Seems like more of a complaint about age or seniority discrimination.
1 Like
OPEC’s main goal isn’t messing with the US oil industry so much as protecting their own oil revenues, which for most of those countries is the most important source of government revenue. Particularly important for the countries that trade off democracy by keeping their citizens comfortable through subsidies of living expenses funded by oil revenues.
meanwhile as much as the current administration wants to put its head in the sand about renewables, the rest of the world is moving on with it. Longer term oil demand growth is slowing. Part of this is environmental-concern driven and part, more recently, is Europe going full steam ahead to get energy independence from Russia- which some economies have already achieved.
This is not a dead or dying industry (yet), but it’s not exactly a growth industry either.
3 Likes
A visual of how this latest gold rush of having AI solve all the problems is playing out in boardrooms at every company these days.
while the MBB/Consulting folks are being called out for their lack of AI “expertise” by their customers.
They found that consultants, who often had no more expertise on AI than they did internally, struggled to deploy use cases that created real business value
5 Likes
Just talked to my daughter who is in the middle of a recruiting trip. They’ve already made three offers just after the SWE pre-career fair event and they have another slate of interviews tomorrow morning.
She said the quality of the students was high, especially at SWE. A bit less so at the career fair today.
Some of the things she highlighted -
- Don’t come to interviews in a offensive hoodie.
- Be prepared. It takes just a few minutes to look up the company on the career fair app to see what majors they are looking for and what they do.
- Have a professional resume. Weird, artsy, YouTube links, and blurry pictures on a resume aren’t going to cut it.
- Practice at the Career Center before talking to companies.
- Don’t talk to recruiters and company reps like they are your buddies/peers.
My daughter also said that they keep all the resumes that they are given and all the “nos” are actually recorded by HR in their systems so they will be flagged if someone tries to re-apply on line. That was news to me and I wonder how many other companies do that.
They will likely fill the majority of their openings by day’s end tomorrow. It’s an early start to recruiting this year!
7 Likes
Is this real - like don’t bring your mom even though 80% do 
Happened yesterday so yep, real. And not extended an offer ; )
1 Like
I can see this happening in SWE interviews. Hoodie is the normal tech wear in many firms but yeah in most contexts it’s a no go.
I’m a believer in always dress professionally. At internal interviews, I’d get asked - where are you fancy - it’s jeans Friday.
Let them laugh at you.
Your dress shows the seriousness of your intent.
2 Likes
However, I see many men who make dressy clothes look bad because they fit poorly. This seems especially true for college men who are less likely to have the obesity that off-the-rack dressy clothes for men seem to be cut for (they probably need to order made-to-measure or bespoke to get properly fitting dress shirts).
Perhaps they don’t own a suit and are borrowing - it’s better than a hoodie, etc.
You’re just quibbling at this point.
2 Likes
At least they dont have to wear ties. COVID completely decimated the tie industry.
1 Like
The Purdue career center has a lending closet for interview appropriate clothing so there is no good excuse.
D said it was very clear who used the career center prep services and who didn’t.
3 Likes
Thank you for this - super helpful. Both my guys - S22 who is a college senior looking for the permanent gig and S25 who is a college freshman looking for summer internship, happen to have career fairs at their respective schools tomorrow.
Some of this they know (both will be wearing blazers and khakis, both have professional resumes) but some might be good to remind my younger boy about. I know older boy has already scoured the list of companies coming so he can plan his time and research them, but I have no idea if younger boy has done that. I’ll suggest it to him.
Fortunately for younger boy, he’s had to practice. For his major (construction management) they have to take a Construction Management 101 type intro course. Over the first few weeks of school (so before the Construction Management / CivE career fair) their homework assignments included: (1) prepare and submit a resume; (2) prepare and submit a LinkedIn page; and (3) sign up for and complete a mock interview at the career center. And they had a full class period with presentations from the career center and a private sector recruiter about these topics. They are serious about getting those kids hired. (Now lets hope that they also actually learn something about the topic…)
Anyhoo, if you / your daughter has any other suggestions or tips, please don’t hesitate to share!
3 Likes
And yet, a lot of people don’t like “preppy” schools. Preppy schools, imho, prepare one for the adult world – such as knowing how to dress for an interview.
2 Likes
My daughter’s only other piece of advice would be to play up any relevant work experience, no matter how menial it may seem. If your child has been on a construction site, no matter what the role, make sure he shares that on his resume and in conversation with the companies.
Since my D’s company recruits for manufacturing they occasionally will talk to a student who had a summer job working on a manufacturing line. The company typically LOVES those kids because they understand the manufacturing environment and the types of people they will need to interact with. She says so many don’t put that experience on their resumes and that would be an automatic bump up in the resume pile and definitely a second look.
7 Likes
Perfect - thank you!
Exceptional advice!
I’ll add- Kid- read a newspaper! Don’t watch a Tiktok to learn about the political instability in France; don’t read Instagram to figure out what’s happening with vaccines in Florida; don’t watch Jon Stewart (as funny as he is) to understand the impact of the Federal Reserve Bank’s reducing interest rates (if they decide to). You will be interviewing for a job with a real, functioning enterprise which produces or does something of value. Don’t walk in with a third grader’s understanding of the world! I am always mystified by the kids who majored in “International Business” (or majored in something else, but want to work in “International Business” who have no idea what is going on in the world.
5 Likes
I find this interesting as my youngest (Aero & Mech E) used the college fair in undergrad and grad school and always wore either a suit and “tie” or blazer/sportcoat and khakis. My middle son didn’t use the career fair but was contacted via his LinkedIn and wore a loose pullover shirt, jeans, and sneakers (all clean) - very, very casual but is a software engineer. I guess you have to know who’s interviewing you.
3 Likes
But if he were overdressed, would that have been a negative ?
i don’t believe so but I’m not the person who hired him. I’m old school but I believe you can never be overdressed.