Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Business Partners, Job Interviews, and Resumes

It's been a long day.  I'm a little rummy after such a long, tedious day so please forgive me.  I've been in the business world for 30 years and there are some confusing trends that I need help with now that I'm on the "senior" side.

Once upon a time, in more defined times, when at cocktail mixers (remember those?) I would get introduced to people who then would want to introduce me to their "partner."  Back then, it was automatically assumed that they were business partners and the relationship was platonic.  Now when I'm introduced to a "partner" it takes on a whole other meaning.  It could mean their same-sex lover, business partner, fleeting opposite sex l'amour du jour,  all the above, or any combination thereof. 

Help a girl out, would you please?  Don't make me guess as I *really* try not to insert foot into mouth.  I usually run into this problem at business functions and I don't know your personal life (and I would never ask), and so don't get angry when you are talking about yourself and your business and you say  "my partner" and I give you a long pause of a stare with one eyebrow raised in confusion.  Partner as in?????????  What?????  I have too much class to blurt out what I really want to ask, so I do the cocktail conversation mixer dance on landmines being evasive hoping not to offend anybody. 

Now onto job interviews and resumes.  Today I interviewed an applicant who fished out a resume from his sticker-laden backpack that looked like it belonged to a brooding teenage goth and told me, "I have a resume for you to look at.  I did not have time to update it and it's a couple years old."

Hmmmmmm... Strike one.... Handing out a dated resume at an interview and then announcing that he did not have time to update it. 

Strike two...  His resume listed EXCELLENT TIME MANAGEMENT as his top skill.  I'm sorry, but I could not let that slide.  As usual, I call people on their bull&*$% and they never like it. 

NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I can't make this stuff up, people. 

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