qotd: keywords

[aroraborealis]

What thing did you say that you think is the key to you getting a great job (either your current one or one in the past)?

Comments

[yagagriswold.livejournal.com]

After walking in on a former Board President sitting on the floor, where she was trying to sort through the aftermath of an Executive Director leaving in a huff:

"How can I help?"

[bluegargantua]

Oh I've got the skills for this position...

...ON MY RESUME!
Tom

p.s. I dunno. I think I answered their brain teasers pretty well. With me it's mostly an on-going charm kind of thing and not any specific thing I said.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

"I don't know the answer to that. Let me explain to you how I'm going to get it."

[ectropy.livejournal.com]

"I created the entire back-end automation system from scratch, in three years, by myself. And they still use it today."

[regyt.livejournal.com]

"At that price point, you're going to get crap or you're going to get new. I'm new. That's your better alternative."

"Mind rephrasing? I can't tell if I don't know the answer, or if it's really just that I'm not understanding the question. Thanks!"

CEO, looking over my rather unusual resume: "You get a lot of shit done!" Me: "I like getting a lot of shit done!"

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Well, in my current job, it was "dbang referred me", but that isn't generalizable. ;-)

Previous job, it was probably, "Oh, interesting question! I have no idea! Let's find out!" during my demo teach.

[dpolicar]

Probably many repetitions of "Oh! Ah, OK, then I'm completely wrong. What's actually true is X, Y, Z. Like you said. Cool. Never mind then."

It often astonishes me how much more impressed people are when I'm wrong and accept correction quickly and easily than they are when I'm right in the first place.

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

I don't think what I have said has made a material difference to me getting a job or not. My favorite job (which is also my current job), I came out of the interview nearly crying with how badly I was sure I had done in the interview.

But people in the office already knew me and knew my work.

[randysmith]

It wasn't a keyword--it was one point where the interviewer asked me a question, and my response was "I'm guessing you're wanting me to think about this design alternative." followed by a compare-and-contrast assessment of the two design alternatives, culminating in agreeing that his implied suggestion was better, and shifting my brainstorm focus.

[lcohen]

"my checkbook is balanced."

[arachne8x.livejournal.com]

Going with my gut after meeting my future boss and deciding that the other things that were telling me to skip this one weren't important if he was as cool as he seemed. He is, and it was the right move.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

After I solved the hypothetical problem (reducing manufacturing costs and thus creating efficiencies at several production facilities), I then talked about the problems that my solutions would create, and had ideas about how to deal with those.

[veek.livejournal.com]

I just looked back over my job talk from two years ago, and concluded that I have no idea what one thing it might've been. From the comments I got after that talk, what impressed people was how I applied my contextual knowledge (having been one of the people who made the repository go) to the university's, and the Libraries', strategic plan. Also, the fact that I answered questions by engaging the audience in conversation, not talking at them.

[pir.livejournal.com]

Being the right kind of geek, (sometimes) knowing the right people to find or get recommended for the job and being able to answer awkward deeply technical interview questions while also being able to talk reasonably with an interviewer and be somewhat amusing.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

For my interview at TravelCLICK, I was asked what (programming) objects I would use to write a program to rank poker hands. Afterwards, the interviewer told me, "It's a privilege to see your mind at work."

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. I found out after getting to grad school that I had far less relevant experience than most of my cohort. I think there are not a lot of people who want to work on my particular (fairly obscure) niche, and that my advisor may have lobbied for me for that reason, although I also have reasons to think that may not have been true. I also think that my GRE scores were higher than average, and that probably helped to make up for the lack of relevant coursework.

[omnia-mutantur.livejournal.com]

Some variation on "I'm extremely good at framing questions in a way that will get me the information I need to move forward."

[trom.livejournal.com]

I said I was smart and was comfortable working from home.

[spike.livejournal.com]

"This has been great, but I'm resigning to go start a new company."

That usually works pretty well for me.

One word?

[drwex]

Yes.

That is, when asked can I do X, yes. Do I know how to solve Y? Yes. Can I handle Z? Yes.

My view is that people hire folk to solve problems that aren't presently being solved. I want to be that person's problem-solver.

This requires somewhat careful selection of where I go to interview, in that I ought to understand their problems before I go in, and I ought to be damned truthful about when I say "yes". Usually after I say "yes" I try to back it up with a concrete example from my past where I did in fact do something reasonably close to what they're looking for.