WWTBAM Bored

Into New Hampshire, that is. My next interview is at 9 AM tomorrow. Meeting the CEO, the QA staff (of one), and possibly others to be named later. Having lunch with a former boss afterwards, since a former workplace is just down the road. Trying to keep high expectations and low attachment. I've been here before. Will keep you posted.

Good luck Gordon!!!!!

Good luck!

kay

~~~~~~~~~~~~VIBES!~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good vibes coming!

Best of luck!

gsabc wrote:Into New Hampshire, that is. My next interview is at 9 AM tomorrow. Meeting the CEO, the QA staff (of one), and possibly others to be named later. Having lunch with a former boss afterwards, since a former workplace is just down the road. Trying to keep high expectations and low attachment. I've been here before. Will keep you posted.

One of the nine states I've never set foot (or wheel) in. (Anyone care to guess at the other eight?) Good luck! --Bob

Good luck!

Bob78164 wrote:

gsabc wrote:Into New Hampshire, that is. My next interview is at 9 AM tomorrow. Meeting the CEO, the QA staff (of one), and possibly others to be named later. Having lunch with a former boss afterwards, since a former workplace is just down the road. Trying to keep high expectations and low attachment. I've been here before. Will keep you posted.

One of the nine states I've never set foot (or wheel) in. (Anyone care to guess at the other eight?) Good luck! --Bob

Probably the rest of New England? Wisconsin?

gsabc wrote:Into New Hampshire, that is. My next interview is at 9 AM tomorrow. Meeting the CEO, the QA staff (of one), and possibly others to be named later. Having lunch with a former boss afterwards, since a former workplace is just down the road. Trying to keep high expectations and low attachment. I've been here before. Will keep you posted.

Good luck!!!

Bob78164 wrote:

gsabc wrote:Into New Hampshire, that is. My next interview is at 9 AM tomorrow. Meeting the CEO, the QA staff (of one), and possibly others to be named later. Having lunch with a former boss afterwards, since a former workplace is just down the road. Trying to keep high expectations and low attachment. I've been here before. Will keep you posted.

One of the nine states I've never set foot (or wheel) in. (Anyone care to guess at the other eight?) Good luck! --Bob

I am ging to say, Alaska, Hawai'i, Maine and Vermont are on the list.

christie1111 wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:

gsabc wrote:Into New Hampshire, that is. My next interview is at 9 AM tomorrow. Meeting the CEO, the QA staff (of one), and possibly others to be named later. Having lunch with a former boss afterwards, since a former workplace is just down the road. Trying to keep high expectations and low attachment. I've been here before. Will keep you posted.

One of the nine states I've never set foot (or wheel) in. (Anyone care to guess at the other eight?) Good luck! --Bob

I am ging to say, Alaska, Hawai'i, Maine and Vermont are on the list.

Three out of those four states are on the list. --Bob

Bob Juch wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:

gsabc wrote:Into New Hampshire, that is. My next interview is at 9 AM tomorrow. Meeting the CEO, the QA staff (of one), and possibly others to be named later. Having lunch with a former boss afterwards, since a former workplace is just down the road. Trying to keep high expectations and low attachment. I've been here before. Will keep you posted.

One of the nine states I've never set foot (or wheel) in. (Anyone care to guess at the other eight?) Good luck! --Bob

Probably the rest of New England? Wisconsin?

I started graduate school in Madison. The rest of your guess is partially incorrect. To refute it, it's enough to mention that I lived in Connecticut for a few years. --Bob

Okay, home and writing thank yous. Think I did okay. Got the infamous "what do you in your spare time?" question, which I hate. IMO they're looking to make sure I'm an active greyhair and can handle the pace. Hope I answered it well enough.

Got thrown by one question that I'd never heard before or even heard of. A variation on "what would your employees say about you?" or "what are your strengths and weaknesses", it was "what would your staff say is your best quality and what would they say is your most challenging (to them)?" So not just any strengths and weaknesses, but those related to the people you're managing. Easy to answer "best" but honest to FSM I've never really thought about the "challenging" in regard specifically to how staff members view me and came up empty on an answer. I think I'm quite good as a manager/supervisor. I've never had problems working with or over others and no complaints as far as I know. Any ideas on what would have been a good answer? Not necessarily for me specifically, but in general terms. May never get the question phrased that way again, but interested in possible answers.

Please keep the good vibes coming. Thanks.

Okay, this is curious. Just got an e-mail from the HR member I met in person. "We ask final candidates for this role to complete a skills assessment for MS Word and MS Excel 2010." Maybe it's just the obvious, to make sure I can do word processing and use a spreadsheet program. Never had this before, though. It's never been an issue.

Checking on writing skills in general, like report and SOP writing, I can understand. People who can put one word in front of the other-in coherent order, properly spelled and with good grammar-are becoming too rare. This assessment, though, just seems odd, especially at my level.

Continued good vibes!

Best of best of luck. Retroactively now because I couldn't read this earlier, but vibes vibes vibes.

As to the Excel etc testing; I honestly don't know why employers believe that anyone under 20 is a Microsoft maven & anyone over 50 can't open a spreadsheet etc. I think they might find that a lot of under-20s are only mavens at their chosen programs, which usually don't include Microsoft office stuff other than what they've used in school.

gsabc wrote:Okay, this is curious. Just got an e-mail from the HR member I met in person. "We ask final candidates for this role to complete a skills assessment for MS Word and MS Excel 2010." Maybe it's just the obvious, to make sure I can do word processing and use a spreadsheet program. Never had this before, though. It's never been an issue.

Checking on writing skills in general, like report and SOP writing, I can understand. People who can put one word in front of the other-in coherent order, properly spelled and with good grammar-are becoming too rare. This assessment, though, just seems odd, especially at my level.

HR

gsabc wrote:Okay, this is curious. Just got an e-mail from the HR member I met in person. "We ask final candidates for this role to complete a skills assessment for MS Word and MS Excel 2010." Maybe it's just the obvious, to make sure I can do word processing and use a spreadsheet program. Never had this before, though. It's never been an issue.

Checking on writing skills in general, like report and SOP writing, I can understand. People who can put one word in front of the other-in coherent order, properly spelled and with good grammar-are becoming too rare. This assessment, though, just seems odd, especially at my level.

Are you worried about it? Hopefully not. We have in the past had admin applicants take Word and Excel tests, but never really a professional hire, though many of the accountants I know really don't know crap about Excel or how to really use it.

gsabc wrote:Okay, this is curious. Just got an e-mail from the HR member I met in person. "We ask final candidates for this role to complete a skills assessment for MS Word and MS Excel 2010." Maybe it's just the obvious, to make sure I can do word processing and use a spreadsheet program. Never had this before, though. It's never been an issue.

Checking on writing skills in general, like report and SOP writing, I can understand. People who can put one word in front of the other-in coherent order, properly spelled and with good grammar-are becoming too rare. This assessment, though, just seems odd, especially at my level.

About a million years ago, SteelersFan tested for a Purchasing Technician job. The job description included a bunch of stuff that he had experience with since he had acted as Purchasing Agent for a former company. Unfortunately for him, it also listed proficiency for Excel, and that was the end of that. My best guess, that's all it is, making sure you meet the proficiency standard for Excel.

I can verify that your writing skills are more than adequate, but HR just has to have that verification on file. You'll be fine.

Wasn't particularly worried about it, just thought it was strange. From what I could find on the web, the only problem would be if they ask about Excel PivotTables. Heard of them, never used them, no idea how (other than finding the icon in the menu at the top). Suspect it's not really necessary.

gsabc wrote:Wasn't particularly worried about it, just thought it was strange. From what I could find on the web, the only problem would be if they ask about Excel PivotTables. Heard of them, never used them, no idea how (other than finding the icon in the menu at the top). Suspect it's not really necessary.

Our HR is also now attaching skill assessment tests for the final round candidates. I guess they got burned by too many winners, not really knowing how to use the tools they need for the job.

Excel pivot tables allow you to switch the axes of a graph. The X data is now the Y data, the Y data is now the X data. You've switched the vertical & horizontal axes. It is stomach churning to see (for me) but I can see its usefulness; instead of looking at X in terms of Y, you're now looking at Y in terms of X.


Not that I've used them in real life.


And any Microsoft thing you need to know there are on-line tutorials cooked up by actual users that are far more useful than Microsoft's own tutorials. But HR types don't want to hear that, I don't think. They want omniscience where Microsoft is concerned. (I did just google "omniscience", for my own self-protection, & yup that's how it's spelled.)

gsabc wrote:Wasn't particularly worried about it, just thought it was strange. From what I could find on the web, the only problem would be if they ask about Excel PivotTables. Heard of them, never used them, no idea how (other than finding the icon in the menu at the top). Suspect it's not really necessary.

PivotTables are intutive...you'd figure them out.

ghostjmf wrote:Excel pivot tables allow you to switch the axes of a graph. The X data is now the Y data, the Y data is now the X data. You've switched the vertical & horizontal axes. It is stomach churning to see (for me) but I can see its usefulness; instead of looking at X in terms of Y, you're now looking at Y in terms of X.


Not that I've used them in real life.


And any Microsoft thing you need to know there are on-line tutorials cooked up by actual users that are far more useful than Microsoft's own tutorials. But HR types don't want to hear that, I don't think. They want omniscience where Microsoft is concerned. (I did just google "omniscience", for my own self-protection, & yup that's how it's spelled.)

Sorry...that is not they are.

They are tables to let you do quick cross tabulations and summaries of flat data files.

They're called pivot tables because they allow you to "pivot" you flat data into 2D tables.

The closest thing I can think of to describe what you were saying is the TRANSPOSE function, which allows you to transpose column data into row data.