[Job Applications] It's good... but it's also bad...

Hey everybody, how are you doing?

I'm still looking for a job. I actually can't believe it takes that long but ok. That's how it is... Meanwhile here's another one of my stories...

First of all, to my background, I've got a phd in (medical) physics and I speak several languages such as German, English, French, Spanish and also Mandarin Chinese which is also my second mother tongue.

Anyway, I went to a job interview. The guy that interviewed me was pretty young and he apparently had never done anything like that before, as he was very confusing and going back and forth with his questions. At one point we talked about the company's locations which is about everywhere in the world, when I mention that I speak Chinese as well. And this is his exact quote:

Well, that's good... but it's also bad... because if we talk to the Chinese, they might only want to talk to you but I'm the boss and they are supposed to talk to me.

Then he also added that he gets head aches from talking English in America because his English is so bad.

Now, what am I supposed to say to that?! Thanks for being honest. I'm speechless...

Outfit #20 Business Look

This was my business look for the way to Beijing. I even got a blazer but it was just freaking too hot to wear on the way...

Pants by Zara, blouse by H&M, blazer by New Yorker, shoes by Deichmann

 

Actually, I survived almost two working days in this outfit because I started the day with a 2h train ride to a business meeting on the day of our flight. Otherwise I would have chosen something else for the plane and the weather. Between the meeting and the flight, I worked on my notes, some more background information on the physical matters and company. We went straight to the airport (1.5h by car, 11h flight) and straight to the Chinese company. No time to shower. I didn't see any showers at the airport in Beijing either (is that a German thing?) but I wished I did. Thus I'm glad I had some refreshing wipes for a small touch up and only changed the blouse at the airport.

Btw how do you like my suitcase? I got it at the Taipei Nightmarket in Shilin when I went to Taiwan with my dad. I love the color, the size and the fact that it turns 360° on its four wheels... All that for only about 25€.

So anyway to my makeup.

 

Face makeup

1) Instead of foundation, I was wearing the pink Korean Skin 79 Super BB cream with triple functions: whitening, UV protection SPF25 and wrinkle improvement which I've bought in Taiwan as well (500NT = 12.50€). I applied it using my fingers. Either I've got the right skin color or it really adapts but I've never quite believed that. How does the BB cream know which color I have?

 

2) Powder: Manhattan clear compact #75 beige (brush: Ebelin professional)

3) Bronzer: P2 sunshine powder #030 Bali heat (brush: Ebelin professional)

4) Blush: Essence LE flower grunge "Be Flowerful" (brush: Ebelin professional)

Eye makeup

My eye makeup was simple. It's my go-to-look. It's fast and simple. Only matt neutrals.

 

1) All over the lid: Essence Ballerina Backstage LE - Eye soufflé #01 dance the swan lake (application: finger)

2) Outer corner of the eye: Maybelline Color Tattoo #40 Permanent Taupe (application: finger)

3) Eye shadows: P2 matte dream #050 rose charm and #070 grey pleasure (brushes: Sigma tapered blending brushes E40 and E35)

4) Eye Liner: brown Catrice Gel Liner #020 It's Mambo Nr.2 (brush: Sigma eyeliner brush E05)

5) Lashes: Shu Uemara eyelash curler, Maybelline False Lashes Volume Express black waterproof mascara

5) Eyebrow Powder: Catrice Eyebrow Set (brush: Essence eyeliner brush)

 

Lips

1) Revlon Colorburst Lipbutter #050 Berry Smoothie

 

 

Beijing - The Imperial Mansion

My first business trip got me to this fabulous hotel in Beijing - The Imperial Mansion Beijing, Marriott Executive Apartments << click >>. It is a 5-Star hotel with excellent service.

My hotel room was three times as big as my appartment. There was a walk-in closet including a safe, iron and iron board... I had a whirlpool that I didn't use because it was too warm and I was too busy.

There was a kitchen, two flat screens, a living room area and some office area... I seriously didn't use half of my room.

Since most guests are international, there were also international plugs. I love these... I've bought quite a few products abroad and everything is so chunky using an adapter. Where can I get these plugs?

The breakfast was the only meal that we took in the hotel. So I can't comment on the restaurants. I liked the breakfast - it is mostly international standard... So there are eggs - freshly prepared in any style you want - scrambled, sunny side up, boiled, etc. I had omelette on both mornings, which is not on the picture because the chef was still preparing it for me. As you can see, there was also bacon, fresh fruits, and sweet potatoe. You could also have cereals, lots of juice, cooked and fried vegetables, ham, cheese, bread, etc. Coffee in China is horrible! Drink tea, if possible.

I didn't go to the gym or the pool. So I don't know about that either...
Anyway, I only stayed for a couple nights and didn't quite need such a huge hotel room but it was excellent and I enjoyed the whole trip.

Besides...
Unfortunately, I didn't get the job because it was coupled to the deal with the Chinese company. They don't produce everything themselves which the German company needs, thus it is more expensive than what the Germans expected, leading to the failure of the whole deal. It is too bad. Now, I'm back where I began...

 

China, here I come again

Last week, I went to a job interview where I was spontaneously invited to go on a 4- day business trip to Beijing. It's only a couple days but I'm very excited but also anxious as I don't really know what I can contribute to the trip. If I pass the test, I will be signing the contract after the trip.

Now, I have two more weeks to prepare myself. Not only information about the company that we will visit but also some special vocabularies about the machines and stuff like that. Besides, I was asked to study a special treatment which is supposed to be quite promising. I will be reading publications and stuff about it, treating it like one of my research subjects...

I must say, I'm still quite baffled that I was asked to join the trip. On the second day, I told a couple of my friends about the offer and one of them jokingly said "maybe they want to sell you in China"... Don't hope think so... Everything seems quite legit. I got the flight information, the booking confirmation for the hotel. The company exists for almost 10 years. I've got the invitation letter and they will handle my visa. I hope everything will work out just fine... So long... I will keep you updated about my journey.

 

[Job Applications] Anxious

I am anxiously waiting for a reply as I had a personal job interview for a small company around my city, where both of the bosses interviewed me. The staff is pretty young. They're all about my age, I believe. As my feeling tells me, we had a good connection. They asked me quite a lot of thoughtful questions, not a single one of these stupid standardized human resources question. (I'm planning on posting some of those as well...)

Anyway, I might be a little over-qualified as I've got a phd and speak several languages. They believe that one of the bigger companies could offer more opportunities. Not that those bigger ones are trying very hard though. It takes several months just for the bigger companies to answer. Of course, there's a lot of competition as well and the human resources has a lot of work to collect and sort out candidates.

Recently, I've discovered the blog "From Science to Business" << click >>. It's made by a female biology phd searching for jobs. She made two internships and wrote more than 100 job applications in three months, just to get 4 job interviews. I think, that's quite a lot of applications and quite little output. Seriously, I don't even know, if I could have applied for 100 jobs in that period. Maybe only if I didn't match the profiles...

She believes that the cover letter isn't important so she used standardized cover letters for all the applications. I don't know about that... I believe the cover letter is indeed read. I got quite a lot of questions from there in my interviews.

A staff member of jobvector.de gave a big talk on a career fair about even personalizing the curriculum vitae. I don't do that either because I haven't worked in the industry yet. Maybe in the future, when applying for the second of whatever job... An American executive coach told us about the American way of writing cover letters. He pointed out that they are the most important part of the application. It needs to be sharp, especially the first sentences. He thinks that Germans need to sell themselves a lot better in order to get the job. Most German companies in that fair disagree by the way... ;-) but I can't deny that most American professional talks have been excellent and entertaining while most German professors think their talks are the best when nobody understands what they're talking about.

 

[Job Applications] Case Study

I would like to introduce a new category, matching my situation right now: Job Applications. I will start off with an example from a former job interview.

A new inhabitant of a little village goes to the next butcher to get some fresh calf's liver. The butcher tells him that the calf's livers are very popular because they are from his own cattle ranch of 300 cattle and he guarantees for their happy life on the alp. He only sells calf's liver once a week. Is it possible that he sells calf's liver for the whole village? Or was it a lie and he bought some more from a retailer?

My questions and assumptions were:

1. How many inhabitants does the village have? - About 500.
2. I assumed about 5 calf's livers are sold each week. That makes 20 a month which still sums up to 240 a year.
3. From 300 cattle, I assumed half of them to be female, out of which maybe 100 could be pregnant.
4. I assumed a cow to be pregnant for a year.
5. Every pregnant cow carries only one calf.

6. Not all of them can be butchered.

My conclusion was that there is no way, the butcher only used his own cattle, because his cattle herd isn't big enough to produce this amount of calves that would be needed to supply the whole village with calf's liver.

 

There are a lot of similar case scenarios. The most famous is probably the task of estimating the amount of gas stations in a given country or city. One can exchange gas stations with anything else, like with cattle in my case.

 

The feedback from the interviewer team was quite positive. They liked my analysis and conclusion.

 

I made a bunch of assumptions which might be wrong because I still haven't checked them online but I don't think, it's important... The case studies are supposed to show the line of thoughts and the problem solving skills of the applicant. Actually, I think, everybody can solve that adequately. It's not that much about facts because that's something you can look up online.

 

What I didn't like about the case study was the fact that the interviewer tried to hide the obvious case study. He told me, he and his wife just moved to the alp and really thought about that question and if I could help them, insisting on the severeness of their question... Come on!!