the thread on mechanical and social skills got me thinking

One more place where we see kids young adults struggle in life is interviews

I help with some interviews and we get some young people who are really quite good but you would hardly know it

actually I have been on interviews with people older than I am and they had interviewed for the position 3 times and were just starting to articulate themselves better

first round interviews we do a panel of people and 12 questions they get the questions when they arrive for the interview to look over and we just ask the question and take your response.

I know I wondered about this style of interviewing when I was first introduced to it but it amazingly does work quiet well

we rank the responses 1,2,3,4,5 1 being poor and 5 excellent we also take notes with 6 interviewers we only ask 2 questions each. we do it in the same order so each candidate hears the same question from the same person

now if you didn't know in both 4-H and boy scouts there are lots of small interviews in scouts every time your ready for rank advancement and if you submit an eagle project you have a much larger interview with council and local board.
in 4-H every project judging is a small interview
these kids do better speaking with adults because they got experience doing it in small bits , taking constructive criticism about their projects and explaining their projects , we can tell when you researched it or not. I was a superintendent for several years as well as a 4-H leader

so if you want to help your kids , your friends kids , your grand kids , nieces , nephews or anyone who asks for you to be a reference. help them by giving them or having friends and family interview them they may need to see new faces they are not familiar with.



what are your experiences with interviews ? and what were the hardest interview questions you had ?

I have been looking for a job close to home for 5 years. Lots of jobs and lots of offers but nothing close enough to what I make or my benefits I feel comfortable taking. I thank them and decline the offer.

The questions are easy, I tend to interview well. The problems I found are when it's my turn. Once they decide they want to make me an offer and ask if I have questions. In every single interview the hr person does not have the info I ask for. Insurance cost, coverage, max out of pocket, 401 match ? I get responses like we'll I'm salary so have a different package... so it's your job as the HR person get the info and know it.

I guess they don't realize I'm interviewing them more so than they are interviewing me. I'm very comfortable and don't need a job and will likely be taking a cut in income, loosing a pension, and 4 weeks vacation. So the job benefits and details are quite important to me. I dot shoe up to the interview unprepared. Out of respect for me, themselves, and their company they shouldn't either.

you and I are probably in a different set of life experiences all together than anyone entry level.

they need to be able to communicate at a basic level , your life experience has you interviewing for a job very possibly more technical than that of the HR person. you calculate everything , few people even make a budget any more so the idea that your budgeting the details of insurance and benefits for a job you don't even have yet are out of their normal.

the difference in those things when you have a family is huge most people see a $ and they fail to see all the -$ in the background that make up the cost of living.

Exactly, I'm running the cost of being away from the family while working + production increases at the farm if I'm home, time time being the biggest factor. 7k I spend a year on food and expenses going away to work. That's really 10k off a year end total if you figure the taxes paid on the 7k. Vehicle maintenance and on it goes.

Public speaking is a very important skill that getting lost. Just watch family's out at dinner. Everyone of the family will be looking at their phone not talking with each other. When I was a kid 9 years old or so I learned how to knock on doors and presents myself well and solicit yard work. It's served me well in life.

we were talking about stuff last night , one of the experiences that I found very uncomfortable at the time was going around soliciting businesses for donations as a part of a friends Eagle project. His project was working with the local FD and he raised the funds to buy 9v batteries and distribute them with information about smoke detectors outside the Grocery store.

this was back when we didn't have 10 year smoke detectors and hard wired smoke detectors were not the norm. when you needed to change the battery every 6 months or so
I was probably about 14 at the time , we got no script , just this is what the project is this is your list of businesses take your bike go in pairs of 2 wearing uniform ask for money. we stumbled and bumbled I am sure but got the message across and even got some checks. I am no sales guy and I hate cold calls as they call them. but that really uncomfortable experience helped me grow.