I lost my first! Is this the end of the world? 21

[Cutiee]

This is my first job, my first redundancy; I have never imagined I’d leave the company of being made redundant. We’re not picking up any work, over 1/3rd of people have to go, and more than ten people have already gone. In my department they only want to keep the manager, and everyone else has to go, fair enough, all clear and straight forward, but somehow I just can’t accept it. It happened all too quickly.

I have been looking for jobs (again) since I heard the news, I know it’s a good chance for me to finally move on, but so far I have got rejected by two companies and am still waiting for response from many others.

How should I look at myself now? A loser? Although In the past years I have got very good feedbacks from both my colleagues and clients regarding my work, my confidence is slowly ebbing away… I start to doubt my ability... After getting a good class MEng degree I thought I was worth something; now at age of 25 I’m unemployed!

Is there something wrong with my CV? Or my limited experience is holding me back? Or perhaps, I should change directions…?

Help me through the misery please…

x

P.S if a similar post already exist, please let me know and I shall close this one

Thanks


Cutie

 

[KENAT]

Wow, sounds like the interview technique at FLIR Snorgy.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484

 

[FeX32]

Why did they ask "what is the molecular weight of sulfuric acid"? Was that directly related to you job functions?


Fe

 

[ash9144]

This reminds me of a situation similar to Snorgy and Cutiee. I had an interview scheduled with a competitor in the industry I was working in. The facility I was at was closing. They took me out the night before and seemed great. I was certain this was the dream job as well as saving me from losing my job where I was.

Got to their plant and all went well until the "main" panel interview. One of their managers presented one of their PID and said something was missing and I asked me to identify it. I thought he was joking and then he got mad. Mind you same industry but different products and completely different process. So I asked him to clarify which seemed to upset him more. Which actually at this time amused me. So I looked at his drawing and would make up general stuff such as you could put a filter here and purify, you could put a loading station here and dump to truck, so on. This made him REALLY mad. Which REALLY amused me.

So the moral Cutiee, something better will come along. Keep your chin up learn to laugh a bit and most of all keep your confidence up.

I found a good job shortly after that interview. Within a year that plant was shutdown as well.

 

[apsix]

And a PID is a what?

 

[IRstuff]

Proportional Integral Derivative is a servo control methodology.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[davidbeach]

I think in this case it was a Process & Instrumentation Drawing.

 

[FeX32]

Yea, I thought PID controller at first too, then I read a little further. Process & Instrumentation Drawing makes sense.


Fe

 

[GregLocock]

Why aren't they paying your expenses?

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[KENAT]

I don't know if things have changed but very few places I ever interviewed in the UK paid expenses. BAE Systems is the only one that springs to mind that did and that may only have been because if was a graduate position.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484

 

[IRstuff]

My bad...

Didn't pick up on the Chemical bit.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[KirbyWan]

Cutie,

I have occasionally ran into the obscure technical questions on an interview. It's always acceptable to say something to the effect of "I don't know that off the top of my head, since my previous experience has been in a different field, but I am familiar with the concepts and could find the answer after reviewing my notes from my engineering class and confering with more knowlegable collegues. If I was to take a stab at it I might say this..." This shows that, although you don't know everything, you are not flustered by not knowing an answer and shows that you have the resources to get the answer.

To be quite frank, I think you dodged a bullet by not getting that job. That job sounds Dilbertesque in the extream. In my mind an interview should be focused on learning three things about a candidate. Can I get along with this person? Is this person intelligent enough to do the job (or figure out how)? Can this person get work done (time management, motivation, non insane, etc.)? The candidate should be looking for similar assuraces such as: Is this company run by good people or egoistic jerks? Will this company go out of business in the next 6 months? Do they provide resources for me to do my job like training, a decent computer and helpful collegues?

Remeber you are interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you. And just like engineering or music or sports, the more you interview, the better you get at it. Every bad interview is just practice for the next good interview, and Tiger Woods has shanked more golf balls then I've ever hit.

-Kirby

Kirby Wilkerson

Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.

 

[Cutiee]

Thanks guys!!!

The place was dull, everyone looked miserable, director was arrogant. When I first walked in the building, I just couldn’t see myself working there.

I’m really annoyed with them, because they didn’t even bother to read my CV, the director kept asking me, was your last job different. I was like, what the…

Anyway it’s over, I must move on.

I think employers pay for travel cost, my last company paid for mine at least.

Cutie

 

[FeX32]

Tell the director your last job was different because you didn't have ball lickers like him breathing down your backside.


Fe

 

[casseopeia]

Cutie, It sounds to me (and I've been on both sides of the hiring table) that someone had made up their mind that you were not going to be the one before you ever stepped foot in that place. There are a lot of hiring managers out there that form a preconceived notion of what the ideal candidate should look like and there is not getting around it. Better to find an open-minded manager.

It could even have been that the interviewer had a problem with the employment agency or another individual in-house who sifted through all the options and put your resume in front of them.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[SNORGY]

FeX32:

I have no idea why they asked me - a "Mechanical" engineer - the molecular weight of sulfuric acid. I suspect it was because it was the only compound for which the molecular weight was known by the interviewer. I imagine a Chemical Engineer told him, once upon a time.

KENAT:

Yep...I have definitely been on the receiving end of bizarre interview techniques. But, being rejected because I apparently had no sense of humour and I might not be able to speak intelligently with stupid people...that was a memorable outcome for me. As I recall, I think I laughed and shut up.

Cutiee:

Chalk this up as one item added to a collection of memorable and funny anecdotes that you can share with your kids some day around the pool in the back yard behind the nice house that you will have bought with the money you earned by working for a good company.


Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[Cutiee]

Thank you all for your helpful advice and support. Please consider this thread closed and red flag any additional posting to this thread.

Thank you all again.