jobs

An Interviewing Cheat Sheet: 100 Resources for Interviewers and Candidates from HRWorld

Here’s a short and sweet link to a great resource. Even though I’m happily not looking for a new job OR interviewing candidates for an open position (cease and desist, jobspammers!) , whenever either onerous task comes up again, I’ll have this terrific cheatsheet of resources for interviewers and candidates bookmarked.

Of special interest to the tech crowd:

• interview questions for tech companies
  
• six common IT interview mistakes
• dozens of sample IT-specific interview questions

Hat tip to HRworld.com for the link and this piece of simple, straightforward advice from the CareerHub blog: “When the interviewer asks, ‘Do you have any questions?’ the worst answer you could possibly give is, ‘No.’”

Purple squirrels

Poem: A Purple Cow

I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one.
~ Gelett Burgess

My mom used to like to quote that one — still does, in fact, with (or without, truth be told) any prompting. I don’t know what might ever have inspired such verse but I’m totally down with the sentiment: I, likewise, have absolutely no wish to be a purple cow, despite occasional difficulties managing being a nonpurple human… On the other hand, if I’m ever looking for a job, I might fervently hope to be a purple squirrel.

In a WSJ Career Journal article, Sarah Needleman put together a list of jargon used by various recruiters as shorthand to describe applicants.

You don’t want to see the recruiter scribble PP (poor presentation) as you speak.

TMI? In reality, they don’t likely want to hear much about your hobbies or your cat.

A search virgin is someone who doesn’t understand how the process works. Which means that they won’t behave appropriately — and aren’t likely to get lucky.

You might get branded a “mortician” if you pull an outdated and ill-fitting suit from the back of the closet (My apologies to David and Nate Fisher. You guys are hired!).

But what’s a purple squirrel? That elusive creature is the rare individual with the specific qualifications that make them perfect for the job. Score: All the nuts.

On the other hand, some organizations ask for a tad much… From RecruiterGuy.net:

Anyone that has been in recruiting for any amount of time has been asked to find the purple squirrel. It’s that perfect candidate that has 5 certifications, 10 years of industry specific experience, speaks 3 languages, is willing to relocate to the Antarctic with 24hrs notice (w/o relo), and will work for minimum wage.

(For more purple cow fun, see these parodies of the poem in the manner of Poe, Dickinson & etc.)

~ Ivy Wigmore

Craigslist.org: Online urban community networking

Craigslist just keeps expanding, bringing its transformative mix of forums, apartment and job listings, want ads and personals to many more communities. Craigslist now offers listings for jobs, housing, goods, services, romance, local activities, advice and much more for 450 cities worldwide, all community moderated, and, astoundingly, largely free. Has your city — or country — been listed yet? If so, keep an eye on your local newspaper, as the free and fluid online marketplace for classifieds and apartment listings that Craigslist provides are a primary driver behind the financial woes of traditional newsprint journalism.

Craigslist was founded in early 1995, by Craig Newmark, in San Francisco, CA. According to Craigslist, the networks of sites receive over 5 billion page views a month, serving more than 15 million users during that span month. In fact, Craigslist users self-publish 14 million new classified ads each month, to go with more than 750,000 new job listings each month and more than 50 million user postings in 100 topical forums.

All of that is managed by 23 Craigslist employees working out of a Cictorian house in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco. The site supports those modest operations by charging below-market fees for job ads in 7 cities and for broker apartment listings in NYC. By doing so, Craigslist may now be the leading classifieds service in any medium.

We’ve certainly found great deals on apartments, event tickets, used electronics and all manner of other good, along with thoroughly outrageous personal ads and even a new friend or two. In fact, this editor found a job, a large CRT TV on the cheap and a new place to live this year though “CL.”