3 ms·

If I asked a potential employer how many meetings a week people in the position/team usually attend, and they say 20-30, that is clearly too much. But I am reas

by hawkice 12y ago

If I asked a potential employer how many meetings a week people in the position/team usually attend, and they say 20-30, that is clearly too much. But I am reasonably certain I would be criticized by you as using the wrong tone if I said as much. "How many meetings do people in this position usually take a week?" "Maybe 20, but it varies." "That's not good, the interview process should end here -- but tell me if or when you have an environment that is more in line with what I am looking for." You see how the same problem seems to appear? Unless your critique isn't what I am imagining, pay-first isn't the issue, it's that you think it's a violation of standard norms in hiring situations to have hard requirements, and to bluntly communicate when something is not a good fit. I think you will find that hiring managers do not share this opinion of correct behavior.

deleted 12y ago
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ChuckMcM 12y ago
I think asking for meeting frequency is a good one, and one that speaks to the job as opposed to the remuneration. When you get the answer "maybe 20, it varies" rather than end the interview, understand the environment. So I'm going to assume that going to meetings for you is something you don't like to do (and I can certainly understand that, worthless meetings are worthless) But in this same stream of questions my next one after 20 would be "How many of those meetings are run by the person in this position?" If the previous person in that position was calling 15 meetings a week it would credible to ask if the job required them to do that (and if so why) or if it was simply their preferred way of operating? If you are leading/managing a project with a fairly large scope you may find it easier to have a short meeting with the sub-project groups than read imr emails each week, where i, m, and r are issues, members, and replies. But if its a small company and the previous person just wanted to have meetings with everyone to feel useful, that might not be your style either. If there are 20 people/groups that want the person in this position to be at their meeting then its a valid question of how you might want to scale that position in a way that doesn't involve meetings. Money is a "score" and number of meeting are a "task". Mercenaries go for a big score and don't care about the tasks needed to get there. There isn't anything wrong about being a mercenary, it is just another community of people.

by hawkice 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

ChuckMcM 12y ago

I think asking for meeting frequency is a good one, and one that speaks to the job as opposed to the remuneration. When you get the answer "maybe 20, it varies" rather than end the interview, understand the environment. So I'm going to assume that going to meetings for you is something you don't like to do (and I can certainly understand that, worthless meetings are worthless) But in this same stream of questions my next one after 20 would be "How many of those meetings are run by the person in this position?" If the previous person in that position was calling 15 meetings a week it would credible to ask if the job required them to do that (and if so why) or if it was simply their preferred way of operating? If you are leading/managing a project with a fairly large scope you may find it easier to have a short meeting with the sub-project groups than read imr emails each week, where i, m, and r are issues, members, and replies. But if its a small company and the previous person just wanted to have meetings with everyone to feel useful, that might not be your style either. If there are 20 people/groups that want the person in this position to be at their meeting then its a valid question of how you might want to scale that position in a way that doesn't involve meetings. Money is a "score" and number of meeting are a "task". Mercenaries go for a big score and don't care about the tasks needed to get there. There isn't anything wrong about being a mercenary, it is just another community of people.