A couple of developments in the Implied Observer’s life. Sorry I was AWOL there for a while. I had a rather important job interview at my work. This would be a transfer to another position at my same place of work. For this reason, I have been uber-focused on work and haven’t had a chance to read as much. Yesterday I found out that for all intents and purposes I have gotten the position, although an offer is not yet on the table.
I did have one amusing insight that I wanted to share on the blog. Jake was helping me with interview questions, and he said at his work one of their favorite interview questions to ask prospective employees is for the person to describe their biggest failure. The philosophy at Jake’s work is that if you are good at your job, you will be able to describe a failure because you will be able to recognize what went wrong in a certain instance and what you learned from it. The idea is that all of us make mistakes, but not all of us learn from them. In addition, if you are totally lying about your experience then describing a failure will be nearly impossible. You just won’t have the details to accurately describe a situation like that.
As soon as Jake gave me this wisdom, I immediatly thought of person who would have failed a job interview at Jake’s work.
At a GOP Presidential debate in 2000:
When a local TV reporter asked the candidates what their biggest personal mistake as an adult was, the crowd shouted her down in a tangible display of the hostility many feel toward the media.
Bush, who many assumed the question was aimed at, had a joke ready: noting that when he was managing partner of the “mighty Texas Rangers, I signed off on that wonderful transaction: Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines.”
I think you get it.
Well congrats! Any deep thoughts on what one of your failures is/was? For me, it’s failing to update my blog.
Well I’ll give Bush the fact that it is a difficult question. One of my past errors was following the chain of command when clearly the rung just above me did not fully appreciate the severity of a situation. I could have helped those immediately above me by bypassing them in order to get quick action done to a problem. Instead the problem languished until the higher-ups found out and were quite upset. The lesson being, don’t just pass the buck and move on. If you see that action is not being taken, take action yourself. That sort of behavior would have ruined me in a military career however.
Second, check, double-check and triple-check stuff. This is so hard in technology. I have this bad habit of always thinking I’m right so sometimes I forget to do due diligence. This bites me in the but on occasion.