Chat Thread

I feel like anything science-related is easy job-wise.  There always seems to be a large number of vacant lab assistant positions.

Glen Miller wrote:I feel like anything science-related is easy job-wise.  There always seems to be a large number of vacant lab assistant positions.

I don't know how it is in the states but over here, only the best science students get jobs. Need to do engineering or medicine to turn on easy mode for getting jobs.

I'm kind of nervous about interviewing tbh. I'm not a very confident talker.

SBSP wrote:I'm kind of nervous about interviewing tbh. I'm not a very confident talker.

The interviewers will try and make you calmer but sadly, it takes practice to get good at communicating ideas, try and see if your uni has any interview workshops, those are helpful.


Also if you are applying at a big company, google for interview tips from previous people. I know a few people who studied for months to get internships at microsoft. (but generally speaking, these people fuck up the second round interviews)

what do you do NewZealandGangster?

El_indian wrote:what do you do NewZealandGangster?

I pimp hoes in otara.

dat engineering degree.

I feel like a big part of the interview is making them like you. If they are going to have to work with you, they want to hire someone they think they'll get along with.

Zzonked wrote:I feel like a big part of the interview is making them like you. If they are going to have to work with you, they want to hire someone they think they'll get along with.

Agreed.  I'm not an overly impressive or confident speaker, but I feel as if I have made it at least appear that I'm easygoing and genuine, so I've been fine.

SRST, you go to one of the best schools in the country, your grades are probably very good, so you will do well.

I've decided I'm going to apply to some copywriting jobs. The skills they require are almost exactly the skills I have and the qualifications specifically say English. A couple of guys on my course were already working in that field. The starting pay isn't fantastic, but just anything to start is ideal for me. I talked to my mum about it who has a lot of experience getting people jobs and she thinks I would probably get one doing that quite easy.

It sounds quite fun, you basically do creative writing for big companies.

Anyone watch Bojack Horseman? The following video gave me strong feels.

I followed the Zzonked model in my first assessment centre. I decided to be a nice diplomatic person, partly because that's the real me, partly because I thought I'd come across as a better team player. I was sent home before lunch along with the 20 others who had the same idea while 6 guys who behaved like ResurrectionRooney sailed through. My second assessment centre I decided I was taking all these cunts down, I dominated the group exercises shooting everyone else's ideas down and strongly arguing that they were wrong because I didn't give a fuck about coming across as an arsehole. The next day I was offered the job having scored as excellent in all categories. Yesterday my line manager's boss approached me and told me that she had been at the assessment centred and insisted I be brought into her team because of how great I was.

Bottom line is it's a competition, the most important competition you'll ever participate in. The people you're there with aren't your mates, they're your enemies who are trying to stop you getting a job you really want, stopping you from attaining financial security, so they can have it for themselves. You don't win important competitions by being a nice guy.

ResurrectionRooney wrote:I followed the Zzonked model in my first assessment centre.  I decided to be a nice diplomatic person, partly because that's the real me, partly because I thought I'd come across as a better team player.  I was sent home before lunch along with the 20 others who had the same idea while 6 guys who behaved like ResurrectionRooney sailed through.  My second assessment centre I decided I was taking all these cunts down, I dominated the group exercises shooting everyone else's ideas down and strongly arguing that they were wrong because I didn't give a fuck about coming across as an arsehole.  The next day I was offered the job having scored as excellent in all categories.  Yesterday my line manager's boss approached me and told me that she had been at the assessment centred and insisted I be brought into her team because of how great I was.

Bottom line is it's a competition, the most important competition you'll ever participate in.  The people you're there with aren't your mates, they're your enemies who are trying to stop you getting a job you really want, stopping you from attaining financial security, so they can have it for themselves.  You don't win important competitions by being a nice guy.

This happened.

Every word of that is true.

I remember him posting something like that before. So unless it's a deep seeded lie that he's even fooled himself into believing I think it's the truth.

Well clearly it depends on the kind of interview you're having, obviously you need to be competent and if you're in a group interview you need to make sure that comes across.

Scott_LFC wrote:

ResurrectionRooney wrote:I followed the Zzonked model in my first assessment centre.  I decided to be a nice diplomatic person, partly because that's the real me, partly because I thought I'd come across as a better team player.  I was sent home before lunch along with the 20 others who had the same idea while 6 guys who behaved like ResurrectionRooney sailed through.  My second assessment centre I decided I was taking all these cunts down, I dominated the group exercises shooting everyone else's ideas down and strongly arguing that they were wrong because I didn't give a fuck about coming across as an arsehole.  The next day I was offered the job having scored as excellent in all categories.  Yesterday my line manager's boss approached me and told me that she had been at the assessment centred and insisted I be brought into her team because of how great I was.

Bottom line is it's a competition, the most important competition you'll ever participate in.  The people you're there with aren't your mates, they're your enemies who are trying to stop you getting a job you really want, stopping you from attaining financial security, so they can have it for themselves.  You don't win important competitions by being a nice guy.

This happened.

He forgot the part where he got given a hundred dollar note at the end of it. Everyone also got up and starting clapping when he got offered because of how great he was.

Zzonked wrote:Well clearly it depends on the kind of interview you're having, obviously you need to be competent and if you're in a group interview you need to make sure that comes across.

The fuck is a group interview anyway? Seems really fucked up way to hire people. Normally for programming jobs, we have two interviews (or an interview is split into two parts), the first part is to make sure you are normal person and can hold a conversation. The second part is the technical part where they make sure you know what you are talking about. I figured all interviews for good jobs were like that.

Keyser Söze wrote:I remember him posting something like that before. So unless it's a deep seeded lie that he's even fooled himself into believing I think it's the truth.

Even if at was all made up (and it isn't) the moral of the story is still true. There was never a tortoise that beat a hare in a race, but you still need to avoid complacency to be successful.

Zzonked wrote:Well clearly it depends on the kind of interview you're having, obviously you need to be competent and if you're in a group interview you need to make sure that comes across.

To a certain extent it does, but being a nice guy will get you fuck all at any major company, its not important. The marketplace is too competitive to let them take that into account. Demonstrating your competence relative to your peers is everything.

I think you're exaggerating a fair bit here. You've been to more interviews than me so maybe I'll come back in a few weeks and agree with you. But right now I don't agree. I never said 'nice guy' with all the connotations that has. Being competent is important, but so is being personable. My mum and my sister have hired a lot of people and talk about it sometimes, I know for a fact my sister didn't hire someone about two weeks ago because he called himself 'ambitious' and that meant he acted like an arsehole.

Childish Logic wrote:The fuck is a group interview anyway? Seems really fucked up way to hire people. Normally for programming jobs, we have two interviews (or an interview is split into two parts), the first part is to make sure you are normal person and can hold a conversation. The second part is the technical part where they make sure you know what you are talking about. I figured all interviews for good jobs were like that.

Many employers hold group interviews specifically for positions where you must communicate with others and work as a team. Like you said with the 'first interview', it's just to ensure that the person is normal and can hold their own in the workplace.

vel wrote:

Childish Logic wrote:The fuck is a group interview anyway? Seems really fucked up way to hire people. Normally for programming jobs, we have two interviews (or an interview is split into two parts), the first part is to make sure you are normal person and can hold a conversation. The second part is the technical part where they make sure you know what you are talking about. I figured all interviews for good jobs were like that.

Many employers hold group interviews specifically for positions where you must communicate with others and work as a team. Like you said with the 'first interview', it's just to ensure that the person is normal and can hold their own in the workplace.

Weird, i've never heard of anything like that.

Zzonked wrote:I think you're exaggerating a fair bit here. You've been to more interviews than me so maybe I'll come back in a few weeks and agree with you. But right now I don't agree. I never said 'nice guy' with all the connotations that has. Being competent is important, but so is being personable. My mum and my sister have hired a lot of people and talk about it sometimes, I know for a fact my sister didn't hire someone about two weeks ago because he called himself 'ambitious' and that meant he acted like an arsehole.

I wouldn't put much faith in that. Most people wouldn't admit to their family members that they give great jobs to competent arseholes and destroy the dreams of nice guys. People like to convince themselves they're doing good things. If your sister really turns away competent staff because they're ambitious arseholes she should be fired.

Childish Logic wrote:

vel wrote:
Many employers hold group interviews specifically for positions where you must communicate with others and work as a team. Like you said with the 'first interview', it's just to ensure that the person is normal and can hold their own in the workplace.

Weird, i've never heard of anything like that.

From my experiences (and what I've heard from friends) group interviews are quite common for entry-level positions where there is little technical experience required, just the right personality to excel in the environment. I had a job as a "Market Research Interviewer" (aka call centre agent but for radio and television ratings, not sales) and our interview was essentially six people reading from a script and if you could do it well without any errors, you were hired.

This was the job description -- as you can see, there are no actual qualifications needed for the job: http://ca.indeed.com/cmp/Numeris/jobs/Market-Research-Interviewer-a56587e29c17f410

Edit: The job description might have changed since I applied a long time ago, this was posted 29 days ago but it is the same company and same role.

ResurrectionRooney wrote:

Zzonked wrote:I think you're exaggerating a fair bit here. You've been to more interviews than me so maybe I'll come back in a few weeks and agree with you. But right now I don't agree. I never said 'nice guy' with all the connotations that has. Being competent is important, but so is being personable. My mum and my sister have hired a lot of people and talk about it sometimes, I know for a fact my sister didn't hire someone about two weeks ago because he called himself 'ambitious' and that meant he acted like an arsehole.

I wouldn't put much faith in that.  Most people wouldn't admit to their family members that they give great jobs to competent arseholes and destroy the dreams of nice guys.  People like to convince themselves they're doing good things. If your sister really turns away competent staff because they're ambitious arseholes she should be fired.

You think every interview results with the best candidate getting the job? You need to join the real world here, it is not like that. You're advocating the other side of the 'nice guy' approach. Maybe being too passive can cost you but you can easily be too aggressive too. There is a middle ground where you can be a normal human being and not a contestant on the apprentice.

Zzonked wrote:

ResurrectionRooney wrote:

I wouldn't put much faith in that.  Most people wouldn't admit to their family members that they give great jobs to competent arseholes and destroy the dreams of nice guys.  People like to convince themselves they're doing good things. If your sister really turns away competent staff because they're ambitious arseholes she should be fired.

You think every interview results with the best candidate getting the job? You need to join the real world here, it is not like that. You're advocating the other side of the 'nice guy' approach. Maybe being too passive can cost you but you can easily be too aggressive too. There is a middle ground where you can be a normal human being and not a contestant on the apprentice.

Not every interview, but most interviews in competitive marketplaces, natural selection demands it. A company that frequently hired incompetent staff because they're nice would be destroyed by its competitors.

vel wrote:

Childish Logic wrote:

Weird, i've never heard of anything like that.

From my experiences (and what I've heard from friends) group interviews are quite common for entry-level positions where there is little technical experience required, just the right personality to excel in the environment. I had a job as a "Market Research Interviewer" (aka call centre agent but for radio and television ratings, not sales) and our interview was essentially six people reading from a script and if you could do it well without any errors, you were hired.

This was the job description -- as you can see, there are no actual qualifications needed for the job: http://ca.indeed.com/cmp/Numeris/jobs/Market-Research-Interviewer-a56587e29c17f410

Edit: The job description might have changed since I applied a long time ago, this was posted 29 days ago but it is the same company and same role.

Strange, i haven't heard/seen anything like that before but then again the first real job i had was for a job that required certain qualifications.

Zzonked wrote:

ResurrectionRooney wrote:

I wouldn't put much faith in that.  Most people wouldn't admit to their family members that they give great jobs to competent arseholes and destroy the dreams of nice guys.  People like to convince themselves they're doing good things. If your sister really turns away competent staff because they're ambitious arseholes she should be fired.

You think every interview results with the best candidate getting the job? You need to join the real world here, it is not like that. You're advocating the other side of the 'nice guy' approach. Maybe being too passive can cost you but you can easily be too aggressive too. There is a middle ground where you can be a normal human being and not a contestant on the apprentice.

"best candidate"

That can mean anything, companies want someone who can fit in and get the job done.

For graduate positions group interviews are extremely common if not universal. I had one interview in February where there was no group component, but it was for an internal position in my company at the time and they obviously didn't have much of a recruitment budget.

NewZealandGangster do you code?

Yeah i do El.

ResurrectionRooney wrote:For graduate positions group interviews are extremely common if not universal.  I had one interview in February where there was no group component, but it was for an internal position in my company at the time and they obviously didn't have much of a recruitment budget.

Must be a big thing in the UK then. Its not here.

Cool. What are you working on?