Nobrainer’s Think Tank

I got to go to UVA’s career fair this last week, but this time as a recruiting-type instead of a job-seeking-type. It was mildly amusing.

I think my favorite conversation was with a guy who had been in the military. I’ll refer to him as Cousin Eddie. He isn’t really like Cousin Eddie at all, except for one thing he said: he really, really wanted a management position. Maybe he’ll be in luck, but despite his military experience, I highly doubt with his major that he can find a management position that isn’t in a restaurant. Not that it was a bad major, but I just can’t imagine the situation he’s looking for.

Anyway, I gave him a spiel about the company. I explained what we do (and that, even though we don’t hire managers, we have opportunities for promotion to management). He seemed somewhat interested in what we do and trading in the energy markets. He even mentioned that he had done some investment on his own. He definitely mentioned some real estate investing. And I can’t remember for sure, but I think he said “and some Google.” Which is really kinda funny from my perspective. Saying that you have traded Google stock is about like saying that you had a Coke at lunch. And to me, any person who’s investing strategy is to buy the stock du jur sounds like an idiot. Maybe that’s just me.

But I’m not done with Cousin Eddie yet. He asked about salary, making it very clear that he expected a salary in the 6-figure range.

Good luck with that.

I can’t believe I didn’t laugh at him.

(addendum: way to shun the conventional wisdom about putting family information on your resume.)