“We hired the nicer one and trained her to make better graphics. That was easier than training her to be nice.”

I have heard this concept over and over and have even experienced it myself. There are people I’ve worked with whose portfolios were…uhm…bleak, but darnit, if I have to work an all-nighter with someone, I want it to be that person right there. Because they were nice and didn’t add to my stress levels with their hubris or negativity. You can teach design; you can’t teach nice.

Although may I please add one thing? Do NOT smoke a cigarette right before you walk in the door. Please. And one other thing: do NOT wear 50 lbs of Chanel No. 5. Please. I beg you. I nearly collapsed on the floor in front of one girl. Someone open a window!!

Like the woman who said she was “familiar with Microsoft Excel” (which must have meant she walked by and saw it on someone else’s computer one time.) Or the young man who reported he had the skills I needed because he had supervised the sled slide at a community pool the previous summer.

Thanks for the entertaining (yes, it’s useful, but on Monday morning, I’d rather be entertained!) post.

singingly,
sg

My motto is, I can teach you the job, but I can’t teach you to think. That’s what I look for in the skills test. Show me a grasp of the concept and a solid idea – heck, surprise me with a novel answer. If you’ve got some skills and a real desire, we can work on the rest. It doesn’t matter how pretty the work is if the idea fails.

Seriously, though, Carl really is a dickhead.

Find out about the company you are interviewing with and dress the part. Not all companies follow the suit and tie dress code. I worked for a company once that was very casual and artsie. I doubt if half the people there even owned a suit.

Anyhow one day we were interviewing and in comes this kid in a brown suit and tie. It was hilarious. I could tell he was horrified when he saw the rest of us.
Dressing nicely is not the worst thing in the world but check first so you don’t over do it … after he left he was dubbed “suit-boy”.

I suppose it just as easily could have gone the other way but it didn’t so now and forever that kid will be known as “suit-boy” .