Topic: Crazy transitions...

[KewlToyZ]

I've been working with CAD off and on since R12.
I had health and death issues with family, only child, decided to move back to look after Mom.
My marriage was feet up on a plate of gravy anyway.

I've been doing CADD Management the last 6 years, interface design and support.
Rather I've been managing instead of drafting full time.
To make a long story short,
I'm trying to get back to manufacturing mechanical design.
I went on an interview, they were on 2009 still.
The guy giving the CAD test gave me 4 minutes to CAD out a scribble on graph paper that didn't even follow the lines for figuring out the sizes.
I had been there interviewing with 6 different guys and already inferred 3 didnt see eye to eye with the other 3 etc...
To make a long story short, the guys giving these tests always insist they know CAD.
Which is complete bull**** every time. They only know their work stations and their environment.
I find it pretty stupid every time I face these so called CAD tests at places.
I got the drawing about half done because every place I have ever worked had their own setup and shortcuts depending on the type of drafting.
This place was certainly no exception. The workstation they had was sub par and their setup seemed corrupted from the stock profile.
This was definitely not a place I would want to work and made the interview a waste of my time lol!

[mjfarrell]

I here and have complete compassion for your situation.

From my own experience, over the past 10+ years of looking after my mother and trying to enrich her live to the end (6/16/1933-12/25/2010) this is no small sacrifice on your part.  In the end however you should find that you are hopefully rewarded with a wealth of great memories, and the gift of time with her.

As to the job search and interview situation; I too have met those guys and did those interviews.  At one point I actually started to thank them for their time and walked out on more than a few.  Just after explaining to them that my methods and techniques were to me 'basic' cad operation; and IF they needed me to explain the steps I just took to solve their particular cad puzzle we were going to have a lot of problems,  with them trying to manage me given their lack of knowledge.  That may sound arrogant; however it did save me a lot of grief.
I too am back in the job search and interview game, and the script doesn't seem to have been edited much since then either.  It always amazes me how full of self some of those folks can be, as if simply having a job, and a title printed on their card somehow conveys all of the cad knowledge of the universe unto them.  When quite often, the person sitting across from you is a living example of the Peter Principal, and they have simply achieved their own pinnacle of incompetence.  Worst part is their boss will never know how little they actually know, because they know even less.

Don't sell yourself short, or give up on your own values.

[KewlToyZ]

Thanks for sharing in the misery lol! 

What is even worse is all 6 guys seemed to be reading the same canned questions from the same pamphlet.
I wonder if it was "interviews for dummies".
But I digress, it is very tough to find the right job at the right transition point.
Every company has its own specialized group of applications, uses, products, etc...
This was my first real interview since I started looking for work.
I know I am rusty on the manufacturing side, so I am breaking out my college texts and rebuilding my 'canned' responses to 'canned' questions.
The whole thing is for all intents and purposes superficial, regardless of whether we are or not.
Keeping it simple through practice makes perfect so I will take my lumps.
Regardless, whatever job I find will be a spot I will evolve into as a resource.
Just like the other jobs throughout my life.

[Nibster]

One of the biggest changes (in the progressive environments, I think) in interviewing is in leaving the 'verbal resume' behind.  What I had been told about interviews since I had last interviewed (12/1999) before my layoff is that the new type of interview helps to weed out bull5h1t.

Behavioral Interviews.  They focus more on personality and character and are harder to BS through.

Read up on those, and don't poo-poo role playing in preparing for interviews if you're not practiced.  It sure helped me out!

Good luck!

[Daniel J. Ellis]

This was definitely not a place I would want to work and made the interview a waste of my time lol!

That in itself means that the interview *wasn't* a waste of your time: remember that you're interviewing the firm as much as they are you

dJE