How (Not) to Get a Job

I have interviewed many many job candidates over the years, and sometimes I'm just amazed at how clueless people can be about presenting themselves well in resumes, cover letters, interviews and even thank you notes. It's really hard to get a job these days, yet some people make it even harder for themselves!

I interviewed one person whose resume seemed a bit familiar. I'd already scheduled an interview with her by the time I dug out my files from a few years before and realized she'd applied for the same job before. And 3 years later, her resume was exactly the same, word for word. That was strike one-- even if your job is the same 3 years later, you should probably at least try to reformat your resume and freshen it up a little!
When she came in for the interview, I alluded to our having met 3 years earlier and asked her to fill me in on what had changed since then. She said "well, I got married!" She might have been trying to strike a conversational or humorous tone but it didn't seem that way-- it was as if she took my question 100% literally and answered me 100% literally that that was the only thing she could think of that had changed. You'd think she could at least come up with some vague statement about how she'd gained additional experience and learned a few things in 3 more years at the same job.
This person seemed to have no concept of how to sell herself in the interview. I was talking to her about a position that would be a somewhat different version of her current job, with a bit more responsibility and creativity involved as opposed to more administrative work. But her responses to my questions seemed to focus only on rote tasks, somehow, even when I was asking her very leading questions, almost trying to drag the right response out of her!
I asked her something along the lines of "if you didn't have to spend half your time doing X, how would you approach the Y part of your job differently?" The right answer would have been something like "The Y part of my job is really interesting, and I have lots of ideas on how to do it better. If I didn't have to worry about X, I could do Y much more proactively and at a higher level of quality." Yet her response was "Gee, it would be great not to have to spend as much time on X. Then I'd be able to respond to emails and questions the same day instead of a few days later." Lame.
I told this candidate that I would be making a decision within the next week because I needed someone to start quickly. I never got a thank you email or note after the interview, but about 3 weeks later she emailed me saying she wanted to "check in" to see where things stood. By then, the person who got the job had started.

And on the subject of thank you notes: I know some people say it has to be handwritten and mailed. I personally prefer the immediacy of email. But either way, give it some substance. I've gotten notes that just said "thanks for meeting with me. I enjoyed our conversation." This tells me nothing about whether the candidate has engaged with the job and is interested in it-- it's just a lazy way of fulfilling an obligation. But I've also gotten great thank you notes that showed that the candidate really listened during the interview. I like to be very clear with people on what I see as their strong points for a job and where I think they'd have a steep learning curve. The smart candidates pay attention to what they think I see as their liabilities, and try to address my concerns by pointing out things they might not have thought to say in the interview, or re-emphasizing other strengths that might overcome my reservations. It's not just a "thanks for your time," it's a way of saying "after hearing more about the job, I really want it and this is why I think I can do it well."

But the best candidates also don't overstate their abilities. I liked this post on Lifehacker about avoiding grandiose claims in a cover letter, which applies during the interview and in thank you notes too. Highlight your strengths, but don't go crazy saying you're the best. And if you've had 3 or 4 years of experience as an assistant, don't claim that your "vast knowledge of the industry" will be an asset to me-- I don't see how anyone can really have "vast knowledge" of anything in just a few years! And LISTEN during the interview-- don't keep interrupting the interviewer as they try to tell you about the job and draw out your responses to it. I've had people who barely let me get a word in because they were so busy telling me they could do a great job and had all the skills I'd need. One person actually did seem like the perfect fit for the job and was almost over-qualified, but the inability to listen was a deal-breaker for me.

And one more thing: be available. Like it or not, most people now have home computers, smartphones, and access to the internet pretty much everywhere they go. (And if you're going to Outer Mongolia or some other place where you don't have it, leave an out of office message that says so.) I invited a candidate to come in for an interview, and pointed out that I was trying to schedule interviews in a fairly short window of time. I never heard back from him until about 3 weeks later, and his excuse was that she'd been traveling on business and then on vacation. If you want to check out for 3 weeks and not read any email, fine, but you shouldn't expect a job interview to be waiting for you when you come back.

Spending for Love

Does love make you spend money? I was thinking about this today as I returned from lunch with a bag full of largely unnecessary items. My Sweetie broke a glass measuring cup the other day, so I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to purchase a new one. While I was there, I remembered that Sweetie also wanted something for spraying on olive oil (theoretically, you end up using less than if you brush or pour it on, so it's supposed to be healthier). So I bought one of these, or something like it, for about $10. While I was at the register, I saw they had some little padlocks and since Sweetie just joined a gym and needs one, I bought one. I also managed to grab some of those little single-use packs of KrazyGlue, but that's for fixing my own broken watchband, not for Sweetie.

Sometimes it's just more fun to buy little everyday, non-occasion gifts for someone you love. If it was me who wanted the olive oil sprayer, I'd probably have thought about it a lot more, and perhaps experimented with some sort of cheapo spray bottle instead of buying this gimmicky one-- but since it was for Sweetie, I wasn't being that picky. Buying things for Sweetie activates my generosity, while in other situations, I feel very stingy. My usual rules of frugal, deliberative comparison shopping fly out the window when I'm shopping for sweetie, but when I'm shopping for myself, I tend to be very disciplined and often find it hard to commit to buying something.

Do you ever find your spending habits change when you're buying for a loved one?