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Well, we were into the "looking for jobs" part but research is HIGHLY important to know something of the company.
No sense lying of your interest in the company.
Each interview I had I typically investigated if they were publically traded or not, anything recent in the news, speak of some of their products: they really like that.

You also come off as more relaxed and more knowledgeable than other applicants because you know your stuff.

For my present job, my initial interview I was in the process of passing a kidney stone so was well medicated with oxycodone.
The interview was rather aggressive and I answered all questions calmly and well (did lots of research) which was the good impression I made that got me hired.
I would not suggest going into an interview on drugs, I can assure you the pain it was holding off was keeping me sober and alert.

It is rather funny to say they found me hirable on drugs, they had no idea what they would get without!

When you're having your formal interview with a CEO, and he yells out "oh, feth me" over an email he gets, remember to tell him you think it would be best if you just stayed friends. Damn, I love my job!

And yes...that conversation actually took place.

First thing if your doing illegal drugs quit. They are going to drug test you for almost any job.
If your a Facebook or Twitter user don't post stuff that people will find offensive. Your anti military rant on Facebook won't look good to the retired veteran hiring you.
Remember at the interview your selling yourself
Don't sell your self short, don't mention you where just a volunteer at the Ducks Unlimited banquet, mention how you help raise 50k for wetlands habits.
If you do get hired don't stick your pen in the company ink, I have seen more drama at work from relationships ending then I care to mention.

One bit of advice that I've received, and haven't seen repeated here:


-Clean out your fething car!! Companies know when your interview is, and have someone watching the cameras for when you arrive. Then, when you're inside, they sometimes send a person out the walk by and casually "inspect" whats inside your vehicle.

Also, as mentioned in the research advice, know that if you're going to work for say, the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, KY, you'd better be driving a Chevy family vehicle, or you're gonna be walking a long way. So, pay attention to the parking lot of the place you're supposed to be working.

When you get an interview, show up early enough that you can see where you're supposed to be going (if you're able to, some places may have tighter security), go to the restroom and get any last minute things done with still having a few minutes to spare. Some companies apparently hate the US Military's "10 minutes prior" thing, so I was told around 5 minutes is fine, but 10 is most definitely pushing it (but I have no fething clue why 10 minutes would be too much).


Also, be nice to EVERYONE!!! One of the trainers I had when leaving the military told us the story of how she got the job she was doing, training us.... There were three interviews right in a row, and all three people were told the same time. So, she showed up first, but was actually the last to be interviewed. The second person to show up, a guy, came in and was rather rude to the receptionist/office assistant. The third person wasn't rude to this lady, but wasn't exactly congenial... basically, they treated the receptionist more like a "thing" than a person.

Long story short, that receptionist was actually one of the hiring managers, and the interviewer was basically an office nobody. So, be nice to everyone, because you never know if the person you're being nice/rude to is actually the boss or not.

Has anyone actually found LinkedIn to be in any way useful to their career?

 Ouze wrote:
Has anyone actually found LinkedIn to be in any way useful to their career?

I can't cite any personal experience, but I know people that have actually lost out on job opportunities because their LinkedIn profile featured a comprehensive employment history that included work for organizations like Greenpeace and PETA. Personally, I think the idea of a one size fits all resume that nearly anyone can access is just asking for trouble.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Some companies apparently hate the US Military's "10 minutes prior" thing, so I was told around 5 minutes is fine, but 10 is most definitely pushing it (but I have no fething clue why 10 minutes would be too much).

Having a significant number of people waiting in the lobby can make the company seem inefficient to people that are more important than prospective employees. And of course there's the fact that going beyond punctuality can make you appear desperate, or seem like an annoyance. Imagine a time when someone, through no fault of their own, called you at an inopportune time causing you to get irritated with them and you'll get the idea.

 Ouze wrote:
Has anyone actually found LinkedIn to be in any way useful to their career?

It's a useful tool, but one that needs a lot of management.

 Ouze wrote:
Has anyone actually found LinkedIn to be in any way useful to their career?

I ask people in my field the same question. The answer is no. I have no idea how linkedin has any value and continues exist based upon my experience with it. But yet it's still here, so it must work for someone.

I have people request for me to join them on there all the time. Some people I've never even met, and only talked to over the phone once. So...yeah. To hell with that site. I ignore it and delete their emails.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
I have people request for me to join them on there all the time. Some people I've never even met, and only talked to over the phone once. So...yeah. To hell with that site. I ignore it and delete their emails.

Funny, because the requests that I get are from company recruiters from companies that didn't hire me, a real estate agent that I bought a house from... just, that sort of odd stuff.

Ok, So fromt what I can gather is
1: dont do temp jobs
2: get my resume proffesionally done
3: Apply to every job I see
4: Research the company.
5: Keep a Clean Social media presence
6: Be patient
7: Tap the friends I have.
A few other questions
1: What Is a clean social media presence? I dont post drugs or alchohol. I never post that I do anything Illegal. But I post about video games and warhammer quite a bit. Can that be taken wrong?
2: How long should a resume be? I constantly hear 1 page. But my friend who is a hiring manager says the length doesnt matter. That you make it as long as possible.

1. If you have oddball hobbies it is questionable to put them. I am in the SCA and a lot of my friends have dual facebook accounts, one for the SCA and hobbies usually under their SCA name and a professional one with their normal non-political, non-confrontational stuff in it. Apparently some people in the SCA when posting videos of them fighting or other SCA related videos, for some reason that was looked down on by employers and potential employers. You don't know what your employer's political leaning is or what he is pro and anti and if they research your profile they can look this up and it could affect whether they hire you or someone who agrees with their opinions.

2. Depends on where you are applying. For civilian jobs Cover letters shouldn't be more than a couple of paragraphs highlighting your achievements and how they will benefit the company. Your resume itself should be no more than 2 pages, again with skillset descriptions in depth and how they will help you help the company.

For government jobs on USAJobs.gov, length is the key. Theres no cover letter, but the longer your resume is the better. Mine was 9 pages. Reason being is you are scored on key words from the KSAs on the job description. The more key words and such you get, the more points you get. The more points you get, gets you closer to being on the top 30 list, from which the top 5 or so get interviews. That can actually change depending on how the job is posted. Sometimes facility heads are allowed to just pick someone from the top three and hire without an interview. Interviews consist of three people, usually the facility head, the dept head of where the job is and one other person of a higher grade than the job posting. They also score you and give their input. Still comes down to the facility head or dept head on who gets hired. The reason military is so important is it is an automatic 5 bonus points so if everyone scored perfect 100s on the resume, the military person got a 105. 110 if military disabled.


Link'din is an alternative facebook for me to find friends of mine. I really don't think it serves a practical purpose.

Monster was an excellent job source back when I was looking. I had 2 jobs from that site and still get the occasional recruiter phone call 10 years later.

Still think you should go back and get a masters or doctorate. My wife has a sociology degree and she was looking for jobs and even with her 4.0 GPA never saw an in-field job paying more than $30k at the extreme high end so she went and got her masters in something more useful and specialized.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
1: What Is a clean social media presence? I dont post drugs or alchohol. I never post that I do anything Illegal. But I post about video games and warhammer quite a bit. Can that be taken wrong?

Just manage your account so the more personal items are only visible to friends and family while visitors see "responsible" looking information.

2: How long should a resume be? I constantly hear 1 page. But my friend who is a hiring manager says the length doesnt matter. That you make it as long as possible.

I treat them the same as a power-point presentation:
Keep the points brief and interesting.
Each point you make should catch the eye and make the person curious to give you an interview to hear more.
How you saved money, made money, solved a difficult problem, get along with challenging customers...
Keep the most "interesting" information on the first page: your second page may not get read unless you interested them, so your friend is right that length does not matter after that.
I would suggest a cover page and 2 pages for the resume.
Going into 3 pages would be a bit long to slog through.

Just think if you were an HR person assigned to fill a specific job and had a stack of paper to go through: what would be worth considering?

<edit> I made a point of putting them in fancy transparent folders so at the very least they want the resume for the container...

 Ouze wrote:
Has anyone actually found LinkedIn to be in any way useful to their career?

I have gotten a new, better job out of it.

Edit: However, it is my ONLY social media with my name on it.

 Ouze wrote:
Has anyone actually found LinkedIn to be in any way useful to their career?

No. I got my job the old fashioned way, killing the previous person in this position in a duel.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Ok, So fromt what I can gather is
1: dont do temp jobs
2: get my resume proffesionally done
3: Apply to every job I see
4: Research the company.
5: Keep a Clean Social media presence
6: Be patient
7: Tap the friends I have.
A few other questions
1: What Is a clean social media presence? I dont post drugs or alchohol. I never post that I do anything Illegal. But I post about video games and warhammer quite a bit. Can that be taken wrong?
2: How long should a resume be? I constantly hear 1 page. But my friend who is a hiring manager says the length doesnt matter. That you make it as long as possible.

1. Nothing necessarily wrong with a temp job, first off. My company hires all of our hourly operators and our accountants through a temp to hire agency. It's a try out for both parties You wouldn't believe the people that don't last a day in manufacturing.
2. Don't know about professionally done. Just have someone that knows there is only 1 F in professional read it.
3. If it is in your field or similar to or sounds interesting.
4. Yes
5. No dick pics on facebook. If you follow "Big Bottom Girls that Like Hitler", you should probably drop that page...
6. Yes
7. Yes

Other
1. As an example, I set my Facebook permissions to friends only. Not even friends of friends can see anything beyond my picture, background, and a few things in my bio.
2. 1-2 pages for someone right out of school. For someone with 20 years experience in a technical/managerial field like me, it better be at least 2.

Honestly man the only thing I can say to you is good luck. I graduated with a BA in history and then went to college to be a paralegal. Aced the program, rocked my licensing exam, and couldn't find work. That was 2 years ago, and I have yet to find a job in my field. Whatever you decide to do, good luck.

 kronk wrote:
No. I got my job the old fashioned way, killing the previous person in this position in a duel.

Evil Kronk is that you?
The rest of your points I agree is the way to go.
I would add that learning some dueling techniques may be in order, if you meet anyone from a parallel universe.

@creeping-deth87: Yes, you want to get a job to do with what you went to school for, it hopefully gives you a leg-up in pay and capabilities.
HOWEVER, do not let it blind you to other opportunities. I never thought my Manufacturing Engineering from school would become Quality Engineering.
It just worked out that way.
Best words I ever used with employers is that "I learn fast." and "I adapt quickly." they are not necessarily the same thing.
"Good fit" are the nebulous words that HR likes to use.
How well will you get along with this boss? The co-workers? Could you work in this company or prove to be inflexible?
That usually seems to be the #1 concern because it means they will have to regretfully get rid of you which is HR's #1 nightmare: a poor hiring selection.

The world is littered with smart, well educated people that are inflexible, unpleasant, and unemployed.

Wait a minute, I remember a question in my interview:

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years time if we hired you?"

I pointed at my boss to be and said:

"In his job and him in a much better one."

It has been six years now... I have failed!

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
Honestly man the only thing I can say to you is good luck. I graduated with a BA in history and then went to college to be a paralegal. Aced the program, rocked my licensing exam, and couldn't find work. That was 2 years ago, and I have yet to find a job in my field. Whatever you decide to do, good luck.

Competition with all of them Everest College, daytime TV people must be rough