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Post by twothousandonemark on Jul 24, 2018 1:36:38 GMT
It does seem to translate really well at work, at home ppl are shy to ask me to do favours cuz I will not sit around waiting to do them. Tasks that will eventually require completion, some ppl would rather laze & have to accomplish it later... when later I'm lounging with a beer already done. so tell me more. were you always like this? and what is the inner voice telling you if you do try to delay a task. Lets reverse engineer this. i want what you have. I grew sick of having things weigh on my mind, even small tasks I know I could do in a heartbeat. Why fester on something when like I said, I could have it in the rearview & freed. |
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Post by dirtypillows on Jul 24, 2018 3:09:12 GMT
Oh, this is such a thought-provoking and, I believe, very important topic. I am a terrible procrastinator. But at least I have become more aware of it and have started to take it somewhat seriously. Your first two methods of dealing with it I can relate to, especially the second one. If I have gone ahead and started to do some dreaded task, I soften the horrific sense of urgency that inevitably goes with it by giving myself mini-rewards and mini-breaks, like you said, before, during and after. Doing this manages to disarm how intimidating said task may be. Another thing I do is I prioritize those dreaded tasks. I rate them and rank them, and say there are seven things that really need to get done in the next five days. Rather than attempting to take on the number one, most intimidating and dreaded task of responsibility, I will scroll down and take on something lesser, say the third or fifth most daunting task. Which, of course, makes me breathe a sigh of relief because, compared to number one, number four is practically a piece of cake, and I can get something important done without being bound up by nerves, and usually I can get that task done faster and better, simply by virtue of the fact that I wasn't nervous about doing it. In fact, I even play this mind game with myself and allow myself to think that I am getting away with procrastinating (because I'm NOT doing that scary thing at the top of my list of "scary things to do") when, in fact, I am actually being productive by doing something that is two or three places further down on my list, but still needs to get done. glad you enjoy the topic. btw, I LOVE writing cover letters. Thats so strange to hear someone would hate that. I mean I get it, I understand it exists, but for me thats the fun part. But then again, I love writing pls I always feel like there is many things I wanna tell the company about why they should hire me or why i want to work for them… Anyway, it seems you have a quite methodical approach to dealing with procrastination. thats good. And it also seems that its mostly about how difficult a certain task is for you/in your eyes. My procrastination deals with that also sometimes, but much more often its pure laziness. Like I am not dreading doing the task and I know I can do it well/easily (like lets say wash the dishes) but I am just too lazy to do it so i postpone it and postpone it hoping the family of raccoons that by now lives in my kitchen will eventually lick the dishes dry. any tips on how to deal with That kind of procrastination? Oh, no no no!!! I hate, no detest, no loathe, writing cover letters, and honestly I have never heard of anybody that did like writing the cover letter. So, good for you that you actually enjoy it. To me, it's like tooting your own horn and all the while acting like you're doing nothing of the kind. And the fact that all parties involved know intuitively that there is something inherently phony and false and disingenuous about the cover letter makes for an extremely uncomfortable and awkward premise for all parties involved, or rather I should say, for me... The cover letter I would LOVE to write would look something like this. "Dear Hiring Manager: I can perform the job duties as listed just fine. I am a pleasant person and I'm sure I would get along well with most of my co-workers. I promise never to be late unless it's an emergency, and then I would always call ahead of time. Please hire me because I need to work so I can earn money and pay the bills and the job description sounds okay. I really think I would like the job pretty well. Thank you." Now, that, to me, would be honest and forthright and genuine and sincere. (And if I were the one doing the hiring, THIS might just be the cover letter that would make me want to hire the person on the spot. It certainly would make a good impression on me.) I just can't think of any job where I could write the cover letter that would not be transparent and obvious. It's like you have to brag about yourself without sounding like you're bragging. Uggghhh..... Just for the sake of having some perverse fun, sometime I think I might just want to enumerate - literally - all my life accomplishments, beginning at the age of twelve and have that be my cover letter. I just have zero wherewithal in this area, and thank God I know this about myself. For me, the cover letter is nothing less than a minefield of desperation. I could never presume to write or say during the interview "You should hire me because I am absolutely the most qualified person for the job." Huh? What? Because unless there's a job out there where the primary qualification is knowledge of Oscar winners, pre-1985, or reciting dialogue verbatim from every episode of "Charlie's Angels", I know without a doubt that I am nowhere near the most qualified person for the job. The whole time I feel like "Oh, why are you asking me to pretend about all this?" And it would be such a relief to be able to say these things. Obviously your take on the cover letter is much different than mine, and I am genuinely happy for you that you enjoy it, but for me, I think of the cover letter as sanctioned lying. Like the question during the interview "Why should I hire you?" And I'm thinking to myself, "look, if you want to hire me, then hire me. That would be great and I'm sure I would do a satisfactory job. Just please don't ask me to try and compel you to hire me." I'd rather just go ahead and arm wrestle with the person and get it over with. The job interview - and by extension the cover letter - invokes a hostile environment from the very beginning. In every cover letter I write, it feels like every other word I put down a grenade might go off. It fills me with dread. It's a lucky thing that there are very, very few things in life that bother me as much. Whew, I feel so much better about life now that I said all that!  |
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Post by Toasted Cheese on Jul 24, 2018 13:30:39 GMT
glad you enjoy the topic. btw, I LOVE writing cover letters. Thats so strange to hear someone would hate that. I mean I get it, I understand it exists, but for me thats the fun part. But then again, I love writing pls I always feel like there is many things I wanna tell the company about why they should hire me or why i want to work for them… Anyway, it seems you have a quite methodical approach to dealing with procrastination. thats good. And it also seems that its mostly about how difficult a certain task is for you/in your eyes. My procrastination deals with that also sometimes, but much more often its pure laziness. Like I am not dreading doing the task and I know I can do it well/easily (like lets say wash the dishes) but I am just too lazy to do it so i postpone it and postpone it hoping the family of raccoons that by now lives in my kitchen will eventually lick the dishes dry. any tips on how to deal with That kind of procrastination? Oh, no no no!!! I hate, no detest, no loathe, writing cover letters, and honestly I have never heard of anybody that did like writing the cover letter. So, good for you that you actually enjoy it. To me, it's like tooting your own horn and all the while acting like you're doing nothing of the kind. And the fact that all parties involved know intuitively that there is something inherently phony and false and disingenuous about the cover letter makes for an extremely uncomfortable and awkward premise for all parties involved, or rather I should say, for me... The cover letter I would LOVE to write would look something like this. "Dear Hiring Manager: I can perform the job duties as listed just fine. I am a pleasant person and I'm sure I would get along well with most of my co-workers. I promise never to be late unless it's an emergency, and then I would always call ahead of time. Please hire me because I need to work so I can earn money and pay the bills and the job description sounds okay. I really think I would like the job pretty well. Thank you." Now, that, to me, would be honest and forthright and genuine and sincere. (And if I were the one doing the hiring, THIS might just be the cover letter that would make me want to hire the person on the spot. It certainly would make a good impression on me.) I just can't think of any job where I could write the cover letter that would not be transparent and obvious. It's like you have to brag about yourself without sounding like you're bragging. Uggghhh..... Just for the sake of having some perverse fun, sometime I think I might just want to enumerate - literally - all my life accomplishments, beginning at the age of twelve and have that be my cover letter. I just have zero wherewithal in this area, and thank God I know this about myself. For me, the cover letter is nothing less than a minefield of desperation. I could never presume to write or say during the interview "You should hire me because I am absolutely the most qualified person for the job." Huh? What? Because unless there's a job out there where the primary qualification is knowledge of Oscar winners, pre-1985, or reciting dialogue verbatim from every episode of "Charlie's Angels", I know without a doubt that I am nowhere near the most qualified person for the job. The whole time I feel like "Oh, why are you asking me to pretend about all this?" And it would be such a relief to be able to say these things. Obviously your take on the cover letter is much different than mine, and I am genuinely happy for you that you enjoy it, but for me, I think of the cover letter as sanctioned lying. Like the question during the interview "Why should I hire you?" And I'm thinking to myself, "look, if you want to hire me, then hire me. That would be great and I'm sure I would do a satisfactory job. Just please don't ask me to try and compel you to hire me." I'd rather just go ahead and arm wrestle with the person and get it over with. The job interview - and by extension the cover letter - invokes a hostile environment from the very beginning. In every cover letter I write, it feels like every other word I put down a grenade might go off. It fills me with dread. It's a lucky thing that there are very, very few things in life that bother me as much. Whew, I feel so much better about life now that I said all that! Wow Mr. Dirty! Your perceptive insights into the phony and unctuous aspects behind a cover letter is spot on and how I have always felt about them. I just never thought to express them, or even had the opportunity to say what I feel about them. It is just unfortunately part of the corporate game though. Corporations are ruling the world's economy and it filters down to the entire world. This only proves how fake and insincere things really are.
A resume with your experience and skills should be more than enough and then in spite of feeling like one is in front of a firing squad during the interview process, common sense and rationale from the employer need only take place. Not everything has to be treated like it's some big CEO top job and full of it's own arrogance, egoism, self-importance and patting each other on the back with how they professional they only believe they are.
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Post by Nora on Jul 24, 2018 19:01:43 GMT
dirtypillows i think thats a really good cover letter and you should use it.
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Post by dirtypillows on Jul 25, 2018 2:19:18 GMT
dirtypillows i think thats a really good cover letter and you should use it. Hello Nora. I don't know if you meant what you said or if you were just being nice or if you were being sarcastic... but if only all employers could appreciate such a plain, honest and unadorned cover letter as that one I suggested, life would be a bowl of maraschino cherries. As it is, however, unfortunately Toasted Cheese is right. One has to be able to play the game. And I've come to the realization that so many of the "rules of the game" are counter-intuitive. Also, I hope that what I wrote didn't offend you. Because I definitely didn't mean to say or imply that just because a person happens to enjoy writing the cover letter and feels comfortable with it that THAT person is a liar or is phony or disingenuous. I hope you didn't take it that way. In fact, I might even say that I am jealous of you or anybody else that has a good handle on it, because it's entirely possible that you are picking up on some element of the scenario that I am unable to detect. Or maybe you and certain other people just have more self-confidence when it comes to the job hunt. Or maybe you're just adventurous that way. I don't know. But I didn't mean to offend you. Your posts that I've read have never given me the impression of any of those other negative qualities, so.... For what it's worth. I do know that I have absolutely NONE of the competitive spirit. And in the job market, this is a liability. Even in areas where I know have some aptitude, I can't get into the competition. I don't care what anybody says, there is no such thing as "friendly competition". People who compete want to win. Simple as pie. This is probably one big reason why my interest in sports is nil, zip, zero... And I think this outlook would naturally factor in to the reasons for my super strong aversion to writing cover letters and going to interviews. |
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Post by dirtypillows on Jul 25, 2018 3:00:25 GMT
Oh, no no no!!! I hate, no detest, no loathe, writing cover letters, and honestly I have never heard of anybody that did like writing the cover letter. So, good for you that you actually enjoy it. To me, it's like tooting your own horn and all the while acting like you're doing nothing of the kind. And the fact that all parties involved know intuitively that there is something inherently phony and false and disingenuous about the cover letter makes for an extremely uncomfortable and awkward premise for all parties involved, or rather I should say, for me... The cover letter I would LOVE to write would look something like this. "Dear Hiring Manager: I can perform the job duties as listed just fine. I am a pleasant person and I'm sure I would get along well with most of my co-workers. I promise never to be late unless it's an emergency, and then I would always call ahead of time. Please hire me because I need to work so I can earn money and pay the bills and the job description sounds okay. I really think I would like the job pretty well. Thank you." Now, that, to me, would be honest and forthright and genuine and sincere. (And if I were the one doing the hiring, THIS might just be the cover letter that would make me want to hire the person on the spot. It certainly would make a good impression on me.) I just can't think of any job where I could write the cover letter that would not be transparent and obvious. It's like you have to brag about yourself without sounding like you're bragging. Uggghhh..... Just for the sake of having some perverse fun, sometime I think I might just want to enumerate - literally - all my life accomplishments, beginning at the age of twelve and have that be my cover letter. I just have zero wherewithal in this area, and thank God I know this about myself. For me, the cover letter is nothing less than a minefield of desperation. I could never presume to write or say during the interview "You should hire me because I am absolutely the most qualified person for the job." Huh? What? Because unless there's a job out there where the primary qualification is knowledge of Oscar winners, pre-1985, or reciting dialogue verbatim from every episode of "Charlie's Angels", I know without a doubt that I am nowhere near the most qualified person for the job. The whole time I feel like "Oh, why are you asking me to pretend about all this?" And it would be such a relief to be able to say these things. Obviously your take on the cover letter is much different than mine, and I am genuinely happy for you that you enjoy it, but for me, I think of the cover letter as sanctioned lying. Like the question during the interview "Why should I hire you?" And I'm thinking to myself, "look, if you want to hire me, then hire me. That would be great and I'm sure I would do a satisfactory job. Just please don't ask me to try and compel you to hire me." I'd rather just go ahead and arm wrestle with the person and get it over with. The job interview - and by extension the cover letter - invokes a hostile environment from the very beginning. In every cover letter I write, it feels like every other word I put down a grenade might go off. It fills me with dread. It's a lucky thing that there are very, very few things in life that bother me as much. Whew, I feel so much better about life now that I said all that! Wow Mr. Dirty! Your perceptive insights into the phony and unctuous aspects behind a cover letter is spot on and how I have always felt about them. I just never thought to express them, or even had the opportunity to say what I feel about them. It is just unfortunately part of the corporate game though. Corporations are ruling the world's economy and it filters down to the entire world. This only proves how fake and insincere things really are.
A resume with your experience and skills should be more than enough and then in spite of feeling like one is in front of a firing squad during the interview process, common sense and rationale from the employer need only take place. Not everything has to be treated like it's some big CEO top job and full of it's own arrogance, egoism, self-importance and patting each other on the back with how they professional they only believe they are.
Thank you, Toasted Cheese. It's a great comfort to know that I'm not the only one with the same take on the cover letter, and job interviews. I wish I could give you a big hug. Yes, a resume should be absolutely sufficient. Nothing less and nothing more. When did the "cover letter" even become a thing? I've heard people say the cover letter is where "you really get to sell yourself"... Sheesh... I'm probably about as transparent as it gets ("I'm totally a team player and I will bring positive results to your company and get the job done. I give 110% to everything I do and never leave any customer without total satisfaction!" Loathesome...), and the whole premise of the cover letter just makes my blood run cold. There's nothing about me that is equal to the effective cover letter/interview. Your firing squad analogy is bloody perfect.  |
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Post by Toasted Cheese on Jul 25, 2018 4:37:36 GMT
Wow Mr. Dirty! Your perceptive insights into the phony and unctuous aspects behind a cover letter is spot on and how I have always felt about them. I just never thought to express them, or even had the opportunity to say what I feel about them. It is just unfortunately part of the corporate game though. Corporations are ruling the world's economy and it filters down to the entire world. This only proves how fake and insincere things really are.
A resume with your experience and skills should be more than enough and then in spite of feeling like one is in front of a firing squad during the interview process, common sense and rationale from the employer need only take place. Not everything has to be treated like it's some big CEO top job and full of it's own arrogance, egoism, self-importance and patting each other on the back with how professional they only believe they are.
Thank you, Toasted Cheese. It's a great comfort to know that I'm not the only one with the same take on the cover letter, and job interviews. I wish I could give you a big hug. Yes, a resume should be absolutely sufficient. Nothing less and nothing more. When did the "cover letter" even become a thing? I've heard people say the cover letter is where "you really get to sell yourself"... Sheesh... I'm probably about as transparent as it gets ("I'm totally a team player and I will bring positive results to your company and get the job done. I give 110% to everything I do and never leave any customer without total satisfaction!" Loathesome...), and the whole premise of the cover letter just makes my blood run cold. There's nothing about me that is equal to the effective cover letter/interview. Your firing squad analogy is bloody perfect. We live in a competitive and chaotic dog eat dog world. Some people are just better at playing the game than others and some may not have the acumen or even ability and desire\drive to play it. We can't be too precious with ourselves though, because we might end up not coping and end up in the nuthouse, but I feel there is way too much societal pressure put on people to act and be a certain something, when this something is only a forced and deluded ideal of who we really are. I can have a competitive streak, but it's not something that I am overly proud of and I suppose it is just a defense mechanism or survival technique, and like you, I have never cared for boring sports. And to hell with that nonsense that it can build character and teach one about being a team player. I am and do both these things, without the aggressive and egoistic need to walk all over others, and get to the top. Heck, over 20yrs ago, one work colleague of mine started to become a real prick and jerk and he even told me you have to be a k<>t to get somewhere. Sheesh! If this the attitude that society is breeding and promoting, no wonder that the entire system is f<>ked up. |
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Jul 25, 2018 7:42:07 GMT
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Post by Nora on Jul 25, 2018 14:26:00 GMT
dirtypillows i think thats a really good cover letter and you should use it. Hello Nora. I don't know if you meant what you said or if you were just being nice or if you were being sarcastic... I totally meant it. I mean it would have worked on me. before I switched jobs from law to writing, I would get cover letters and CVs all the time. it was really interesting to see what people would write and how they chose to distinguish themselves from the crowd. and honestly often you can tell the person is just playing the game. and it would have been refreshing for me to see such letter and I would totally ask HR to invite you for an interviewer. two actions (although not cover letters) that stood out in my career were> 1. a hand written thank you note in a really pretty envelope delivered to me via SNAIL mail day after the interview. It was adorable. it was simple, just a thank you for meeting with me etc, but I still remember it and now its 4 years later. but thought it may have been trying a bit too hard. 2. at the initial call prior potential in person interview the person showed GREAT knowledge of my life and career. I mean they did their homework. They googled the shit out of me and my work. I mean like in detail. They not only knew what topic I wrote my dissertation paper on but read at least parts of it and QUOTED it to me on the phone. And to be honest, it did Not Please me. Again, I still remember it, its 4 years later. And I totally get why they would do it and showed it, to show their interest in the job and me as their potential boss, but to me it went overboard. 1 and 2 are the same person. We did end up hiring them, BUT it was simply because they were by far the most qualified. Otherwise I would have maybe preferred someone who didn't come across a bit like too much of a people pleaser. So there is a really fine line between playing the game and playing the game TOO much I feel and to me honest cover letter would certainly catch my attention and I would see it as a brave and honest movie and I like both of those qualities. Better than brown nosing bordering on stalking . I have to say some of my best hires were people that had all the traditional markers of not working out. Single moms of small babies, under-qualified people, people with gaps in employment… also: 1. no it didn't offend me at all. I just honestly enjoy writing cover letter because I enjoy writing and I am lucky/ confident enough I usually have something to write about so for me its like a fun writing assignment. I dont lie in my cover letters, but I have only written a few of them in my life to be honest, as I had a long term employment like 7 and 11 years. 2. Yes, confidence is a HUGE help. but it doesnt have to be like :i can do this better than anyone: confidence, but :i will give this all i have: confidence, which for me works even better. 3. yes, I am quite competitive so thats another advantage, I get it, if you are not like that, then the whole job hunt thing must be quite stressful to you. But honestly, I wouldnt be afraid to try sending that cover letter to one company at least, to try it out. It doesnt have to be the one you want the most, but why not try a different approach. Not insulting, just honest. I really think honesty stands out in this field. Best of luck to you. |
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Post by politicidal on Jul 25, 2018 14:59:36 GMT
I put it off.
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