On Wednesday 21 May 2003 22:54, Tim May wrote: ...
When I was interviewing college seniors and grad students for employment at Intel, a large fraction of the people gave as their goal "I want to work with people."
Gaack!... If they were clueless, or bored, or nattered on about how much they wanted to "work with people!," I usually didn't recommend them.
(I think some kids--and this was mostly in the years 1977-80--just had the idea that they were supposed to emphasize their "people skills" and to jabber about how much they liked the idea of being part of a team and all.
I think that's right. I finished high school just after that time block, and would have been interviewing for my first after-graduation job in '84 if I hadn't put on the green suit. The high school guidance counselor and the college job hunting assistant certainly emphasized people skills to us engineer types. "You may be the best engineer ever, but you have to impress the personnel department first. They like to deal with people, so make sure to speak their language." It didn't much affect me, but many of my friends weren't savvy enough to realize that career advice from a high school guidance counselor or a 23-year-old grad assistant who had yet to find work outside of acedemia was not worth much. -- Steve Furlong Computer Condottiere Have GNU, Will Travel If someone is going to use their weapons to protect their rights, [it] makes me nervous that they have these weapons at all!" -- Rep. Henry Waxman