Oversold LinkedIn Profiles

[Vandelay_Industries]

@geo

@former_trader

^ Unless he/she explicitly asks you to call him/her by his/her first name, you refer to him/her as Mr./Ms.

Agreed with this in general. However, my personal advice is never to use their name. With all the funky names out there today, you might mispronounce or otherwise screw up, which is suicide. I can’t think of a situation where you MUST use a name. “Thank you, sir, I look forward to meeting you again soon,” is as good as “thank you Rjantandan Vesupapulopolis,” and carries less risk.

I have had to mention someone’s name before. For instance, when you are interviewing with two separate people in two separate offices and are with one man and have to refer to the other one.

[Vandelay_Industries]

@bchad

A lot of this is reading the ambiance of the room. In general, I’ll begin with the more formal address, and almost always, the person will say “It’s fine to call me ‘Joe’” and we’ll take it from there. But the truth is that it’s pretty rare that I actually need to use a person’s name in an interview situation, except perhaps as you are leaving, and occasionally if you are being interviewed by more than one person in the same room. Most of the time, I’ll simply say “you.”

The question does come up more often in a follow-on letter/email. Emails do tend to be more informal, and so saying “Dear Joe” is tempting. I typically make an estimate about the reporting order. Meaning that if the person is going to be my supervisor (which is typical) and I felt like I established a good rapport in the interview, I’ll go ahead and use the first name. If the person is higher up in the organization (as sometimes happens), I’ll use a more formal introduction, unless there was a strong feeling of rapport or the guy says “call me X”.

If I haven’t been interviewed yet, and it’s a communication out of the blue, I’ll use the formal introductions.

So it’s not a hard-and-fast rule. It requires reading the vibe of the room.

sounds reasonable and good. thanks

[Vandelay_Industries]

@Twice_the_man

@Vandelay_Industries

@geo

0 percent. You’re over qualified. No middling company is going to hire an MBA for a junior corporate finance position. And you’re not good enough to get a top company position (otherwise you’d be placed by your progran.).

I still have interviews with the career center firms later this semester. Havent gotten to those yet. Ive even gotten a few unsolicited calls from companies that said they found me on there. I turned them down, though, because they wernt corp finance roles. They were credit analysis and real estate finance jobs. As for my career center interviews later this semester, my goal is to find opportunities before I get to the time to interview for those jobs because I wont want to put all my eggs in one basket and be banking on just select few interviews with the best firms at the career center.

I’m just catching up on this cluster-F, but this right here tells me everything I need to know. You’re unemployed and didn’t go for an interview. I’ve got hacksaws propping up other hacksaws all over my resume. I’d take a vacation day to compliment the all around greatness of a portfolio managers golf course farts, and I already have a decent job. I get that credit analysis or real estate finance aren’t what you want, but every opportunity to get your face in front of a hiring manager in finance is an opportunity worth taking. I’ve got an interview on Monday for my same role at another company. I’m 99% sure I don’t want to jump, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to listen, learn and react. Without a great job or education history, I’m the 3rd string QB. I get very few reps and I can’t afford to make mistakes. Taking every interview I can is my career equivalent of the 3rd string QB sitting in an empty room verbalizing his play calls, cadence and audibles. He looks like an idiot half the time, it’s probably not going to make a difference, but it’s the only thing he can control. He can’t control the health or effectiveness of the people in front of him, he can’t change the coach and GM that make the decisions, but he can be as prepared as possible to make the absolute most out of the limited opportunities he’s going to get.

Very true. I would have certainly taken the interviews for fun and practice, but they were 2-5 hours away and required me to pay for the trip on my own dime. I dont think it is worth it in that scenario. If they were in town, certainly.

[geo]

@Twice_the_man

I’m just catching up on this cluster-F, but this right here tells me everything I need to know. You’re unemployed and didn’t go for an interview. I’ve got hacksaws propping up other hacksaws all over my resume. I’d take a vacation day to compliment the all around greatness of a portfolio managers golf course farts, and I already have a decent job. I get that credit analysis or real estate finance aren’t what you want, but every opportunity to get your face in front of a hiring manager in finance is an opportunity worth taking. I’ve got an interview on Monday for my same role at another company. I’m 99% sure I don’t want to jump, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to listen, learn and react. Without a great job or education history, I’m the 3rd string QB. I get very few reps and I can’t afford to make mistakes. Taking every interview I can is my career equivalent of the 3rd string QB sitting in an empty room verbalizing his play calls, cadence and audibles. He looks like an idiot half the time, it’s probably not going to make a difference, but it’s the only thing he can control. He can’t control the health or effectiveness of the people in front of him, he can’t change the coach and GM that make the decisions, but he can be as prepared as possible to make the absolute most out of the limited opportunities he’s going to get.

This is a great post.

[H_P_Flashman]

The whole not saying someone’s name strikes me as pretty bad advice. I guess if you have Asberger’s and assume that the whole interpersonal relations thing is overrated, then you can go ahead and not say people’s names. But saying someone’s name during an answer, or at the very least thanking your interviewer by name at the end, is interviewing 101. When it comes to Rjantandan Vesupapulopolis then go ahead and not say it, but for anything else not saying your interlocuter’s name is just you forgoing a very easy opportunity to forge a connection.

[itera]

@geo

@Twice_the_man

I’m just catching up on this cluster-F, but this right here tells me everything I need to know. You’re unemployed and didn’t go for an interview. I’ve got hacksaws propping up other hacksaws all over my resume. I’d take a vacation day to compliment the all around greatness of a portfolio managers golf course farts, and I already have a decent job. I get that credit analysis or real estate finance aren’t what you want, but every opportunity to get your face in front of a hiring manager in finance is an opportunity worth taking. I’ve got an interview on Monday for my same role at another company. I’m 99% sure I don’t want to jump, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to listen, learn and react. Without a great job or education history, I’m the 3rd string QB. I get very few reps and I can’t afford to make mistakes. Taking every interview I can is my career equivalent of the 3rd string QB sitting in an empty room verbalizing his play calls, cadence and audibles. He looks like an idiot half the time, it’s probably not going to make a difference, but it’s the only thing he can control. He can’t control the health or effectiveness of the people in front of him, he can’t change the coach and GM that make the decisions, but he can be as prepared as possible to make the absolute most out of the limited opportunities he’s going to get.

This is a great post.

In summary: beggars can’t be choosers

[bchad]

@H_P_Flashman

The whole not saying someone’s name strikes me as pretty bad advice. I guess if you have Asberger’s and assume that the whole interpersonal relations thing is overrated, then you can go ahead and not say people’s names. But saying someone’s name during an answer, or at the very least thanking your interviewer by name at the end, is interviewing 101. When it comes to Rjantandan Vesupapulopolis then go ahead and not say it, but for anything else not saying your interlocuter’s name is just you forgoing a very easy opportunity to forge a connection.

I think you’re reacting to my post above.

My point about not saying someone’s name is not that I avoid saying a person’s name (I agree with the spirit of Dale Carnegie’s advice that a person’s name - to that person - is the most musical sound in any language). It’s just that the conversations I tend to have in an interview don’t generally require me to say “Well, Susan…” at every turn, so it ends up not being a big issue.

I agree that as you leave, you usually want to say “It’s been great to talk to you, Mr. Buffet,” or perhaps “It’s been great talking to you, Warren.” And you’ll usually have a feel for which one is better by then.

As for massacring a name with which you aren’t familiar, I have occasionally found myself saying things like “I’m not sure I said that right” or “Please correct me if I’ve mispronounced your name.” People with unusual sounding names that get misprounounced frequently are generally more concerned about the effort you make to pronounce the name right and your conscientioiusness about it than whether you got it right the first time. Enough people don’t care at all, so showing you do can go a long way, even if you got it wrong.

Even unusual American names (since I’m in the US) are worth checking on. Most people don’t mind you confirming, as long as their name isn’t blindingly obvious to pronounce. I had a client with an unusual name and asked her “What’s the best way to pronounce that,” and I discovered that my initial guess had the accent on the wrong sylable. She said she didn’t really care that much, but appreciated being asked.

If they are famous (or think they are) and have an ego, they will of course expect you to know how to pronounce their name. If you fail that test, you may or may not be able to count yourself lucky, depending on whether they really are famous.

One time when you absolutely must confirm how to pronounce an unusual name is when you are introducing someone to an audience. However, a self-deprecatory “wow, I believe I just massacred your name” will sometimes extract you from trouble if the person is a good sport about things and didn’t get cold eggs for breakfast.

[H_P_Flashman]

@bchad

I think you’re reacting to my post above.

My point about not saying someone’s name is not that I avoid saying a person’s name (I agree with the spirit of Dale Carnegie’s advice that a person’s name - to that person - is the most musical sound in any language). It’s just that the conversations I tend to have in an interview don’t generally require me to say “Well, Susan…” at every turn, so it ends up not being a big issue.

I agree that as you leave, you usually want to say “It’s been great to talk to you, Mr. Buffet,” or perhaps “It’s been great talking to you, Warren.” And you’ll usually have a feel for which one is better by then.

As for massacring a name with which you aren’t familiar, I have occasionally found myself saying things like “I’m not sure I said that right” or “Please correct me if I’ve mispronounced your name.” People with unusual sounding names that get misprounounced frequently are generally more concerned about the effort you make to pronounce the name right and your conscientioiusness about it than whether you got it right the first time. Enough people don’t care at all, so showing you do can go a long way, even if you got it wrong.

Even unusual American names (since I’m in the US) are worth checking on. Most people don’t mind you confirming, as long as their name isn’t blindingly obvious to pronounce. I had a client with an unusual name and asked her “What’s the best way to pronounce that,” and I discovered that my initial guess had the accent on the wrong sylable. She said she didn’t really care that much, but appreciated being asked.

If they are famous (or think they are) and have an ego, they will of course expect you to know how to pronounce their name. If you fail that test, you may or may not be able to count yourself lucky, depending on whether they really are famous.

One time when you absolutely must confirm how to pronounce an unusual name is when you are introducing someone to an audience. However, a self-deprecatory “wow, I believe I just massacred your name” will sometimes extract you from trouble if the person is a good sport about things and didn’t get cold eggs for breakfast.

This is a good take.