Tag Archives: Work

Job Interviews

Something interesting I found out yesterday. I was clearing out some old junk on my laptop and I came across a recording of a phone job interview I had a long while ago. Curious, I listened to it, and cringed. I made so many mistakes on that interview I couldn’t believe it, but during the interview, I felt I did pretty well. Surprisingly, I got the offer. I was in that job for a few years before being made redundant.

So, point of the post. If you can, record your interview if it is a phone one, and you can refer back to it later like I did and learn from it. If you got an offer, you can see what helped push your image across. If you failed to get an offer, you can see if you can determine why you didn’t get it by listening as a third-person.

Related articles

Irony or Hypocrisy?

A couple of months ago, I got hauled in front of one of the directors and given a formal written warning for both performance and going over the line in terms of access and what I was allowed to do.

A few months later, the company is offloaded with a high-priority (CEO-driven) project, onto which they put all their best and most-knowledgeable people (myself included). Now, one more than one occasion on this uber-high priority project, I’ve had to write things like scripts and conversion routines which are out of my jurisdiction, to which I previously got into trouble with, but they’ve been accepted for this project, presumably because they saved the company, and saved time. I also wasn’t supposed to touch a machine without being watched by a member of the tech team, but the same director that gave me the lashing and the verbal warning, asked me to come in on a weekend, work on one of these machines – and unsupervised, I might add.

So I get in trouble for using a machine, but then am asked to work on it without supervision?

5 Myths about Introverts and Extraverts at Work | LinkedIn

A really nice article about Intro and Extraverts. My favourite quote:

General Charles Krulak, the former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, introduced himself to me as an introvert too. When Krulak took over as the CEO of a bank, he sat down with his vice presidents and said, “Everyone around this table has forgotten more about banking than I know. And because of that, I’m going to need and seek your advice. I may not always agree with you, and if I don’t, I’ll let you know why. If you get to a point where you don’t feel you can come to me, I’ve failed as a leader.”

5 Myths about Introverts and Extraverts at Work | LinkedIn.

Average commuter burns more than 320 calories getting to and from work

To put it in perspective, a medium fries from McDonalds is 330 calories, so heading to and from work will burn this off.
This DOESN’T however, mean you can slack off the trip to gym.

What Are You Doing Here?

I kid you not:

Me: (Picks up phone) Hi, {boss’ name}

Boss: Hi, is {name of a colleague} there?

Me: No, he’s not.

Boss: And what are you doing there?

Me: I… work here? I’m at my desk….

Boss: (pause) Oh, I dialled the wrong number, sorry.

 

Work & Holiday Allowance

Managers and businesses can be so hypocritical, it sometimes drives me up the wall.

I have a holiday allowance and I’m only allowed to carry over 5 days of holiday leave over to the following year – any extra days, I lose. I’ve been lectured by my boss many times about not taking all my leave. So, this year, I booked everything in advance. I had to pull one week off due to work load, and now my boss wants me to pull ANOTHER week off my holiday. When I told her about the excess doing this would cause, she told me “don’t worry, it’ll be approved”.

So, they can make me lose holidays when it suits them, and keep them when it doesn’t…