RE: Advice for Job Seekers

[Kay Robart <kay -dot- robart -at- integratedconcepts -dot- com>]

I have lots of stories about inappropriate resumes, but I can only think of
a
couple stories about interviews.

One time a guy with a recent writing degree and no experience interviewed
with
me. When asked for his samples, he produced a notebook that included every 
assignment he had done for his tech writing classes. This was a huge,
unsorted
notebook that had more to read in it than most experienced writers give me.
Later I called his faculty advisor and recommended she tell her students to
present
a few of their best assignments.

Another time I was interviewing for a contract position and was impressed by
the demeanor
of a woman who appeared to have four years of writing experience.
I was getting ready to offer her the position, so I did what I usually do
with contractors--asked
her for her rates. She replied that she charged "the going rate." I asked
her what that
was, and she said $15/hr. At that time, I was routinely paying $30-35/hr.
for a writer,
more if they worked for an agency. The rate of $15/hr. was what the slimiest
job
shops were paying rank beginners (not what their customers were paying them,
of course). 
That made me start asking more questions about her experience. During the
discussion, she 
said that the people she was working for wanted her to use real bullets
instead of asterisks, 
but she hadn't had time to figure out how to do it. Oops! When I
rescrutinized her resume, 
I could figure out that her four years was probably part time, and that
during that time, she
had maybe done four small projects (although none of this was obvious at
first reading).

Kay Robart

> What kind of 
> behavior have you encountered in an interview that made you sure you would
> not 
> hire a candidate?
> 
> Ruth Lundquist
> 
> 
>