Tag Archive for 'job interviews'

Horror Story: No Means No

Published on November 15, 2010 in Horror Stories. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Once upon a time, there was a girl we’ll call Jodi. Jodi interviewed for a job at Company A and one at Company B. Luckily, she got offered both positions. She accepted Company B’s offer and then emailed Company A to let them know. Here’s Jodi’s email:

Dear [Male Exec] and [Female Exec],

Thank you again for the opportunity for the position at [Company A].
However, another opportunity has come along for me within my field of
study, and I have decided to accept it. Thank you again.

Sincerely,
[Jodi]

And here’s the response she got:

[Jodi],

I am literally speechless!  This is totally unprofessional and
demonstrates a lack of personal integrity.

Disappointed and disgusted,

[Male Exec]

Um, what exactly is wrong with Jodi’s email? She was professional and polite. Sometimes people interview for more than one job, male exec. Get over yourself.

Drinking + Job Advice = Brilliant

Published on September 14, 2010 in Survival Guide. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

If you don’t have a job, where do you spend your days? The only acceptable answers are “at home watching Judge Judy reruns and scouring online job ads” and “at the bar.” Now, you can make your bar time more productive. If you live in Germany, that is.

The Kindl Klause pub in southern Berlin noticed that many of their patrons were unemployed. So they started offering job advice to the bargoers. They have set up a desk, which is staffed by social workers between 2-5 PM every Friday. So you can get a little motivation with your beer. It’s an even better pairing than cheese.

Tip of the Week: Don’t Shoplift From Your Potential Future Employer

Published on July 28, 2010 in Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Here’s a hint for erstwhile job applicants: if you’re going to submit a resume somewhere, try not to submit a resume to a store you regularly shoplift from. A woman in Barrie, Ontario, applied to work at a clothing store. However, when she came in to interview, employees recognized her as the woman they’d seen on a security video of a shoplifter. Because her resume contained her full name, address, and phone number, it was pretty easy to find her and arrest her.

[Cross-posted at TheGloss]

How Not to Get a Job: Annoying Celebrities On Twitter

Published on July 19, 2010 in Survival Guide and Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I have a search box set up for “personal assistant” on the Twitter application I use. Sometimes, that search box turns up good, usable stuff, like this post. But about 99 percent of the tweets can be divided up into one of two categories:

  • People complaining that they have too much work to do and asking if anyone wants to be their unpaid personal assistant/driver/cook/nanny/some combination thereof; and
  • People tweeting at a particular celebrity and volunteering to be his or her personal assistant.

This post concerns the latter category. I won’t get into the fact that being a celebrity personal assistant is not really a glamorous job the way that people seem to think it is, because that’s a topic for another post or five. This is a post about how completely stupid it is to think that a celebrity will hire you as their personal assistant because you asked them to via Twitter. So here’s why:

  • You are not the first person who has ever thought of this. Some celebrities get dozens of tweets a day from people who seriously or half-seriously would like to be their PA.
  • If a celebrity needs an assistant, they will probably obtain one via some more reasonable way than responding to random tweets. Most celebrity assistants are hired through private staffing agencies or by referral. If you actually want to be a celebrity assistant, you should probably move to New York or LA and reach out to one of these agencies. If you really think contacting someone via Twitter is a good idea, then maybe you should at least tweet about your credentials and experience.
  • Many celebrities aren’t the ones updating their own Twitter accounts. There are definitely some celebrities, like Ashton Kutcher, who love Twitter and compose their own tweets. But there are plenty more who just use Twitter for publicity purposes or to promote whatever they’re working on, and often Twitter accounts for celebrities are run by publicists – or, wait for it – assistants. Here’s a hint: a celebrity’s assistant will probably not need to hire an assistant or appreciate your offer to replace them.
  • The internet is unreliable. Even if someone decided they were going to hire a person who tweeted at them, who would know if said person really existed or wasn’t crazy? No celebrity with any sense would hire a personal assistant without meeting them in person or having them go through various rounds of interviews.

That said, Twitter is not the only way that people try to get jobs as celebrities’ assistants. Any time I do a post relating to a celebrity looking for an assistant, I get several emails or comments from people who seem to think that I am personally hiring for the position. Some people even send me resumes with their private phone number and home address on them. So far, I haven’t published any of them, because I feel sorry for people who can’t tell the difference between an actual job ad and a website that regularly snarks on celebrities who abuse their assistants. But let this serve as a warning – if, for some reason, you are desperate to be slave labor for a famous person, please just call an agency, and leave me – and Twitter – out of it.

Links for the Weekend: Assistants Carrying Umbrellas

Published on July 16, 2010 in Week in Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
  • Is there such a thing as the “too casual” casual Friday? Sadly, the decision is not up to me. – New York Post
  • Crappy assistant task of the day: carrying Chace Crawford’s umbrella for him as he walks. Or maybe this is the best assistant task ever if Gossip Boys are your type. – DListed
  • What should you say to the coworker you’re crushing on at the office? Probably not “Hey, want to get fired for fraternizing?” – YourTango
  • The kickass Jen Dziura (I am biased because I’m her editor, but she really is awesome) points out that there are certain personality traits that count way more than anything on your resume. – TheGloss
  • Sometimes it is more stressful to get dressed for work than it is to actually work. Unless you are Miranda Priestly, obvs. – CollegeCandy

Inside An Audition for ‘The Apprentice’

Published on May 3, 2010 in Interview. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Ever wondered how they pick the people who end up on reality shows? Phil Wallace, a recent USC business school graduate, independent sports consultant,  and founder of AwardsPicks.com (also, full disclosure: he’s my cousin), made it through several audition rounds for the next season of The Apprentice. After doing several celebrity seasons, the show is returning to its regular-people format next year and will focus on people who have been affected by the recession. Phil sat down with STA and talked about his experience auditioning for the show.

  • I heard about the show from a couple of people, and someone contacted me about auditioning. The Apprentice is totally my guilty pleasure TV – I watch the regular and celebrity editions, and I always thought I could do really well on the show. I spoke to a casting agent on the phone for ten or fifteen minutes – she asked about my work history and my salary history. She told me that I could either do a home video or an in-person interview next, so I decided to do the in-person tryout. It was at a hotel in L.A. near Universal. She told me she would put me on a VIP list so I wouldn’t have to stand in line. She also said that I was trying too hard to impress her and to remember it’s a recession-themed show, so you need a downtrodden story.
  • LA was the fifth city they did auditions in. One of the other cities was Detroit, so I am pretty sure they wanted a laid-off autoworker. They also did New York, Atlanta, and Las Vegas.
  • The application was pretty short, just one page. It asked for work and salary history, and a proudest accomplishment. There was also a part where they asked you to tell something embarrassing about yourself. It also asked why you thought you would make a good Apprentice.
  • I got there at 7:30 AM, and auditions were supposed to start at nine. The line was down the street. I’d guess there were 400-500 people there. There were people who had camped out overnight or arrived early in the morning. Because I was on the list they moved me to the front of the line. I was with some people who arrived at 5 AM.  There were a bunch of people in the VIP group from Pink Slip Mixers – they’re a networking group for people who just got laid off. Most of the people in my group were from Pink Slip Mixers.
  • I was in a room with six other people. They had us fill out our applications in advance, so you handed the application to a casting agent, who then put you in a boardroom-type setting. The agent’s name was Gina. She sat on the other side of table from us, and asked, “Why are we in a recession?” Everyone started talking over each other. No one was moderating. It was a mess. Because our group was all from the VIP group, people who really wanted to be on the show, it was insane. Everyone recognized they needed to speak up and everyone realized they needed to shine, so it was bound to be just a giant shouting match.
  • It was six of us guys and one woman. She has her own online talk show, and was able to take control of the room a couple of times. There were moments where one person talked and everyone listened and some where we [informally] split into smaller groups of three or four and just talked with the people near us. We naturally retreated a little bit and talked to people who were sitting close by, since we were all talking over each other. One guy decided to be “the questioner,” so he just started to ask questions. It actually really helped, because we were disorganized. The casting agent ignored us and read our applications the whole time.
  • Most of the people were middle-aged. One guy was in his 30s and had been a franchisee for a fast-food chain and said he just got a job at McDonald’s. I don’t know if he meant managing another franchise or flipping burgers. He and I went back and forth a bit because he wanted to blame the recession on Bill Clinton and I wanted to blame it on Goldman Sachs.
  • This went on for about 20 minutes. Then Gina stopped us and asked some people who they would fire and some who they would hire. The Clinton guy said he would fire me. She asked why, and he said “I didn’t like his points.” She asked which points, and he finally admitted he couldn’t remember. When it was my turn, I said I wouldn’t fire the other guy just because we disagreed politically. I was sort of trying to defend myself in case the casting agent actually thought there was legitimacy to the other guy wanting to fire me. I said I would fire a guy who was also named Phil because there couldn’t be two Phils on the show. In seriousness, though, I said that he was the guy who had a lot of experience – probably the most experience, he had been a VP of Operations somewhere – but didn’t speak up that much.
  • Gina wrote some numbers on our applications and said she’d call within the week if we were chosen for an individual interview. I never got a call, so that was the end of that.

advice from the person interviewing you

Published on December 29, 2009 in Survival Guide and Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

In the semi-regular feature here at STA, “The Other Side of the Aisle,” bosses get a chance to talk about work from their perspective. Here, one boss (we’ll call her “Cheryl”) talks about her experiences interviewing potential assistants and gives helpful pointers about what bosses want people to say or do in interviews.

__________________

As someone who interviews 15-20 people a year, mostly for part time admin positions, I see a variety of folks come through my office: some who think they have found the perfect job, others who are just simply in need of anything that will keep them busy or pay the bills. The following are a variety of patterns I have seen over and over again – they are truly meant to help people like you who are on the search. It may sound strict, but when you get over 200 applicants for one position, it’s the little things that stick out. Here are some simple tips that anyone can use to set themselves apart.

If you read this and these things sounds super crazy obvious, all the power to you- you’re probably already getting to the top of the resume piles!

DO: Follow the instructions on the job posting.

AND: If it says no calls, please don’t call. Even if you are super-qualified and experienced, it will likely get your name on a list of people who won’t get interviews because why bother interviewing someone who can’t follow directions?

DO: Show up on time for the interview.

AND: If you get to the area early, grab a coffee nearby or take some time for yourself to transition into “interview mode.” More than 15 minutes early is overdoing it – it’s tacky and if you’re interviewing at a small office, your presence can actually be awkward for those who are about to meet with you. If the folks interviewing you don’t jump to take you early, especially if they are just finishing with someone else, don’t act disappointed. I suggest waiting patiently with a magazine in the lobby or simply reviewing your resume. Yes, excessive text messaging will give the impression that this is what you will do with all of your in between time, or when the boss isn’t looking.

Continue reading ‘advice from the person interviewing you’

jimmy fallon needs an intern

Published on September 22, 2009 in Interns and Video. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon needs an intern. But instead of sifting through boring applications and reading countless resumes, he’s decided to make the search a little more interesting. Potential interns have to submit a video of them saying nothing but “Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there.” Watch as some of the applicants get super creative with the contest:

anna wintour’s daughter is unemployed

Published on September 15, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Bee Shaffer, the daughter of Vogue editrice/notorious boss Anna Wintour, is just like a regular person! She may get to join Mom in the front rows of fashion shows, but she took a less predictable route by studying theater at Columbia University. Now that Bee is out of school, she’s applying for jobs – and, oddly, hasn’t had much luck. Yes, it turns out that the recession affects even the daughters of legendary magazine editors. According to the New York Daily News:

The 22-year-old former Teen Vogue contributing editor went on a staggering 24 interviews since graduating from Columbia in May – all of them unsuccessful.

Part of me wants to be all bitter and “well, I sent out easily 200 resumes without getting a single interview, so suck it up already,” but part of me is also like “man, if it’s hard for this girl, imagine how bad it is for everyone else.” I think it’s safe to say that no one likes the job search process, especially when it’s your first job. Going on dozens of interviews and not having any of them pan out is embarrassing and disheartening. [I think Post Grad covered that fairly well.] Repeated job rejection getting to be a universal human experience, and that’s pretty depressing.

So, good luck, Bee, and I admire that you’re choosing a career other than the one where it would be super easy for you.

in the future, we will all do this

Published on September 3, 2009 in Junk Drawer. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I’ve seen enough people who get jobs thank to stunts – starting websites, entering karaoke contests – that I’m starting to think writing resumes and actually going to job interviews is about to go the way of the dodo bird or Lehman Brothers.

A 23-year-old recent college graduate in London, Alex Kearns, was frustrated by his job search not going anywhere. Kearns, who majored in the super-practical fields of French and Italian (hey, I minored in French and am not hating, but I was willing to acknowledge my field of study wasn’t necessarily the one most sought-after in the job market), decided to take matters into his own hands. He printed a huge copy of his CV and held it up in London’s busy Trafalgar Square. The gambit caught the attention of the International Business Development Group, who offered him an interview and eventually a job:

He has now begun working as a sales executive at their London offices, selling consultancy services to companies in the UK and abroad.

His stunt also brought offers of an interview with another company and work experience in an advertising firm.

Look, I say good for Alex. The thing is, though, the more people who pull stunts like this and get jobs from them, the more likely we are to see hordes of people trying to do the same thing. Personally, if Union Square starts filling up with recent college graduates standing around holding up copies of their resumes, it’s going to get really old really quickly. How long can gambits like this work before people become immune to them? I still think it’s worth perfecting the art of resume-writing.