Chez Louise - job_hunting

I got a job!!

noreply@blogspirit.com (Louise) — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 19:39:23 -0500

I can hardly believe this, since I've been looking for so long, but I start work on Monday! I did two interviews with this company back in late November/early December, and they've finally gotten back to me to offer me the position. About a week and a half ago I had an interview with another company, whom I'd applied to back in October, but at this point they were actually hiring for another position and I think it became obvious fairly quickly that I was probably not the sort of person they were looking for. ("I'm an engineer, not a political analyst!")

Anyway, so after spending the end of this week filling out all the required forms included with the offer (I need to find a less labour-intensive signature), today was shopping day. See, I've been a student for quite a while, and while doing my undergrad, I was a software designer/tester, so it didn't really matter all that much what I wore to work. As a result, most of my wardrobe is jeans, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. Now, I actually need to look decent. To top it all off, part of my New Year's resolution included a clothing purge which ended up purging most of my more professional clothing (didn't fit anymore, or maybe never did!).

So, today was clothes shopping day. I think I might be getting the hang of this shopping thing. Somehow though, I'm still trying to wrap my head around sizing. I actually bought a pair of size 4 pants today, and they fit nicely. This may not seem like much to jump up and down about, but considering about 2 months ago I thought I was a size 9/10, that's pretty crazy. I've lost a little weight, by accident - haven't been on a diet, I just got away from the university fast food I guess! But what's hard to believe is that clothing-wise, I'm such a small size (and same thing for shirts - I take a size small), but when I look around me at my friends, I'm somehow among the tallest so I feel much larger than the clothes sizes tell me.

Maybe I'm just really twiggy. I still can't seem to find blouses with sleeves long enough for my arms. I'd say the majority of the blouses I own are 3/4 sleeve, a great invention for people like me who can never find a full-length sleeve that fits. On the other hand, I like long sleeves better because they're warmer. We'll have to see what this company does about their office temperatures, but I know I've worked for some companies in the past where I would be dressed up as if it was January in the middle of July, just because they had the A/C cranked up so high. I wonder if they make thermal underwear with 3/4 length sleeves!!

So that's the scoop. New pants, new blouses, new winter boots, new bookbag, and my VISA bill will probably come by parcel post in a month. Oh well. I'll actually have a salary to pay the bill with! (I'm still in awe!)

Job Search: Don't bother making sense of it

noreply@blogspirit.com (Louise) — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 13:10:36 -0500

Sometimes, in the job hunting process, I just have to shake my head at the irony of it all. You'd think that the closer your resume matches the job description and requirements, the more likely you are to get an interview.

Apparently not.

Recently I applied for a job that was so closely matched to my qualifications, skills, and experience, it almost looked like the job description text was plagiarized from my cover letter. It really was that close.

Then there was a completely different job, and all I seemed to have in common with the sort of person they were ideally looking for is that we were both engineers. Not even the same field of engineering! This particular job opening was for someone on the chemical/mechanical/manufacturing side. I'm electrical/software.

So which one did I get an interview for? Right, you guessed it. The chemical/mechanical/manufacturing one that's almost wholly unrelated to my previous work and academic experience. Go figure! The place with the opening that was basically a carbon copy of my talents turned me down without even an interview.

This is not to say I'm not happy about the interview I did do for that other position. I love learning new things and this should definitely be an eye-opening departure from the status quo, even if I do need to sip gently from the fire hose at the beginning. (Question at the interview: "What do you know about injection molding?" Ummm.... I've heard of it - that's about it!) It would be great if I got the job, though the commute would be a killer. I live in the extreme east end of Ottawa, and this place is in the extreme west end of Ottawa, and in between is about an hour and a half bus ride in each direction. Yikes! That's three hours a day just sitting on the bus. Anyway, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Step one: get job!

Buzzword-itis

noreply@blogspirit.com (Louise) — Sat, 9 Sep 2006 01:20:00 -0400

I'm not sure how it got started, but I think it's about time that companies stopped using impressive-sounding (yet meaningless) buzzwords when they talk about themselves. Instead, they should just say what they do. Be blunt, for heaven's sake. I shouldn't have to read through paragraphs of mission statement, goals, values, vision, etc., only to find that at the end, the only things making sense were the words "the", "and" and "is". I swear, if I ever see the words "value-added", "paradigm", "outside the box", or "innovative" (or its derivatives) one more time, I'm going to scream. "Value-added" is the one I hate the most. I originally thought there must be some other meaning to it, but apparently, something that's value-added means it's had value added to it. Oh, how clever. Where's a punching bag?

I'm not sure if the dot-com bubble led to out-of-control buzzword use, as an army of cloned vapourware companies all tried to one-up each other. Whatever the case, I think the single-best thing a company could do these days is dispense with the fluffy vocabulary and just say, "We produce software that does [whatever]." As the old adage goes for creative writers, show, don't tell! Don't say you're innovative or value-added - just show us what you do and we'll decide for ourselves. And if you're not that innovative, put your energy into making your product better, rather than wasting your resources on refining smoke-and-mirrors talk that never made sense in the first place.

The same goes for job descriptions. I think I ranted about this earlier. Companies, you might as well leave out the requirement that your potential employee be brilliant and a hard worker. I mean, that's what everyone wants. Nobody will ever advertise that they want someone who's a lazy bum with the IQ of a tree. I'd like to see what it is that makes your position (and your company) unique and interesting. And, of course, I mean you should describe, not just say "Our company has a unique and interesting job for you!" One step up might be: "Photocopy like never before! Sharpen your boss' pencils with the ancient lost art of Japanese pencil-sharpening! Make coffee in the Mayan tradition - grind it yourself, by hand, before everyone else gets to the office, using fresh rainwater that you stood outside collecting all night!". The best option, of course, is to have a job that is actually (*gasp*) interesting for your employees, no matter how recently they left school. :-)

One can only hope!