Vague interview openers redux

I just signed up, and I've  been going through the threads in the 
archive.  One in particular caught my eye:

 > The questions that I hate to hear at the start of an interview are:
 > "So who is Terrence Brannon"
 > "What have you been doing?"

See my article "The Worst Way To Start A Job Interview" at 
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5506.

Nutshell version:
* The interview is the first day of your new job.
* Your first assignment is to convince the boss that you're the right 
person for the job.
* That opening question is your cue to do the convincing.

The attitude of "'RTFR' - read the $#expletive resume" is lethal.  What 
you're saying/thinking is "I would rather have you interact with this 
piece of paper, and not with me."  That's not what managers want.  
Nobody wants someone who's going to be a pain to deal with, and right 
out of the gate that's the attitude you're feeling, and undoubtedly 
projecting.

Get excited about what you've done, and more importantly, what you'd 
like to be doing in the future.  "I did some kickass app development 
using Template Toolkit and mod_perl.  The team I was on turned this 
clunky PHP system into some sweet TT code.  I was responsible for most 
of the underlying infrastructure that we hung apps on.  One of the guys 
kept telling me it made everything so easy to work on."  That's a lot 
more interesting than "Created Template Toolkit and mod_perl 
applications" like it says on your resume.

Interviewing is NOT a matter of you hoping that you are selected, like 
the aliens in Toy Story: "The Claw has chosen."  YOU have to make it 
clear that YOU are the one for the job, or you will lose out to someone 
else who does.

xoxo,
Andy

--
Andy Lester => [email protected] => www.petdance.com => AIM:petdance