VIRAL YESTERDAY: This post by Jeraldine caught my attention:
5 Annoying Situations I Faced When Job Hunting in Singapore
She lists down her 5
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Employers who ask for your A level and O level results
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Interviewers who don’t read your resume before the interview
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Interviewers who are too boastful
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Dubious and unprofessional recruiters and HR managers
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Lack of entry level PMET roles
My first thought:
I shall let the politicians answer no. 5 as that is market forces at work. But Points 1 to 4 looks to me like an attack on HR.
To which – borrowing Jeraldine’s meme – I say:
&
Showcasing, that first and foremost, an interview is a 2-way street.
1. Employers who ask for your A level and O level results: Has a personality crystal ball been invented? No, that’s right. Not yet.
Whether or not – but especially if you are – a fresh graduate, getting your results is our way of getting raw data from you which can allow us to piece together a jigsaw puzzle of what you will be like as a future colleague. We wish to know if you have book smarts and street smarts, ethics and morals, etc. Because at the end of the day, we have a job to do also, which is to, in the shortest amount of time possible, paint a positive picture of you to the person/people you will directly report to, and these info give us bits to work on. Sure, it is time consuming, and perhaps not the most intelligent way, but until we invent a mind-reader and a personality crystal ball, please come ready with such info, caffeine-boosted personality, and a dazzling smile.
2. Interviewers who don’t read your resume before the interview: We have a job ahead of us to do. You have 60mins to play nice. – Sounds like you have a better deal.
Of course we want to hear from you! The form you filled out will serve as notes, but here’s a stage and we just went to some trouble to put you on it, and we sincerely hope you impress us! Even criminals have a chance to make a written statement AND a trial – it’s a privilege, take advantage of it. And yes, we admit, we don’t read the resume in full before the interview. We skip to the part “are you suffering from any contagious disease” and if you check NO, we invite you in and play “let’s get to know each other” if this is not democratic enough, I don’t know what is.
Besides, some people cannot even pronounce the courses they’ve enrolled in.
If their job’s a customer-facing role, we’d like to know they can handle live interactions.
3. Interviewers who are too boastful: I repeat. An interview is a 2-way street
We want to charm you to come work for us! That’s why we do that. It’s like a date. Us boasting is somewhat proof that we have gone to the gym and brought some flowers. You? Will you bring your manners? You can politely accept our self-praise, and cleverly turn that into some sort of alignment with the company and its staff. Instead of sitting across from us, nodding, rolling your eyeballs, then penning a listicle to teach us a lesson.
4. Dubious and unprofessional recruiters and HR managers: Yes. some black sheep walk among us.
But guess what, we haven’t stopped interviewing millenials, so don’t shut down all HR departments.
Dear Jeraldine,
Here are 5 commandments I think can help in your next job interview / would have added more value to your readers.
Thou shalt walk through thy resume with interviewer.
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My favourite part about reading Jeraldine’s blog post? Some of the great comments she received. Like this one.
We all have some work to do. Let’s be kinder to each other.
This writer wants to be known as Helen Rodriguez, i.e. HR