Comments by "ForgottenKnight1" (@ForgottenKnight1) on "A Life After Layoff" channel.

  1. You should always have something prepared. The company that hired you is not your friend, your co-workers are not your friends. This is a business. The rest is bull.
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  2. I am a contractor and will dismiss any postings or offers where it doesn't state a range or the interviewer does not respond flat out on what the range is. It means they either are incompetent and simply don't know (highly improbable), or they are trying to lowball you and profit off of people who do not have a very good market knowledge on what the ranges should be.
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  3. The first step in dealing with a bad boss is finding a new role inside or outside the company. Don't bend backwards and try to make the guy improve his attitude. He won't. Do your job properly and if he's an asshole, change companies and sayonara.
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  4. Talking about IT sector: Dates of employment - If you have gaps, they will not believe you why. You can say that you were sick, or you had problems, or you simply wanted a pause, and most will not believe it. So definitely lie on this one. Also it's very hard to distinguish between job hoping and finished contracts. Basic skills - If you really looking for candidates with preferred skills, why not make then basic ? This should be a no brainer. Why you left - Just tell them the project finished and they had no more assignments. Or you found a better opportunity and wanted that. It's not their business if you got fired, or why you got fired and so forth. The recruiter should be interested in the actual situation. Just as I don't ask you "why did your company fire 20% of your personnel this year". Would you answer a question like that, HR ? Education - don't lie about it. The company where you worked for - If you worked for a FAANG, even through a third party, mention both. References - This is bull and I agree with this popular Youtuber. Just because you didn't like your boss, doesn't mean you are incompetent. Dates of employment - You can very easily solve all this by opening your own LLC and there will be no gaps and no falsification. Criminal Record - This should not be their business, unless the job is a government one. Experience - Years are not really relevant. Look for what are the requirements they need. Most HRs have no idea about this so they just slap X years of that or Y years of the other in the job description, when actually, an individual with half that period is 90% to 100% as competent as one with the desired number of years.
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  5. Not to be a negative Nancy, but every time an interviewer asks me this, I automatically assume they did't put in the minimum 5 minutes effort to actually read my resume. Also, smart ass interviewers piss me off. But don't tell them that. You need to smile and be polite to the drone so you can fool its algorythm. Also, If I would be to explain how my background aligns with the role, you wouldn't understand shit. Leave the technical and the problem solving questions to the technical people.
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  6. This just shows how they dodged anti discrimination laws. Even so, they can still discriminate after the very first interview because they can refuse to progress with your application without giving you ANY reason whatsoever, meaning they can do whatever the fuck they like :D
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  7. If they say "I'll be in touch", you ignore it and continue interviewing. If they come back, ok, if not, ok. Don't wait for nobody because it is NOT worthy. No exceptions.
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  8.  @rssand6840  They will ALWAYS put the company first, because the company is who gives them their salary and that is the reason why they are hired. HR is not your friend, no matter what.
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  9. Also, don't fool yourself that you are "safe" even with a signed contract. You might get fired the next day. Always be prospecting. You should have 1-2 interviews each month just to keep your skills up and you should constantly look on the market.
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  10.  @jeremyk5310  "Reasonable notice" is an extremely subjective and shady term. You should have listed in your contract, black on white, what the notice period id, and give exactly that, no more, no less.
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  11. Employers still are under the impression that their company is anything more than a piece of paper and they're doing us some sort of favor when they post some jobs.
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  12. 1. Late is not unprepared - if you think that way, let me ask you: where you ever late because of traffic? Being on time is PARTIALLY under your control. 2. Totally subjective, but yes, the recruiter will choose the option that is easier for HIM, not you. Regarding salary expectations, do not apply to jobs who don't post a range: 99% are a waste of time. 3. A lot of successive jobs is called contracting. Some recruiters are too thick to get that. Too bad. 4. Salary negotiations are exactly that. If you think this is a red flag, you do not have the ability to negotiate. Too bad.
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  13. Pros - Contracts are more readily available because the companies are more cost oriented nowadays. If you are on the bench, the company has to pay you to do nothing, so they are under pressure to assign you to a project. As a contractor, when the contract ends, your job ends and unless they extend it or start a new one, they don't owe you a penny. The skill stuff is not for real, permanent jobs can also have an initial period (usually 1-3 months) where if they are not happy with your skills, they can drop you immediately. As for skill sets, the same goes with a job, just quit your job and go to another that has something you are interested more. You can also get skills filled by creating your self education or education forms. Pros of contracts is also that you can work multiple contracts because you are not bound to a 9 to 5 period, unless explicitly specified. If you already got a permanent job, a contract can be a side hustle. Contracts almost always pay more per hour. Full time positions security is a hoax ( you can get fired at any time for whatever reason or no reason at all ). Cons - Too many contracts is not hoping resume. You can have a continuous entry in your resume and just specify experience on various projects for various clients. This is the business of contracting, if HR does not get it, move on, it's not your job to educate them. If you are a beginner, don't do contracting, you don't know the ropes yet. Give yourself 2-3 years in a full time job and try to absorb as much as you can, and after that start doing contracting as a side hustle to get the ropes of how contracting works, and when you understand contracting, go full contracting if you want. Career opportunities in contracting. You have to do these yourself ( extend education, work fields of interest, certificate, other forms of education and proven work ). Don't let a company define your career. You define your career and are responsible of its progress. Team related, you can always collect contacts and keep in touch. Create your own network and recommend each other for certain offers. The most important thing about contracting is to understand that you are not an employee, you are a service provider.
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  14. Employers can also land on blacklists and when the tide will turn (and it will, it's not a matter of if, only when) people will remember.
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  15. "Companies: We don't want to spend time, money and resources training people only for them to bail." - then don't expect loyalty and long term collaboration. Collaboration is a TWO way street. If the employee sees that you don't give a shit about them, well, guess what, they won't give a shit about you.
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  16. Nope, just create fake accounts. This way you make this violation of GDPR not affect you.
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  17. If a company asks to rank yourself, always inflate it. Also update resume, profile and everything and prepare to be ejected anyway.
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  18. When I had my own software company before the company I hired an agency to do my recruitment. To put it short, they did a SHIT job. Two months passed and nada, so I fired them because the skillset I was looking for was quite common, I just did not have the time to do it myself. Eventually I did it myself and surprise and miracles, it took me a week to fill all 4 positions that I had left.
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  19.  @vorpalchoppers  Don't fool yourself. Companies always try to pick the best for the least money, mercenary or not.
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  20. Unless what you say brings direct damage to the company, I think it's a good case to sue them for wrongful termination.
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  21. That manager did good. Bad behavior should never be tolerated, no matter how much of a "specialist" you are.
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  22. "They overlooked I was the only one that handled about a dozen things and had the nerve to call me the next week when no one could figure any of it out." - no reply, immediate block. That's how you handle these situations.
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  23. Small correction: "never burn bridges unless you have a good reason"
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  24. CySec ... entry level ? On what planet ?
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  25. Somebody in higher management from Glassdoor got a big fat check to do this.
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  26. "After a few of these, you learned you would keep your mouth shut, use up all your vacation and sick days and THEN tell them to go pound sand." - that's the smartest move. NEVER give them the upper hand.
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  27. I'll hustle hard for the right type of collaboration. If they look for an employee to hustle hard, they are deluded.
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  28.  @ALifeAfterLayoff  The situation you described has nothing to do with "company culture" unless the company culture is defined by having their employees freeze their balls in the Alaskan wind from 9 to 5.
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  29. 1. Your first assumption/question is wrong. As a professional, I could care less about your company. I care about the specifics of the project and team that I might be working with. In fact in 10+ years of career, I never cared once about whatever company I was working with. 2. If you look at a CV and you don't see all mandatory skills, why do you even do the call? It's a waste of time. The interview might very well end right here, at this point. But no, it gets better. 3. That is actually a decent approach. 4. This is the first useful tip of the video. Also, I expect the times when at least a mandatory range must be put on every job offer. It would solve a lot of low balls. 5. If you need 5 to 7 minutes, why do you make a 30 minute interview? It's a waste of my time. 6. This is the second tip, but not always. They might try to low ball your offer later before signing the contract. It actually happened to me. Some advice to interviewers: If you have a job offer with mandatory skills, list all of them and make sure you don't do a shit job screening people. Put a salary range on the job description, because you definitely have one set before going public on the market with the offer. If a person is not a fit, learn to stop the interview properly so you don't waste people's time and money with useless interviews.
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  30. 4:00 They are doing this in IT as well. You think you're gonna be a developer, but no, you have to do automation, architecture and product management, of course none of this is specified in the job description, so basically this is lying through omission. 7:51 That is a straight up scam. 13:37 - This is a freebie. They tell you to solve a problem for them, for free. Don't accept this nonsense :) There is better usage of your time. 16:00 - I'd be willing to accept this for a good piece of your business, as your partner. Definitely not as an employee, nor contractor. I like risk, but I also like reward, and I'm not gonna be anybody's slave. 19:50 - This one takes the cake. You'd be getting the same pay flipping burgers at McDonald's.
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  31.  @Simoss13  "I applied for over 1200 jobs in 10 months and got an offer as a junior consultant paying 30% less than my previous job." - so basically the only thing you got so far is a dog shit low ball of an offer.
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  32. I think the only way to adapt to how things are today is to shift your mentality from an employee to a service provider. Then it will be clear to you why the only loyalty is the one to yourself and it won't be a pain in the butt anymore to onboard new clients, it will simply be part of the process.
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  33.  @katr.2666  Don't get me wrong. I will read about your company because I don't like going in like a bloody amateur, I just don't care about your "vision". I'm here for the project and the tech, the rest is PR fluff and I'll leave that to the HR department and the management to sell to their clients.
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  34. And for the better. The corporate workplace today is a total shitshow.
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  35. Treat your job as a contract. Then it will not be "sudden" anymore.
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  36. " I am very happy to work together with colleagues toward a shared goal" - I think you answered that yourself.
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  37.  @paulcrescenti5581  "they pull you up as the company grows," - I think you got this other way around. A company without employees is ZERO. The employees are building the company, not the other way around. As for loyalty, if it doesn't go both ways on a signed contract, you can forget about it. Business is about making money, not loyalty and for corporations you are nothing but a row on an Excel sheet or a database table.
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  38. Or you can play them at their own game and tell them the actual salary that you would want from that job +20% added, because they will ALWAYS try to negotiate downwards.
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  39. Of course they are. You just have to lie to them. What are they gonna do ? If the job is shitty, you just change it and that's that.
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  40. You're better off flipping burgers :))
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  41. Exactly - too many shitty games, not worth your energy, sanity and overall health. If your boss is a piece of shit, time to line up a new job and when you get it, wave them adios.
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  42. I wonder, given the abysmal ethics of your managers, and given the fact that some of their reasons for firing are straight up illegal, do you still work there?
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  43. Done a couple of those.
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  44. 1. You should at least Google them. 2. The job description might be poorly done, in which case, you should ask. If you feel like they are cramming in multiple jobs into one or if the responsibilities are very ambiguous, you should definitely ask. This might actually be a red flag. 3. The hours should be stated in the contract, but it's good to ask about time frames, because it might not suit you and then all the interview process has been lost time on your part. 4. For permanent positions, if you show me you have no career path in your company, this tells me you just promote randomly and chaotically, which looks bad for anybody to expects to stay in that company for a couple of years. 5. Knowing the salary is important. Nobody is doing any favors, this is a business. You should have a salary range already in your job description. If you don't, this is a red flag. 6. If you answer this one 9 out of 10 they will try to negotiate it DOWN. A company will have a certain budget allocated for each open position before even filling that position, so their question is bull. Also, in some countries, salaries and contract prices are confidential. This question is the same as asking me what my current salary is, just framed differently. 7. Nobody cares about previous companies. Don't talk bad, but don't talk good either. Stay on the professional side of things. 8. Competence is the solution for fear. If you are consistently nervous in interviews, improve your social skills, talk to the mirror, prepare more, and learn what to expect. There are a lot of similarities between interviews and after a couple dozen you'll understand exactly what I'm saying. You should also periodically go to interview ( at least 1-2 times a month ) even if you have a job, just to keep your skills sharp and also feel the market and the expectations of the companies, so you know how to proceed. 9. Agree. 10. I might not be interested in your company so much as I am in the project. I usually ask questions about the projects and the team. Your "vision" is not important to me, unless you want me to become a partner in that company.
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  45.  @citydweller99  "Staying in one place in the same role looks bad" - only in a delulu society like the US I have heard about this.
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  46. HR has zero power towards managers. If the manager is high enough the food chain of a company, he will get away even with doing illegal and unethical stuff. It usually takes a former or current employee to blow the whistle and make the shit explode and even then, they might do everything in their power to mitigate, diminish or simply swipe it under the rug.
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  47. Yes, you were a backup option, their primary candidate flopped and now they are resorting to plan B, which is you. Unless you already have a job, politely decline them.
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  48. @AUTUMNVIBES Or they can be completely inept. Don't assume that just because they are a manager, they are automatically more competent than you. In a lot of cases, they are not.
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  49. First, let's be clear, it's nobody's business how much you make. Given this, when asked about salary, your ONLY answer should be how much you WANT, but don't give the recruiter that detail. He might be an asshole and press that you tell him what you actually make. Just tell him a number (not a range, he will always try to pull that to the lower limit). To be clear a second time, there is zero consequence of lieing when asnwering this question.
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  50.  @Ang7.8  The money comes from the companies - as you can see companies drive the decisions of Glassdoor, not its users
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