atw: Re: CV and interview advice

Stuart:
On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:27:36 +0900,  you wrote:
> Brian said:
>> ... when people ask in an interview how old I am, I invariably say 175. If 
>> they push
>> harder, I ask them what part of the Discrimination legislation that want me 
>> to cite
>> them for.
>>
>
> Wow. Is this common? I've _never_ been asked my age at an interview. If it 
> did come up,
> I think I'd be tempted to evade it, not because I'm that bothered ((cough) 
> forty-six!),
> but because it seems so irrelevant. Years of relevant experience: yes. Years 
> on Earth:
> no.
>
> I might say something like, "Well, the first LP I bought with my own money 
> was Slade
> Alive." If they reply "what's an ell-pee?" or "why didn't you just download 
> it?" I
> would take that as not such an encouraging sign. If they say, "Slade, they're 
> great!"
> or, even better, start singing Get Down and Get With It at top note, I would 
> take that
> as very encouraging. Either way, I'd assume the decision was already made.
>
> As others have said, if in other respects they thought I was the best 
> qualified person
> for the contract, but they'll give it to someone else purely because I 
> remember that
> Patrick Troughton is the real Doctor Who, then they're probably not people I 
> want to
> work for anyway.
>

As I recall it, those LP things were what you got when you got the gramophone 
that had little
needles that you couldn't see very well.  They were bendy, and a bit like the 
45s but bigger
with a smaller hole in the middle. 

God knows who that Slade feller was, but I guess he came after Bill Haley, 
Little Richard
and the Platters and that other feller, er Elvie. 

.. and speaking of which, I think never a truer word was spoken than when I 
recently 
had a knock-back on the grounds that it was felt "that the cultural fit was not
quite right."   (Well actually, I think my cultural fit with some of the 
developers was ok.... I'd worked
ok with them at another workplace for about 4-5 years and they remain personal 
friends.)

I only just refrained from replying to the HR person who conveyed this news 
(but hadn't laid eyes on me) to ask if that was because I was black ? 

It wouldn't have been because of the long white robe, beard and hat, would it ? 

Seemed a pretty dangerous sort of statement to make for HR... 

 


 
-Peter M 
 peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
   
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