• jay (unregistered) in reply to TheSHEEEP
    TheSHEEEP:
    Cbuttius:
    You are there for the benefit of the business, not to seek your own interests.

    Yes, be a good working slave and do whatever is best for your company. Oh. My. God. With too many people with that attitude, we will soon all get minimum wages

    What nonsense! You can pretend stuff like that, to crawl up the bosses a**es, but when I work for a company, I have a look at what I can gain of it. ...

    Yes, yes, I take a job for what I can get out of it -- pay, learning opportunities, entertainment, whatever.

    But I expect it to be a two-way street: I don't expect them to give me something for nothing. And in a job interview, I don't emphasize what I want them to do for me. I tell them what I can do for them.

    This is marketing 101. When you're advertising a product, you don't say, "But Frambar Widgets! We need the money! The owner of the company has two kids in college, and our sales manager just bought a new house and is having trouble making the payments." Etc. The customer doesn't care. You say what the product will do for the customer.

    Likewise, on a job interview, you start out telling the employer what you can do for them. Sure, at some point you make sure that they'll pay you the salary you want, etc. But you don't start off with that and you don't emphasize that. Selling the company to you is THEIR job; your job is selling yourself to the company.

    If you owned a business, would you want to hire someone who comes in talking about what he wants to get with no mention of what he's willing to give?

  • J (unregistered) in reply to foo

    In France the correct word is CV, too. Americans can't stop using french words upside down.

  • Peter (unregistered)

    Haven't written a VC in a while, but I always used to put the jobs in reverse date order, so that that it was in order of relevance. People really shouldn't care too much about my O levels now I'm over 40....

  • Peter (unregistered) in reply to Peter

    or a CV, for that matter.... doh!

  • (cs) in reply to Mizchief
    Mizchief:
    Yea, we have lots of trees. Didn't cut them all down in the middle ages like the brits.

    Huh? You're replying to the following comment:

    "In the UK we're told our CV should be approximately two sides - the one sided resumé is an American thing."

    So I'm guessing you're American? In which case that doesn't make much sense, since you're implying an abundance of trees is the reason you use less paper?

    If you're not American, that still doesn't make sense, because you're agreeing with something unrelated to you...

  • Baffled (unregistered)

    And the WTF here is ... what?

    Weird interviewer, yes, but so what?

  • Xavier (unregistered) in reply to foo

    ... event if in French, "résumé" means something totally different, as we only use "CV".

  • Ol' Bob (unregistered) in reply to foo
    foo:
    justanotheradmin:
    Anonymous Bob:
    What's a "CV"? I've heard of a resume, but not a "CV". Is that a British thing?

    Curriculum Vitae. Latin.

    In contrast to resume which is French.

    Down here in the swampland we refer to it as the "What the hail's you bin doin', y'durn fool?" document. Don' need no fancy Frenchified Latinized bull flop, no we don't!

    CAPTCHA: tristique - Don't git yer boxers in a tristique!

  • Ol' Bob (unregistered) in reply to TheSHEEEP
    TheSHEEEP:
    Kris:
    I've done the whole "list only relevant jobs" thing, only to be asked if I was in jail/psychiatric treatment/unemployed in those "missing years".

    "Yes, all of that in the exact order!"

    Having the interviewer ask about jail, psychiatric treatment, etc, would signify that it was time for the interview to shift from "work" to "fun" mode - as in, "OK, your question makes me realize I'm not going to work for you irregardless of the amount of money I'm offered because you're obviously useless sacks who I have no interest in associating with. Now I get to have some fun!". A penetrating, longer-than-is-comfortable-by-a-factor-of-three stare, followed by something like "And...which of those might prove to be a problem? Before you answer, let me assure you that I have been found to be completely rehabilitated, I'm current on all of my meds, I have both my therapist and my parole officer on speed dial, and that I am cleared to use all modern forms of cutlery. Speaking of cutlery, does this company object to my sharpening knives, axes, swords, cutlasses, pikes, bills, and/or halberds at my desk? I find that a knowledge of edged weapons is often quite useful, don't you? Oh, dear, the nice HR lady seems to be getting 'edgy'. A-ha. A-ha. I'm quite the funny person. Many people have commented on that - briefly. One might even say 'im-PART-ially'. A-ha. A-ha. A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!! PART-y on!!!!!! A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!!!!! I'm completely, totally, marvellously sane! I even have a paper to prove it! Look - see? It says 'Certificate of Sanity'! Not many people have one of those! A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

    Really - the crazed laughter gets 'em every time. :-)

    CAPTCHA - augue - Can't make it in today - I've got the augue

  • Rachel (unregistered)

    Usually the Daily WTF is a mixture of thought-provoking, funny observational humour that you can either nod along with because you recognise it from personal experience, or symapthise with because you're glad you didn't experience it personally. This story, however, was just boring and pointless. I'm not sure why it's here. An interviewee's perception that an interviewer was mildly curt, and made them a job offer that they accepted for a company they enjoyed working for, isn't what makes The Daily WTF a great read. Sorry - I've heard more engaging and purposeful stories from my grandmother who is 89 and has Alzheimers than was contained in this article. The Read WTF is that this non-story was deemed worthy of publication.

  • Engelbart (unregistered)

    It is also a good idea to have Page 1/2 and Page 2/2 clearly marked at the top of the page.

    Not the bottom!

    MD read all of the way to the bottom before he saw Page 2/2.

  • Engelbart (unregistered) in reply to Ol' Bob
    Ol' Bob:
    foo:
    justanotheradmin:
    Anonymous Bob:
    What's a "CV"? I've heard of a resume, but not a "CV". Is that a British thing?

    Curriculum Vitae. Latin.

    In contrast to resume which is French.

    Down here in the swampland we refer to it as the "What the hail's you bin doin', y'durn fool?" document. Don' need no fancy Frenchified Latinized bull flop, no we don't!

    CAPTCHA: tristique - Don't git yer boxers in a tristique!

    The other acronym is FJH. Falsified Job History.

    (Credit to the Late Show writers)

  • Jaxx (unregistered) in reply to snoofle

    Can you provide any tips on designing your resume and/or cover letter for resume scanners?comm

  • JM (unregistered) in reply to foo

    ...and the French for "resume" is "CV". "résumé" is exactly "summary", and does not apply to job interviews.

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