Frustrations with interviewing in this wild job market

In reply to OHSCrifle :

I've got way too much ear to get away with that! 🤣

In reply to wae :

Ageism is very real. I don't know if that is a difference maker or not. I'm similar age and if I cut my hair short the grey is much less obvious, especially in a zoom setting. 
You have to feel comfortable to let your best self shine in an interview, if the due job would negatively impact that I wouldn't do it. 

In reply to wae :

If you work in tech, hair-dying is extremely common for interviews. There are milder "touch of gray" type dyes that will reduce the gray while avoiding the Steven Seagal look. I considered it myself but I figure it's less visible on camera and I've had almost this much gray hair since I was a teenager anyway...

I'm 42 and can say that once the massive amount of stress that 2020 brought and gave me gray in my beard that it actually was a benefit in my field.

I guess I finally looked like I had been doing this for numerous decades?

More important than hair color is the vibe you give off - if you give off the "I am super desperate for a job" sort of vibe or the "i will say anything I can and be overly enthusiastic" sort of vibe, thats gonna be a hard pass.  If you actually bring some skills to the table and talk like an enthusiastic, talented, but also not needy person then you have a wing and a prayer.

I dont care how old you are on paper, but I do want you to have the fire and passion of a 26 year old heading to the bars on a Friday night.  

Done my fair share of interviewing and I can tell if someone has been out of work for a while just by the whiff of desperation in the air when I first meet them.  It always sucks because I have to still do the whole thing because it would be rude to send them packing right away.  But they never get a call back.

I tell you what I *DO* look at though - I always look at what car they drive.  If they show up with a reasonable less than 10 year old vehicle in good shape and clean, good deal.  If they show up with either something brandy brand new and expensive - likely I can't afford them - and if they show up with some absolute hoopty full of carbage or one of the cars that only people with bad credit get (Dodge products, Nissan products), hard pass because of reasons.  

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

It's pretty messed up to not hire someone solely because they seem desperate for work (!?) or drive an old hoopty or a "bad credit brand" (especially because credit's not a factor if you pay cash for one used, and most people hardly care about car brands any more than washing machine brands). My immediate supervisor at my last job, who got promoted to that position from the same role I was in, worked like an absolute fiend (as required to keep a job at that company) and he drove an >10yo rusty Dodge Journey.

As a frequent old hoopty driver who only once somewhat unwisely splurged on a <10yo car and may have given off a whiff of desperation, getting a welding cert and moving to Wisconsin could've been a disastrous waste of time, theoretically speaking.

I've hired great employees, and not great employees. The car they drive has absolutely nothing to do it. One of my best employees is terrible with money, but is phenomenal at everything I need from him for his job. Making any judgment because of the car they drive is extremely naive.  I drive a 16 year old beat up Mazda. I spend 90 minutes a day in trafffic, surrounded by morons. Driving a nice car is too stressful.   
 

I do care how old you are. If you're in your 50s with the exact same job title for 30 years, I know what I'm getting.  That's not the person I'm looking for. 

I should have clarified a little bit so folks didn't fly off the handle.

For a customer facing role where one has to deal with significant financial decisions and act as an advocate for both the company and the customer, the car a person drives absolutely is a window into their soul.  A sensible vehicle shows you can make sensible decisions and at least have enough horsepower and adulting that you can put yourself together.

Field service is kind of the same, we need people who can show up in front of a customer, by themselves, on their own without poking and prodding, and not look like a Dog's breakfast.  If your personal car that you paid your own money looks like a Mexican hardware store, how are you going to treat that $100k service truck and $50k worth of tools I give you? How clean would I think you are going to leave a jobsite when the window in your life says you are messy bessie?  How well will you conduct yourself in front of a customer when your boss isn't there?

Non customer facing, non supervisory roles in a shop environment, neither me or anyone else gives a crap.  You can look like an absolute turd, smell like a dumpster in July, rolling up in a Dodge Journey with limo tint, no plates, and a donut spare, but do that every day on time while you turn out quality product with minimal drama, and you are walking out the door with $120k a year.