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Hi, everyone! I just bought the interviewing series, and it was a great use of my money! I recently had an interview, and enacted all the suggestions (the close was weak; i've never done one. The manager smiled and said, "Sounds reasonable".) I felt like a hero.

The following week, I followed up with the recruiting firm that had landed me the interview, and he sounded legitmately unhappy with the firm. He said that it kept coming back wanting more this and more that. ("We'd like a Bachelor's", then "We'd like an MBA" then "We'd like a couple of years of experience"). 

The recruiter's voice was professionally frustrated, if that makes sense.

I'm a recent MBA (2010), and have definitely struggled to kick start the career. I've been in the financial analysis and auditing world, combined are 16 months.

Any suggestions on how to be successful in an interview with these odds?

ProcReg's picture

The answer to the weakness question is that I worry, but have read many books to overcome it. One thing Dale Carnegie and Jesus both said is "Worrying won't add an hour to your life" and if you have no control over something, it is out of your hands. I want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to be successful.

Thanks in advanced!!!

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." - Theodore Roosevelt

"Public opinion is a weak tyrant to that of private thought." HD Thoreau Walden

NickA's picture

I've seen jobs where the company doing the hiring doesn't know what they want.  It's a sign that the job itself is not well understood by the company that will take on the new staff member.  If you're looking to kick-start your career, that's unlikely to be the environment that you want.  It will be very hard for you to look and feel successful.  (If you're supremely confident in your abilities to step up, then it's a useful test.)

16 months seems like forever when you've just left school, but it's not.

You presented well at the interviewer with the recruiter, who seems to have been very honest with you about the situation, and is hinting that they can't get you into this job.  Persist if you must, but you're probably better off paying attention to the hint and directing your energies elsewhere.

ProcReg's picture

That's absolutely great advice, Nicka. My previous job was with a company that had not defined the role at all, and in accordance with your prophecy, I was not successful. Drained every ounce of personality from me. I have recovered and am making the best of things! My future is bright, and I will have learned so much from my time since graduate school ended. I am better off for the experience.

"The only way to get good judgment is through experience. You gain experience through bad judgment." - Old American proverb.