Soldato
Oh, I've had a few oddballs turn up to interviews. The guy who couldn't work early mornings because he didn't like getting up early ie. he wanted to start at 11.30am! The guy who wanted to work with good looking young women - could I show him pictures of any women who worked in the office? The guy who wanted me to pay him, but the work would actually be done by his brother, who couldn't leave *** house becasue of his agarophobia (I actually interviewed the brother by video link, and he was good, but my guys have to get out into the world and meet customers). I'm sure there are nutters in all walks of life, but I do seem to meet more than my fair share at interviews.
1. Many, amny IT systems are 'owned' by accountants and understanding how accountants think is utterly vital to customising business management software. I don't remember mentioning art though. I do have one guy who just does sooooo much nicer UI screens than anyone else, and I suspect he has an artistic streak in him.
OK - lets say any customer - internal or 3rd party asks you to do something. Unless you're sat around twiddling your thumbs 24/7 (very unlikely) you will have to determine how fast you can do that, and what it will cost - sometimes you have to bill your hours, sometimes you're just allocating your hours against an internal cost-centre, but ultimately, any decent manager will want you to be controlling your time and costs - anyway - how you agree to do or not to do something for someone is a negotiation. And having those skills will come in extra handy when you do make it to manager. Saying "that's something managers do" makes you sound somewhat limited in your outlook, which I am certain isn't true. Everyone negotiates all the time. It's a very valuable skill.
So you've never had to show a user how to do something? If I roll out my system to a department or company, it comes with an operator manual and training sessions. Typically, I'll get 10-12 people in a training room with a machine each and take them through it, then let them try it out, and do a few exercises. A "Train the Trainer" course is utterly invaluable in my experience at reducing support requests after GoLive! because well-trained users don't need to answer questions.
He had plenty of exactly the skills I was looking for, but the fact that he was innocent enough to admit what he did made me think he wouldn't be a good fit in my team, plus he could be a downright embarrassment in front of customers. Would you want to spend £250,000 with a guy who didn't know what size clothes to wear? I think he could very quickly become a laughing stock actually.
Again, I'm obviously not explaining myself well enough - if I saw 'worked as a barkeep' on a CV I'd think you probably have good social skills and a very sociable personality. The kinds of situations you get in pubs vary massively and the people you have to handle (especially when drunk) mean you actually have to have superb soft skills to cope. I'd say that exoperience says huge amounts about you.
I do do a huge number of interviews as I often employ staff on the basis that I will train them, and help them, but the pay will be less than stellar. I expect to turn people over after 18 months because at that point I have introduced them to at least 3 potential employers, all of whom will take them on a significantly enhanced pay rate. While they're with me I pay them bottom of scale but it's a free-training zone so if they want to do a course they can. I've spent over £100,000 on training in the last 2 years and I actually fell out with my original business partners because I was '******* away the profits training wasters who were only going to leave anyway'. I see what I'm doing as seeding my indstry with people who think I'm reasonable and helpful, and who will be receptive to giving my companies business in future, after all, I helped them get that fantastic job.
) think about all these options and increase their chances of success.
