RE: Advice for Job Seekers

["Brierley, Sean" <Sean -at- Quodata -dot- Com>]

Hallo:

Of the seven professional-life jobs I have held or been offered, five were
based on networking-type personal relationships. Of course, there were
interviews associated with these, but they were mine to blow and I would
have actually had to try hard to lose the position (two of these I did turn
down).

Of the other two, one was my first T.W. job, as an intern while in college.
That was quite a competitive and lengthy process. The other is the job I
currently have, which was largely based on my performance on a standardized
personality-type and reasoning/cognitive-skills bubble tests.

I have interviewed people. Show me your ability to think, beyond what your
college transcript has to offer. Show me some writing samples, including
your resume (no typos, please, it is not E-mail), preferably those that
pertain more to technical writing and less towards political, philosophical,
and free-form creative writing. If you have no college degree, and no
samples, and no previous tech writing history . . . well . . ..

Regarding getting in someone's face about how miserably they flunked the
interview: that's not my style. Should the candidate later call and ask, my
answer is usually to the effect that we found a more qualified candidate and
their resume would be kept on file. I want to avoid the "taped phone call
follow-up" that a previous manager of mine briefly had to deal with, after
honestly dealing with a rejected candidate.

So, what's my bottom line? Network.

Best regards,

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Lydia Wong [SMTP:lydiaw -at- fpoint -dot- com]

	[Very interesting thread, by the way. I'm enjoying the responses a
lot. Some
	of these stories are incredible!]

	Lydia : )