<p>I can recall only one person like this that I’ve met.</p>
<p>My kid brother has that skill- he graduated from average colleges and landed jobs at every place he ever interviewed.</p>
<p>He is also the kid who at 17 drove his car through the cemetery fence and convinced the cops to drive him home and tell my parents it was not his fault.</p>
<p>BC… yeah, a rare individual but here on CC seems most parents have kids like that. </p>
<p>“As a very young child he could walk up to an adult stick his hand out to introduce himself and engage the adult in conversation. He can talk to young and old alike. It helps that he is tall, athletic, good looking and confident but his people skills are out of this world. Teachers, coaches and adults who interact with him are floored by him.
very young child”</p>
<p>what, a 8 year old who can engage a random adult in conversation. so another CC child prodigy I see.</p>
<p>These are probably just affable and somewhat humble kids but their parents make them out to be some rare exceptional human being for which the human race is blessed with.</p>
<p>The person isn’t necessarily a prodigy. The person that I met wasn’t. Perhaps prodigy in the people-skills sense but not in the academic sense.</p>
<p>Mine academically is NO prodigy. (If I told you what her SAT/ACT/GREs were relative to other applicants, you’d laugh - and it didn’t matter how many hours she put into studying for them, or how many times she took them.) And yes, that intangible thing, is prodigious. When a company turns down 197 other applicants, at least half of whom are “better qualified”, to get her, we know that something “odd” is up. To us, she’s just who she is, and I wouldn’t even have known that she was “odd” without seeing what happens elsewhere.</p>
<p>Companies spend very significant amounts of money on their assessment tools, and finding ways to identify potential hires with “emotional intelligence” is part of that. Some roles and functions require lots of the hard skills (computing, analyzing, translating, building) and some require lots of the soft skills (listening, leading, driving consensus). A few require both (most successful CEO’s for example.) Very few jobs nowadays require one or the other, so someone like Mini’s D will be in high demand.</p>
<p>If you’ve ever had an employee who was allegedly “great at the job” but hard to work with, you’ll understand this intuitively. And when you give them feedback and they tell you you’re wrong… !!!</p>
<p>One of the most academically gifted employees I ever had was an emotional wreck. She was more efficient than the majority of her colleagues but she would self destruct with her co-workers and even with our clients. She could never go beyond a certain level and because of that she is a problem at that level now.</p>
<p>And obviously foo man chew does not have these skills!</p>
<p>I think this quality is found in many successful political people and I am sure it never hurts someone in sales.</p>
<p>Appearance alone can make the difference. There’s what you can control easily with clothes, hair, shoes, etc. And those that take more effort: weight, strength, gait. And some that can’t be naturally changed like height, symmetry, etc. The person that I’m referring to is someone that speaks a sentence or two and you’re convinced that they are your best friend or the nicest person in the world. There isn’t time or content to determine soft skills.</p>
<p>In the tech area, it seems that the most successful companies are run by dictators.</p>
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<p>We put them in their own private office and give them plenty of space.</p>
<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12570781-post230.html]#230[/url]”>quote</a> …In the tech area, it seems that the most successful companies are run by dictators.
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<p>…and staffed by [obedient</a> followers](<a href=“Stanley Milgram - Wikipedia”>Stanley Milgram - Wikipedia).</p>
<p>Son told me about a recruiter from Redwood Shores contacting him yesterday and the recruiter requested an in-person interview so he has a third interview next week (in the middle of prepping end-of-semester projects). He also had a few calls from more recruiters - he seems to be ignoring those for now.</p>
<p>The unemployment claims number released yesterday were quite troubling. This makes the fourth week with claims above 400,000. They had been under 400,000 for several months before this. Under 400,000 and the employment goes up (slowly if over 300,000). Above 400,000 and employment goes down. The employment report comes in at 8:30 this morning and Wall St is bracing for bad news although it may already be priced in. If we are starting a trend of higher unemployment, then getting a job as soon as possible becomes more important as the hiring environment will become more difficult.</p>
<p>The employment number was interesting. The economy added about 244,000 jobs but the unemployment rate rose from 8.8% to 9.0%. My read on the rest of the article that I read is that employers did a lot of hiring in April (which is what I’ve seen in terms of a lot of job postings) and that this brought out a lot of people seeking jobs that didn’t have jobs before but weren’t considered unemployed - the so-called discouraged workers.</p>
<p>[U.S</a>. economy adds 244,000 jobs in April Economic Report - MarketWatch](<a href=“http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-economy-adds-244000-jobs-in-april-2011-05-06]U.S”>U.S. economy adds 244,000 jobs in April - MarketWatch)</p>
<p>Economists are forecasting accelerating jobs growth but there are still a lot of headwinds in the economy.</p>
<p>Another week and son is wrapping up projects and is prepping for a presentation for a class before the end of the semester. He has an interview tomorrow morning with a local firm and a phone interview with a local defense firm. He is still waiting for a recruiter to get back to him with a date and time for an in-person interview for a multinational software firm after providing dates and times that he’s available.</p>
<p>Last week I used one of my connections (I really don’t like doing this sort of thing) into another company which is doing some very interesting work to consider him for internships as well as full-time work. It’s a big and well-known company staffing up in an area that’s hot.</p>
<p>Many internship posts are still flowing through his email account - my guess is that he’s ignoring these for now but will consider them if nothing pans out this week.</p>
<p>After 6 months of NOTHING, S had 3 interviews last week - 2 via phone, and 1 on-site. He felt the on-site and one of the phone interviews went very well. He spent a lot of time prepping and researching for one of the online phone interviews because it was a job he is very interested in. He should hear something from both the on-site and that phone interview this week.</p>
<p>The other phone interview didn’t go as well. They asked him some probability questions, and it’s been 2 years since he took stats. He could have looked up how to do it and given an answer, but off the top of his head with no warning… he wasn’t expecting a pop quiz on the phone, especially since this was a position in a training program that was supposed to take him through many different areas of the company! He said that was half the interview, the other half went well but he’s not expecting anything positive to come of it.</p>
<p>Sometimes a bit of luck and perseverance pays off. My daughter, whos graduating from Gettysburg College in two weeks, had a phone interview (arranged by the schools career center) with a well-known company back in October. She didnt make it through to the next round. Nevertheless, she kept the recruiters contact information just in case.</p>
<p>About a month ago, she checked the job listings on this companys website and emailed the recruiter inquiring whether she might be suited for a couple of the open positions. The recruiter emailed back right away suggesting another (better) position and set up a formal interview for a couple of weeks later. Apparently it went well because they made her an offer a few days afterwards. </p>
<p>Were thrilled. Its a great company with excellent benefits, and frankly, were a little surprised that she was offered this position. She didnt have the exact qualifications listed in the job description and her major is not in the same field. However, one of her minors IS in a related field, her GPA is solid, and she has two interesting internships on her resume (one thats directly related). So between those factors and bit of luck maybe the recruiter was in a generous mood when she set up the interview? somehow she managed to get a wonderful job.</p>
<p>So, tell your kids to stay upbeat. Apparently there are still companies that are willing to invest in training and give people a chance.</p>
<p>I don’t really know anything about recruiters. Is that just a math/sci kind of thing, or is this knowledge something a poli sci BA would benefit from? What can you tell me?</p>
<p>Companies are asking probability questions in employment interviews now? Yeesh! Unless the question relates to the odds of filling in a poker hand…do you really need to know that kind of stuff off the top of your head?</p>
<p>H has a reputation for being able to handle difficult women at work. I’d like to think that I gave him plenty of experience.</p>