As a job seeker, they raise your hopes and waste your time. All that time setting up time off from work, getting your “interview suit” cleaned and ready, fighting traffic to the most difficult-to-get-to location in town, and waiting in the lobby a half hour after the interview time. Wasted.
The good news is that it’s already Friday and you’re so close to the weekend that you can taste it.
The bad news is that you’re about to see some of the most interesting stuff available on the web and are going to be unable to tear yourself away from your computer screen for the next few hours.
Anyway, this week in the quicklinks, you’ll find some more evidence that Penelope Trunk is on drugs, a great way to manage your social networking presence in 10 minutes a day, one of the most exciting jobs on the planet, and much more.
So, read on. You weren’t going to get anything done today, anyway.
Every employee and candidate has one, though many have no idea how to express it. And, as a result, they lose out on jobs, promotions, and career advancement.
Smith & Wessen, as the story goes, only made handguns for the longest time. Everybody thought that made other things (rifles, shotguns, etc.), but they were strictly a handgun company.
That is, until a smart guy got hired there and found out what potential customers thought when they thought of Smith & Wessen. He then went into the shotgun business. And the rifle business. And other places people already thought of them.
You should do the same for your career. Read on to see how.
Experience.com provides information on internships and entry level jobs.
I figured that if anyone knew about succeeding in their careers, it’d be these guys. You should read all of what they had to say and see how it applies to your own life.
The interesting questions for me were:
How Much of Your Success Do You Attribute To Sheer Luck? - Most of the men interviewed attributed at least a small part of their success to luck. However, many of them also believed Henry Ford’s statement, “The harder you work, the luckier you get”
In other words, don’t envy these men because they got a lucky break. Work hard to prepare yourself for your own lucky break when it comes. I’m convinced that most of us don’t get ahead because we have to pass up the lucky breaks when they come knocking.
What is the Hardest Lesson You’ve Had To Learn? - The most interesting things about these lessons is that - for most of them - they are lessons that you can start learning now, before you’re a billionaire.
I also think that the one hardest lesson that was most interesting given what most people are striving for comes from Michael Heisley: “Wealth is one of the most corrupting influences in my life.”
Dan
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Daniel R. Sweet
Chief Cook-And-Bottle-Washer / Technical Recruiter
FRACAT.com - Free Resume and Career Toolbox
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrsweet
Call me on Jaxtr: http://www.jaxtr.com/fracat
Once upon a time many, many years ago, I had interviewed extensively for a combination sales and technical position. The man who did most of the interviewing was actually the boss 2 levels up (because the manager position was currently open) and we got along very well.
They made an offer and I accepted. Upon reporting to my first day of work, I met the new manager who was actually a longtime salesperson at the company. Usually, that would be good news as salespeople understand other salespeople.
Wow! It’s amazing how a simple tazering can destroy all sorts of careers. Some even before they’re started.
And, more importantly, it just makes the week fly by. Especially if you taze yourself “just to see what it’s like”. You’ll lose all sorts of blocks of time…
Anyway, this week in the quicklinks, you’ll find some interview tips, cover letter tips, Penelope Trunk goes insane, some good videos, and more.
So, read on. I promise to keep my tazer in its holster.
We all screw up. Particularly when we’re young and are just learning about life. This is why our police (and many other) records are sealed away when we’re 21.
But in this era of video everything, a lot of kids are voluntarily throwing away those protections. Which brings me to Andrew.
By now, you’ve probably seen this video from the University of Florida depicting a student (Andrew Meyer) asking some mostly stupid questions in an annoying way of John Kerry:
While I’m not sure I understand why he was taken away, that’s not what this post is about. (By the way - if it was because he was being annoying, then I’ve got a long list of people to give to the UofF police….)
No, this post is about Andrew screwing up his career, if unintentionally. It turns out that Andrew made sure he was filmed. That’s gonna leave a mark.
Whatever else he may be, Andrew is just a dumb kid doing stupid things while growing up. In that, he’s not much different than most of us.
The difference is that Andrew made sure that he was being taped. And while he couldn’t imagine all of what was about to happen, the many videos are inexorably linked to his name for years to come.
When he graduates soon and any HR organization in the world Googles his name, they will see his ill-informed actions that scream “lack of judgment”. How likely is someone to get a job in that situation?
So, if you’re young (or old, even) and stupid, at least do one thing right: don’t make videos of your stupidity. It’ll haunt you for a long time.
Enjoy the Search!
Dan
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Daniel R. Sweet
Chief Cook-And-Bottle-Washer / Technical Recruiter
FRACAT.com - Free Resume and Career Toolbox
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrsweet
Call me on Jaxtr: http://www.jaxtr.com/fracat
Confession time: I’m naturally lazy. Perhaps this is the state of all mankind, but I know for sure it is the State of Dan.
The odd thing about me (as if there was only one odd thing) is that I will go to great lengths to be able to remain lazy.
For instance, I’m working on a new design for FRACAT that’s 90% complete. The reason that I’m doing this is that it makes it a lot easier for me to add features and content. I don’t have to break out my HTML coding app to rewrite content pages or add links, for instance.
I’ve put a lot of work into that 90%. The last 10% is being sabatoged by my laziness. But I promise it’ll be here soon!
While I have developed many rules, inventions, and penalties to deal with my own laziness, it turns out that my eldest daughter has inherited “the lazy”.
And it seems like she’s not the only one. I have interactions with lazy workers all day long. And lazy candidates.
Are you a lazy candidate? Either get off my phone or Fight the Lazy!
When I was a salesman for a number of different technology service organizations, it was always interesting to hear about my clients’ impression of the company I worked for.
Usually, they would describe my company as concerned with their needs, responsive to their questions / problems / issues, and able to tackle just about anything. So, in short, “helpful”.
However that was not the company that I knew. The company that I knew, on several occasions, acted more like the several-times-the-legal-limit drunk-last-night-and-now-seriously-hung-over parent of a two-year-old who just wants the noise to stop, the room to stop spinning, and to have a few moments of peace.
The difference in the impressions came from the fact that I was the most common face of my company that they saw. So, in the end, I was the company as far as the client was concerned.
Everybody is representing somebody every day of their lives. So, the big question becomes who are you representing today?
Fake Interviews are insidious little things. 
