Replace the "Interview skills" bar with "knowing the right people".
this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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This is true. If you are not interviewing at least one a quarter (even if you're happy at your current job) you are doing yourself a disservice. It is a skill in itself that needs to be trained and kept current. As a side effect you might get offers and jobs you didn't even know existed.
I switched jobs twice in the last 10 years and as a result at least doublingy salary, without ever feeling the need to switch, just to keep interviewing as "seeing what's out there".
Also allows you to reject jobs by asking for ridiculous amounts of money, sometimes failing successfully.
Every job that I have worked at has been from me applying and interviewing on my own without a friend or coworkers help.
That said, you have to constantly be interviewing for new jobs regardless if you're at a job and happy. I never said no to an interview. Indian head hunters? Yes. 3 month contracts? Yes. Lower level or jr positions? Yes. You need those interview skills. Only way to get them is to interview as much as possible.
But it doesn't end there. You have to document and write notes on the interview. The point of this is to be able to learn from your mistakes. I always ask for interview feedbacks from people that interviewed me and ask them for constructive feedback. I ask if I can add them on LinkedIn because I truly enjoyed my call with them. Whatever feedback they say will help you improve your next interview.
Currently as a hiring manager in this AI world, I care a whole lot less about your skills and a lot more about your personality. Don't use AI to help you answer questions. I can tell you're reading from a monitor. I can tell the difference between a ChatGPT backed system and a Gemini backed system. Just be yourself. If you don't know the answer, tell me how you plan to get the answers. How are you planning on checking your code if I'm not in the office? How do you ask for help if you can't meet a deadline?
Not sure where I was going with this. Haha.
Have a nice day!
Reminds me of the 'joke' where a secretary goes into her bosses' office with a high stack of résumés, puts it on his desk. He then randomly takes half a pile and throws it in the garbage. The secretary, surprised and a bit shocked, asks him why did you do that for? Those are perfectly good résumés. To which he replies I don't hire unlucky people.
90% of the time in interviews is showing enthusiasm, energy, being sycophantic, and most of all-- showing examples of having applied soft skills^1^. The remaining 10% is showing technical know how.
- That being said, here's a Life Pro Tip: make personal notes of personal achievements at work, or outside examples in your volunteering, school work or social clubs if you are just starting in your career and/or have no previous work experience. It does not have to be dramatic, but let's say you are a good mentor, help friends and colleagues with tasks to finish the entire job effectively, or saw defects in product and did not pass it despite potential delays, etc. From my experience, most people neglect soft skills. Any organisations are still team-based and human-facing because you work in a team, so it's good to develop personable and soft skills. And I got flak on Lemmy here before because many users here are introverts (a lot tend to be IT workers), but unless we finally get UBI, even in the sector full of introverts, that's just the reality and a person has to suck up with interacting with others to get a job.
should add a 3rd bar, nepotism, or how well the interviewer/hr likes you or your fit for the company,
That's part of interview skills. Be kind, relatable, pleasant.
Add a fourth bar. The physical attractiveness scale. Attractive candidates are more likely to get hired and even earn more over their career.
actually looking for rhyme or reason to getting jobs in the 20's.
Employment is just one of those things that happen from time to time. Life coaches, gypsy tarot readers and employment agencies are just a few of the shysters who will attempt to offer shape, meaning, reason or hope to it, but these things just happen or dont and theres nothing anyone can actually do about it either way.
You interviewed well, but we're looking for someone with a more "related to a current employee" skill set.
Add "masking" if you're even remotely neurodivergent.
at some point between when I got my first job and now, I've like stopped masking as much because I can't even get an interview at other retail stores.
like a grocery store had an opening, which they somehow filled within like less than a day. like half a year later there's another opening and I apply and everything same day as when I got the email they had an opening. these bitches never got back to me.
And a fourth bar that extends beyond the top of the page simply labeled “luck”
The ‘born into wealth’ bar is so large, you’d need a microscope to see any other bars.
Ever seen the difference in wealth between millions and billions?
Put another way, Elon could spend a million dollars a day for a thousand years and still be a billionaire.
When people are starving and can’t get healthcare or basic needs, that’s just fucking disgusting.
This should be the top comment.
Besides the doors my parents opened for me, every single opportunity I have had has been because I walked through the door and asked. I have found that often, you make your own luck.
And can’t forget the bar for “nepotism”!
Nepotism is often the only bar on the chart.
Both of these are covered by "knowing the right people".
Nah, the biggest slice is knowing how to game the application algorithms they use to choose who to even interview.
that usually isnt known to to applicant, all you see is a job listing.
That's my issue. I've been offered every job I've ever interviewed for, but getting the interview is the hard part.
And in the end, the jobs I've had have come through that third "who you know" column that got me to the interview.
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You need to have that level of skill to get a job, because 99% of available jobs have recruiters that want you to kiss their asses.
maybe things wouldn't suck so much if companies hired based on who's the most qualified only. Instead of going off a set of instructions bigger than a phone book of the entire world
its also subjective, one employer may just look at 100 applicants and just wait for another one, or look for specific things you did or not.
There's actually research on how little correlation there is between interview performance and job performance in most cases. This includes cases with "objective" tests during the process, if I remember right.
Got sources?
Would take me a while to dig up, it was from a few years ago. If you want, try searching something like "interview and job performance" into a research search database (Google scholar is usually an easy one to use). Trying it myself, first hit is a meta analysis with a good amount of citations. (But I'm not going to read anything right now, my kids are waking up lol).
That said, it'll favor papers with statistically significant findings, so non findings get lost to the file cabinet problem.
Edit: I lied, curiosity got the better of me so while my kids were eating breakfast I glanced at the results of the meta analysis which gives a few corrections. Tldr, impression management, physical attraction, having non verbal things interview look at, etc, are ok predictors of interview ratings but weak with job performance. Doesn't seem concerned with actual skills, but I think that's better covered by what they're referencing in their literature review.
Yeah, just because you can do something for an interview doesn't mean you will do it again repeatedly for years on end.
And the list of skills needed and duties in the job posting often don't overlap much with the actual work.
this is why the final step of our hiring process (don't worry, there are only three steps, one of which is simply a short HR screening call) is to come to the shop and walk around and look at stuff and talk about it effectively
if you can't do that, you can't do the job, because that's like half the job.
What's the job just out of curiosity?
automated machine design
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I stopped accepting offers to be in the interview stage after too many, what I thought were, great interviewees ended up being shitty colleagues. Being a great interview seems to be an appropriate bar to jump over for sales, and upper management.
It's bad.
HR professionals posting interview tips.
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Interview skills should be a pie chart or horizontal bar just to highlight that they are also irrelevant.
Ok but how do you actually get to the interview part?
i get rejected before they even talk to me.
Hiring manager here. Here is what I look at on resumes, in this order. (This will not help with entry level)
Is your resume clearly AI generated? (Yes means I pass) If I can't tell it's AI, I don't care. Do you have the years of experience listed on the job description. Have you been at prior jobs for more than a year. One job less than a year is fine, more is a trend Have you worked in the specific areas I am looking for in the JD at least 1 prior job. Is your resume coherently written in the language I am hiring for
If you pass all of these I will likely bring you in for an intro screen with me or our recruiter.
Is your resume clearly AI generated? (Yes means I pass) If I can't tell it's AI, I don't care.
What are your criteria to judge whether a resume was "clearly AI generated"?
Have you been at prior jobs for more than a year. One job less than a year is fine, more is a trend
How is that relevant? Especially if you do not know the reasons. Maybe someone had a bad luck streak and was very unhappy at the prior employers. Someone does not necessarily know things like these beforehand. That's what probation periods are there for. Speaking of: there are multiple companies who hire people just for a short amount of time and fire them before the end of the probation. Basically exploiting the system. Then there are projects with a limited duration of time, maybe less than a year, for which one got hired for. I can think of more possibilities.
You will never be able to infer the real reasons just by looking at a piece of paper with a list of previous work experiences. You would need to talk to those people. Otherwise this selection criterion seems arbitrary.
seems pretty arbitrary and employers do use software to screen people out as well.
Shocking how I fit all these criteria and still only got two interviews.
And I'm probably pretty lucky.
Addendum: you'd be surprised how few resumes meet these requirements. I'd say less than 3%
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Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I actually fit all of those criteria, except that I am looking for entry level IT jobs.
I don't use AI for my resume or cover letter, my last two jobs each lasted 5 years. I was an accountant (not super specialized, though, just basic book keeping) for a bookstore at a major university and did a lot of unofficial tech support for them. Before that I was a bartender and a waiter. I've had tons of other jobs, but I figured 10 years of solid employment history was enough.
I've also got a bachelor's degree in management and recent A+ and Network+ certificates. I'm working on various IT related projects in my spare time, etc. Is it really just because I'm seeking entry level positions? I'm even applying to "entry level" stuff but they all want two years of experience somehow. I don't understand why people aren't allowed to be new at things, even when they've got certifications saying they're qualified.
It's getting very frustrating out here lol
What level are you talking about here?
Is it technical or management?
And in what field?
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For me? You get an interview if you apply and have even remotely close to the right skill set. My jobs are extremely technical and specialized though. I had one position sit open 10 months before i got an applicant. I see all these posts about people sending out hundreds of applications to get 3 interviews, and im struggling to get an applicatant at all
I focus on fluid dynamics and heat transfer in jet engines.
thats very specific, and im betting people are applying to anything remotely similar to thier fields, just to get a job interview, because thier previous net wasnt wide enough.
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