Career / Life Advise Tread

At a previous job they hired a new General Sales Manager that was supposed to come in, manage all of us wiley sales folk, and begin a new era of ecommerce sales leadership in the industry (riiiiight).

Right off the bat, literally on this dudes second day on the job, we started to notice some major red flags. Mainly, he knew nothing about lead generation in ecommerce. This was literally what he was hired for.

Weeks went on and then he stopped showing up for meetings, then he started showing up for work late, then finally one day he came in looking rough as hell. Face and hands very swollen.

He walks over to my desk (I had assumed almost all of his roles at this point) and says, "I just wanted to tell you I was at the hospital for an allergic reaction, I don't want y'all thinking I'm a junkie or something"

This dude was clearly coming off a OD.

He lasted 60 days until the executives finally figured out that this dude was completely full of s*^% and fired him, but, per his contract they had to pay him for the full 90 day probation period!!! At twice the salary of the rest of the sales team!!! That cut us all pretty deep.

 

Def agree with you here. Whenever I have to interview someone it is always super short. If they look good and sound good I will bring them on. They always tell me "wow, that was a quick interview" and I always say "you'll be interviewing for your first 90 days". Fired a lot of people after a week or two and I realize they were full of it.

 

Gotta love "at will" states lol

 

HR: the gift that never stops giving.

 

That's pretty much exactly what I do with the initial interview

I also set line level applicants up a cutting board in front of the big broilers so its good and warm. Have them sign a "Tasting Disclosure" incase they are complete barrys and cut themselves. Then ask them to do some knife work. Within 5 min I know if they are gangsta, or strung out, or full of sheet on their resumé, or just an absolute barry but can probably be trained.

For Chef applicants, its all about their food, their opportunity to show what they can do. Of course with a few curve balls to the timeline. The cook I assign to be their gofer can pretty much pick out the ones that know their sheet and can cook. Any jagoff with a title on their jacket that looses their sheet over a tasting shouldn't be hired anyway. I'd assume that translates to any field though

 

"Barrys" would have been your best hires, most talented, and by far, the best looking!! Dude!!

 

Metro Boston surfing plus - 45-60 minute drive to lots of different exposures (RI, south shore, north shore, NH)

Metro Boston surfing minus - 45-60 minute drive to any break.

Depends on where you live of course. Biggs lives on the south shore so getting to Cape Ann would probably suck for him but then he's closer to the south shore breaks, etc...

White Mts. > Green Mts - It's only a 2 hour drive to Cannon, Waterville, Loon, etc... Nothing worth the longer drive to VT that's better (other than Magic when it's got the goods.)

 

Speaking of the time vs. work thing:

https://hmmdaily.com/2018/10/18/your-real-biological-clock-is-youre-going-to-die/

 

Hayzeus keerist, the guy who wrote that must be a total laugh riot at parties

 

These are actually questions I actually ask at interviews (and I do them fairly regularly). Keep in mind I'm interviewing prospective public high school teachers:

What's the last book you read?
Tell me about a lesson that went wrong.
Where do you get your news?
What kind of professional development do you want to do next year?

And my favorite, most telling interview "question"...

Tell us a joke.

 

Eeyore

 

I'm in private sector, but we ask the latest book read question as well.

I like the source of your news query you ask them.

We also ask them what do they know about our company. It's amazing, just amazing, how many of these dingbat applicants try to laugh it off or do a broad sweep answer when it's obvious they have no idea. In this day & age when anyone can look up our company's website / company history in less than 2 minutes, it's just total lazy ass on their part. I actually told one goober that since it's apparent that you just want a job somewhere anywhere that my friend who owns a string of 7-11's is hiring. Interview over in only 7 minutes of wasted time.

 

As an interviewer, I always tends to ask theoretical questions pertaining particularly to the job. Give them examples of daily tasks and see how they respond.

Because, above all else, I need to know if they, you know, have the knowledge and experience to actually do the job.

all other questions just seem like fluff to me. "Where do you see yourself in 5 years" blah blah blee.

Personality is secondary, unless the guy immediately comes off as a scumbag (or, if the girl comes off as a douchebag).

A tip of the hat to the great George Carlin for that last line

 

Yeah that’s pretty much in line with what I’ve found. I did see the one spot that’s only about 15-20 min from downtown breaking fairly nicely (chest to shoulder and clean, outside sets a breaking good 300+ yards from beach, people out and getting rides) when I was visiting up there a couple months ago. Specifically looking at neighborhoods close enough to get there for a quick before/after work session even in winter when it breaks (which I gather isn’t that frequently, though the local I talked to when I visited was pretty positive about it).

That’s good to hear about NH mountains. I see that the drive time is quicker than anywhere in VT but didn’t know how they compared. Main appeal of VT is just that I’ve been skiing Killington regularly for 15+ years and Have a good social network there (including, most weekends, a number of my local friends here in jersey). But the day trip access to NH is super intriguing. This season will mostly be a wash with the move but hoping for at least a couple dozen days in ‘19-20.

 

Advice: if surf is your priority, move to RI--they get far more days and larger size of surf. And their surf spots are much better than MA or NH.
If it is skiing you want, then move to NH. I can tell you, NH is NO SURFING MECCA, but rather, crap of surfing. And besides, according to a former Boston Globe superstar writer (in his mind), NH girls all have mustaches. But, Boston is replete with freaks and high taxes.
Decisions, decisions.......

 

When I interview, I ask one question: Can you dig a friggin hole in the ground without digging up or cutting through pre-marked electrical, data, or water lines???