“weekend open thread – August 1-2, 2020” plus 3 more Ask a Manager

weekend open thread – August 1-2, 2020
it’s your Friday good news
Ask a Manager in the media
open thread – July 31-August 1, 2020

weekend open thread – August 1-2, 2020

Posted: 31 Jul 2020 10:00 PM PDT

This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you'd like to have with other readers, by popular demand.

Here are the rules for the weekend posts.

Book recommendation of the week: America for Beginners, by Leah Franqui. A widow leaves India to tour America and find out what happened to her estranged son. I loved it.

* I make a commission if you use that Amazon link.

1. I just wanted to share a little good news and thank you for your blog. I’ve been reading Ask A Manager religiously since I was in college and I’m now almost 10 years into my career. As a new grad with a Philosophy degree, I got a job doing office admin and loved helping with the bookkeeping. Using your advice, I got employer-sponsored accounting education, moved into the field, and have never struggled to find a solid job.

Late last year, after working in industry for a couple years, I decided I wanted to focus my career on public accounting. I needed to find a firm where I’d be comfortable working for 3+ years or my resume would start to look job-hoppy. I broke out every piece of AAM advice I’ve ever read, and within a couple months had good offers from three firms. I negotiated and went with a local firm who increased my salary by 50% with fantastic benefits, gave me a lot of responsibility and great feedback, and has handled Covid in a very responsible way. I have flexible hours to work on my master’s and eventually CPA, my own office (no more hot-desking or cubicles!) and at my recent 6 month review I was given a little raise and bonus. I’ll be supervising junior staff soon.

But best of all in this conservative industry and swing state… I’m totally comfortable being openly queer. I’ll probably transition to male in a couple years, and I think it’ll be awkward but fine. That’s a HUGE, HUGE deal. (For comparison, in the Big 4 I was sent to a “professional dress” session which mandated sheath dresses, heels, manicures, and impeccable accessorizing. Not exactly comfortable for me.)

Thanks for all the amazing advice you’ve provided over the years. I always recommend your blog to interns and juniors. It’s been invaluable for becoming a better and higher paid professional, and that has given me the luxury of being able to choose the workplace where I’m most comfortable being myself.

2. Last Friday, I accepted an offer for a great new job (yay pandemic hiring!). On that same day, a different company where I was interviewing reached out to me with an outrageous interview assignment. After completing only a 30-minute phone screening interview, they reached out to me six weeks later with a massive test assignment. Without exaggeration, massive: this is the type of assignment I would normally hire a consultant for, and was easily 12 hours worth of work to do properly. They wanted it completed within 72 hours! I told Company B that I was removing myself from consideration, but would gladly offer them feedback about their recruitment process.

I just got off a call with their HR department and they were truly incredulous to hear my (extremely polite and professional) feedback. It had never occurred to them, apparently, that this was a huge assignment to give to someone who yet to speak with their potential supervisor or learn more about the role; that 72 hours was not a reasonable amount of time; or that it was ethically dubious to ask for work that the company could immediately use without compensating a candidate. The HR director said no other candidate had raised an issue, and I pointed out the other candidates were hoping to get a job in an incredibly challenging environment!

The HR director said they would make some immediate changes to their recruitment process, and they were sorry to lose me as a candidate. I hope they do make changes – and it was only because of your blog and advice, Alison, that I felt confident enough to advocate for myself and future jobseekers at their company. Thanks!

3. For the past few years I have worked in a position that was not conducive to my professional goals, with awful leadership, poor culture and no opportunities for growth. I was miserable and started aggressively job hunting in late 2019. Early this year, I interviewed for a position I was incredibly excited about and while I made it to the final round, I was rejected. I think my overeagerness and desperation made me interview quite poorly, and I left each interview in tears, frustrated with myself. Then COVID hit, jobs got even more scarce, and I resigned myself to another year (at least) of being miserable.

However, I recently had the chance to interview with a great organization for a position that really aligns with my skills and goals. I took all of your advice to heart and was so much more calm and collected this time around. It was one of the best interviews I’ve ever had, and I got offered the job! I start this week and can’t describe how thrilled I am to be moving on to better things.

Rapitful Shqip

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