本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Our behavior largely is the result of our beliefs. Incorrect beliefs lead to incorrect behaviors which lead to undesired outcomes.
Of the many wrong beliefs of a typical first time job seeker, the most harmful is the thinking that I'm just not good enough. How can I compete with people who've got a lot more experience? This belief often leads to inaction. Also such a person tend to lack confidence which would show up in the resume and later in the interview. It's very hard to pass an interview if you don't have reasonable amount of confidence.
One of my strong beliefs is that the world is a lot dumber than we think. Most of us tend to over-estimate the rest of the world thus talking ourselves out of good things in life. If you have average smarts and you work reasonably hard, you should be able to beat most people.
Years ago, I trained someone to be a programmer. I taught her the basics and had her working on a few small projects which were bare-bones version of what my company was doing. About 3 months later, she found a programming job. Later she learned that she beat 10 people in the phone interview and beat 1 more guy in the face-to-face interview. Can you imagine someone with only 3 month training experience beating all the others with much longer real world experience?
I've gone through many companies over the years. In most places I participated in the hiring process. The last couple of places, I had leading roles. In my experience, it's not easy to find really good people. In one case, we went through hundreds of resumes and did tons of phone interviews. Then we picked many for face-to-face interview. We hired a few in the end but at least I wasn't happy with any of them. Now you see why someone with 3 month experience under the right guidance can beat people with years of experience. Most people are happy with just a pay check and they put in minimum effort in order to not get fired. Even with years of experience, they may still don't understand the basic concepts let alone the big picture. You definitely can beat them.
Getting a job mostly means to pass the interview. The people who've got a lot more experience may not be as good as you're at the interview. One person got a job by simply going through interviews. After each interview, she'd memorize the questions. Once home, she'd ask her husband to write down detailed answers and she'd study them. After many interviews, she got a job.
In one extreme case, a woman with no programming knowledge got a job in programming. She studied economics in university and worked in the import-export business. However, she got bored and started to apply for programming positions. She didn't know much about programming and she didn't bother to learn. Obviously, she failed all the interviews. However, in the last interview, the technical guy was unable to make it that day so the manager interviewed her. Turned out the manager also graduated in economics. They had a very pleasant conversation and the woman was hired. Half a year in the job, she still had to call her friend with basic programming issues.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Of the many wrong beliefs of a typical first time job seeker, the most harmful is the thinking that I'm just not good enough. How can I compete with people who've got a lot more experience? This belief often leads to inaction. Also such a person tend to lack confidence which would show up in the resume and later in the interview. It's very hard to pass an interview if you don't have reasonable amount of confidence.
One of my strong beliefs is that the world is a lot dumber than we think. Most of us tend to over-estimate the rest of the world thus talking ourselves out of good things in life. If you have average smarts and you work reasonably hard, you should be able to beat most people.
Years ago, I trained someone to be a programmer. I taught her the basics and had her working on a few small projects which were bare-bones version of what my company was doing. About 3 months later, she found a programming job. Later she learned that she beat 10 people in the phone interview and beat 1 more guy in the face-to-face interview. Can you imagine someone with only 3 month training experience beating all the others with much longer real world experience?
I've gone through many companies over the years. In most places I participated in the hiring process. The last couple of places, I had leading roles. In my experience, it's not easy to find really good people. In one case, we went through hundreds of resumes and did tons of phone interviews. Then we picked many for face-to-face interview. We hired a few in the end but at least I wasn't happy with any of them. Now you see why someone with 3 month experience under the right guidance can beat people with years of experience. Most people are happy with just a pay check and they put in minimum effort in order to not get fired. Even with years of experience, they may still don't understand the basic concepts let alone the big picture. You definitely can beat them.
Getting a job mostly means to pass the interview. The people who've got a lot more experience may not be as good as you're at the interview. One person got a job by simply going through interviews. After each interview, she'd memorize the questions. Once home, she'd ask her husband to write down detailed answers and she'd study them. After many interviews, she got a job.
In one extreme case, a woman with no programming knowledge got a job in programming. She studied economics in university and worked in the import-export business. However, she got bored and started to apply for programming positions. She didn't know much about programming and she didn't bother to learn. Obviously, she failed all the interviews. However, in the last interview, the technical guy was unable to make it that day so the manager interviewed her. Turned out the manager also graduated in economics. They had a very pleasant conversation and the woman was hired. Half a year in the job, she still had to call her friend with basic programming issues.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net