Interviewing recent college grads: WTF is wrong with you?

[RootSkier]

Really? Many of the worlds leading companies have engineers running them. I'm not sure how you get a higher pay that the President & CEO. 6 figures is nice, but 7 or 8 sounds a whole lot better. I'm willing to bet that if you average the ROI for everyone who has earned an engineering degree vs one of these degrees for a "creative industry", we are kicking the shit out of you.

Chip, meet shoulder.

Dude, he wasn't talking about the creative fields.

[RolexJr]

I believe it is correlated with the 'No Child Left Behind' legislation. If you look back to when this was passed and implemented, the current batch of college students and recent graduates are the first cohort to spend a majority of their schooling under the NCLB paradigm. Being continually passed from grade to grade, even if you haven't demonstrated adequate skills leads to a bunch of entitled under intelligent people. A lot of it is also due to a lack of self-awareness.

[systemoverblow'd]

http://www.digiday.com/brands/15-sta...t-millennials/

23 percent of companies reported having heavy contact with parents of millennial employees.
31 percent of employers involved reported parents submitted resumes on behalf of their offspring.

[pappag]

That's absurd. Top % I can see being around 5-10, but the bottom should be near 0.




And this shouldn't surprise anyone, although it's skewed (would be interesting to see unemployment for millennials at a similar age versus other generations):

"Millennial unemployment rate in January 2013 increased to the highest rate recorded for this demographic to 13.1 percent versus the national average of 7.1 percent. "

[jahoney]

Youth is wasted on the young.

That's because the people we look up to set terrible examples.

[Toadman]

And many companies have a terrible interview processes / look for the wrong things. I fought tooth and nail to get a woman hired, everyone said she was a bad interview, didn't have a personality, etc. She ended up being one of the beat hires that company ever had. She was top in her class, an college athlete, and had a social life, but was nervous in her interview. Idiots couldn't see through that.

Part of why Northeastern gives its students an advantage - classes on interviewing and three co-ops (long internships) before graduating. Many students had interviewed more by the time they graduated than some people do in careers. On campus interviews meant you could have 4-5 first interviews and 2-3 seconds each time. NU grads would routinely smoke grads from other and better colleges in interviews. That didn't make them a better prospect, but they looked like it.


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I can relate to this. As someone who has done a lot of hiring earlier in my career, I cam across some candidates that appeared very nervous, or just didn't interview very well. On one occassion it was a cse of being the best of the worst candidates to fill a position, and we went with a candidate that didn't interview very well but had a good resume, and more importantly good references. But they were one of the worst interviews. Turned out to be one of our best employees.

Then I end up interviewing someone who was just stellar in the interview. Really good resume with loads of experience. They turned into one of the flops. It's not an exact science, the whole interview process. And if you do a lot of hiring, it's like a sports draft. Some end up being diamonds in the rough. Some turn out to be really talented, and gifted but just lack the motivation. And some turn out to be Ryan Leaf. What can you say...

[Toadman]

That's because the people we look up to set terrible examples.

Well, then you're doing it wrong.

[stfu&gbtw]

That's because the people we look up to set terrible examples.

Terrible examples are great examples.

As in: "well, there's some shit I'm not going to do."

And while you're at it, perhaps you should reevaluate the people you look up to.

[jahoney]

it was kind of rhetorical

I guess I'll have stop coming on here then

[smartyiak]

It's always good to get applicants through the mail.

http://abovethelaw.com/2013/07/lawye...t/#more-259553

GUNS!!!!

[Todd Zander]

It's always good to get applicants through the mail.

http://abovethelaw.com/2013/07/lawye...t/#more-259553

GUNS!!!!

well, he really is taking it down all avenues of the internets

[JimmyCarter]

Paging Anthony Weiner's mayoral campaign...

[iceman]

Paging Anthony Weiner's mayoral campaign...

What the hell is wrong with that guy?

Weiner. Ha.

[stompinlines]

You mean Carlos Danger?

[Chainsaw_Willie]

..
Weiner. Ha.

I'm guessing growing up with that name might have warped him slightly.

[stompinlines]

How about this Bob Filner fella?
I think he outshines weiner in the creep department.
Sounds like a real baboon.

[Shadam]

any one got any good interview fail stories ???

I used to do staff training, once they gave me a guy who's hand writing was so bad even he couldn't tell wot certain numbers or letters were on legal documents that I needed to enter into the computor.
ok so I can't spell but not being able to read your own writing ???

[Benny Profane]

You mean Carlos Danger?

Holy shit, when I read that, you know, Cheerios went five feet. What a mess.

I'm a New Yorker. Well, not the city anymore, but, you know what I mean. I can only accept this thing (excuse the expression) as high black comedy. Otherwise, I'd kill myself. (He is leading in the polls, btw. Well, was.)

I mean, a guy named Weiner going by the alias of Carlos Danger. My freshman writing prof. would have thrown that little story back in my face with scorn.

[smartyiak]

You mean Carlos Danger?

Every time I hear it, I think: Ron Mexico.

[smartyiak]

Sometimes it's better to quit while you're losing:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_F6CiMD...%3D_F6CiMDWYzs

[sb]

I blame google.

[krp8128]

Just stumbled across the thread and found it a good read, but was hoping to find something that I have been missing. Looks like I have been doing things more or less right...

I didn't read everything in here, but I will just chime in to add that the un-professionalism and incompetence definitely runs both ways. The hiring process is completely broken and so many HR departments are complete idiots, who treat quality job applicants like dirt, make them jump through pointless hoops just to apply to a database that never gets looked at, don't return calls or keep commitments, etc etc. Then many interviewers are completely unprepared and companies don't even know what they're looking for, except someone who's a "good fit" aka they seem cool based on a 20 minute convo and don't seem like too much of a threat to the interviewers own job. It's really demoralizing and frustrating for quality people out there looking right now to have to deal with completely incompetent morons standing in their way.

I really think there's a lot of talented and ambitious people going to waste on the sidelines or in jobs they aren't fit for in our country right now, partly due to the stupid hiring model clogged up by terrible software, incompetent HR departments, and unprepared and lazy interviewers.

Not really relevant to the specific instance initiating this thread, but my broader two cents.

Absolutely. I can go into some details of my experiences in the past week, but in the end one HR screening resulted in an on-site in 2 weeks, the other resulted in an embarrassing "bait and switch" because the position details were not clear at all.

Don't even get me started on those damn glitchy databases, or how different divisions of a corporation use the same software but can't link their databases....

Saw this recently from linkedin: http://corcodilos.com/blog/6249/why-...iring-business

I totally agree with it that HR should never be involved in recruiting/hiring unless it is for things like final identity verification and onboarding. In our company (part of a huge conglomerate), hiring managers write and post all job descriptions, do all resume screening, phone screening, and managment of interview teams. No auto-screening is done and the only place HR is involved is coordinating interview schedules. Mind you this is for highly sought after scientists and engineers but it leads to better candidates and better hires and doesn't waste everybodys time.

See above. HR does not understand the position, the skills or the mindset. Most of the time they are matching keywords out of context, and cannot judge if a candidate is actually capable in the field because they are not capable themselves. Engineers should interview engineers, video production peeps and pizza shops should interview systemoverblowed.

Part of why Northeastern gives its students an advantage - classes on interviewing and three co-ops (long internships) before graduating. Many students had interviewed more by the time they graduated than some people do in careers. On campus interviews meant you could have 4-5 first interviews and 2-3 seconds each time. NU grads would routinely smoke grads from other and better colleges in interviews. That didn't make them a better prospect, but they looked like it.


Also, making 30 k in a few months while you're in college is awesome.

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The college I attended had a similar program, I can't even count how many interviews and contacts I was able to make via the co-op program. I know I blew the first few interviews, but I learned from them when it "didn't matter" and now can go into a meeting well informed, calm and allow my experience and work ethic to be the focus, not a casual demeanor or other negative quality. The salary wasn't the best, but it beat delivering pizza, and the experience was priceless.

http://www.digiday.com/brands/15-sta...t-millennials/

23 percent of companies reported having heavy contact with parents of millennial employees.
31 percent of employers involved reported parents submitted resumes on behalf of their offspring.

The 23% is fucking ridiculous, but I can kind of see the 31% (still ridiculous). I have had well meaning family members send me links, information and contact info on numerous occasions for positions that they think I would be perfect for, but they have no understanding of my actual skill set or what I do. I can easily envision the next step being them sending in unsolicited applications.

[systemoverblow'd]

Sometimes it's better to quit while you're losing:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_F6CiMD...%3D_F6CiMDWYzs

This is how to light a law degree on fire in a single day. That's damn impressive!

[spook]

any one got any good interview fail stories ???

I used to do staff training, once they gave me a guy who's hand writing was so bad even he couldn't tell wot certain numbers or letters were on legal documents that I needed to enter into the computor.
ok so I can't spell but not being able to read your own writing ???

wot computor?

[legallyillegal]

I just got emailed a resume in a Microsoft Works format.