Are you stuck for a reference?

Do you have a supervisor who is giving you a hard time? Some bosses would do nothing to help you into another job, or worse, are just plain vindictive and destroy any chance of advancement by actively working against you. Others are so involved with their own priorities they know little about you and the work you do. Would you trust your boss to give you a decent reference?

Put yourself in their shoes. They have deadlines to meet. Yes, I know, we’ve all been there, but if they stuff up they might lose their bonus. They might not be able to get that new Beemer they’ve had their eye on recently.

So you ask for a reference. What goes through their mind? Do they think, “How can I help out with their next career step,” or is it something more selfish, “This is not a good time; if I lose them now who’ll fill their place?” But irrespective of what they are thinking they’ll say, “I’d be glad to give you a reference,” but plan to provide a more mundane comment when the employer contacts them: “Yes, their work has been mostly adequate...”

Then when that all important phone call comes through the chances are that all you’ll get in support might be something along the lines: “Yes, attendance has been satisfactory, except when...” “Yes, interaction with other staff is good, though sometimes tea breaks seem to be a bit long on occasions.” Any of these comments will guarantee your name is crossed off the list.

Not all bosses are like this, and quite a few will go out of their way to help. Genuinely. But if you are stuck, don’t worry. You don’t need them.

If you are worried, ask your wife, husband, partner, work colleagues, or old school friends to help you out. It might also be a test of the strength of your friendship. Anyway, you’d be able to help them out should they need a similar favour.

Your prospective employer knows about you because you have applied for the job and you provided certain information. The advantage you have is that they don’t know your friends and relatives. You just have to make sure the information your referees provide supports and agrees with what was stated in your application and what you say at the interview. Ideally, you will have been talking to your intended referees beforehand so that everyone’s statements will match.

Let’s say it’s your cousin that you ask to be one of your referees. Here’s what to do. You and your cousin need get together to discuss your experience so that everything each of you say will match. You need to decide at what point in time the two of you could have been in a working relationship. Think about the things you have done in your last job. Think of a project you might have done. If there was more than one project, so much the better. It may well be that you managed your work or projects entirely by yourself, but for this exercise it will be your cousin who was your supervisor and you reported directly to them. No one else knows that the two of you know each other privately.

Get together and work out how this fictitious relationship might have been. Perhaps they were hired for a special one off project by the company and you were assigned to be their assistant. Brief them in as much detail as possible to enable them to provide information on the project and what your part was. Provide them with notes on your experiences and abilities that they have to speak of. Have a trial so that your cousin can gain confidence. Of course, it would be as well that the cousin was familiar with the type of work you were involved with. This plan will fall on its face if your cousin is inexperienced in any essential aspect of the advice they are supposed to be passing on. So, take that into consideration when you are planning what is to be said.

Your cousin should keep the story straight about your skills and the outcomes of the work. It’s only a small lie. Your cousin shouldn’t build you up into something greater than your abilities. Their task is to promote you as a skilled worker that the prospective employer would be pleased to have. They should talk about you in a positive light, and importantly, with enthusiasm. You have already told of your skills during the interview. So, they are not expected to add to that, but what they say should support your claims. All you want your cousin to do is to tell your story like it really is and not adversely biased by a supervisor or boss who would put you down or make things hard for you. However, you cousin has to do it with passion. They have to say that you were a delight to work with... sorely missed your talents when I left the project... would love to work with them again... etc.

So when the employer telephones Acme Bookbinding for the reference (or wherever it is that your cousin works), your cousin will answer the phone like they normally do, because you will have provided your cousin’s real name and real place of employment to your prospective employer. All your cousin has to do is boast of your credentials; which will be true because you don’t want this job under false pretences. All you want is a helping hand. And the excuse for them being at Acme Bookbinding is that they left la-de-dah (where you currently work) a while ago. They are unlikely to check any of these details, unless you are applying for a job in some highly sensitive area. It’s you they are checking up on; not your referees.

If you use a close relative for this, make sure you all have different telephone numbers and/or email addresses. It could be embarrassing if your reference (husband or wife) has the same or similar contact information as yourself. Of course with mobile phones that’s not a problem. Anyway, you’d be giving work numbers and work addresses, and why would they want to find out where your referees live. That would be delving into someone’s private life more than they should.

The trouble with using someone so close to your personal life is that they will never be able to meet up with any of your bosses. Anyway, that might be a good thing.

Cold comfort

Sarino Russo staff pushed the notion of what they termed cold calling.

I recall stories from my parents and older relatives. These are people who lived through the depression of the 1930s. You’ve probably watched old movies of long queues of people lining up for food handouts, never mind lining up for a job, and of people walking from town to town in search of work. I feel miserable just thinking about this. Snap out of it!

My mother and aunt used to talk about their experiences of marching the streets of Glasgow, knocking on factory and workshop doors and asking if they had any work; any kind of work. My mother did this in Australia when we first arrived here, and on a few occasions she was successful in getting factory work in stinking, hot, noisy environments that almost caused her to collapse from exhaustion. She carried the memories of one of those employers for year after year on her hands. The chemicals used in the fruit processing factory resulted in dermatitis of her fingers which lasted for years. She suffered sore hands and skin for years, but she never sued nor claimed compensation.

This is nothing to look forward to. If that’s cold calling, who wants it?

I wanted a job that was within my capabilities. A job I felt comfortable doing, something that I would like. My skills were mildly specialised and jobs were few and far between. My partner had less practical skills than me but was far more qualified. Both of us have tried cold calling employers. We wrote to selected employers.

I sent out a series of emails, very briefly outlining our skills, background, and qualifications. Not much more than a hundred words. I wrote just enough to whet their appetites. If I got any bites I would have provided more information and sent my CV too.

I never had any takers. Not one job. Not one interview. I had a few responses saying they were passing my email onto colleagues. I had a few people ask for my CV. No jobs ever came of it. On the other hand my partner has won several jobs. Some people had retained her email for periods approaching 12 months before contacting her and asking if she’d like to come in for an interview. These jobs have never been brilliant in her view, and have all been casual positions or contract jobs.

You often tend to be treated distantly (or shabbily) in such jobs. The permanent staff know you will likely be moving on and consequently don’t want to invest any effort in getting to know you or engaging with you in any meaningful way. Of course, if you just want a job then these niceties don’t matter a bit, and if you do a half decent job you will probably be able to get your supervisor to be referee for you.

So I guess the bottom line to cold calling from my experience is don’t waste your time. Though it can work for some.

Interviews aren't all that they seem

I was asked to sit on an interview panel. A position had been advertised. Someone had been acting in the position for about a year or more. I knew them only casually, and very pleasant they were too. They were interested in holding onto the job. They were well regarded in the office, well liked, and in so far as I knew did the job well. Of course, to make a permanent appointment the formal process of advertising and interviews had to take place.

From what I could make out, unless they bombed badly at the interview or unless another candidate made a better impression the job was theirs for the taking. So why advertise outside the establishment?

Why indeed. No one wants to spend time writing an application and attending an interview for a job they don’t have a snow ball’s chance in hell of getting. It’s a waste of everyone’s time, and the sooner organisations pull their head out of the sand, and stop doing this, the better for all concerned.

I made two observations. The first related to the manner in which the ‘preferred’ candidate was treated compared with other candidates. The second related to one of the applicants who interested us.

Most people get a bit nervous at job interviews, and as a consequence it can be easy to lose the plot. That list of examples or experiences you wanted to use to demonstrate some knowledge or expertise gets forgotten or misquoted. You goof during the interview and it’s only afterwards when you are feeling relaxed you might remember what it was that you should have said. Too late then. This clearly happened during the interview.

The person chairing the meeting knew the capabilities of the person, knew they were failing in their response to one of the interview questions, and by rephrasing the question, and with a bit of prompting got them to respond fully. No words were put into their mouth. It’s just that these two people had worked together and in a sense one was coaching the other through the interview. Consequently, all questions were responded to fully and very well. This treatment did not apply to other candidates. If they floundered they were not assisted. Consequently, the interview reports were inferior to that of the ‘preferred’ candidate. Coming to a decision as to who to appoint was straightforward. Is this unfair? Sure it is. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done about it.

Prior to the following experience I have doubted the honesty of people who say, when advising you that you were unsuccessful for a position, that they liked your application and were forwarding it to a colleague. It sounds very positive, but in my experience nothing has ever happened. Either they lied, or if they did pass on the application it just lay in someone’s bottom drawer for ever or was discarded immediately. I maintained that belief until I had this experience.

This other applicant had submitted a poor application. It was clumsily written due to language difficulties. Their experience was limited as a front counter person. The individual was unsuitable for this particular job, but on a technical level they were very experienced. Their skills didn’t match the advertised position.

Think of a civil engineer with heaps of experience in managing large projects like bridge building. Think of the same person applying for a position as a construction worker. They could probably use a shovel, but they are unlikely to do it well. However, in this example, if that company was about to commit to a contract to build a bridge you might be interested in that person for their engineering background. It was with that idea in mind that he was interviewed.

They were never going to get this job, but their application got them into a meeting with the person who hires and fires. The need for someone with this person’s background came up a few months later. His application was retained, and he was contacted and offered a job.

In the first example. Despite other applicants interviewing very well and in some cases coming across better, they didn’t have the relevant experience for the position, which disadvantaged them. It has to be considered that if someone is acting in a position you have a slim chance of getting anywhere in the process. Your energies may be better spent elsewhere. When you telephone about the advertised position, one of your first questions should be to find out whether anyone is acting in the position. Consider contacting the person who is acting and talking to them. Who knows maybe they might shed some light on the job that you would never hear about through formal channels. What’s the boss like? What’s the company like?

So if an aircraft pilot can’t find work is it worthwhile them applying to be a bus driver? Possibly not. In this example this individual had a great deal of technical expertise relevant to the company. That experience would have been a great help had they been the successful candidate; there was no doubt of that. I never found out whether they were interested in the advertised position at all and whether their goal was simply to make themselves and their experience known to the company. It’s a strategy worth considering but be prepared for a lot of knock backs. It obviously works sometimes.

Job Interviews

There may be a lot on your mind when you front up for a job interview, but if you can analyse the people sitting around the table you might walk away with some quality information about the people you could be working for. Try to read the people on the panel. Analyse their mood. Watch how they interact with you and with each other. These people may work together and enjoy each other’s company, or they might hate each other’s guts. Look out for their body language, what they say, and how they say it. If they give anything away it may clarify your decision on whether you want to work there. Anyway, I’ve had some interesting experiences from both sides of the table.

I was at a Queensland university for a job interview a few years back, and on this occasion there must have been about eight or nine people siting around the table. That’s a lot of people for a middle-ranking job. One of the questions I was asked related to Executive Information Systems. I had a good idea of what this was about, having developed a very basic EIS myself. I also had a reasonable knowledge of these systems by talking to other people, who actually knew a lot about them. From what I could gather some were very good for specific purposes, but tended to be restrictive. Anyway, before I digress too much, back to the interview. I was asked a question along the lines of, “What do you know of Executive Information Systems?” There seemed to be an emphasis which raised my heckles: “What do you know of…” it seemed to me. I explained my background in what I thought was a more than adequate response, and felt an overwhelming desire to direct the same question to the person who asked it of me. His response was along the lines of, “I don’t really know, I was just asked to ask the question.” That’s not a bright thing to say, even if it is true. There is a moral here. Don’t engage anyone in dialogue unless you know something of the subject. There wasn’t a solitary person on the panel that I could relate to. They were all thoroughly unlikeable, and that might have come through in my interaction with them. If you don’t click with the people at the interview, you may be dropping yourself in trouble if you actually get the job. So, I didn’t particularly care if I offended anyone.

Another interview I went to was with an agency associated with a government department. A very laid back group of people were sitting in easy chairs around a large low coffee table. It was difficult to know who was chairing the panel; that may have been intentional. I was offered a coffee at the start of the interview, which was very social. They then proceeded to ask dumb questions. The coffee was piping hot, and I could barely drink it. It would have been better had there been somewhere to put it, but here I was juggling it on its saucer, on my lap, amidst the pile of papers I had. Could this have been a test? Moral: always refuse hot drinks; ask for water, if they offer you anything. And the dumbest of questions related to some legislation. One of them asked, “What can you tell us about sub-section 32 of the…(something or other) Act?” What? I was struck dumb. Were they kidding? Had I been more experienced I should have told this guy to pull his head in, but you don’t say that sort of thing at a job interview, particularly if you are inexperienced. You want the job, after all. More than likely this was the question that the person who had been lined up for the job had been made aware of. There was certainly nothing in the job ad that related to anything like that.

I once worked in a small statistics section with a staff of six. One of the staff members had resigned and their position was advertised. The appointment was for assistant to one of my co-workers, and I was asked to join the interview panel. The panel consisted of my colleague, my boss, and me. This was my first experience on an interview panel. I was keen to study every application and derive the short list carefully. I had to smile to myself when I was at one of the Sarina Russo training sessions, and was advised that employers spend only a few seconds scanning the cover page of an application with little more time on the CV.

There were quite a variety of applications. One that comes to mind was a very long letter from someone who described their work history in much more detail than was required, which was interwoven by their life experiences. It was almost a plea. He was selected for interview by my boss, possibly out of curiosity rather than anything, but he failed to turn up. The letter certainly caught our attention but left us wary as to whether he would have been suitable. Don’t write your life story in an application.

This particular position would have required more than basic IT skills, and we had quite a number of people apply who had masters or doctorate degrees. A stance we felt in regard to these applicants was that these people could no doubt cope with the job, but they would see the position as an interim one, possibly they would be bored, and would soon move on. After all, they were over qualified for the job. These applicants were generally discounted for that reason. This was wrong, and I feel sorry for being party to it. If you are more qualified for a job that you are considering, please consider this scenario, and consider writing your application in a less intimidating manner. It’s a difficult one, because you have no idea of who will be reading your application: skilled interviewers, or people like us.

We interviewed about seven candidates. I have to admit being engineer of a post-interview test. At the conclusion of the interview each candidate was given a list of questions. It was a pen and paper test. I had listed all the commands taken directly from the SPSS user manual table of contents. I asked the candidates to write a brief description of what each command meant. No one was expected to know them all. But it was surprising the number of people who claimed expertise in SPSS but could barely respond to any of them. There is nothing wrong with bolstering your experience in you application, but if you lie you might be caught out. Be careful.

There was a young woman who applied internally and was selected for interview. She provided a good application, interviewed well, performed well in the final SPSS test, and her referees spoke glowingly of her. She was definitely a prime candidate for the job, and I offered my opinion as such. However, an issue arose. The issue that eventually saw her being passed over was that she might have outshone her supervisor. I feel saddened that this individual’s chance slipped away due to her would-be supervisor worrying about feeling intimidated by her. There’s not much to be done about this, and I doubt if there is any real solution. All I’m doing here is alerting you to some of the issues in that hope that you will be better armed to deal with the interview experience. And of course the moral here is that if you are unsuccessful in wining the job you felt you should have got don’t be too disappointed as it may not have been your fault.

After brooding on this experience for a while it led me to become more assertive in stating my viewpoint in the few other occasions I’ve been on interview panels. The person we hired did an adequate job, but the other young woman could have been outstanding. I reconcile the experience by recalling that this particular place was one of the more troublesome environments in which I’ve ever worked, and perhaps her missing out on the job was a good thing for her.

Job Applications – Selection Criteria

Don’t you hate applying for jobs?

Let me rephrase that. Job applications are just fine when you can present you skills and experiences for a position you think might suit you down to the ground. The prospect can fill you with excitement and anticipation of working with your dream organisation, maybe in a great position, and with a marvellous salary to boot. But when you’ve mailed your hundredth application addressing selection criteria that have been poorly worded the letter writing experience takes on an entirely different perspective. Here’s an experience from the other side of the table that relates to selection criteria.

I was working in the state government, and the section in which I worked was in the process of recruiting a new staff member. I wasn’t involved initially, but I was interested, because whoever was employed would be serving in a backup roll to me. I wasn’t involved in the selection process from the start, but was drawn into it. I didn’t see all the applications, nor was I involved in short listing applicants, but I was asked if I would be able to sit on the interview panel. Sure I said, and a small bundle of applications came my way. I spent some time studying the applications, and pretty soon the day of interviews was upon us. It was at that point my supervisor, who was also on the panel, appeared to be in some obvious turmoil.

The position was not an IT position in the conventional sense, as you might envisage the duties of a computer programmer or analyst, but it was certainly an IT related job. The job was described locally as a ‘data’ position in so far as the successful candidate would be working with data, spreadsheets, and databases. It was more of a technical position with some administrative work. And the reason for my supervisor’s agitation was that the selection criteria included a statement on candidates’ policy experience.

The inclusion of a policy component in selection criteria with the public service is a common enough criterion, but this particular position had no policy responsibilities. None at all. The dilemma my supervisor now wished to share with the other two panel members was what sort of policy question we might devise for the interview. My solution at the time was rejected: Just drop the question, I suggested, but no, that was out of the question. My supervisor’s dilemma was that the interview questions had to match the selection criteria. For every item listed on the selection criteria, there had to be a relevant interview question.

So there we were, the three of us, trying to rack our brains to formulate an interview question which enquired into candidates’ policy experience when the job had no policy component. Is this not dumb? You wonder how the recruitment process could have got to the job ad stage, and someone had to write the selection criteria, and after all that, the problem was only noticed the day before interviews were due to take place. So much for the well oiled wheels of big government. I squirmed inwardly when the policy question was put to each of the candidates.

Postscript

• I wonder how much time applicants had wasted writing a section on policy in their application, that was never acknowledged.
• I wonder how many potentially good applicants didn’t apply because they had no policy experience.
• In hindsight, it’s easy to imagine how this occurred. It was probably a cut and paste job that went wrong; probably from some other position that was assumed to be similar.
• And the moral of this story: If you don’t fit all the criteria: don’t worry, apply anyway.
• There are other lessons, and if the cap fits, wear it.