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Question.

A

Amol S.

Platinum Member
I have only a few friends (rarely meet them) like 3 and poor social skills. What should I do to get prepared for job interviews (I don't have any around the corner or in the next month at the moment)?

Update: Started job searching like a week back. Is it normal to be freeked out or think negatively about yourself when job searching?
 
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Force yourself into Social situations. Not sure exactly how, but you need to get comfortable with strangers and talking with them. If you freeze up during an Interview it's not going to end well, although I wouldn't worry too much about being awkward.
 
There may be job fair style meetups in your city. I've volunteered at lots of them giving faux interviews to people and discussing career options and realities from my experiences. Look around your city, check local colleges/universities.

I've given a lot of interviews, they're always uncomfortable for both parties. Most of them are terrible and measure the wrong things. A lot are subjectively measured and flawed. A lot of them are culture fit tests in disguise.

Happy to give you more tips via DM if you have specific things you'd like to talk about. At a very high level, it's absolutely preferable to say "I don't know" to questions instead of trying to bullshit your way through it. Generally I'd recommend something more like "I'm not sure, but this is how I would approach the problem and try to figure it out" and then reason through it. I look shit up all the time for my job, everyone does. The idea is to convey you don't know (yet) but that you could easily find out how, and support that.
 
Depending on where you live you can go to a workforce center and someone can give you a mock interview. If you are part of a college, your institution probably has career development resources.

If you want to work on your social skills in general, some good opportunities are signing up to volunteer and meeting people that way. You could also look for free foreign language classes, which I have seen offered around here. You could either go and help people learn English, or if you have some basic proficiency in another language, you could try communicating with someone who is fluent in that language. That way any awkwardness can be attributed to a language barrier lol.
 
What sort of job?

Also here is a basic tip for shyness. Talk to everyone going to the grocery store is good. Ask people who work there to help you find stuff, while that’s happen ask them about their job and what it’s like.
If you chose a Best Buy or somewhere that the person has sales goals to meet either go when nobody is busy and leave immediately when people arrive in the store.
 
Fanatical Meat said:
What sort of job?

Also here is a basic tip for shyness. Talk to everyone going to the grocery store is good. Ask people who work there to help you find stuff, while that’s happen ask them about their job and what it’s like.
If you chose a Best Buy or somewhere that the person has sales goals to meet either go when nobody is busy and leave immediately when people arrive in the store.
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A job related all or one of these related fields, IT security, Network security (that's almost the same as IT security), Computer security. I also have no job experience (as in actual job time), but I do have expertise experience related to projects that I have and am doing in college. I am graduating in May with my masters.
 
Amol S. said:
A job related all or one of these related fields, IT security, Network security (that's almost the same as IT security), Computer security. I also have no job experience (as in actual job time), but I do have expertise experience related to projects that I have and am doing in college. I am graduating in May with my masters.
Click to expand...

I work in security and can most definitely help you with things to focus on/brush up for your interviews. Feel free to send me any job recs via DM or here and I can offer some guidance for you.
 
Amol S. said:
A job related all or one of these related fields, IT security, Network security (that's almost the same as IT security), Computer security. I also have no job experience (as in actual job time), but I do have expertise experience related to projects that I have and am doing in college. I am graduating in May with my masters.
Click to expand...
So, having no experience, the message you need to get across is 'I can learn'. Believe me when I say right now, you don't know enough to be productive in IT. Based on that, don't try to fluff yourself by saying you do, or that you can do things already. Make them understand that you can spin up on new knowledge quickly. Talk about how you self-taught xyz in x days or weeks, talk about how you worked ahead of the class on abc content or projects because you found it easy to understand.

Regarding the actual interviews, practice pretending to be human. If you're an introvert (you have 3 friends, you're an introvert), you understand what that means. You'll never come across as affable by acting natural, because natural for an introvert isn't affable by extrovert's terms. Just act like you're not a weirdie, someone who collects stuff, someone who'll put people off. Talk about quirky but reasonable talents or hobbies you have, like blacksmithing or running an amateur tree nursery or online gaming or something. Accuracy isn't super important, just make sure you have some backing knowledge so you don't look like a liar or an idiot.
 
You are going to have to suck it up and make eye contact for the time in your interview. Just tell yourself you can do it and it is only a temporary thing.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
The first thing is get out of N.Y.
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Not possible, for many reasons.

1. Don't have a drivers license, did not even do the driving test yet.
2. My parents are senior citizens and thus I have to take care of them. My mom is retiring this year.
3. Coronoavirus issues currently in the US.
 
Simple. Rejection is the norm. So go for it. You got nothing to lose. The worst that can happen is you don't have a job. But you are already there, so you have nothing to lose.
 
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