job interviews

Also, don't move too far away from the subject. No matter how much they like you, they don't want to hear about irrelevancies or, another failing of mine (in all walks of life), overly personal stuff.

Sigh. Does anyone want to give me a job too?

Do you get firsts in A-levels too?

Who is this David Baddiel?

The degree starts from a third (you scraped through), the common 2:2, the very good 2:1 (aka lower/upper second) and the first.

David Baddiel is a British comedian. You're not missing much.

GROWL. ;) ;) ;)

First (first class honours): bloody impressive. Second: so common that they were split into two types, 2:1 and 2:2, where the former is better. And then there are thirds. Basically, that's it. I think fourths have died out completely (they were very rare, my great grandfather got one for being, well, not very good but a nice bloke, or thereabouts; cynical people will tell you that they were for thick aristocrats who basically failed but were rich and influential and so had to be given some kind of degree just for turning up, and this may well be partly true, but my greatgrandfather was not rich or particularly posh).

There are also degrees "without honours" for if you don't quite manage to fulfil all the requirements for a proper degree but I don't really know how common they are, I think how often they get given and what they involve varies a lot from place to place. Perhaps I should know more, since being a dropout from a university that's not as good as the one Martin dropped out of (HMPF ;) I spent a while reading the small print to see if there was anything I could do to get a non-honours degree. And there wasn't. Sigh.

As for non-honours degrees, at De Montfort there were a number of students who started on an HND, then transferred to a degree programme after that. For some reason they got non-honours degrees. This is fact, but I don't understand it!

Question - how on earth do you successfully duck out of work for the afternoon without arousing suspicion? I'm usually a scruffy bastard so there's no way I can style out turning up in a suit for a "doctor's appointment". Also, I'm supposed to be training an assistant as the moment so actually taking time off could be difficult. What to do?

It is also my philosophy that if you take a few hours of vacation it is your own damn business why; no explaination required beyond "I need to take a couple of hours off tomorrow -- that o.k.?" The end. I'm uncomfortable lying about sick leave or doctor's appointments.

nothing sadder than seeing the long line of interviewees streaming in and out, followed by the discussions i overhear about their positives and negatives.

nothing worse than realising you have no interest in a job 5 mins into an interview. as i did this morning. pretty much have another job i'm really keen on so was always a case of just seeing if it was somehow miraculous.

it was going really well, i was nailing every answer despite not caring (which may help), then couldn't resist the amazing dry internalol of

"how would you improve our website"

"i haven't looked at it, sorry."

I have the job interview of my life this afternoon. Idiotically, I was up all night preparing for it and now I'm shattered. Nice one Dog Latin, you plonker.

"how would you improve our website"

"by not getting the job"

nothing worse than realising you have no interest in a job 5 mins into an interview.

Well, at that point you can relax and use the rest of the interview as practice.

true

i was nailing every answer despite not caring (which may help)

haha yes this is always the way. some might draw parallels with "pulling" here.

going into a job interview for a job you don't want guarantees an offer 95% of the time IME.

Can you try to convinve yourself you don't want this job then?

.. because it's a crummy job and they desperate for people?

win-win situation: two job interviews, either would do but the second one is *TheOne*.

Int1= relaxed, I'll worry about job 2.
Int2= relaxed, int1 went well, so even if I don't get job2, job1 is in bag..

Breathe
Relax
Less is more

think of some cool orders to give them, to show them how fun it will be to do your bidding

I have been jobhunting.

Note: I don't, strictly speaking, need to, because I already have a job. I just want a different one, and there are a bunch out there (for my particular niche type of work). I know this is a ridiculously privileged situation to be in.

That said, it IS a bit surreal - not just because everything is phones and zooms and teams and stuff, but because basically no one knows what tf is happening, so a lot of things are tentative. Thoughts in no particular order:

1. Almost every company has an online application; some are better than others.
- Sometimes you upload your resume and that's pretty much it. A+.
- Sometimes you upload your resume and the tool parses it successfully. B+.
- Sometimes you upload your resume and the tool parses it middlingly well - you still have to go in and correct/edit to correspond with reality. C.
- Sometimes you upload your resume and then you STILL have to manually enter every fricking thing. D-.

2. I have told a LOT of companies about my gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, and veteran-ness. This is fine and I understand why they collect the data but it's pretty repetitive and I find myself wishing for a way to do it all with one button.

3. I have talked to a LOT of initial screener interviewers (generally, recruiters or other HR types). These conversations generally go well. But the second phase (of talking to a person who actually understands the work) is usually slow to materialize. Because people are busy having, y'know, jobs.

4. Every potential calculation of whether/when to say yes is fraught. If I accept the first offer I will forever wonder whether I should have held out longer. If I reject an offer I will forever wonder if I should have taken it.

Friend just got a new gig, depends on the industry I guess