How to get hired by a 'Best' company

Wow... This article seriously impressed me which it has been a while since one of them did that. They don't give you the same monotonous tips that most articles give you. It gave me a few pointers that I didn't even think about. Check it out.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/30/magazines/fortune/job_tips.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008013009

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Comments

sir_creamy_

The tips are solid but...

"The average company on the list has 15,853 employees"

As the number of employees within the company increases so do the politics of the workplace. I breifly worked for one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada and our QA department couldn't do any work because we were reliant on an outside vendor to supply us with equipment. Just one example.

I think start-ups are more likely to do work in-house and therefore avoid a lot of the back-and-forth nonsense that goes on with larger companies. Plus, start-ups can usually offer you more responsibility which will contribute more to your individual growth.

I find that it's easy to get lost in the shuffle with the big companies. But then again, company benefits are always a plus

JDMurray

That article gives some insight into why I will probably never be hired by a large company: If you've moved around a lot, be ready to explain why. In my career, I have favored positions at small, entrepreneurial, high-tech start-ups that have a high probability of both success and failure within their first three years. As a result, my resume is littered with jobs that lasted an average of 2.5 years each. Big companies prefer instead to see "10 years here" and "20 years there" on a resume, and don't really seem to appreciate someone with my "volatile" work experience.

I also think the It helps to know someone and the Get ready to interview and interview... and interview are probably the most true on that list. The Play up volunteer work on your résumé and No lone rangers need apply seem rather weak and lame to me, as if the author could only come up with eight good rules and needed these two to make an even ten.

Networkhead

As I long as I have steady, good paying job and work with respectable people, I couldn't care less about a company's rank in some system.

Kasor

I don't know where the author get the information from, but completed wrong.

Graduate from Ivy league college, kick axx GPA, great internship and a rich parent will get you in. The most important you need to be a smart axx...,too.

Go Bucks

I work at one of the hospitals on the list and I've been there almost a year now. I had no 'paid' IT work experience prior to this and I was desperate for a job. Luckily, I had a friend who worked there who kept telling his boss that he needed to hire me and I got on.

Now I'm back at work on the MCSA so I can move up the ladder. I don't see myself leaving the area, so in all likelihood I'll be here for quite some time.

dynamik

Did anyone else get that "Learn to trade like a pro" advertisement?

I did, and I just sent my boss an email telling him that I'm quiting. I ordered the free book and dvd, and I'm going to turn $33,000 into $7,000,000 in two years! This is the best career-related article I've ever read.

Seriously though, it's a decent article. I'm with JD; some of the content seemed a bit fluffy. I think it would have been better to just have a list of five solid tips.

The "It helps to know someone" also made me laugh. They said 40% of new hires were hired this way. Doesn't that mean 60% weren't, and therefore, you're 150% more likely to be hired if you don't know someone within the company?

I thought the bit about volunteering and creative research was interesting though. I usually dig up a bit of background info on a company before an interview, but I never thought to contact customers. I can see that standing out.

bighornsheep

dynamik wrote:

The "It helps to know someone" also made me laugh. They said 40% of new hires were hired this way. Doesn't that mean 60% weren't, and therefore, you're 150% more likely to be hired if you don't know someone within the company?

I don't get it, what kind of statistical analysis led to this conclusion?

If 40% of new hires knew someone in the company, it means 60% of the new hires did not reportedly know anyone in the company, all you can say is that 50% more new hires for those Fortune 100 companies knew nobody in company before they started. I think both your's and the article's deductions are flawed. However, I do agree that it "helps" to know someone in the sense that you get to hear about the job postings, which may lead to being hired. But, in the grand scheme of things, unless the person you know has direct influence on the hiring decision making, I don't think there is any assistance for you, the person you know however may get a couple of grand in referral fees.

dynamik

I was just playing around

I agree that it helps to know someone within an organization. It was just funny that he picked a percentage that was less than half. I think it would have been more useful to show how much a recommendation increases your chances of a job.

I've actually been given a job on the spot because of a recommendation from a friend who was an employee at that company. It was a menial job that I had when I was a teenager, and I'm sure I would be scrutinized a bit more for any position I applied for today, but it does demonstrate that these recommendations carry some weight.

And you're right, I incorrectly worded my statement. It should have been only be 50% more