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Non-Music Shit / Re: Job interview tips?
« on: September 05, 2012, 02:00:34 PM »
I'm kinda going through this right now myself. Job I've had for half a decade is layin' everybody off so back into the muck. I'm rusty as hell now (just got edged out for a sweet new job by some other chump, next attempt is tomorrow AM), but last time I went through this I got 3 competing offers and felt like the man, so I'm trying* to emulate what I did then. Those posts above cover the true bulk of it but here's my 4 cents:
1) Learn as much about the position as possible before you go in (har, har) -- Sometimes different things about the job are posted on different sites, so if you can sleuth out other postings you might get little nuggets that can help you be more prepared in what specific skills to emphasize / questions to ask. If you can learn anything about the people you'll be talking to, all the better.
2) It sounds stupid, but some of those books with names like "Common Interview Questions" can be really helpful. At least it was for me. Didn't go through it page by page, but tried to hit the themes they talked about in there and made myself think up solid responses / examples. Put the book aside and then browsed it again to refresh my mind. Even when the interview questions I got were different, it kinda had my mind ready to play that retarded game. I'm sure the internet has tons of these too, my wife's Mom just happened to give her a book that was handy to give me a breadth of topics to cover.
3) Also, if there's technical stuff you can bone up, take the time to do it. I'm guessing that w/ nursing it's a pretty huge range, so if you can figure out some technical stuff specific to the position and refresh yourself as much as possible on it, it can definitely help you feel less stressed going into it, even if the stuff doesn't come up.
4) Mostly, what 2 Cold sez: Practice. I used to practice music, and felt a sense of competence in my playing that was kinda nice. In the years that I've stopped I've been forced into a sad, grimy world of "basement amateurism". It is the same deal with these. My initial interviews upon exiting college were unabashed trainwrecks of awkwardness. I am still awkward, but now it's just my standard level of social awkwardness, more or less. There's always a chance you'll hook a hardass interviewer who for whatever reason wants to point out why you are wrong for the job before even reviewing your resume, but just roll with it and the other folks seem that much breezier in comparison.
I've never been super highly paid or anything, by my college background's standards, but I haven't totally flubbed it, either (yet). At any rate: Good luck!
*I've actually done very little of the above for my interview tomorrow, because I'm pretty disheartened by the whole rigamarole and haven't even tapped my severance or unemployment yet. So we'll see what "winging it" accomplishes... In general, though, I feel like I study more for job interviews than I did during my (admittedly mediocre) college career. But I guess that's 'cause they'll give me money whereas college always seemed more like a shitty societal strainer/salmon spawning stream.
1) Learn as much about the position as possible before you go in (har, har) -- Sometimes different things about the job are posted on different sites, so if you can sleuth out other postings you might get little nuggets that can help you be more prepared in what specific skills to emphasize / questions to ask. If you can learn anything about the people you'll be talking to, all the better.
2) It sounds stupid, but some of those books with names like "Common Interview Questions" can be really helpful. At least it was for me. Didn't go through it page by page, but tried to hit the themes they talked about in there and made myself think up solid responses / examples. Put the book aside and then browsed it again to refresh my mind. Even when the interview questions I got were different, it kinda had my mind ready to play that retarded game. I'm sure the internet has tons of these too, my wife's Mom just happened to give her a book that was handy to give me a breadth of topics to cover.
3) Also, if there's technical stuff you can bone up, take the time to do it. I'm guessing that w/ nursing it's a pretty huge range, so if you can figure out some technical stuff specific to the position and refresh yourself as much as possible on it, it can definitely help you feel less stressed going into it, even if the stuff doesn't come up.
4) Mostly, what 2 Cold sez: Practice. I used to practice music, and felt a sense of competence in my playing that was kinda nice. In the years that I've stopped I've been forced into a sad, grimy world of "basement amateurism". It is the same deal with these. My initial interviews upon exiting college were unabashed trainwrecks of awkwardness. I am still awkward, but now it's just my standard level of social awkwardness, more or less. There's always a chance you'll hook a hardass interviewer who for whatever reason wants to point out why you are wrong for the job before even reviewing your resume, but just roll with it and the other folks seem that much breezier in comparison.
I've never been super highly paid or anything, by my college background's standards, but I haven't totally flubbed it, either (yet). At any rate: Good luck!
*I've actually done very little of the above for my interview tomorrow, because I'm pretty disheartened by the whole rigamarole and haven't even tapped my severance or unemployment yet. So we'll see what "winging it" accomplishes... In general, though, I feel like I study more for job interviews than I did during my (admittedly mediocre) college career. But I guess that's 'cause they'll give me money whereas college always seemed more like a shitty societal strainer/salmon spawning stream.
