Re: Advice for Job Seekers

[Krista Van Laan <KVanlaan -at- verisign -dot- com>]

Can't help jumping into the discussion of the mistakes people make during
interviews. 
I used to have such a collection of horror stories about people I've
interviewed, 
I can't even remember most of them. 

The thing I most dislike in an interview is when the applicant acts as if he
or she 
couldn't care less about the job. I don't know if this is because they are
so 
jaded by the shortage of tech writers and abundance of openings, or what,
but 
I see it over and over: interviewees who say nothing about themselves or
what 
they've done. Even when asked open-ended questions, they offer no
information, 
enthusiasm, or seeming interest in the company or their own qualifications 
for the job. 

A few samples from the fatal-mistake archives of various companies I've
worked for: 

There was the guy who couldn't find our building, 
even though I'd given him directions that worked for everyone else. He
called me 
twice, already late, each time getting detailed directions again. The third 
time he called from a hotel up the highway, clearly furious, and started
yelling 
that he couldn't find it, and I'd just have to meet him at the hotel if I 
wanted to talk to him. 

Then there was the applicant who said he had a lot of writing samples, so 
I asked him to bring some. He brought a 
briefcase with him, which he left by the coat rack outside the interview
room. 
When I asked him if he needed it, he said, "Oh! I almost forgot," and 
opened it to take out his mobile phone, which he brought into the interview 
room, and answered when it rang! No samples at all. 

Then there was the applicant who, during an initial phone interview, said
she had decided 
she wouldn't work for a company like mine. I said fine, you shouldn't have
to work 
for any job you're not interested in, and tried to hang up. She then decided
to 
tell me why she wouldn't work there, and proceeded to insult the company's 
product, Web site and its choice of words, and a few other things. 
I said I had no idea what she was talking about and she must have the wrong
Web 
page. She called the next day to tell me she had indeed looked at the wrong
one -- 
even though I'd sent her email she had ignored the email and misheard 
my company name through voice mail. My feeling was that even if we had been
the 
company she thought was sleazy, she had no business insulting it. Besides,
it's a 
small world and the manager at one "sleazy" company may move on later to a
company 
you want to work for. 

And another applicant who told me he wrote poetry and, uninvited, quoted
aloud an 
entire poem with very heavy sexual themes. 

There have also been candidates who apply for the job, get an interview set
up, 
and then don't show up and don't phone. This I don't get at _all_. 

 Krista

==========================================================
Krista Van Laan			VeriSign, Inc.
Documentation Manager		1350 Charleston Road
kvanlaan -at- verisign -dot- com		Mountain View, CA 94043
tel: (650) 429-5158		fax: (650) 961-7300