6.20.2004Who Gets The Job?An office manager was given the task of hiring an individual to fill a job opening. After sorting through a stack of resumes, he found four people who were equally qualified. He decided to call the four in and ask them only one question. Their answer would determine which of them would get the job. The day came and as the four sat around the conference room table the interviewer asked, "What is the fastest thing you know of?"
Acknowledging the first man on his right, the man replied, "A thought. It just pops into your head. There's no warning that it's on the way; it's just there. A thought is the fastest thing I know of." "That's very good!" replied the interviewer.
"And now you sir?" he asked the second man. "Hmm... Let me see. A blink! It comes and goes and you don't know that it ever happened. A blink is the fastest thing I know of." "Excellent!" said the interviewer. "The blink of an eye... That's a very popular cliche for speed."
He then turned to the third man who was contemplating his reply. "Well, out at my dad's ranch, you step out of the house and on the wall there's a light switch. When you flip that switch, way out across the pasture the light in the barn comes on in less than an instant. Yep, turning on a light is the fastest thing I can think of." The interviewer was very impressed with the third answer and thought he had found his man. "It's hard to beat the speed of light," he said.
Turning to the fourth and final man, the interviewer posed the same question. The last man replied, "After hearing the three previous answers, it's obvious to me that the fastest thing known is diarrhea." "What!?" said the interviewer, stunned by the response. "Oh, I can explain," said the fourth man. "You see the other day I wasn't feeling so good and I ran for the bathroom. But, before I could think, blink, or turn on the light, I had already messed my pants!"
He got the job!
Proof positive that it always pays to be the last candidate to interview for a position.
"Why should I contact recruiters?
Finding a job through a recruiter, like finding love, is a numbers game. Finding a job through a recruiter is a lot like finding love; it's all about making the right match at the right time. And how do you do that? Well, remember what your mother told you about finding the right mate: "You've got to kiss a lot of frogs..." We're not implying you should plant one on your recruiter's cheek (although you might feel like it if he gets you that perfect position). But, like finding the perfect partner, finding the right recruiter-with just the job you need, right now-is a numbers game. "At any given moment, even the busiest recruiter is only working on a few dozen positions. What's the chance an individual recruiter will be looking for someone for just the job you want at just the moment you want it? Not great," comments Julia de Peyster, managing partner of retained search firm Javelin Partners, Inc. of Wellesley, Mass. And what happens when the position you're seeking doesn't happen to be on that recruiter's "hot list?" "If you send your resume through the mail and I don't happen to be looking for a VP of Government Affairs-or whatever position you might be seeking-your resume is dead in the water. I'll either throw it away or add it to a huge database, where I may never find it again," de Peyster says. How do you save your resume from certain death in the database desert? "It's a numbers game. It's about getting your resume in front of enough people so you happen to intersect with just that recruiter whose client is pressuring her to find just that position-and to find it yesterday. When someone sends me just the right resume at a moment like that, it lands like a prize on my desk," de Peyster concludes." - Job Seeker News
<Note from JobFairy.com: This is why we advise you to renew your resume every week on places like monster.com. They're the biggest and have the most visibility. That's also why you apply to all kinds of positions, even if they're not an exact fit. Often, recruiters have other positions open that they aren't ever going to advertise publicly. So go ahead and send that resume. Send it often. Do so often enough, and they'll call because you just so happen to match their current requirement. You have a large part in making your own luck.>
First Lame Attempt at the New JobFairy Comic Strip
All of us Fairies just love Bastard Operator from Hell. Read one of his classics on how to interview for a help desk position. Oh, and here's a truly obnoxious questionnaire on your interviewing style. Enjoy!
"Human-resource experts will tell you the real costs of employees opting out are deep, systemic and long term. The reason is simple: The best people always leave first, because they have the most choices. After the best people leave, the second-rate people get promoted - and they have a tendency to hire and promote third-rate people. Follow this to its logical conclusion, and you can see how once-great companies gradually slide into mediocrity and then failure. It will be interesting to see how the financial wizards in big corporations rationalize all of the "savings" that come from so much talent, so much experience and so much knowledge all walking out the door at the same time." - by Alan Webber on USA Today.com - click here to read the full article.
"As workers seek new employment, they need the following: affordable health insurance that they can take from job to job, pensions that are equally portable; extended unemployment benefits; insurance to guarantee minimum income for periods between jobs; and tax credits or loans for education and training. These policies aren't luxuries. They are a prerequisite for the viability of a robust American workforce." - Jeffrey E. Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management, quoted from Business Week
<Note from JobFairy.com: AMEN to that, brother!>
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