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Subject:FWD: Re: Good Company Fit From:anonfwd -at- raycomm -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Wed, 5 Apr 2000 11:54:58 -0600 (MDT)
Been there.
I once had a job where I did not consider myself as a tech writer,
although that's what the title was and what the boss told me I was.
When I went on interviews and people asked why are you leaving, I
told them honestly that I was little more than a typist and that I
wanted more challenging work. The people I was interviewing with
understood. Perhaps there were those that didn't, but I wouldn't have
been any happier in those jobs than I was in the glorified typist
job, so it doesn't really matter.
Once I was interviewing somebody, and the person asked me, "What's
the best thing about working here, and what's the worst thing about
working here?" I thought that was a great question. (Sort of like
throwing "what's your greatest weakness" right back at them.) I have
since used it when I'm the interviewee. I ask it of as many people as
they throw at me to get as many different answers as possible. When I
leave, I often have a pretty good idea of what it is like to work
there. That is, when I've accepted the position, I found that what
the interviewers had told me during the interview was pretty accurate.
If you ask this question, you must listen very carefully for subtext
in the responses. For example, I have been on interviews where every
single person said the best thing about working there was it looked
great on their resume. I feel that this indicates that these people
really aren't happy with their jobs, but they have hopes it will lead
to something better. I'm not so ambitious that I'm willing to work
at a place that will make me unhappy, so I have never taken the job
when this was the response. (Therefore, I could be wrong.)
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