The Causey Consulting Podcast

Things are OTT all over

OTT = over the top. And especially in the job market, behavior seems to be pretty OTT. πŸ˜’

Key topics:

βœ”οΈ I'll say it again: don't cut your own throat. The one who has to live with it is you.
βœ”οΈ Making random changes to your resume is not helpful. You want to be strategic rather than throwing darts with a blindfold on.
βœ”οΈAre you applying for roles you're qualified for or are you mass applying / rage applying for anything and then acting mad that no one is calling?
βœ”οΈ If someone calls you about a role you applied for, are you prepared? Or do you respond with, "Uh, I applied for everything and I don't even remember what this was. Can you, like, read the job description to me?" 😣
βœ”οΈ Instead of getting focused on a commission check, recruiters should be less willing to represent people who act like rude a-holes. 

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdtE4iQxKTQ

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/28/recruiters-say-these-4-red-flags-will-cost-you-a-job-offer.html

https://www.askamanager.org/2016/07/ask-the-readers-bad-behavior-from-job-candidates.html

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/12975283

Links where I can be found: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/01/30/updates-housekeeping/

Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/ 

Welcome to the Causey Consulting Podcast. You can find us online anytime at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And now, here's your host Sara Causey.

 

Hello. Hello, and thanks for tuning in. In today's episode, I want to talk about how gestures broadly, things seem to be OTT all over. Ott a bit of British slang over the top. I suppose we could point to the old cliche, political slogan, it's the economy stupid. People are stressed out, they're freaked out, they're struggling. They're working as hard or harder as they ever had. Not to get ahead but to stand still, maybe even to slide backwards. It makes sense for people to be frustrated and overwhelmed. Meanwhile, in my opinion, you have the mainstream media gaslighting, bread crumbing and bullshitting people. Nothing to see here. People move along, move along, things are great people are doing just fine. You know what wages are actually surpassing inflation, inflation is starting to abate. The Fed doesn't need to do any more interest rate hikes because they've solved the problem. And now they can be dovish, because we think we're still in for a soft landing bomb. Meanwhile, like, who, who believes that? What what sane, rational person could look around at observable conditions in their own life and their own personal economy? In the economies of people close to them? And say, yeah, it does seem like things are getting better. It does seem like my wages are keeping not only keeping pace with inflation, but supposedly now they're outpacing inflation. And law te da and whoop dee dee, everything's fine. I don't know of anybody who could say that right now. That somebody would have to be in my opinion, which is all that is, in my opinion, which could be wrong. Absolutely insane. completely and utterly bonkers to say people are doing great and everything's fine sunshine and roses, the goat of all job markets, the best economy we've ever had building back better routing and tighten. I'm what? I understand the frustration and the anger. Believe me, as I've talked about on previous broadcasts, I feel like one of the the issues that's perhaps not being talked about by others is, are you cutting your own throat? Are you making a bad situation worse for yourself? Are you fudging up your own job search? Or fudging up your own career at work? Did you listen to the hot air and hopium crowd on social media who assured you that the great resignation was permanent? It was going to go on forever? The balance of power would just never return to corporate America and the Wall Street fat cats and the cronies and the politicians nay nay No, no, no, no great resignation. gonna last forever your game plan? Long term can be to hippity hop across the job market ad infinitum. And constantly ask for more and more money each time. Did you listen to that? If you went to work for an employer who said, Well, we would just never call people back to an office, we're going to be remote friendly to the end of days. Did you listen to that? I've blogged about that before. If you believe the lie, I'm sorry for you that you did. I'm not telling you that it's right. That liars lie to you. I'm not I'm not telling you that it's right. What I am telling you. And I'm gonna be careful in choosing my words here. But at the same time, you know, I said 2023 was going to be the year of raw honesty, raw authenticity. I wasn't going to pull any punches. I was just going to give it to you straight up. You can either keep on believing lies and hot air and hopium and bullshit to your own detriment. Or you can wake the f up hosta pronto. Write the hell now and decide. I got bamboozled, I'll not do it again. And this is where I think after you've licked your wounds, and you've had that time to feel sorry for yourself. You have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and say, I'm not going to be a victim. I'm not going to walk around in a victim mentality and play my little sad violin for the rest of my life. I'm gonna get real effing smart real effing quick about how the system works. You And I'm gonna know and understand that the system is not rigged in favor of me. It's not for John and Jane Q Public. It's not for John and Jane Doe. It's for the cronies, the fat cats, the elites, and all their buddies, all the parasites at the top, that suck their wealth from other people. But it's not for us. And you may be thinking, Well, that's easy for somebody else to say, you didn't get steamrolled. You don't know what it's like the hell I don't. You better check yourself. Because, you know, I do know what it's like. I know exactly what it's like, if you have listened to this podcast, if you've been with me from the beginning, if you've read my blog posts, if you've heard me on other podcasts when I've been interviewed, then you know, I had a first business that failed. And when I say it failed, I'm talking about giant, bold, red flashing letters F a, I L fail, miserably failed miserably. I went into a dark night of the soul, a deep depression. And I'm not trying to trigger anybody here. But I will tell you, I had suicidal thoughts. I was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, I would get to the register at the grocery store and have to play credit card roulette. I had business debt, I had personal debt. And it would be like, Okay, I need to get $100 worth of groceries just to freakin survive. Because before the inflation $100 of groceries went a lot farther than it does. Now let's be honest, under dollars, you should like five items. And it would be like, okay, maybe I can put part of it on Discover I could put part of it on visa, I can put part of it on MasterCard, and then be able to, like cobble together enough money to pay at the register and get the hell out of here. Yeah, I know what it's like to not have two nickels to rub together. During the Great Recession, when I was living paycheck to paycheck, there was a point in time where my bank account had seven cents in it. Yeah, I do know. I do know. So please don't ever think that I just don't know how hard it is. And I don't get it. And I don't know what the struggle is like, Yes, I do. And that's one of the reasons why I am so passionate and so adamant about getting on this podcast, and getting on my blogs week after week and telling you that I want you to wake up. I want you to take care of yourself, I want you to be aware of how the system works. Because people that walk around with their head in the clouds, just farting around through life. They are the people that get steamrolled, because ignorance is not bliss, and it is not your friend. And I'm seeing this in the markets. And I think part of what is fueling this OTT behavior is ignorance. Part of it is people who listen to the hotter and hopium crowd on social media that they truly thought and they truly do still think because they're in such denial that the great resignation is still going on. That the way that they behaved, the way that they treated people in 2021 can just continue forever, and that corporate America and hiring managers will put up with it. Then you have what I have called the Great backlash that's coming from corporate America and those hiring managers and people in HR, who are fed the EFF up with how they're being treated. And it's it's bad behavior on both sides. There needed to be a great resignation, there needed to be some real changes towards how job seekers and employees were treated. Because Hello, as I keep telling you the system is not rigged in favor of John and Jane Q Public, there needed to be some changes. My fear at this point, as we're in this tug of war over the balance of power. My fear is that the strides and the progress that were made during the Great resignation, things that were improved in companies hiring processes, areas where they trimmed the fat from the interview cycle, they decided, well, you know what, we don't need to have eight interviews for this position. We don't need to have the candidate come on site and do a round robin with 20 people they're never even going to work with we can just cut all that mess out. I feel like the areas of progress, things that really could help that were necessary that needed to happen are now being erased by all of this OTT behavior.

 

I want to take a slight segue, before I get further into this. I want to take a slight segue and read a bit of viewer mail that I received, because this ties in to my theme of OTT behavior on both sides and how I think unfortunately, we're rapidly erasing the gains that we made during the good Rate resignation. Now is that all the fault of job seekers and employees? Hell no. Please hear me clearly on that. It's not, we're not the Fed. We don't control the economy. We're not in control the interest rates and whether we're in quantitative easing and easy money or we're in Qt and money is harder to come by. And small businesses are folding, we don't control that. What we do control however, is our own behavior. And as I warned you, in last week's broadcast, if you are are getting on the phone, or you're getting on email, and you are acting like a complete asshole, to somebody that's trying to call you or interview you for a job, you're cutting your own throat. And it's very difficult for me to feel sorry for somebody who's arrogant, rude, self absorbed, bigoted, they talk like they are God's gift to the whole world. And anybody other than them is the gum on their shoe. In that situation, if your money grubbing about what's going on, and how pitiful it is for you, you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. It is tough jobs, job hunting is tough. There's nothing about it I can think of that's fun. And you're going to prolong it and make it an even worse experience for yourself. If you're acting like a butthole. This is I've been in recruiting for a long time, I've been involved in the job market every single day for over a decade. Now. I cannot point to any situation where somebody acted like a top asshole. And it made their job search easier. Maybe you know somebody who claims that it worked out for them, but I've never seen it. I received this bit of viewer mail, I'll just call the person Jane Doe. Not her real name, obviously. But I feel like there are some general lessons that we can look at here and some some general questions that we can ask ourselves. So if you are job hunting, it's not going well. You're sending out resumes, nobody's responding. What are some areas that you can look at. As far as troubleshooting goes? Jane writes, a friend shared an article from your job market journal with me and also turned me on to your podcast. I was laid off in March, and I did not have a job last survival plan. I know you push for that, but I didn't have one and didn't think I would ever need one. I have always applied for jobs online and had interviews pretty fast after applying this experience has been totally different. I have applied for over 100 jobs I'm qualified for. I've had four interviews, but they have all been first interviews. I have not had a second interview or been offered any jobs. I've rewritten my resume twice. I've gone on social media to ask for help. But I get generic advice that doesn't seem to get me anywhere. I'm writing to see if you have any ideas about why I'm stuck in quote. First of all, Jane, thank you for writing. And I'm not trying to say that anything in this episode about OTT behavior is on you. I don't know you. I can't speak to that. Thank you for reading the job market journal and my blog. Thank you for tuning into this podcast and for caring enough to send a message thank you for all of them. Unfortunately, the short answer is no. I really can't give a firm diagnosis without reading your resume without seeing exactly the jobs that you're applying for and knowing if they're a hand in glove fit or they aren't without being on hand for the interviews that you sat in that were first interviews, but they didn't go anywhere without knowing the situation did they hire somebody else or they decided not to hire anyone? Without knowing a complete picture of the backstory there. I can't give you a firm diagnosis. I hope I can do a bit better than the generic crap you're finding on social media, but I can't really give any firm diagnosis and then a prescription. But what I do want to do in this episode is talk about ways to get out of that OTT behavior. I'm going to tit for tat I'm going to give it back to corporate America. I'm going to stick it to the man and then Molly Grubb about why can't find a job. And you're going to be in the system. You got to know how the system works. And you got to be able to use that information to your own advantage the fat cats do. I'm thinking about an episode of Jocko willings podcast titled figure out the framework, the rules and the objectives, then play the game. That's it exactly. I can't control that the system is rigged. I can't control that, in my opinion. We live in crony capitalism. But what I can do is figure out the framework and the rules of engagement and figure out how to play the game. If you're hunting for a job, you better do the same thing. Just generically telling somebody well rewrite your resume and see if that helps. That's like throwing darts at a dartboard with a blindfold on and hoping maybe you hit the bullseye, maybe it works out. At the moment I am that the irony of this is not lost on me. At the moment, I am a top resume writing voice on LinkedIn so that and a nickel will get me a hot cup of jack squat. But I do like to think I know a little something something about resume writing, I don't even know how many 10s of 1000s or hundreds of 1000s by now of resumes I've read over the years. And I'm good at being able to tell when that makes sense from one that doesn't. So just generically saying I don't know, man, maybe you should update your resume is probably not going to be very helpful. Obviously, you want to have it cleanly formatted and easy to read the six second pan and scan still remains true. If the person reading the resume can't see some obvious connection, some clear fit within six seconds, it's probably going into the all read it later pile and then it's never touched again. Same thing with an ATS system. If the bot scanning it is not finding the keywords that it's looking for, it's probably going in the automatic rejection pile and no human is ever going to see it. You can limit how unfair that is. Or you can figure out the rules of the game and how to play it and work that to your advantage. Sometimes people in the more creative fields, they get really hung up on wanting the resume to look pretty. And I've also seen that with some of the professional resume writing services, they're thinking about pleasing the end consumer, but they're not really thinking about actually getting that person a job. Will the resume be functional in helping that person get a job? Or will they be happy, because it looks pretty. And sometimes people in graphics and the creative fields, they want to have graphics and photos and pretty fonts and get in Canva and mess around. And it's like there are times in life when you just need to keep it simple. Because the ATS system is going to parse based on text and keywords. It's not going to parse based on how quote pretty you made the resume. I myself am not a fan of having multiple fonts, having all kinds of graphics, a picture of yourself a photograph of this, that and the other. Just leave in my opinion, leave that off, make sure that you're focusing on substance over style. If you have a portfolio of photographs of graphic designs, websites that you've built, et cetera, by all means focus on making that look pretty. But when we're talking about the resume, the thing that's going to get your foot in the door as a preliminary starting point, you want to make sure that you can pass that six second pan and scan by the human eye or a parsing through the ATS system. Have you bought into the one page only resume? Who Hall? I'm not a fan of that at all, I never really have been.

 

If you are fresh out of school, you have no internships, no work history at all, then yes, it might be appropriate for you to simply have a one page clean, simple resume. On the other side of the spectrum, are you sending out a CV that's 20 pages long that nobody is going to sit and read in its entirety. Let's find a happy medium there. For me two to three pages is really more of the sweet spot. You don't want to lie, you don't want to embellish. You want to make sure that you have pertinent information on there. And sometimes when people are focused on that one page resume, they're cutting out information that could actually help them survive the six second pan and scan or survive the ATS ATS scanning by a bond. You don't want to do that. You want to put the odds in your favor and not screw yourself by trying to stay to some one page template. I would say two to three pages is probably the sweet spot. And it needs to be relevant information. I know some people like to put their hobbies and their volunteer activities on there. If you're applying for a nonprofit, then or a charity of some kind, or or you are trying to get your foot in the door at a volunteer based organization, then it might make sense to have volunteer activities on there or your hobbies. But I'm telling you right now I have never seen an ATS system that was like I think that the HR department or the TA department needs to look at this resume because Jack says he loves to go fishing on the weekends. I just don't think it's going to work out that way. Be strategic about what you're putting on there. Make sure that it makes sense and make sure that it's relevant to the job you are applying for having master copy of your resume on your computer and be willing to tweak it so that it makes sense to the job you're applying for. I mean My situation, I have a background with technical writing and AutoCAD drafting. But then I also have this background in HR. If I were to put my name in the hat for a position that involve technical writing or CAD drafting, I would make sure that my resume emphasized the experience that I have with that I would not send an HR based resume to somebody looking to hire a technical writer and a CAD drafter. So be willing to make some edits. Again, not lying, not embellishing. But being willing to make some edits so that your resume has the best chance possible of making it through that pan and scan either by a human or by a bot in the ATS system. The crazy fonts and the font changes for no apparent reason and different colors and graphics, in my mind, just stay away from that. In terms of applications, I'm definitely seeing a high degree of OTT behavior there. Whether it's rage, applying, mass applying, easy applying, are you shooting yourself in the foot by doing those types of things. It is a big, big pet peeve for me. If I get on the phone with somebody, or we're corresponding via email, the person applied for the job, the person has sought me out, I'm not trying to head hunt them and quote, sell them on an opportunity they have come to me, they looked at the job description, theoretically, wink wink, and said, Yes, I want to put my name in the hat for this. So then we start talking. And they appear to know absolutely nothing about the job they applied for. I'm telling you, for me, that's fingernails on a chalkboard, I cannot stand that. And maybe that's an age thing, you know, as an XOR. I do remember what it was like to read job postings in the classifieds of the newspaper, they typically came out on Sundays and Wednesdays. And then you would have to either mail or fax your resume and a cover letter to some anonymous source, you wouldn't even really know the company name might be in there. But you wouldn't even know the name of the hiring manager. I mean, the amount of information that this generation of people has access to is staggering in comparison to what we had to work with. It's it's just really hard for me to wrap my mind around somebody just going and mass applying and rage applying and not even bothering to read what they're applying for. It's like, I'm just going to throw my resume all over town, or all over the interweb. And then when somebody calls me, I'm gonna sit back and act like a king or a queen holding court and be like, Well, what is this opportunity? A while we're on it, the Karen and Darren thing and the Kardashian voice. That's also really big pet peeves for me. People that talk like that. Everything's a quote, everything's a class Joe, like, Kim Kardashian, I can't stand that. So if I get on the phone with somebody, are you just a recruiter? I don't really know what this job is. Can you go back over it? For me? It's like, oh, God, it's like an instant migraine for me, I cannot stand that stuff. So one, one obvious point here is, are you applying for jobs that you are actually legitimately qualified for? Are you reading the job descriptions? Do you actually care? Do you actually give a rat's behind if somebody calls you and wants to talk about the job? Or are you playing games? If you're applying for jobs that you are not qualified for, and then your money grubbing that nobody's calling you back? You have to take a look in the mirror on that one. I mean, that should just be common sense. Apparently, it's not anymore, but it should be. If someone is calling you, and or they're emailing you and the excuses, well, I'm unemployed, and I'm desperate, I'm applying for everything. I'm freaking out. I need money. I can't remember every job that I've applied for. Wait to respond to that email, wait to respond to that text or that phone call until you are prepared. Again, I feel like this should be common sense. But apparently, it's just not anymore. If you go to indeed, and you're signed into your account, there's this little icon that looks like a person. If you click on that, and then you it pulls like a drop down menu. Then if you click again to my jobs, it will take you to a tab. You can click on applied as well as like interviews and things that you've archived, but it will take you to apply and then you can pull up the job title, the company, the job posting as it appeared on Indeed, you can also as a helpful hint. If you didn't know this, you can also go there and see how many People have applied for that position. And it is staggering right now, if you're involved in HR or recruiting work when you look at how many people are applying for those jobs, it is absurd. absolutely absurd. And these are like common. I mean, I'm talking about contract positions. temporals crazy, absolutely crazy. For the purposes of this podcast, go go there and look, reread the description before you call that person back. You will sound so much more polished, so much more coherent. So much more interested, then. Can you just flake on? Let me get into the Kardashian voice? I don't know if I can do it for that much longer guys.

 

Um, can you just like, go back over what this job was? I don't really remember answering some questions. What was the title? What was the description? What was the pay range? What's the location? Is it removed? Is it hybrid?

 

Why are you asking me, you applied for the job, did you not flipping read any of this in the job description, I'm sorry. But if you're doing stuff like that, you're cutting your own throat. Point blank. Overall, if nobody if nobody else in recruitment, or HR is willing to tell you this, because they all want to get on the airwaves and kiss your hiney because they think that's what gets likes, clicks and comments and shares. Mazel Tov good for them, I'm going to be the one that gives you some truth, and tries to help you actually get frickin hired. Over on LinkedIn, you can click on jobs, this is a little thing that looks like a briefcase suitcase thing, you can click on jobs, same thing, click on my jobs, and it will show you a list of jobs that you've applied to on LinkedIn. So wherever you're finding these jobs, there's a way for you to go back and look at what you applied for the job or the Kardashian vocal fry ruins my voice. You can go back and look at the job description. The pay range, who posted it, all of that. But for me, if I get on the phone, or I get on an email with somebody who came to me, they solicited me and put their name in the hat willingly of their own volition and they don't know jack squat, it makes a very bad first impression. When it's time to attend an interview, whether we're talking about over the phone, over zoom or some kind of virtual platform or in person, how do you carry yourself? How do you behave? Do you come across arrogant, and the world is your oyster and the rest of us are just lucky to live here. And if you think that, behaving that way in front of the receptionist, someone that you consider just a recruiter, or just an HR person is acceptable. Like, you're going to be nice, you're going to play it nice in front of the important folk, in front of the C suite. And in front of the managers, you're going to be nice in front of them. But you're going to be poopy to everybody that you can sit or to be a second class citizen and you think that that's going to fly and you're gonna get that job good freakin look. Do you not think that the receptionist will tell about what happened? Or the person that you've labeled just a recruiter or just an HR person? Do you really think that they're not going to speak up? They will, I promise you. I really think that if every recruiter whether they're independent and they're out on their own, or they're plugged in at a staffing agency, if everybody would band together, I think this is like the nationwide fantasy strike against RTO. Believe me, some people would play Satan if they thought they could get a commission off of it. And by the way, I've heard recruiters say that over the years, if all the recruiters would band together, and whenever they got on the phone or an email or whatever was somebody that was snotty, you just do recruiter is this does this staffing agency meet meet me if they heard that and they said, Alright, we're done. commission be damned. I'm not going to play somebody that is arrogant. And that acts like they don't even want my help. They think that my help is beneath them. I'm just not going to play some the phone call is going to be over with and here we go. That behavior would stop. Because we're in an economic downturn, anybody with common sense knows that. We don't have a 4% less than 4% unemployment rate churn and burn in two legit open jobs for every one unemployed person. Sane rational people know that. And I think some of the people that have acted so shitty and so snotty towards people in HR, talent acquisition, people that staffing agencies, etc, are going to have to eat their words, whenever they're struggling. pride comes before a fall. So I think that if people in recruitment would say we're not going to get focused on placing Satan if it meant we got a commission check if somebody gets on the phone and they're snide, they're rude. They're belligerent, they're bigoted, they're hostile. We're done with them. You would see a lot of behavior change. Maybe that's too much to hope for but that's just my two cents. If you aren't behaving in those types of ways, if you're being snide, if you're being rude if you're if you're a bigot, you're cutting your own throat. There was an article that appeared on CNBC in April of last year, and it's titled even in a tight job market recruiters say these four red flags will cost you the offer. What are their red flags? Not being able to explain your job hopping? That is, for me, that's my reaction to it. If maybe, maybe not. job hopping is so much more prevalent than it used to be. I mean, I am old enough to remember when that was the cardinal sin. You were supposed to get in and really plan on staying there for three to five years in order to not look like a flake. Things are so much different now. I think it's better to have some kind of explanation that's not super generic and super cheesy. And also that doesn't come across as a flat out why? Oh, just looking to move up. Oh, just always pursuing the next thing is always keeping my options open. Everybody says that. If you can come up with a more coherent and cogent reason for the job hopping, I think it will will be for the better. Another thing I would say not to do in terms of explaining your job hopping in the same way that oh, just always looking for new opportunities. Just always want to grow bah, bah, bah. Another thing you don't want to do is lob a Molotov cocktail into the situation by telling the interviewer all the people at my job are a holes. My boss is a biatch I hate it there any place I've ever worked has been a cesspool, even if that's true, and let's face it, nowadays, it very well could be that every place you've worked is a cesspool, and every boss you've ever had has been a butthole. Probably. I wouldn't lead with that. I wouldn't advertise that in the resume in your resume or or in the interview. If you need to explain job hopping. I wouldn't I wouldn't get nitty gritty and X rated about it. Another thing they list is trash talking your current or former employer exactly that. It is tempting to get into gossip. And he said she said in an interview, but you know, the person that's interviewing you is not your best friend. It's not somebody you're connected to on Facebook, keep it professional. The third thing they mentioned is showing unprepared. But to me that that ties into that what Job was this? Like? Yeah, didn't even Can you read the job description to me because I don't remember it. Get your shit together. If you if you're not prepared, let the call go to voicemail. Let them send you a text, let them send you an email and then respond back when you are prepared. The fourth thing but definitely not the least is acting entitled. In this we read. It's one thing to show up unprepared to an interview but another to give the impression you're doing the recruiter a favor by taking their call. While the US may be seeing record hiring job seekers should not over exaggerate in their minds how great the market is to the point of appearing, entitled Copeland says, you still want to put your best foot forward show up and be professional and quote. I agree with that. It's even more important when we're in a crappy economy and a crappy job market. But in any situation with churning and burning, robust and resilient or not. That's great advice, put your best foot forward, show up and be professional. Don't be a butthole. Listen, life is tough enough, man. Okay, now I started this off by saying it's the economy stupid. We're all struggling out here. Unless you're a hyper lead a fat cat, you got billions of dollars at your disposal, you're struggling right now. People don't need you to get on the phone or an email with them and act like a turd. You're not going to do yourself any favors. On ask a manager.org. There's a thread where they have posed the question to their readers about bad behavior from job candidates. Because so often we see these threads about bad experiences that happen at interviews, bad experiences that happen with HR bad experiences that happen with hiring managers. And so it's nice to hear from the other perspective. Because man, there have been days where I've had a lot of phone calls, a lot of interviews I've had to do where I just by the end of the day, I was like I fear for the human race. I fear for us, one of the responders and I'll drop a link to this so you can read all of them for yourself. One of the responders named Ashley wrote, I had a job where I hired a lot of teens at their first job. I got a lot of great stories from that. But my favorite was the teenager who got an interview because his family donated a lot of money to our organization. He showed up to his interview wearing a t shirt that said F bitches get paid and said he was really looking for a job where he get paid a lot for doing as little work as possible in quote then right below that somebody else said that they had been sent a long list of writing samples, including someone who sent in pornography, and somebody else who defended Lolita and somebody else that sent in fanfiction about werewolves. The thing is, for me reading this being, you know, based in HR, staffing and recruiting, I'm like, you see everything you see everything over the years, just when you think I've seen it all. This acid identity cannot be outdone, it's like somebody comes along, that's like, oh, yeah, hold my beer and watch this.

 

Again, to be emphatically clear, not saying that Jane Doe who wrote in is guilty of any of this, I have no idea at all what her situation is, like, just trying to give some general pointers here is your resume clean and polished, doesn't make sense to the job you're applying for. isn't heavy with graphics and font changes. And it's impossible to do a six second pan and scan or it's impossible for the ATS to parse it correctly. And really give you a shot. Are you acting like a butthole? When you go to interviews, or are you acting like a butthole before the interview ever happens? Because when somebody calls you to set up the interview, they don't know what is illegal? Are you acting like a Karen or a Darren or a Kardashian? If you're doing that, you know, you very well could be turning the other person off and cutting your own throat. When you show up to the interview, do you act like you're doing them a favor? You're just the gum on the bottom of my shoe. And you're lucky that I showed up here. I mean, I think part of the great resignation was the backlash of job seekers who got tired of corporate America acting that way. But now the job seekers want to act that way themselves. And I'm like nobody wins. No freaking buddy wins. Because here's the deal. This is another thing that if nobody else in HR is going to tell you this I freakin will. All you're doing is digging your own grave. All you're doing is giving corporate America and Wall Street and their cronies on Capitol Hill a justification you can't see me but I'm using air quotes, you're a justification to make things worse on you. The more that you make things problematic for them, the more they see it as a reason to make things 10 times more problematic for you. If you think you're going to fight the law and when good luck with that. I recorded a whole episode about the JFK Pop Pop. That I think is a pretty compelling evidence as to why you're not going to fight the law. And when you think you're going to fight corporate America, Capitol Hill, the cronies, the Wall Street bankers and the fat cats, you know, the important people that actually do get bailed out and don't have to have moral hazard. Good effing luck, because you're gonna need it. In the meantime, don't cut your throat. Y'all need to stop being so OTT with this crap. Have a coherent resume that makes sense. apply for jobs that you're actually qualified for and know your shit. Whenever somebody calls you. Don't make a difficult, unhappy situation worse by cutting your own throat. So all I got for you, stay safe, stay sane. And I will see you in the next episode.

 

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