experience is irrelevant to most other industries.

Honestly I feel if I stuck w/ retail / service industry / or trade specialization instead of going to school, I would be in a better position now, money wise. And my job experience would be more relevant to different industries.

I do not regret going to college, but after all of the time and money that was put into going to college, I don't believe I got a good return on my investment. Anybody want to start a class action suit for false advertising? JK :confused:

Ha ha a career in journalism, what was I thinking. Great times while is lasted though.

How many majors available at a college are really useful in the job market? Arts, english, liberal arts, philosophy, etc. How useful are any of these degree outside of the academic bubble? Sadly I think very few. But college have no problems telling you that going to their school will land you a job.

Oh well at least I got some really expensive books and a piece of paper that says B.A. degree in fancy lettering out of the whole deal. :biggrin:

Unfortunately, the conclusion I've come to is: don't follow your dreams, follow the money and look for the most stable industry to get a degree in. Your just really lucky if your dreams coincide w/ a stable money making industry. Wow, that sounds depressing.

This is what most people need to realize.

College was only a "golden ticket" to prosperity when the people who had a college education were very few and far between. Supply and demand. It's as simple as that. The more people who go to college, the more jobs there must be to absorb them, and as the ratio approaches 1:1, the "value" of that degree becomes more dubious. In a bad economy or labor market that drives away high-skill jobs, the ratio goes in favor of employers meaning there's a glut of graduates to pick from and your degree is actually worth less than someone who never went to college.

In contrast, the guy with nothing but a diploma or GED can go into business for himself, work hard at a low-wage job and work his way up, etc. and be making more money than you or certainly more money when you factor in the student loan debt on your back that he doesn't carry.

Well apparently just because you've been told you've been hired doesn't necessarily mean you've been hired. The job I applied for a month ago said I would be starting some time this month depending on the weather. Well it was getting late in the month so I called them back and they're like "Well we're under new management so you need to come in for another interview." Needless to say I'm not happy. I could have been job hunting this whole time. Now they have to choose between me and this other guy. So I'm competing for a job that I should already have.

:facepalm: Ugh. I hate, hate, hate when companies pull stunts like this. Unfortunately things like that seem to be pretty common...I've got a friend who constantly has to "re-interview" for the job he's held for years. (Basically, the higher-ups in the company re-interview everyone in his department to decide who to keep and who to let go.) It's ridiculous.

With any luck, though, you'll be able to find something better--with a company that won't give you a run-around like this.

It is a morale buster, but I can see the value in it...especially in a corporate culture that might reward or tolerate laziness in the ranks. Rather than just let people go based on something arbitrary like seniority, they might find people who really don't pull their weight and should be cut and replaced with more productive workers.

Looks like I have two interviews this week, one for a summer internship, the other for a restaraunt. Hopefully I can interview for the management position at the restaraunt that they had posted since thats where my experience is, as opposed to serevr or cook which I am kind of against but at this point a job is a job.

I've been subject to the ol' bait and switch before as well.

Owner said I was hired over the phone, basically had me come in under false pretenses just to give me a second graphics test. Why he did not say, "let's have you come in for a second interview is beyond me.

It is tough to be in a position (the job hunter) where you have absolutely no leverage.

I just got a call back from the place that hired me. They said the other guy was more qualified. I'm about ready to go on a rampage. :swear:

This is what annual performance reviews are for. The manager evaluates their reports, and those evaluations are sent up the line (usually to the department head). Going over the performance review with the employee also provides an opportunity to outline any potential performance concerns (before they even get close to the "you're fired" point), as well as suggest areas for improvement (this is usually in a positive light, as in "here are some things you might think of working on to get that promotion/raise faster"). The whole "Sword of Damocles" approach of having people re-interview every year or two just unnecessarily kills moral, and ensures that your best people, the ones you want to keep, will be leaving the moment they have a comparable or better offer from a place with a less miserable working environment.

About the only thing I can say is vigilance wins the job. I've tried so far, but haven't been vigilant which is why i've not been hired yet.