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Pabalebo
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12 May 2013, 11:01 pm

After about two months of completely fruitless endeavors in trying to find work for after graduation (a couple of rejections, but mostly just being straight up ignored), I've finally heard back from a company based out of Kansas City that does weather forecasting for all kinds of people! No interview scheduled yet, but I feel like that's imminent.

That said, I'm looking for opinions on how to not f**k up the interview process if/when it comes to that. Being that I'm going to be living in either Vermont or New York when that time would come, I don't really have the option of doing an in-person interview... it would probably be over the phone or I've heard that some companies are now doing interviews via Skype.

The company is a smaller business, as in not a huge corporation with multiple offices and a huge, soulless HR staff. The hiring manager is both a meteorologist himself and the founder of the company. I'm assuming that these facts will probably make a difference in how to approach the interview.


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MountainLaurel
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13 May 2013, 12:18 am

Excellent.

You may already know or have already done what I have to suggest; if so, I apologize in advance.

Find out as much as you can about the company through the internet; on their website and any press articles about the company or founder.

Yes, lots of companies conduct interviews on Skype. But if the founder is really interested in you after the phone/Skype interview; he will want to meet you in person. Get funds together for a flight any way you can. (Though sometimes companies will make a flight reservation for you and pay for it.)

The best way to interview well is to be as relaxed as possible. Go running before any phone or Skype interview. The endorphins will help a lot.

Best of lick to you.



mitch413
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13 May 2013, 12:35 pm

Good news! I think I know which company you're talking about here as meteorology is a small field and there aren't too many organizations that forecast weather compared to other industries. Given the hiring freeze in the National Weather Service, your only chance at getting into the meteorology field is probably through a private sector forecasting company. Of course, you could always go the grad school route if you wanted to get into research.

I did that and it likely made me overqualified for a lot of these entry level forecasting jobs at private companies since they either don't want to or can't pay the extra money that's expected for Master's or PhD level people. Getting into the NWS was nearly impossible even before the sequester and the hiring freeze took effect, but now it IS impossible. :cry:

Then again, I didn't really want to go into forecasting. Most of the jobs I applied for were more research or IT oriented, but still had no luck. I am horrible with interviews and probably botched the few that I managed to get. Like a lot of Aspies, I have low self confidence and poor social skills.

As for interviewing in the meteorology field, they typically contact you for a phone interview first. They will likely grill you with tough questions related to your meteorology education, skills, and background, especially if it's a smaller organization. Larger organizations would usually have a quick phone screen lasting on the order of 15-20 minutes with an HR person who doesn't know much about meteorology, whereas the smaller organizations would have a panel of people in a conference room frying you with difficult questions, some of which were curve balls. I would refer to these groups as the "firing squad". They not only want to see what you know, but perhaps more importantly, they want to see how well you perform under pressure and how good your people skills are as forecasting often involves directly interacting with clients and being able to handle a large amount of pressure, particularly during severe weather events.

If you pass the phone interview and become a finalist, they will likely fly you out for an on site interview, typically on their dime. I never made it to this stage, since I couldn't do well with the phone interviews. As such, I don't have much to say about this phase of the process. Good Luck!



Ann2011
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16 May 2013, 8:54 am

I'm assuming you have a background in meteorology, so just rely on this. If you are qualified for what they want you to do, it will show.

I would suggest going into it as if you are interviewing them. Have the mindset that you are looking for something that matches your desires and see if they match with what the employer wants. It's hard to play it cool when you really want something, but often if people sense "desperateness" they will back off.



Pabalebo
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17 May 2013, 1:54 am

mitch413 wrote:
Good news! I think I know which company you're talking about here as meteorology is a small field and there aren't too many organizations that forecast weather compared to other industries. Given the hiring freeze in the National Weather Service, your only chance at getting into the meteorology field is probably through a private sector forecasting company. Of course, you could always go the grad school route if you wanted to get into research.

I did that and it likely made me overqualified for a lot of these entry level forecasting jobs at private companies since they either don't want to or can't pay the extra money that's expected for Master's or PhD level people. Getting into the NWS was nearly impossible even before the sequester and the hiring freeze took effect, but now it IS impossible. :cry:

Then again, I didn't really want to go into forecasting. Most of the jobs I applied for were more research or IT oriented, but still had no luck. I am horrible with interviews and probably botched the few that I managed to get. Like a lot of Aspies, I have low self confidence and poor social skills.

As for interviewing in the meteorology field, they typically contact you for a phone interview first. They will likely grill you with tough questions related to your meteorology education, skills, and background, especially if it's a smaller organization. Larger organizations would usually have a quick phone screen lasting on the order of 15-20 minutes with an HR person who doesn't know much about meteorology, whereas the smaller organizations would have a panel of people in a conference room frying you with difficult questions, some of which were curve balls. I would refer to these groups as the "firing squad". They not only want to see what you know, but perhaps more importantly, they want to see how well you perform under pressure and how good your people skills are as forecasting often involves directly interacting with clients and being able to handle a large amount of pressure, particularly during severe weather events.

If you pass the phone interview and become a finalist, they will likely fly you out for an on site interview, typically on their dime. I never made it to this stage, since I couldn't do well with the phone interviews. As such, I don't have much to say about this phase of the process. Good Luck!


The difference between myself and a lot of Aspies is that I'm overconfident when it comes to academic/professional stuff. Even now when I've consumed like 17 beers in the past 3 hours and such I can still type pretty eloquently when I REALLY try hard too. Last Thirsty thursday of semester man. Rdiculous. And yet I'm still OK ish.


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Stargazer43
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17 May 2013, 3:04 am

Do some mock interviews! I've got far more interview experience under my belt than I'd like to admit, so if you need any specific advice I can try my best to provide it.