What do you do?

I will in a week or so. It's only been a couple of days. They're doing me a favor, so I don't want to be an annoyance about it.

Two weeks ago:

I guess you'd call me a partner in my family firm.

I was an attorney doing a bit of no contest divorce, a bit of DUI and misdemeanor shit (basically, plea bargain shit getting it bumped down a charge), and a bit of estates (wills, trusts, etc.).

Legal field. Small family practice in a very small town. Was in it with one other family member with one paralegal. Honestly, the paralegal was half the reason the place even kept running. He knew everyone and everything for 50 miles and could get shit done administratively no one else could. And the dude had like, 7 jobs and was even an ordained minister. Dunno how he did it.

Wages fluctuated wildly. There were mostly standard fees for wills and no contest stuff, definitely no contingency on anything. Didn't do that kind of stuff.

Rather than the firm taking a cut from my pay, I helped with costs of running the practice and kept everything else after that. I cleared maybe $30k~35k in a good year. Small town, but somehow there was an abundance of other practices. DUIs were the cash cow.

Shitty thing is, no benefits or bonuses to speak of. Was on my own there.

As of today?

Broke ass graduate assistant going for a MA and eventually PhD in Poli Sci (yeah, I know) so I can eventually teach.

Half of what I do is research, the other half clerical stuff for professors like grading papers, proctoring tests, sometimes running the department's front desk, etc. The other part is just going to grad school. It's about 20 hours of GA work, 20 hours of school.

Wages? Tuition, fees, costs, and a stipend that amounts to about $15k a year.

Bonuses? Lol. Maybe a good letter of rec or help getting published. Getting invited to nifty faculty parties.

Benefits? None.

Never been happier.

My old professor didn't come through, so I skipped the referral and went straight to the normal careers page for my dream job. One day later, I just got an email to schedule an interview.

It's just a phone call (they're on the opposite coast), but it's a start. HUGE ego boost.

Does anyone have experience undergoing a behavioral interview? I'm finding a lot on line that suggests I can expect those sorts of questions.

HALPS.

Deathwing_sl said:

What do you like to do in your free time? Do you like working alone or in teams? How do you approach a problem?


That's what I think when I read "behavioral interview". I've never heard it called that, usually that get lumped into technical questions and it's just called "an interview".

BTW, the first one is a trick question. Just tell them you like to rescue puppies from burning buildings.

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I've also heard them called STAR interviews. This sort of thing:

"Describe a Situation Where You Disagreed With a Supervisor."
"Tell me about a time you had a conflict at work."
"Tell me about a situation where you had to solve a difficult problem."

Apparently there's an established response pattern of 1. Situation, 2. Specific task, 3. Actions taken, 4. Results achieved. It's actually a pretty reasonable format for interview answers, but I've never encountered it in research before.

Heylel_sl said:

I've also heard them called STAR interviews. This sort of thing:

"Describe a Situation Where You Disagreed With a Supervisor."
"Tell me about a time you had a conflict at work."
"Tell me about a situation where you had to solve a difficult problem."

Apparently there's an established response pattern of 1. Situation, 2. Specific task, 3. Actions taken, 4. Results achieved. It's actually a pretty reasonable format for interview answers, but I've never encountered it in research before.

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These kinds of generic questions are so stupid. I hate answering them in interviews. They're so stereotypical that you can basically rehearse answers for them so the interviewers aren't even going to learn much about you from the questions.

Hire him and then request his salary.

Picasso_sl said:

Hire him and then request his salary.

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Yup. This would be my strategy. You just interviewed him. Use the exact same questions as a framework for justifying a salary increase. Show em you're already doing those things and more.

McCheese_sl said:

These kinds of generic questions are so stupid. I hate answering them in interviews. They're so stereotypical that you can basically rehearse answers for them so the interviewers aren't even going to learn much about you from the questions.

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I think rehearsing is half the point. They want you to provide a specific example from your own history that is relevant to the job posting. Notice I said "I think" because I really don't know. I'm trying to think like a recruiter. Complaining about the process won't help me get through it. I'll give feedback to HR when I come out of hiring on the other side.

Heylel_sl said:

I think rehearsing is half the point. They want you to provide a specific example from your own history that is relevant to the job posting. Notice I said "I think" because I really don't know. I'm trying to think like a recruiter. Complaining about the process won't help me get through it. I'll give feedback to HR when I come out of hiring on the other side.

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I think it's because somewhere, sometime long ago, someone wrote a policy/procedure that says they have to ask specific questions. In my experience, you tend to run into those generic, stereotypical kinds of interview questions in government, academia, and huge corporations. I've interviewed and worked for several smaller companies (i.e., fewer bureaucratic policies to follow) and never run into those generic questions.

McCheese_sl said:

I think it's because somewhere, sometime long ago, someone wrote a policy/procedure that says they have to ask specific questions. In my experience, you tend to run into those generic, stereotypical kinds of interview questions in government, academia, and huge corporations. I've interviewed and worked for several smaller companies (i.e., fewer bureaucratic policies to follow) and never run into those generic questions.

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Could be. I suspect it has more to do with filtering huge numbers of applicants to something more manageable. It's probably unfair, but that's life. Either way, I've got to slog through it.

edit: Just got the confirm for Tuesday. Fuck, that's a lot faster than I was expecting.

Behavioral interview? I guess we call that lunch lol.

Oddly enough I was "interviewed" by someone that works for me now. They had totally lost control of the technical aspect of their business and they had the guy they are replacing talk to me and report back to my boss if I knew what I was talking about. Really odd. I'm not sure what went on between the guy who is being replaced eventually and the boss. But the guy is 63 so I have to think he knew the end was coming eventually. Whole office was built around him and he won't work forever.

Anyway 11am tomorrow and I am out of here.

Heylel_sl said:

My old professor didn't come through, so I skipped the referral and went straight to the normal careers page for my dream job. One day later, I just got an email to schedule an interview.

It's just a phone call (they're on the opposite coast), but it's a start. HUGE ego boost.

Click to expand...

Is that for the job I looked at your resume and job listing for? If so started packing yet?

Borzak_sl said:

Is that for the job I looked at your resume and job listing for? If so started packing yet?

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Yep, that's the one. I was expecting a recruiter to screen me, but they scheduled me for a phone interview with the head of research on Tuesday. That's surprising, since everything I've found online about this company is that there's usually a process of 1st screener, 2nd technical/case studies, 3rd onsite. I imagine it's just who had availability.

The turnaround has been very fast. I submitted my info Tuesday, got a request for an interview yesterday, and a confirmed time today for less than a week from now. I don't want to read too much into it, but that *feels* like I made a positive impression with my submitted materials.

Congrats and good luck. Start packing, that's a pretty big move lol. I would think hearing back and having an interview scheduled on that short of notice is a good sign as well.

Not related to what I do, but can any of you keep your $90k/year job if you are late 111 times in 2 years? They should get progressive discipline instead of being fired. I am soooooo out of touch.

New Jersey teacher who was late for work 111 times keeps job - Yahoo News