i recently lost my job and it’s horrible being in the ‘unemployed’ class – you’re made to feel worthless, you have to take advice from people, perfectly well meaning of course, that are basically encouragement on digging your own grave - i love being in the position where i have to do some fake elizabethian courting ritual where i have to pretend i’m super excited to do whatever tf they do, oh and i’m the best man for the job! – when you’ve just sent in 200 applications and gotten nothing back, when you’ve just been let go for dubious bullshit reasons, you’re supposed to act like you’re ready for a challenge!
important video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkYHNO2vNG4
Would you rather hire someone excited to be there or someone who doesn’t give a shit?
I definetely don’t trust someone who claims to be super excited to do accounting for a company that sells something like actuators for windshield wipers.
We make actuators for windshield wipers because someone gotta do it. We are good at it and we make good money with it. But anyone claiming this is their greatest dream in life is either lying or a weirdo in the dangerous kind of way. So give me someone that cuts the crap, shows up to work on time, works disciplined and dilligently and then clocks out on time to go home and enjoy his hobbies and social relationships. Because that is someone that can work 20 years and not burn down half the company, when inevitably burning out over the fact that actuators for windshield wipers are in fact not the most exciting thing in the world.
Accounting would be their dream. Or accounting at a windshield wiper company.
I understand why people do it but it’s a superficial and bad metric. Some people are bubbly and excited all the time, meanwhile I rarely tend be visibly excited. Plus the way it’s gamed these days, it’s a better indicator of how much of a suck up someone is and how willing they are to fake their emotions.
something every manager values
a useful skill in every public-facing profession
The community’s called work reform.
which is why I didn’t think I needed to highlight the irony with a sarcasm tag, but apparently I was wrong
That’s true, but it’s basic human nature. Given two candidates who are both qualified but have different strengths, most likely the hiring manager will pick the person that seems easier to work with. This won’t always be the person who’s bubblier, but will usually be the person who’s more engaged during the interview. It’s not just about what someone’s like on paper, it’s also about being able to create enough of an impression with whoever’s hiring them that they’re memorable in a positive way.
This isn’t malicious, it’s just how almost everyone works. It, of course, also presents challenges for people who are neurodivergent. There’s no easy solution here, telling the hiring manager they’re neurodivergent is a mixed bag.
Part of why the interpersonal part matters is because most every person who has hired someone has been burned by someone who seemed fine on paper, so they gave the new hire a shot despite some flags during the interview. It’s happened to me, it sucks and feels shitty. When that happens, if they’re competent, the manager starts going for people who seem more engaged during the interview (as opposed to super eager, which can be a red flag).
Lastly, hiring people is a skill. Some people are good at it, I am not. At least I learned very quickly that I should let others handle it, which I hope prevented future mismatches between the candidate and the job.
See how you’re being downvoted for stating some simple, human, truths? That kinda thing makes me think lemmy is mainly a bunch of pissy teens with no real-world experience.
Sure, but let’s face it: Nobody is ever excited to carry out work for someone else. If you disagree, I have a lawn you can mow if you think that work is so exciting on it’s own.
It’s a management task to motivate employees to show up and spend a considerable amount of time of their life working to generate a profit for the company owner.
They can do so by compensating the employees reasonably and allowing them to have influence on how the work is done.
That’s why managers are often more excited about their work. They get paid better and get to make more interesting decisions.
Minimum pay for being told what to do will result in minimum excitement and only doing the minimum effort. It’s stupid to expect or have the audacity to demand anything more.
But at the end of the day you are still competing against someone who says they are happy to take the job
They can have it if want if they want those kind of jobs. Jobs do exist where bootlicking isn’t an unpaid requirement.
People are different though. Some actually prefer that shit. Maybe they don’t have anything else to offer or they have some kind of pleasing instinct or maybe it’s just plain old masochism, I dunno. It’s not for me and I still have plenty of jobs to choose from. I’ve left job interviews before because the “chemistry” wasn’t right for me.
If you want a good job you’re going to have to feign at least a little excitement once.
I guess that’s the difference between excited and doesn’t give a shit, really. Ones a better liar.
I might if I was at all interested in plants, gardening, keeping outdoors neat etc. Yes, not every job is exciting to do for someone else but there are many areas that people are excited and happy to work for…
My friends are tolerating going through hell in med school, awful residency pay because they want to help cure people. If they thought all work was equally unexciting then they could become some middle manager in the finance sector.
As someone who posts in [email protected] and [email protected] a fair bit wouldn’t it make sense that carrying out work for someone where I help improve public transport in some way is exciting?
You’re right. If you can find a work doing something that you find useful, then it makes perfect sense to do it. The difficult part is to find anyone willing to pay for it.
Is ‘doesn’t give a shit’ a wrong answer? No I don’t need someone who is desperate for the job. I’ll take anyone who is qualified.
We are talking about a job here, right? Not like an all expenses paid vacation to Bermuda?