The Job Searchers' Thread

[stang]

So I have a fourth interview for a sales position tomorrow, which is my first face to face interview with the company. Its a remote work from home position with a lot of flexibility.

I am a touch nervous because I could probably wear a suit to the interview, however my current sales position is very casual (I am a company branded tee shirt and jeans right now) but if I wear a suit to work, its going to be way out of place. I am thinking a dress shirt nice jeans and dress shoes, and I'll toss a blazer on from my vehicle. Am I over thinking this?

Also any tips. Its been a while since I've had a face to face interview, but I really want this position.

[CaptainCrunch]

Are you sure of the dress culture of the company that you're interviewing with? You're taking a risk by wearing jeans to me.


Personally, for any first face to face its a suit and tie, or nice slacks and a sports coat and tie.


Even now in my current recruiting role, I'm always recommending to any candidate that they dress up.


For the face to face, make sure you do your due diligence research, come armed with questions, and because its a fourth? If you haven't discussed, be prepared to start painting the picture of what you need to accept the job.

[stang]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Are you sure of the dress culture of the company that you're interviewing with? You're taking a risk by wearing jeans to me.


Personally, for any first face to face its a suit and tie, or nice slacks and a sports coat and tie.


Even now in my current recruiting role, I'm always recommending to any candidate that they dress up.


For the face to face, make sure you do your due diligence research, come armed with questions, and because its a fourth? If you haven't discussed, be prepared to start painting the picture of what you need to accept the job.

Maybe I am misreading but the job day to day doesn't require much more then that. I may put some nicer clothes in my truck and just have a quick change.

[Weitz]

Dress shirt and dress pants. Will never be judged for too little or too much.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by stang

Maybe I am misreading but the job day to day doesn't require much more then that. I may put some nicer clothes in my truck and just have a quick change.

I don't think the job day to day matters that much, an interview is a different beast and you're looking at making a first impression.


When in doubt dress to impress.

[stang]

Glad I asked. I'll have to figure out how to do this without looking to obvious to my current work.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by stang

Glad I asked. I'll have to figure out how to do this without looking to obvious to my current work.

Need some time to attend a "funeral" later in the day?

[stang]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Need some time to attend a "funeral" later in the day?

I booked my time out as a Dr appt. haha

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by stang

Maybe I am misreading but the job day to day doesn't require much more then that. I may put some nicer clothes in my truck and just have a quick change.

I'd go in full suit and tie. If the interviewers are significantly under dressed in comparison to you, it's not a bad idea to show you can read the room by taking 15-20 seconds while contemplating a response/waiting for a drink and taking off the blazer, loosening the collar/dropping the tie and rolling up the sleeves to be more casual.

[stang]

And.... he got tied up so its now a phone interview. Got a nice set of clothes in my truck for no reason. Haha

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by stang

And.... he got tied up so its now a phone interview. Got a nice set of clothes in my truck for no reason. Haha

Put them on anyway. You know... for confidence.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by stang

So I have a fourth interview for a sales position tomorrow, which is my first face to face interview with the company. Its a remote work from home position with a lot of flexibility.

I am a touch nervous because I could probably wear a suit to the interview, however my current sales position is very casual (I am a company branded tee shirt and jeans right now) but if I wear a suit to work, its going to be way out of place. I am thinking a dress shirt nice jeans and dress shoes, and I'll toss a blazer on from my vehicle. Am I over thinking this?

Also any tips. Its been a while since I've had a face to face interview, but I really want this position.

Khakis.

[peter12]

No one will be surprised here, but I've never not worn a suit to an interview.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by peter12

No one will be surprised here, but I've never not worn a suit to an interview.

The surprise would be if you had anything other than suits in your wardrobe.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The surprise would be if you had anything other than suits in your wardrobe.

I have too many clothes.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I didn't want to start a new thread but I have an interesting question.

I once applied for a job, in an industry I love, with an organization which was not well run. I had a good conversation but while the organization said they were looking, they were not. They knew exactly who they wanted.

Shortly after meeting with them I get an email, "we're making an announcement on Monday, you'll be impressed with who we're hiring".

Odd thing to email but ok. I'm self aware enough to know that there are people better than me out there. Fine.

It's been a year, organization strucutre is in worse shape, than a year ago.

Again, you can run your company however you want. Its yours.

My question is, what happens when you run into the hiring manager who arrogantly thinks he made the right decision?

To use a simplistic example:

Oilers need a new head coach, Joel Quennville goes to Kevin Lowe and says he wants the job. Lowe says "we have our guy, I think you'll be impressed". Oilers hire Gulutzan, and proceed to finish 29/31. Lowe and Quennville run into each other and Lowe brings up how great a hire Gulutzan was. What the frig do you say?

You want to be polite but you don't believe in lying.

[Wormius]

Unless that was an internal posting that you applied for, that would be a really weird email to receive from the interviewer/recruiter.

But, I am really finding lately that people send out a lot of questionable emails.

[FireGilbert]

Hello job seekers. So I recently interviewed for a position that would have been a promotion with a competitor pretty much next door. The first and second interviews went well and I was confident I was one of the finalists for the role. Anyways I didn't end up getting a job offer with their feedback being they were very impressed with me but wanted to go with someone more experienced.

A while later I was discussing this with my old boss. He had a bit of a chuckle and said "more experienced" just means the other guy was able to BS more than you. This got my thinking, how much BSing is appropriate in an interview process? Obviously you want to sell yourself in your resume and in the interview but how much is too much?

Personally, as an engineer, I would never lie about a technical skill but am thinking there is room to stretch the truth and sell myself higher on other more vague skills like team work, project management, time management, multi-tasking, etc. Any thoughts?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Hello job seekers. So I recently interviewed for a position that would have been a promotion with a competitor pretty much next door. The first and second interviews went well and I was confident I was one of the finalists for the role. Anyways I didn't end up getting a job offer with their feedback being they were very impressed with me but wanted to go with someone more experienced.

A while later I was discussing this with my old boss. He had a bit of a chuckle and said "more experienced" just means the other guy was able to BS more than you. This got my thinking, how much BSing is appropriate in an interview process? Obviously you want to sell yourself in your resume and in the interview but how much is too much?

Personally, as an engineer, I would never lie about a technical skill but am thinking there is room to stretch the truth and sell myself higher on other more vague skills like team work, project management, time management, multi-tasking, etc. Any thoughts?

I think you're boss is giving you a bit of a stretch. I've found in recruiting that the winning applicant is fully able to sell himself a bit better then the other candidates. More experience means that he or she was a bit better at conveying that experience and how it effects their career.



In this day and age interviewers have gotten pretty good at sniffing out bs, because companies are really wary of the counterfeit candidate. The person that lies or BS's.


Interview skills are every bit as important as job skills, the ability to sell yourself or sell concepts is a hugely valuable tool. By getting to the final round or finals means that your interview skills were probably very good and your resume was probably very good, but the guy that one told a more compelling story.


Just my 2 cents.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Hello job seekers. So I recently interviewed for a position that would have been a promotion with a competitor pretty much next door. The first and second interviews went well and I was confident I was one of the finalists for the role. Anyways I didn't end up getting a job offer with their feedback being they were very impressed with me but wanted to go with someone more experienced.

A while later I was discussing this with my old boss. He had a bit of a chuckle and said "more experienced" just means the other guy was able to BS more than you. This got my thinking, how much BSing is appropriate in an interview process? Obviously you want to sell yourself in your resume and in the interview but how much is too much?

Personally, as an engineer, I would never lie about a technical skill but am thinking there is room to stretch the truth and sell myself higher on other more vague skills like team work, project management, time management, multi-tasking, etc. Any thoughts?

If that was what your old boss meant, find a better mentor.

More experience could be just that. Or more varied, or more directly applicable. Or simply better conveyed, as Captain said.

Bull####ting your way in is terrible advice. Worse, it devalues you. What would he say when you do get a job. Congratulations kid, I always knew you were a fraud.