Job Hunting - Part 3 - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Okay, let's still say that you're not a consultant and that you don't ever plan to be. Let's say instead that you are seeking employment. Having once worked at an employment agency, I have written the following advice to you from my former perspective at an employment agency:

Honesty: 

The Carol Burnett Show had a recurring character that was portrayed by Harvey Korman called "Tom Truth". This was a guy who could not help himself except to tell the absolute and total truth of whatever situation was at hand, no matter how embarrassing it might be for whoever was nearby.

When you come to me for an interview, you had better be prepared to be a "Tom Truth" because if you aren't I will find you out.

Keep your resume honest. Consider the following almost actual scenario:

Me:       So, tell me something about your recent work.

Him:     Oh yes! Well, I designed a 16-bit, successive approximation digital to analog

            converter with synchronous QAM and variable modulo indexing.

Me:       Can you explain that a little, maybe sketch it out for me?

Him:     Uhmm, okay. (A pencil comes out and a sketch is begun.)

            Let's see. It had an integrator and ..........

This situation is not fabricated. I've embellished the techno-babble a little, but It really happened.

It shortly became clear that the resume was a lie. This guy might have been in a room somewhere where somebody else did a sophisticated design and maybe a few words were overheard, but the resume's stated experiences were false.

I simply cannot overstate how angry I become at attempted deceptions and I always find them out by asking for explanations of personal efforts.

I may or may not be acquainted with the technology under discussion, but I am not stupid. I can be taught and I expect a legitimate candidate to be able to teach me, if that's what it takes, to explain his/her experiences.

More to come? Maybe.

Comments

[Dr. Walter H. Delashmit]

Good situation John.

Walter H. Delashmit, Ph.D., PE

[chin]

John,
How would you handle such a question like why you get fired or terminated by your previous employer? If you tell the true that your ex is technically incompletent and you don't follow his(her) direction not to tell the whole truth. I think you may have problem of landing the job either.

[John Dunn]

"Why did you get fired?" would seem like a leading and hostile question. I would wonder about the potential employer's motives for phrasing a question that way.

Asking "Why did you leave your last place of employment?" or perhaps "Why were you laid off from your last place of employment?" would be more appropriate at least in my own mind.

The answer you give to such a question should be based on something rational. For example, several times I got laid off (fired) when the company for which I was working got into financial trouble. I also got laid off from a company when my boss became medically incapacitated and had to cancel the plans for which he'd hired me.

One company laid me off when they lost a military contract and then (Wouldn't you know it.) they called me back when they got a different one.

Of course, you would never want to say something derogatory about a former employer.

[Larry Rachman]

Very slightly off topic, but worth telling. As an interviewer, I once asked the question "Why are you planning to leave your present employer?"

The response was "Well, after the second FBI raid, I felt it would be better for my career to work elsewhere."

I couldn't fault that logic.

Great series of articles, John; despite everything you say seeming obvious, much of it is ignored far too often.