I put a lot of effort into my resume and went to 3 interviews for relatively ‘corporate’ jobs. I failed miserably at all three and realised I was saying all the wrong things. I was being honest, explaining my flaws and where I would need to build up experience as I thought it was obvious I was inexperienced, but clearly had the talent to do what was required with a bit of trial and error (I’m the sink or swim type). A friend that is good at interviews (all interviews had asked similar types of questions) pointed out that I needed to tell them what they wanted to hear as the interview was the main ‘weeding out’ process – say the wrong thing and you are culled.

So I downloaded the ’64 most commonly asked interview questions’ off the internet (low and behold, I had already been asked many of them and had said the WRONG things), I aligned my own answers to mimic their recommendations and practised, practised, practised. I then went to my fourth interview. The interviewer was down to earth, welcoming and praised me on the presentation of my CV (I had a graphic designer friend present it in a way that reflected my own style/taste) and we had and hour long interview over coffee. Not one of the commonly asked questions popped up, I was asked more about what I knew, had experience with and what I wanted to gain from the job. None of them felt like questions to ‘trip me up. This was also the first job that I really felt like I wanted. I got the job.

My moral of the story, be yourself, but put your best self forward. If the interview still goes badly and you don’t get the job, you weren’t the right person for the job, would not have fitted in there and probably would have hated the job. Or else the interviewer was hopeless and you would have ended up with a hopeless bosses. Good interviewers who know what they are doing pick the right people, run successful companies and are good bosses. Be your best self and they will easily spot you.

1) During my 23 years at IBM every mainframe account I ever managed had their talented programmers spending all their time fixing the error-filled code written by incompetent programmers – and they paid them all the same. If they fired the bad ones the good ones would have spent their time coding and they would have gotten many times more done!

2) A brilliant self-taught man I know taught himself computers and knew more about PCs than the best PC techs I worked with at IBM. He built an ISP entirely from scratch – literally. He worked as an Engineering consultant at Chrysler / e-Systems / Ratheon where he did the actual aerospace engineering work that the permanent PhD Engineers were unable to do themselves. He was not eligible to become a permanent employee because he didn’t have an Engineering degree.

Sometimes corporations really do require a degree (even if you don’t need it and already have experience sufficient to replace it), but other times requiring a degree is simply one of many methods they use to keep their underpaid, under-appreciated employees from leaving. I know this because IBM continually tried to promote me into management (even though I only have an A.A. in music) while they kept telling several qualified co-workers who WANTED into management that they needed first a bachelor’s degree – and after they got that degree – a Master’s degree – for the same position.

Other favorite corporate ploys to keep from paying you better are promotions with long impressive-sounding titles but hardly any raise and awards in lieu of raises or promotions. The military uses tests and medals in the same manners. Needless to say I left the corporate world in 2000 and will never have another J.O.B. (Just Over Broke).

Since the topic here is about the only thing the smart person looks on your resume, I would say is the last part of your resume– your length of service with your previous employers. Length of service does really matter since it will reflect your character. They want to know how serious or patient were you with your previous job regardless if it was related to your new desired position or not. At least 1 year should be good enough. If you had been 2 or more companies within the entire year you better ask yourself if something is wrong with you, maybe you do not have patience that is why you left the companies!