My Job Hunting Story (4)
-- by Hotdog ®2004 copyright
6.1. Interviews with A Regional Bank (“RB”)
You are able to find many sample questions you should ask the interviewers from Internet, but you have to understand the purposes of those questions. The questions I always ask are: “Could you please tell me your background and how do you progress to the current position?” “Could you please tell me what kind of person you are looking for?” and “Could you please give me an example of current projects in your group so that I will have a better ideas of how to utilize my skills in the group.” To certain extend, it helped me get my job at RB. That was a senior system analyst position within the Capital Markets Division. They required skills of ProC (something I never heard of it before my interview), Unix Scripting... The technical guys seemed not to be convinced with my technical skills, because I could only say, “I don’t know” to certain questions. However, I had a really good conversation with the hiring manager. We talked a lot about the business, e.g. finance. I asked him about his background, and he became very excited. He told me how his career was upside-down during the past 30 years. He talked a lot; and I showed strong interest. They arranged me to have a second interview with the VP of the department. The same strategy, in the end, they did not give me the senior analyst position, instead they would like to extend me a full-time offer after my working at RB for 1~2 months. Later a good friend I made at RB told me they got more than 40 resumes and interviewed so many people and he did not understand why the manger chose me. Within one month, from knowing nothing to undertaking independent development projects, I had proved myself. When I left, a tech guy said, “I am impressed with your learning ability. You will have no problem at your new job.” Frankly speaking, I did not like the job. Although it was in a bank, it was a laid-back job, 9-5 every day. A woman of 40 was got promoted to a senior analysis when I joined. My friends were kidding, “That is really senior.” I didn’t see where my future would be with this job. Three months later, I started working in my current job.
6.2. Interview with A Consulting Firm (“CF”)
The interview with company CF was such a suffer. I started the first interview with them in March 2002, until November 2002, I had four rounds of interviews and met almost 30 people in the group. They asked me to prepare writing samples and PowerPoint presentations. Later I talked with a senior manager and asked, “Why was it so difficult?” He said they were not sure about my writing and communication skills. In the past, they hired people who proved not be able to write and communicate properly. For interviews with this company, I prepared 100 interview questions. Anything they would ask, I had them prepared. I even had to send them my publications in China to prove that I can write properly, at least in Chinese. After I started working in the company, I had the opportunity to interview other candidates. It is very important that people like you. Give them the feeling that you are smart, you can do the job well, and you are a good team player.
In addition to the interviews I mentioned above, I had phone or on-site interviews with many other companies. I did not lose any interviews except one with a hedge fund in New York. I regretted that I did not go for the second round interviews with a credit card company and a hedge fund company, both based in California. I was pressed for time, because I had to finish up my projects at RB, and start my job at CF right after my last day at RB. The headhunter who gave me several opportunities was mad at me, because I did not go to the second round he recommended. He said, “What do you know? You gave up the opportunity to develop yourself. What kind of job that is in that firm.” Later, I realize he is right and I am wrong. It is not that my job is not good, but I should go for the on-site interviews with those two companies. YOU NEVER KNOW!
Lesson: Always keep options open and be ready for new opportunities. Job security is a joke. You never know whether you have got the right job until you start working on the job.
7. Some Thoughts
I have been working in this company for two years. I have suffered; I have learned; and I have grown both personally and professionally. But still from time to time, I felt lost. I always asked myself, “is this the kind of life I am looking for?” “No. Absolutely Not.” I like it, but I still feel that there will be something more interesting. Life is a hard choice.
For my entire life, I have been pursing the dreams not belonging to myself, such as good scores, good colleges, hot majors, and decent jobs. My goal was very clear during the job hunting - to get a good job, develop my career, and advance within the organization. You know, when you are in school, everything seems simple and every goal seems clear, because you never really understand the real world.
Only until I started working did I realize that climbing the corporate ladder is not something fun and exciting. I feel lost because I did not know where is the future. During the past two years, in addition to dealing with my work, I spent almost every day thinking what's the purpose and where is my goal. My efforts paid off. I have found what I am really interested in and have a strong passion for. It is hard to get there, because it has been so far away from what I used to do and what I am good at. With my goal in my mind, I changed my attitude toward work. I know I will not end up working in the same company my whole life; I know in stead of fear, I should take the opportunities to work on my weakness such as writing and communication, and furthermore, sales and marketing, and turn these weakness into strength.
But I want to say that from my experiences, only with the end goal in your mind, you will live an effective life. The goal searching process is hard, partly because of our background in China. Most of us are not used to thinking differently than others.
The stories and skills mentioned in this story might be helpful in landing a job, but a “good’ job will not necessarily lead us to a meaningful life. Again, think hard before you spend 5 or 6 years on something you don’t like; and spent more time on defining your life map than following the popular concepts in the society.
To end my story, I want to cite a sentence from Mr. Zig Ziglar, “Do you want to become a wandering generality or do you want to become a meaningful specific?”
The answer is – a meaningful specific.
