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How to get a job after you've been rejected

karenx.com

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Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#61

Post by collyw »

auctiontheory wrote: post #15
probablyfiction wrote: post #5

Job searching must be a nightmare if every application requires 100 hours of effort.

Application time is highly leveraged. Think about how many hours you'll spend at your job. It's worth putting in the time to pursue the right job .

How do you know it is the right job until you have worked there?

My current job has gone from being "great" to being "average". Down to a number of factors, none of which would have changed in the job description. In the beginning I was designing and building a database system. Now I am maintaining it, and getting a lot more donkey work to do (fixing excels, tidying up the data when something hasn't been entered correctly). The organization has grown - I started in an office with one other person. Great for being able to concentrate. Now we have 4 people in the office. This makes learning new stuff a lot more difficult, as there is a lot less quiet time. Got an extra boss, on top of my team leader. So rather than concentrate on a task until it is complete, I have two people changing my priorities for me, forcing me to switch tasks, and destroying my productivity.

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#62

Post by collyw »

rfnslyr wrote: post #39
stevenp wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? It's not trying too hard at all. If there's a job you really want and you're really passionate about getting it no matter what, you should do anything in your power to try to get it. If you fail, you can at least say that you tried as hard as you could and it just didn't work out.

How about instead of making pointless songs and trying to appear cute, have your expertise speak for you? 100 hours on shit not related to the job, yikes.

I reckon I could get the bulk of a side project done in that time.

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#63

Post by collyw »

mathattack wrote: post #13
bonemachine wrote: post #6

So I put in my 100 hours. I made a custom resume that I illustrated with little Evernote-style animals. I got out my guitar and sang a song about why I wanted to work there. I designed a custom iPhone app for them. Eww. Talk about trying way too hard.

There is a very fine line between "Trying very hard" and "Trying too hard." I've seen people try very hard for getting a job, and then stop right before the finish line. In this case, it's all about the outcome you want. It seems like she wound up with the right outcome (first choice school, eventually landing in the right job) so it worked out. I can't begin to describe how many people I've interviewed who had no id…

This is another thing I find strange in interviews. People are expected to know the ins and outs of the company. Fair enough if you are Apple or Google, but for anything smaller, why would you be expected to know much about the internals of a company.

So everyone just reads the webpage, the interviewer gets the answer he expected. Not sure how that makes the developer better at his job. Sure they took an hour or so to read the webpage, but does it in any way matter?

(Actually one company I applied to recently did the opposite - they had a fake webpage with minimal detail - I am not sure if this was to catch out bullshitters. Anyway, when asked what I knew about the company, I was honest and said I didn't know much. The job didn't go ahead in the end, though the guy said he was impressed with me at the end of the interview).

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#64

Post by collyw »

bicknergseng wrote: post #16
karenxcheng wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people have spent more than 100 hours on their job search, spread across hundreds of companies. The idea is - what if you focused on the ones you really want, and put more effort into those?

I'd wager this is ~90% of the problem with the modern day employment market. Monster et al made it too easy to apply for a job. Now every position gets 1000 applicants and every applicant applies for 100 jobs. The applicant thinks the more they apply, the better their chances. The employer thinks there is a cookie cutter, definition employee out there that will fit 110%, be overqualified, and willing to work for less…

There is probably some truth to this.

I graduated in the dot.com bust of 2001, and it took me over a year to get a permanent position. I applied for a lot of jobs in that time. There were two types of application - CV and cover letter. Of the graduate recruitment scheme form, full of crap like "give an example of when you showed leadership in difficult circumstances". Those forms would usually take the best part of a day to fill out. Whereas I could adjust my cover letter to maybe ten or more jobs in the same time period.

So I probably sent in 10-20 times more CV applications, but I got a far better response rate from the application forms. Maybe recruiters know this, and use it as an early for of filtering.

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#65

Post by jigneshg »

Skywing wrote: post #43

I think that the over all sentiment of this post is correct - hard work can pay off, and sometimes not in how you originally expected. I also recently applied to a company, Blizzard Entertainment in Austin, that I have wanted to work for since 1999. In 1999 I didn't program, but playing their games got me into programming (through reverse engineering the games) and I have wanted to work there ever since. I applied fo…

Skywing,

Thank you very much for sharing your experience and hard work for getting job in your dream company. I can understand the situation and moral after 2 rejection but i really appreciate your effort for working hard to achieve your dream.

You really put great example for other readers here looking for job and got rejection. We should always think positive and work on our weaknesses to get our dream job.

Thanks

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#66

Post by cookiecaper »

groby_b wrote: post #29

I'm going to state an uncomfortable truth. As somebody who has seen more than a few horrible interview failures - how about you put in a 100 hours of work before you come to the interview? Not for the company, but for yourself. And not doing fancy resumes with songs and pictures, but learning the basics of what you're actually doing? Because I'm fairly certain that most interview rejections are due to the fact that y…

Unfortunately it only becomes increasingly evident to me that most people don't make any decisions based on merit. The dog and pony show is much more important than knowing your stuff because honestly, most people don't know anything well enough to know if you know your stuff or not anyway.

If your benefit is dependent on any level of critical analysis, you've already lost. Learn to create a positive emotional response in people. Don't rely on their ability to rationally function.

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#67

Post by vinceguidry »

groby_b wrote: post #29

I'm going to state an uncomfortable truth. As somebody who has seen more than a few horrible interview failures - how about you put in a 100 hours of work before you come to the interview? Not for the company, but for yourself. And not doing fancy resumes with songs and pictures, but learning the basics of what you're actually doing? Because I'm fairly certain that most interview rejections are due to the fact that y…

Don't argue with success. It just makes you look like an idiot.

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#68

Post by jelloPuddin »

ra3 wrote: post #54
jelloPuddin wrote: post #21

Getting rejected from Palantir in late August was probably the best thing that could've happened to me. It was the first company that I interviewed at for a full time roll and it made me realize I wasn't ready. I spent the next 8 weeks coding for three hours a day and preparing for interviews. Ended up landing a great job that I'd take over Palantir any day.

>I spent the next 8 weeks coding for three hours a day and preparing for interviews. what were you doing the rest of the working day?

I'm still in college. I'd wake up at 6, eat and do some coding problems, go to class, come home, do homework, do phone interviews, code till midnight, and go to sleep.

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#69

Post by vitd »

I've got 2 stories which may or may not contradict this idea:

1) I interviewed a candidate for a junior position. He seemed qualified and came with a recommendation from someone I trust. But during the interview with one of the managers in our group, he indicated that something on his resume was not accurate. He didn't directly say that, and he tried to squirm around it by saying he really meant it in this way, etc. etc. The manager took this as a big red flag that this person was not trustworthy or at least not a good match for our group. He was later told he didn't get the position. At that point he started emailing me constantly asking what he could do to get in our good graces. I had to tell him that since I wasn't the hiring manager there was nothing I could do, and that he had really blown it because it basically looked like he was lying during his interview. Now every time there's an opening in our group he emails me looking to apply for the position. This has made me 10x less likely to consider him in the future. (Granted, he didn't do his "100 hours".) But being a pest is not going to get you anywhere. Just suck it up and move on. (I wish someone had taught me how to do that when I was younger. I often got the advice, but wasn't able to implement it, much to my detriment.)

2) At an earlier job, we had a candidate apply. I thought he was pretty good, but the boss was unimpressed. During the interview I asked him if he'd read some programming books that I had found useful. He hadn't heard of them. The boss rejected him and we hired someone else. A year later we had another position. He applied again, and this time he told me he had read the books and explained how he had put some of the ideas into practice. He didn't pester us for a job and he didn't act like a psycho or a douche. He just did the hard work of learning what he was missing. We hired him. Later I left that job and started my own company and hired him again. He was a good employee and good at what he did.

I can't imagine trying to work with the guy from #1 above on a daily basis after seeing him be so persistent and annoying. I would definitely not hire #1 even if he were the most qualified candidate because of how annoying his persistence was.

Re: How to get a job after you've been rejected

#70

Post by kstop »

collyw wrote: post #63
mathattack wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a very fine line between "Trying very hard" and "Trying too hard." I've seen people try very hard for getting a job, and then stop right before the finish line. In this case, it's all about the outcome you want. It seems like she wound up with the right outcome (first choice school, eventually landing in the right job) so it worked out. I can't begin to describe how many people I've interviewed who had no id…

This is another thing I find strange in interviews. People are expected to know the ins and outs of the company. Fair enough if you are Apple or Google, but for anything smaller, why would you be expected to know much about the internals of a company. So everyone just reads the webpage, the interviewer gets the answer he expected. Not sure how that makes the developer better at his job. Sure they took an hour or so t…

Then again there was the person (actually, over 6 years, 2) I interviewed who thought we were a completely different company in a different industry (we were a broadcaster, they'd confused us with a bank with a similar name). A bit of basic research is not a bad thing.

I'm more impressed with people (for web dev jobs anyway) who've taken the time to poke around on the site and figure out our technology choices, even at a pretty basic level.

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