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Submitted by PaulSchweer on
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My adherence to the entirety of the M-T playbook during my recent job search was spotty, but I did faithfully stick by this short list of commandments, derived from M-T guidance:

1) by responsive;
2) be nice;
3) offer to help.

Obvious, I know, but it don't always come natural -- I'm 7-1-1-5, if that helps. 

For the full six months of searching, I did a respectable job of sticking to those rules.  No matter what.  No matter what time of day.  No matter my mood or personal circumstance.  No matter how much an idiot the person I was dealing with appeared.  And when I did eventually get an offer... looking back, I'm convinced that those rules are what landed me the job.

I was originally contacted about the opportunity by email, by a recruiter I didn't know from a firm I'd never heard of.  In his email he asked me to answer a list of questions and complete a form for his mystery client.  I almost didn't respond.  But I replied to his email.  Answered the questions, completed the form.  Asked if there was anything else he needed.

There was.  He wanted to talk.  He wanted me to talk with other people at his firm.  He wanted to talk with me about the technical aspects of the job; he clearly didn't understand the technical aspects of the job.  I returned his messages quick as I could.  I answered his questions best I knew how.  I said, "If there is anything else I can do to help the process, please let me know."  I said that a lot.

And to my shock, I got a phone interview with the hiring manager and two members of his team.  I thought it went well.

But the recruiter told me they went with somebody else.  I didn't ask why.  Didn't ask anything.  He asked me about a different opportunity -- it wasn't near as attractive as the first opportunity.  But I said I was interested.  I answered the questions, completed the form.  Asked if there was anything else he needed.

And heard nothing at all for two weeks.

One morning my wife and I were in a hotel lobby about to get breakfast.  We were in Oklahoma, visiting my dad.  We were just about to sit down when my cell phone rang.  Not the best time.  And I could see from the caller id that it was that same recruiter.  But I answered the phone.  And I was nice.  And I offered to help.  And before that very interesting, very busy day was done, I had an offer for the original opportunity.  The same job I'd been told went to somebody else.

Turns out, they needed somebody quick, and I was ready to pull the trigger.  Right now.  I was asked, at one point, if I would be willing to start a day or two earlier than the original start date.  I said, "I'll start today if that's what they want."  Which is all fine and good, but not very believable if you haven't been responsive, and nice, and willing to help.

fwiw...

Okay, enough.

Meanwhile, an actionable recommendation.

At one point, when the fur was flying, an HR person who was wanting to email some forms to me in the interest of completing them as quick as possible asked if I could provide a different email address.  She believed the yahoo email address I'd given her might delay delivery.  I happen to also have a gmail account, so I gave that to her, and we were cooking again.  Not a big deal, but had I not had the spare address it would have held us up while I went about creating one.  And getting tense meanwhile.  Or, worse, asking her why she needed it.

Wasn't smart enough to anticipate it.  Just got lucky.

So, for anyone job hunting, I'd recommend having a spare email on a different domain, just in case.

Best,

Paul Schweer
 

cruss's picture
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It's good to hear that some MT people at least visit Oklahoma. I've been trying to get an MT meet up going in Tulsa for a while. Next time you are in OK visiting your dad, if you are interested in getting together for coffee and talking MT please DM me and let me know.

I completely agree with your "commandments" and try to follow them everyday. I see my current job as an extended interview for my next position, hopefully with the same company. I can second that just being plesant and flexable when dealing with others can create a great deal of good will and open many doors.

Congratulations on your offer, I hope it all works out well!

Canyon R

SteveAnderson's picture
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I'm regularly in OK (about once a month) since it's part of my region.  I'll DM you and see if we can do something since I usually have some dead time. 

--Steve

(DiSC 5435)

mauzenne's picture
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 I was reading the original post on my iPhone (using the Beta MT iPhone App, if anyone is curious) wondering who this bright chap might be.  Only when I got to the end did I see it was Paul.  Should have known ....   :-)  For those of you who don't know Paul, his advice is well worth considering.

Thanks for sharing, Paul.

scm2423's picture

"being an effective manager" there's an app for that! 

Now I need to explain to the powers at work, that I need an iPhone.

TomW's picture
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Any chance that app will be available for Android?

mauzenne's picture
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Assuming the app is well-received and provides value to a significant number of folks, most likely.  However, in the short-term, unfortunately not.

Mike

asteriskrntt1's picture

Nicely done Paul

Great to hear success stories these days.

BTW, are you sure you are a high D?  That was an awfully long story. ;)

*RNTT

PaulSchweer's picture
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Hello *RNTT (if that's your real name),

Not sure, no.  Took the test a couple years ago.  Maybe things have changed.  But the description for 7-1-1-5 does sound a lot like me -- I know people are part of it; I can see them.

Best,

Paul Schweer

larryfishman's picture

Guys,

Being involved in technology, I updated my iPhone 3G to the new Apple OS v4 yesterday.  This had the unfortunate consequence of causing the Manager-Tools App to have the following problem:
 
When entering the forums or blog, there is no way to get back to the main screen.  The back-arrow is momentarily shown and then disappears. There is no way to get back to the main screen short of deleting the app and re-installing.
 
Let me know if this is me or the app.
 
Thanks,
 
Larry
 

mauzenne's picture
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Larry,

Sorry, we're aware of the problem and working on it. Interestingly enough, I was testing the app to see if the fix was effective (it was, by the way) and the first item I saw was your post telling us about the problem! Your timing couldn't have been better. :-)

With any luck, we'll get the modified app submitted to Apple tonight.

Best Regards,
Mike