A quick note: If I answered a question and you have further questions for me, please include a URL link to your original question(s) so that I can be sure of what we're talking about. Questions that reference something we talked about a week ago that I can't quite remember are kinda hard to answer.
Welcome to my column.
I don't apologize for my answers. I speak to the audience, and in doing so I sometimes tell the audience things they don't want to hear or cant handle.
I believe in stands on principle. I believe that doing right for the sake of doing right is a good way to live. I believe in self awareness and encourage it in others. I offer the most unbiased viewpoint I have. And yes, I am only human.
Im going to tell you what I think you need to hear. You are not supposed to take what I say and follow it. You are supposed to take what I say and _think_about_it_
Oh, and feel free to ask me questions, but netspeak, ebonics, terrible grammar, and your teen angst about a crush will be ignored.
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I'm 23 years old. I've been looking for work for months now after leaving school due to medical issues in October. I finally got an interview, but I've run into a problem. I don't have references. Here's why:
Last job: Had a legal battle with the owners of the company. They were chronically disorganized and claimed to have paid me for my last month of work when they hadn't. I had to hire a lawyer to get them to pay me, and even then they refused to give me the overtime they owed me. So I didn't leave on the best of terms with them.
Previous job: Another small, family-owned business. The owner, I was warned, gives terrible references because she wants you to keep coming back to work for her. I can't rely on her for a good reference.
Before that: Nobody I worked with is still there.
I haven't done volunteer work in ages, I haven't done... well, much of anything over the last year other than school, and I didn't have any sort of relationship with my teachers where I could ask them for a reference.
What do I do? Is it strange to bring just character references? My interview is on Wednesday morning. (link)
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Of course you've done volunteer work. You did some last weekend. You've even got a story about it, if they seem interested. You don't need to tell them "I haven't done it in ages" you just need to tell them "I enjoy doing this and here's why [anecdote]"
Job interviews are about convincing someone that you can do the job and that you can put the public face they require on for the duration of business hours.
Businesses want you to be able to lie. When you hate your boss, you have to be able to pretend that you don't. When you're bored, you have to be able to seem like you're not. When you get in a legal battle with the owners of a company, you have to seem like you worked somewhere else and none of those things ever happened to you.
Cut out the bad, take the good, and fill in the blanks with whatever you think they want to hear. Just make sure you have an answer and a story for every question they might ask you about what you decide to use to fill in those blanks.
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Rating: 4
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Unfortunately, lying is not an option with this company. It's actually a not-for-profit that lists its number one core value as "Honesty". XD I did get the job, though!
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