This is more or less a newsletter for job seekers like myself. I try to find good job search strategies, bad job search strategies, pure BS and job related articles every week. So far I’ve never run short. Please pass this around. I’m not doing this for any reason other than the desire to help and communicate with other job seekers. If you have any good links or stories, especially stories please comment. If you want the story private, just put that in the comment and I will trash it and not let it post.
Why are there so few women mechanical engineers? In spite of what the feminists tell you
it’s not the patriarchy. Since my college years, the engineering profession has tried very hard to attract women and failed. This piece has some insights.
If companies are doing the right thing why do they try to gag the people they lay off, including me.
I signed one of those bad contracts. But isn’t the clause a violation of people’s First Amendment rights?
This explains all the Indian recruiters all of a sudden.
How companies screw their employees.
http://www.econmatters.com/2016/06/workplace-nwo-collaborate-to-rip-off.html
Once you get started in work life this is more or less true.
Don’t choose your passion, choose what you do well. That’s the path to success.
What effect the “silent treatment” has on job seekers.
Eight reasons the hiring manger hasn’t called back.
Big reason, they don’t care enough.
Liz Ryan has great responses to the template interview questions.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/06/15/how-to-answer-why-do-you-want-this-job/#61b28a1f5fc9
Turn those questions right around on them.
Yes! Yes!!! YES!!!!, stop treating job seekers like crap.
What if job seeker s asked the same kinds of questions they get.
http://www.inc.com/think-your-interview-process-is-fair-read-this-letter.html
The new is old, HR coming with the new version of the serf collar?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wearable-technology-powerful-hr-tool-meghan-m-biro?trk=hp-feed-article-title-comment
Perhaps more trust and less control might be in order?
A dispatch from the job wars:
DISPATCH FROM THE JOB WARS. . . .
It started on Monday. Got an email from the “Armstrong Talent Network” asking me to set up a profile. Because, apparently, there’s a raging need for Senior Network Security Engineers in the Flooring Industry. And it came from a Monster.com address.
…
So checked my profile on Monster. Yep. Turned off. No access to companies or recruiters. Of course, to GET to those settings, I had to endure a pitch about enrolling in some random MBA program. . .
(Quick aside here: Monster is already fairly useless, but are they so hard up that they force their product (because that’s what we are to them. . .) to generate a little extra revenue ?)
Decided I was tired of dealing with it, so cleared my profile. No resumes. No history. No phone. No snailmail addy. Just my name and email, so I’d be left alone.
No such luck. Yesterday, a recruiter for Banker’s Life Insurance pinged me about “exciting opportunities in sales and management at their Winchester, Virgina local office. They even had pre-set an appointment date and time for an interview.
Now, I’ve BEEN an Insurance Agent. And hated every minute of it.
Told her that, plus that I wasn’t looking and in any case was QUITE satisfied with my current position. (Well, could use a better office chair, but. . . . )
She actually took affront to that, asking why I actually wanted to walk away from an opportunity with one of the top 50 financial companies in America. (Hmm. 492 on the Fortune 500, and 2/3s of those are financials. . . methinks she has a math problem. . .)
So I asked why they needed a Security Engineer. Of course, they didn’t, they need Insurance Agents. Which, BTW, make an average of about a sixth of what I make, for ~twice the hours put in.
I passed, but she STILL insisted I investigate the “opportunity”
I told her not only no, but I would now never patronize Banker’s Life, and recommend against others using their services whenever possible,
And that I’d be writing this up in one of my occasional “Dispatches from the Job Wars” posts.
She replied immediately: “Please remove my file as we did yours. Do not contact.”
Too bad, so sad. . . And Amber from Bankers, you’re a twit. . .
The Job Stuff Series.
Job Stuff 40.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/job-stuff-40/
Job Stuff 39.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/job-stuff-39/
Job Stuff 38.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/job-stuff-38/
Job Stuff 37.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/job-stuff-37/
Job Stuff 36.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/job-stuff-36/
Job Stuff 35.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/job-stuff-35/
Job Stuff 34.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/job-stuff-34/
Job Stuff 33
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/job-stuff-33/
Job Stuff 32
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/job-stuff-32/
Job Stuff 31
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/job-stuff-31/
Job Stuff 30.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/job-stuff-30/
Job Stuff 29.
Job Stuff 28.
Job Stuff 27.
Job Stuff 26.
Job Stuff 25.
Job Stuff 24.
Job Stuff 23.
Job Stuff 22.
Job Stuff 21.
Job Stuff 20.
Job Stuff 19.
Job Stuff 18.
Job Stuff 17.
Job Stuff 16.
Job Stuff 15.
Job Stuff 14.
Job Stuff 13.
Job Stuff 12.
Job Stuff 11.
Job Stuff 10.
Job Stuff 9.
Job Stuff 8.
Job Stuff 7:
Job Stuff 7
Job Stuff 6:
Job Stuff 6
Job Stuff 5:
Job Stuff 4:
Job Stuff 3:
Job Stuff 2:
Job Stuff 2
Job Stuff 1:
Job Stuff
The Arts Mechanical 
The econmatters.com post is just about every academic team project ever. I don’t think there is enough out there on the pathological and poisonous aspects to ‘teamwork’ and ‘collaboration’ and all the warm-fuzzy group nonsense. I’m somewhat asocial, and I’ve never really had the mind to be able to navigate “team-politics”: I’ve always been almost entirely focused on getting the job done, doing the work, doing my part. And I’ve come to associate the team-politics breaking out as a prelude to getting stabbed in the back (usually at the last minute, as per game-theory): Having credit for my work stolen, being devalued on “peer-evals”, being accused of not pulling my own weight (after doing a good portion of the work, work that my teammates often have a very poor understanding of because they weren’t even involved), and otherwise “put in my place”.
I’ve worked on some very effective teams (mostly in the military). I’ve been able to contribute constructively to team efforts large and small, in the real world, without any of the guarding my back and drama. On those teams, accomplishing the mission was the focus of all participants involved: It never devolved into a popularity contest. I need to think a bit more about what made those environments successful, and working with those people a pleasure, and what made academic projects mostly a living hell: There is a pretty black and white difference.
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PS: The projects I refer to are mostly undergraduate projects. In graduate school, each of us usually owns our own work, and none of the people I’ve worked with here have been snakes like that.
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All the team-building nonsense too: Whenever the management needs to break out the team-building, manipulate your psychology, and otherwise crawl inside your head: That’s usually a warning sign that this is going to be one of those back-stabby teams (overly concerned about thought-crime and ‘lack of enthusiasm’, not at all concerned about actually doing a good job), not one of the good ones.
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