Resume, Job Help, & Job/Career Advice

That's really colourful. However other than tell me about yourself or walk me through your resume I don't like to ask hypothetical questions.

I may ask describe your leadership style for supervisory roles.

But I try to stick to questions that tie back to past experiences. "Could you give me an example of a time where you had to meet conflicting deadlines?". That way if the person answers if I had deadlines I would do this, I can ask them to tie it back to a previous bullet point on their resume instead of making things up. I also hate people answering we: we did this, we did that. This necessitates asking what did you do specifically.
 
I've been given a new headcount. Not I have to interview people. Not looking forward to that part.
 
I like to interview people. I tend to find good people. The latest person I hired I went through 38 candidates.
 
Beat. He had a telephone screen, then an interview with myself and all my supervisors and then at the end he is supposed to meet my boss but we skipped that.
 
It's kinda hard to work for one. I'm having a low cash flow these last few months. :challengefailed:
 
Betelgeuse said:
It's kinda hard to work for one. I'm having a low cash flow these last few months. :challengefailed:
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Keep your head up Betel. You're the king of your own castle. You could be working at some shitty place for a shitty boss. Don't ever forget that.
 
Should I even bother applying to jobs where I have no interest living in?

There are a few jobs in my industry and at my level that I am an obvious candidate for. The companies are large but have headquarters in what I would call a campus. From the number of openings and Google Maps, it looks like there are at least a few hundred people there so at least I'm not working in a sleepy branch office. One is in Schaumburg, Illinois and another Dover, New Hampshire.

Will I survive there?

I just used walkscore and found out they are in the 30s. My flat is in a neighbourhood where it is 97. Even my parents' house which I call a village is 59. I don't own a car. Frankly, I haven't driven in years - always had a driver, used Uber, used subway -- I walk anywhere less than 3 kilometres. Besides Toronto, I worked a bit in Atlanta and found it extremely tiresome, but I lived closed by to where I work. I also worked in London, which was even more accessible than Toronto. I have no interest buying anything. I just need a pied a terre to live. I could even live in a hotel.

How are people dressed in these campuses? I wear a suit and tie to work every day. I had my first casual day at my current firm in four years. I wore an odd jacket, tie, and white cotton trousers. I enjoy going out for happy hour 4x a week, spontaneously going to sports events, smoking on patios, dining out like a foodie, jazz clubs, cocktail bars, opera, classical concerts, etc. I probably spend more than half my salary on this. I can give up not stumbling out a bar or other venue and finding Chinese food in Chinatown at 4am.

Will I turn into some health nut and eat organic and save money for a long retirement that won't happen given my lifestyle? Do they even sell clove cigarettes there? Will I have to buy all my men's clothing online? Will I have to get rid of my black tie outfit?

Will I stick out like a sore thumb?
 
You will not find what you have in TO in Dover or Schaumburg. At least with Schaumburg you can find what you like in Chicago although it is about an hour away. There is a train though.

I would think you would have to take up driving again.
 
You will need to drive a crossover or at least a Prius. The twelve mile commute will take at least forty minutes each way. Your business attire will be dockers, a baggy knit shirt, and shoes that Cole-Haan would laugh at. Your entertainment will consist of television, bland sports bars, and maybe golf. The ethnic food will be bland and unrecognizable. All restaurants close by 9pm. You'll get used to it. You'll also gain forty pounds and lose your hair.
Smoking is prohibited on the entire corporate campus, BTW.
 
Is smoking prohibited on corporate campuses? What's the point of having the open free spaces?

In the end, I didn't apply. I wouldn't have even considered it even if it progressed. I'm too addicted to urban life.
 
I'm seriously considering doing a second master's degree: an MPH from Monash that I can do online. It would better fit my past work experience than my history degrees and help me get Bach into public healthcare policy work or perhaps epidemiology.

I'm 43. Too old to be going back to school? How much added value can a second master's degree provide, if it is in a better field?
 
That really depends on if you're looking to climb the ladder. If you're making a parallel move, probably a waste of money. But for better jobs where more credentials are wanted/needed, then it might be worth it.
 
I should have added that it would be a part-time degree over two years and will most likely not cost my anything.

Yeh, when I say that aloud it does sound like a silly question.

I'd like to work in the field again, but without the right degrees, my work experience in a different country - which is pretty extensive, hasn't been enough.
 
Dropbear said:
I should have added that it would be a part-time degree over two years and will most likely not cost my anything.

Yeh, when I say that aloud it does sound like a silly question.

I'd like to work in the field again, but without the right degrees, my work experience in a different country - which is pretty extensive, hasn't been enough.
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if there are employment opportunities in public health then the MPH is worth it. it is a professional degree and ideal for government programs, especially for health policy and program administration & management. broad-based exposure to all areas. do you have the opportunity to focus in a particular area? is it course-based with a capstone exam or is there a thesis?

well worth it in my opinion especially if you can do it online and at little cost.
 
Thanks for the feedback and encouragement!

It is a series of 6 week modules, with no major final exam. I think a thesis may be a module option. Most of the assessment seems to be shortish essays and reflection papers.

My background is in public health management, prevention and education - though this uni focuses more on epidemiology and administration. That's fine by me, since that's also where the jobs and money are.

I'm not a Melbourne boy or even an East Coaster, but I think Journeyman would agree Monash has a solid Ivy League reputation. Online study is entirely alien to me, but it seems to be legit.
 
Dropbear said:
It is a series of 6 week modules, with no major final exam. I think a thesis may be a module option. Most of the assessment seems to be shortish essays and reflection papers.
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A masters degree can't possibly be this easy? Is this a degree in public health or frisbee golf?
 
From what I have read and seen Monash has quality programs, it is top tier for Medicine & Dentistry so PH should be up there too
 
Rambo said:
A masters degree can't possibly be this easy? Is this a degree in public health or frisbee golf?
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It is an MPH and not an MSc. it is intended as a practical degree as opposed to a research degree. Coursework is similar but you do not have a long research program and thesis unless you elect to do so. To be honest with you, most traditional masters are not all they are cracked up to be and are not as tough as you'd might think. Depends on the discipline.

Think of it as an MBA for the health care set
 
interesting that it aligns with the Bologna process which is beginning to revolutionize higher education in Europe and North America is beginning to pay attention too. Traditional university-level learning is inherently inefficient and takes too long for what you get out of it, especially at the BA/BSc level. The MA/MSc and PhD levels somewhat less so but the bottom line is that they don't do a good job preparing graduates for the world. Look at how MOOC's are beginning to threaten traditional university learning. so much so that traditional bricks and mortar schools are getting into them in a big way and partnering with industry to deliver them completly changing the notion of distance education
 
Getting to work before 7:30 today, I noticed some peers are copying my use of SMART objectives. God knows how they managed before.

Mind you I'm not in slavish devotion to the model but "waking up every morning and doing a good job" is a load of bollocks.
 
State government is a real struggle sometimes. Executives and managers can all be fired at will. Firing line staff, however, takes so much paperwork that we've got two employees who have actually said to their supervisors "I'm career service, ya'll can't do shit to me." I love a challenge.

The problem is that when you get a bad career service employee they never leave. The smart ambitious people do, so the proportion of bad employees just grows and grows, putting more of a burden on the good employees. And all state employees' salaries are posted online, so the go-getter in one cube knows exactly what the piece-of-shit-been-here-for-thirty-years-and-never-done-jack employee next to them makes.

Most managers are too soft or not trained on how to get rid of them. It's been my biggest frustration since taking over the agency. Don't complain to me about how you can't meet your department's goals because of your workforce. Put the time in, be the bad guy, and document people's failure to perform. Either they will respond and become a good employee, or they will leave. We're in the most highly-educated county in Florida, it's not like there is a labor shortage.
 
Fwiffo said:
Mind you I'm not in slavish devotion to the model but "waking up every morning and doing a good job" is a load of bollocks.
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I love to sit people down and go through their daily work with them. "So what do you do in a typical day?" "Hmmm....okay, so how long does each one take you?" "Okay, so that's about three hours per day. What do you do with the rest of your time?" Lots of blinking. We all goof off at work (some of us even post on a men's clothing forum during work hours), but it's about how much.
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
"Okay, so that's about three hours per day. What do you do with the rest of your time?" Lots of blinking. We all goof off at work (some of us even post on a men's clothing forum during work hours), but it's about how much.
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"Parkinson's law is the adage that 'work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion'."

John Lee Pettimore III said:
Most managers are too soft or not trained on how to get rid of them. It's been my biggest frustration since taking over the agency. Don't complain to me about how you can't meet your department's goals because of your workforce. Put the time in, be the bad guy, and document people's failure to perform. Either they will respond and become a good employee, or they will leave.
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Weak managers always complain about the untouchables or "you can't fire him". Everyone can be fired. I went through some archaic UK redundancy process and some bloke brought his mother in to give an 11th hour testimonial - everyone can be fired.

It just takes perseverance in adhering to standards expected of the role. Hopefully no one is terminating someone for petty reasons because they dress poorly or look bad.
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
I love to sit people down and go through their daily work with them. "So what do you do in a typical day?" "Hmmm....okay, so how long does each one take you?" "Okay, so that's about three hours per day. What do you do with the rest of your time?" Lots of blinking. We all goof off at work (some of us even post on a men's clothing forum during work hours), but it's about how much.
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George Carlin:

Nobody goes right to work. It’s true. You might get there on time, but screw the company—those first 20 minutes belong to you, right?. It’s not an attitude in line with the American spirit, but, there it is, we all screw around first. ‘I just got here, man, are you kidding me?’ Really, you never see a memo that says ‘9:01.’ People don’t jump out of bed and vacuum, right? Stand around the office a little, look at the picture for a while. Notice there’s a duck in it. Been there eight years, and never saw the duck before. You’re good for half an hour if there’s a window in your office, right? Especially if they’re building something across the street. Some guy will come in and do ninety minutes on ‘struts.’
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Not long ago I got sick of a woman's lack of work, using work time to grocery shop in work car, extended non authorised meetings/absences in the big city 2 hours away, and gratuitous derogatory comments about the organisation in front of outsiders - so I politely made an appointment with her to just go through her job description. Nothing else. Straight up. Of course I had an other medium term agenda but thats all I did at that appointment.

Only took 2 days to get an allegation of harassment from HR and they asked for a response.

I said - its nonsense I'm not going to dignify it with a response.
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
I love to sit people down and go through their daily work with them. "So what do you do in a typical day?" "Hmmm....okay, so how long does each one take you?" "Okay, so that's about three hours per day. What do you do with the rest of your time?" Lots of blinking. We all goof off at work (some of us even post on a men's clothing forum during work hours), but it's about how much.
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Keeping a log at work helped me get a handle on productivity. The strange part was that - even on a full day - I still found that an hour would slip through the cracks between tasks.
 
Clench your buttocks. Then nothing will slip between the crack. Unless you wear a thong.
 
If anyone wanted to go through what I do each day they'd get shown the door pretty bloody quickly.

Its about delivering outcomes not if you look busy.

Thats for the military.
 
fxh said:
If anyone wanted to go through what I do each day they'd get shown the door pretty bloody quickly.

Its about delivering outcomes not if you look busy.

Thats for the military.
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It's about maximizing outcomes. Anyone can deliver an outcome.
 
If it wasn't papered in two years of consecutive performance reviews, or review committees, It's now officially in my personnel file that I have emotional intelligence challenges. I'm to be sent to some offsite - one where I get actual feedback on how my personality impacts others. It can't be a course where I just rate myself, study theoretical behavioural models or do a self-examination. I have to get real feedback from external people preferably a week isolated from the workplace day to day activities. And then I have to come back and get feedback from peers in my day to day environs.

Daniel Goldman was mentioned.

I do not exhibit this unconscious trait that happens when dealing with people. And I cannot move forward or upwards without it.

This reminds me of some VP in Atlanta who was telling me he spends his time free-wheeling interviews until a light bulb pops up and the candidate demonstrates an "aptitude". When asked to define "aptitude", he couldn't string together more syllables than that root word.

How am I going to get out of this hole?
 
I just don't understand how you got this far to begin with if kissing ass is a prerequisite.
 
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