DEV Community: GrimKillingbeck

Week 1 of 12 : Testing Phase

GrimKillingbeck — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 23:22:52 +0000

This week was me "dipping my toe" in the pool to see the basic adjustments I'll need in order for my 12-Week Year to be successful.

Goal 1 - Pass the Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam
Goal 2 - Complete Powershell Mastery Program
Goal 3 - Complete as many days as possible in the 100 Days of Python challenge (this starts after I pass my exam)

My daily habits are (Mon - Fri) :

Complete 4 PowerShell lessons
Practice learned Powershell commands for 15 minutes
1 hr of studying for the Digital Leader exam

So, how did I do?

According to the math, I was around 53.3% successful.

The breakdown:

I studied 4 hours for my Digital Leader Exam
I completed 4 Powershell lessons total for the week (so that counts as one day)
I practiced PowerShell for 15 minutes, 3 days this week

What went right

Exam Pro

I wish I'd listened to one of my friends earlier and chosen the Exam Pro Digital Leader course over Google's videos. I decided to simply go along with the videos Google Cloud provided, which were incredibly informative, but as far as testing what I learned, a 10-15 question quiz after each section (4 to 8 or so videos) isn't enough to cement the knowledge given.

You can watch the videos for free, and of course, the paid version gives practice exams and such if you feel you need it. But the videos were more than enough for me because of how well they explained the concepts.

15-Minute PowerShell Practice

15-minute drills were perfect for my busy days at work, and when I didn't feel like practicing, I told myself, "It's only 15 minutes, so let's just knock it out." 2 out of the 3 times, I extended my lessons due to questions I had (more on that later).

Using AI As A Tutor

When practicing PowerShell, I prompted CoPilot to be my PowerShell tutor to help me actively recall what I've learned for the day. CoPilot came up with practice exercises for me to complete and congratulated me on a successful round or corrected me and explained why my syntax was incorrect. What I loved best about this experience is that CoPilot also showed me more efficient ways to obtain the result needed, so I not only had practice, but it helped fine-tune my skill.

For the Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam, I copy and pasted my notes and saved them as sources in Google NotebookLM. I then used the chat feature to have NotebookLM create a quiz based on specific sections from my notes.

While the quiz provided brief explanations for wrong answers, I used the chat feature to dive deeper into the 'why' and build my confidence.

What went wrong

In one of my practice sessions, I spent more time arguing with CoPilot than on practicing my lesson for the day. The homework was from the PowerShell Mastery class, in which my instructions were to create 10 log files as "log1, log2, etc..." up to log10. The next step was to compress files log1 to log5 into a zip file using brackets as a wildcard.

Compress-Archive -Path Desktop\log[1-5].txt -DestinationPath Documents\FirstHalf.zip

I was successful with log1-log5 but resulted in an error when I attempted to compress log6-log10. Immediately, I knew it was related to 10 being two digits, but I wanted confirmation. I used my old friend Google, but it came up with overcomplicated scripting solutions that I didn't ask for, so I turned to CoPilot, who replied that there was no way to grab it! I told CoPilot that I'd grabbed and compressed log1-log5, so there's definitely a way to get it done, and I even provided a screenshot as proof. It told me in so many words, "Thanks for the screenshot, but you didn't actually grab log1-log5."

I felt gaslit to hell, so I expanded the zip file and saw log1-log5 was indeed in the zip. It was then that it clicked for me that although AI is incredibly useful, the scope of its usefulness is highly dependent on the context provided. I explained every step in detail and asked why am I unable to grab log6-log10.

It "understood" and explained why, along with a simple solution.

Compress-Archive -Path Desktop\log[6-9].txt , Desktop\log10.txt -DestinationPath Documents\SecondHalf.zip

_In case you're curious about the why, [6-10] fails because PowerShell doesn't really see 10 as an actual number. It reads the command as "6,7,8,9,1 or 0" instead of 10. _

Screen Time

It's incredibly inaccurate! If you take a look at the time spent in apps for last week Tuesday, you can see my time in apps is significantly lower than what my iPhone is saying. When I searched for a reason for why this is, basically the iOS counts anytime the screen lights up, which corrupts the screen time data since my phone gets a million and one notifications. Another issue is, even though I place my phone on it's charging stand, the lock screen is on, but the screen is still lit. It's still a relief that I can see an incredible difference in my phone use!

Week 2 Goals:

-Continue to paste notes into Notebook LM and use it to quiz myself on what've learned and deep learning on wrong answers

Complete one practice exam to assess my readiness
Complete at least three sections of the PowerShell Mastery Course
Continue using CoPilot as my PowerShell tutor

Do you have any goals for this week?

If you have any suggestions on what I can do to make this experiment better, please let me know in the comments!

A 12 Weeks to IAM : A Boredom Challenge That Will Either Push or Drive Me Insane

GrimKillingbeck — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 18:08:32 +0000

In 2024, I was laid off from a company that I thought I never would have to worry about leaving. The culture was amazing, pay was great, and there was room for growth if you showed you were dedicated. Of course, when you get too comfortable, the universe makes a way for you to break out from that comfort zone.

My next goal was to find a job in cybersecurity, most specifically Identity and Access Management (IAM), so I talked to a few friends that were working full-time and/or contract jobs, and passed my CompTIA Sec+ exam, which solidified my plan to begin my career in IAM.

Only it didn't work out that way; 4 months after being laid off, I landed a job as an IT Analyst at a wonderful company, and 5 months after, I was promoted to Senior IT Analyst. In the past two years, I never forgot about my goal of becoming an IAM Analyst, but it always seemed like I never had time. Deep down I knew that the problem wasn't that there was no time, it was that I wasn't using my time efficiently -- most of my time was sucked into my phone.

Doomscrolling didn't just affect my time, but it stole creativity and energy, too.

I was so busy trying not to be bored that I depended on social media to keep me from silence outside and inside of my own head. I slowly started to see a lag in my focus time, constant headaches, spending money I didn't need to and most importantly, even though I have always had a passion for learning, it was almost as if I couldn't study without unconsciously reaching for my phone! On top of having ADHD, I realized that I was wasting my life away and squandering the opportunity to progress my career.

For the last month, I took a break from my phone: I installed an app blocker on my phone to get rid of all of my mobile distractions, and I installed a Chrome extension on my computer that compiled my millions of open tabs into one so I wouldn't be tempted to wander from the current task at hand.

Boredom set in.

Without my phone, I began to think of things that I could do to pass time by : logic puzzles, organizing my comic collection, and tackling that over 200 game backlog in my Steam Library were my first attempts to eliminate boredom. Then I took it a step further and did chores like washing dishes, folding laundry, and cleaning my room in complete silence. Silence while taking showers and getting ready for the day allowed me to hear my own thoughts, and walking to the bus stop with no music made me realize how much I enjoy hearing birds chirp and sing in the morning. Gym time is the only time background music is a necessity—I need it for the hype!

Over time, I was able to read books with more focus, my visualization/imagination was more vivid, I began journaling more, my vocabulary was more fluid, I thought up short story ideas, and I started daydreaming again! So I thought, What if I invested my "new found" time into my career?

Over the next 12 Weeks, I am going to set myself up for a career in IAM.

Why 12 Weeks?

One of the books I read recently is called "The 12 Week Year," and I want to see how far I can push myself as a self-learner. My goal isn't to become an IAM analyst this time around but to create a firm foundation to start my career in cybersecurity.

I've chosen two goals for the next 12 weeks :
1) Pass the Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam
2) Complete my Powershell Fundamentals class

My exam is at the end of the month, so the next goal to replace the exam is to finish as much of the 100 Days of Python program as I can within the 12 weeks.

My Key Habits :

Study daily for the GC Digital Leader Exam by watching videos, reading over my notes, then writing about what I've read from memory as best as possible, using flashcards, and taking a weekly practice exam.
Complete two sections of my PowerShell class weekly and practice using PowerShell for at least 15 minutes a day.
My phone will be on silent mode and placed in another room while studying
Travel on public transportation is extra study time

Every week, I will write an update on what worked, what didn't, and how I plan to fix it, as well as a tally of how many days I actually pushed through and studied like I said I would! For funsies, I'll also post a screenshot of how much time I've spent on my phone for accountability.

Priorities for Week 1:

Keeping my nose in the books for the upcoming exam (3 weeks!)
Reading the Powershell scripts they use at my job to gauge how much of it I understand
I've taken an interest in Entra ID and on-prem Active Directory, and I'd like to have a deeper understanding of them, especially in regard to group policies and device management. I'm going to watch videos and consider future courses to take on Microsoft Learn.

I'm not expecting perfection, but time is a resource that we take for granted every day, and I'm going to do my damndest to use my time as best as possible!

Analysis of the King of Aridoria : A Prompt Engineering Project

GrimKillingbeck — Sat, 24 May 2025 22:54:45 +0000

Firstly, this project was given by Codecademy in the Prompt Engineering course ; the goal is to learn how to refine my prompt engineering skills by uploading documents and asking AI to analyze said documents.

I've chosen Deepseek because it is neck and neck with my favorite AI Gemini. I love the more "human" outputs
when I prompt for a detailed answer.

In this case, the documents for DeepSeek to analyze are a three-part story about a man who learned through experience
and empathy, how to become a great king, and the journey of his sons to become the next ruler of Aridoria.

To create my prompt, I'll first set the context :

I am a researcher, and I need your help with 3 documents; I will upload them, and you will analyze them.

Next, I will break down the tasks:

you will provide a short summary of the documents, along with a list of important points from the documents (bullet points), and you will hold a question and answer session about the 3 documents. In the question-and-answer session, you will give one question, wait for me to answer, and then respond with whether I am correct or incorrect, with a short explanation on why.

I then refined the prompt as if I were writing an email with detailed instructions to another human :

I am a researcher, and I need your help with 3 documents; I will upload them, and you will analyze them with these steps:

provide a short summary of the documents
create a bulleted list of important parts from the documents
you and I will have a Question and Answer session

We will do these tasks one at a time to ensure clarity in what is needed. Are you ready for the documents?

Here is how DeepSeek answered :

As you can see, DeepSeek responded back my confirming my needs (more eloquently, I must admit) and set expectations to make sure that the documents will work within it's scope of skill.

To avoid DeepSeek outputting a long trail of information, I added this prompt: Great! You must wait until I prompt you to move forward with the tasks.

DeepSeek confirmed once again that it will wait until I ask to move forward with each task.

Once the documents were uploaded, DeepSeek not only gave a summary but several points in the story that contributed to the development it's main character(s) as well
as thematic connections from each story/document.

Prompt : Beautifully done. Please go ahead with bullet points on the important parts of these documents.

This time, the key themes were short descriptive words and phrases and for the important points, Deepseek gave points and concise subpoints on what contributed to the part of the story. A bonus was the "Cross-Document Insights " section, which listed contrasts, symbolisms, and foreshadowing of certain events.

This session started to remind me of a more modern version of "Cliff Notes" back in my college days.

Prompt : Wow! Well done, DeepSeek! Please point out where in each document you received the information for each point you made.**

Here, Deepseek not only gave the pages from where it sourced it's information, but it also repeated quotes from the
pages, which made it easier for me to double-check its accuracy.

The Q & A

I will say, I did ask it for a Q and A session -- it asked and answered it's own questions, but that was my fault.
In the draft prompt, I mentioned that it would ask a question, wait for an answer from me and then confirm whether or not
it was correct, along with an explanation why. I totally forgot to add it in the final prompt. Honestly, it answered better
than I ever would anyway.

Next time, I think I will test the same prompts on different AI like Chat GPT and Gemini --I would love to see the difference in what they "feel" are important points from the story.

How would you have worded the prompt?

Day 10 of Python : The Magic 8-Ball

GrimKillingbeck — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 14:40:55 +0000

This is going to be a long post, so just warning you now.

I am a beginner and I am doing my best to not only code, but learn how to explain my code properly, so please be patient with me. Also, I tried to add manual line breaks but it did not register so that I could add breaks in between text.

I started Codecademy about 10 days ago for structured learning of Python and I've also been reading Automate The Boring Stuff so that I can reinforce what I've learned with small projects from the book.

This Codecademy project involves creating a 80's toy "Magic 8-Ball", where you would ask it a question, flip the ball over and then up would float the answer to your question.

The original project required me to assign someone's name to the variable (name) and then assign a yes or no question to another variable (question). We then assigned an empty string to our variable called "answer" to store a random answer, which is decided by the random module we imported.

#assign name of the person talking to the 8 ball
name = "Makeda"
# assign planned question to ask 8 ball
question = "Will I  get a cybersecurity job this year?"

#leaving string empty for now , but should store potential answers 
answer = ""

#importing random module so that I can assign the potential answers
import random

# assigned randomly generated value to a variable. Arguments for the function will be 1 and 9 but 1,9 means 1-9 as I have 9 potential answers

random_number = random.randint(1, 9)

Then I tested the random module to see if it was working as it should:


#prints the current value of random_number
print(random_number)
# used the above callto function just to see if the module  worked as intended

Which printed out random numbers such as 7, 2 ,3, etc.

Here, I created if, elif and an else statement that addresses each possible value for the variable random_number which holds the function call random.randint(1,9) , to generate a random number from 1 to 9 . Each statement says if the number currently stored in random_number is equal to let's say 7 , then the string assigned to the variable answer is whatever the message is I have assigned for that number.


if random_number == 1 :
  answer = "Yes- definitely"
elif random_number == 2 :
    answer = "It is decidedly so"
elif random_number == 3 :
    answer = "Without a doubt"
elif random_number == 4 :
    answer = "Reply hazy,try again"
elif random_number == 5 :
    answer = "Ask again later"
elif random_number == 6 :
    answer = "Better not tell you now"
elif random_number == 7 :
    answer = "My sources say no"
elif random_number == 8 :
    answer = "Outlook not so good"
elif random_number == 9 :
    answer = "Very doubtful"
else :
    answer = "Error" #in case somehow number out of the range is chosen

Now that I've established my variables, the module needed to random answers and my control flow, now I want to print out the result :


print(name, " asks: " , question)
print("Magic 8-Ball's answer : ", answer)

Output :

Makeda asks: Will I get a cybersecurity job this year?
Magic 8-Ball's answer : Reply hazy,try again

While completing this project, I happened to be learning about while loops, continue and break. I thought about how I could improve the Magic 8-Ball and add a bit of my personality into it.

Using the input() function instead of assigning a name and question manually

One of my goals was to have a greeting that would prompt the user to enter their name. I created an infinite while loop that would continue to print the statement : "I'm here to provide answers to your most dire questions. What is your name?" unless there was a break to the loop.

Instead of assigning a string to name manually, I assigned the input() so that the user would store their name as a string.

while True:
    print("\nI'm here to provide answers to your most dire questions. What is your name?")
    #INPUT user name
    name = input()

But what if they didn't enter their name?

Here is where I started to have fun, because I was thinking of how an actual human would respond to someone asking for their fortune to be read.

I created an if statement that says if the variable name has an empty string, print : "Okay, you don't want me to know your name. What is your question?" or else print "Welcome, (name), what is your question?"

 if name == "" :
        print("Okay, you don't want me to know your name. What is your question?")
    else :
        print("\nWelcome, ", name ,". What is your question?")

Of course, I wanted the user to input their own question like their name, so I assigned the input() function to the variable (question).

What if the user didn't enter a name or a question?

This part is was the most annoying because I learned you must talk to the computer as if it's a baby; step by step, nothing is implied.

Originally, I set up my statement as such :

if name and question == "" :

but again -- baby talk. Check is name if equal to an empty string AND check if question is equal to an empty string.

if name == "" and question == "" :

In any case, I wanted to address a user that either did not want to give their name and maybe couldn't think of a question. If they both the variables name and question were empy strings, the program is of no use, so I ask the user to comeback with a question and used the statement continue to restart the script.

if name == "" and question == "" :
        print("You're being mighty secretive for someone who wants to ask about the future. Come back when you want to give your name and a question. \n")
        continue

The next possibility is that the user may have opted to leave out their name, but had a question for the Magic 8-ball :

elif name == "" and question != "" : #if the name has an empty string but the question doesn't 
        print ("You asked: ", question, "\n", "Magic 8 Ball says: " , answer) #prints question with no name and gives random answer

Here is the variable (name) is equal to an empty string and the variable question is NOT equal to an empty string, the program addresses the user as "you", and then gives a random answer.

What if they give a name, but they decide they don't have a question?

Well (name), GTFO.


elif name != "" and question == "": #is user entered name but leaves question blank, will send message and go back to the beginning of script
        print("Ask me something ", name , " or GTFO!")
        continue

The continue statement then restarts the script.

At this point, I've addressed all the possible exceptions that I can think of (at the moment) and moved on with an else statement that assumes th user input a string for both variables :

else :
        print(name , "asked: ", question, "\nMagic 8 Ball says: " , answer) #if name and question has been entered

Finally, since most of the control flow was set up I wanted the user to decided if they wanted to ask another question or leave the program.

I assigned the input() function to variable (to_be_continued) and if the string was equal "Yes", then it would print "Here we go again!" and restart the script, or if it is equal to "No", the magic 8-Ball responds with "Good Riddance" follow by a break of the loop.

So what do you think? What could I do to make this program better?

What would you add to make the Magic 8-Ball more fun?

Thanks for reading!

I'm Back And I Have A Job!

GrimKillingbeck — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 23:20:48 +0000

Wow, I haven't made a post on here in a long time! I feel bad about it because I love the community. That said, since my life is more stable and I am sure of where I want to go next, I want to document my progress and hopefully make new friends on here.

I'll catch you up

Believe it or not, the post I made about a company trying to use AI to interview me got me my job!

After so many job applications on Dice, LinkedIn, Indeed, etc, I decided to go back to the drawing board and evaluate what wasn't working. I posted about my frustrations on Facebook and someone messaged me who was a Senior Recruiter to give me advice. I remade my resume: used a simpler template, utilized AI to help me with recreating my bullet points ( Gemini is much better than Chat GPT in that regard in my experience), used that as a base resume, then when I read job descriptions, I tweaked the resume , pressed Save As for a separate file of the modified resume, then I applied directly through company websites-- even sites with the dreaded WorkDay.

I applied to 47 companies in one week and 8 of them called me back.

For each interview, I looked at their company website, studied it, then went to Gemini to help me prepare for an interview using the STAR Method. The first interview was fantastic ( interviewer ended up being my direct manager)! She said she chose me because she could tell I did my research on the company. The second interview, wasn't even an interview. He was a cool and funny older guy, that told me he looked me up ( folks, please be careful about social media, some companies really do care about it). I have very few public posts on my FB page, but I did link the post I mentioned earlier and left it open for everyone to share.

He said once he read my post, he knew he wanted me on the team, especially since their company had been beta testing for AI for about a year or so. That following Monday, I was offered a job, with my pay being almost TWICE what I was paid at my last employer. From January of 2024, it took me a total of 4 months to find a new gig. I consider myself extremely lucky but I am happy that I put in as much as much energy as I did.

How is work going?

I was hired as an IT Analyst (Desktop Support, basically) and at first, it was quite difficult. I am a very resourceful person, but there were so many proprietary applications and the knowledge base could use some work. I don't think my trainer was doing it on purpose, but he would give instructions but leave out critical steps, which lead me to ask a MILLION more questions and he would look at me like I was stupid for having so many questions.

Again, I am resourceful. I began reaching out to other team members and searching through chat for answers. I then had 3 people that would guide me through steps and were willing to even jump on a phone call to help if need be. This was growth for someone with social anxiety, but I knew if I wanted to be great at my job, I'd need to step out of my comfort zone and network.

Challenges can make or break you

A few months in, I was assigned to a department that I was not familiar with because the main tech was on vacation. I barely knew anything about Macs and that particular floor had mostly Mac users. The other tech was a new contractor that didn't know much either, but I made it through. Then, they assigned me to that department again! The main tech gave me his number and I called whenever I needed help, making sure to write down every thing he said in One Note. I didn't know it back then, but the main tech LOVED that I had a million questions and wanted to learn everything I possibly could.

The contractor quit. I had to handle that station by myself and I was so proud that I figured out everything by myself based on the notes I made. Because the contractor left, there was an open spot, however, I was told that they were going to ask my trainer to fill the spot, since he was there 6 months or so longer than I. About a week later, I was told I was being promoted to Senior IT Analyst! The main tech advocated for me and said he thought I would be a great fit for the position, especially since I was curious about how everything works. I didn't even have to interview for the position!

During my 5 months as a Senior IT Analyst, I've worked with PCs and Macs, learned asset management, created my own scripts to update computers as needed, replaced hardware parts, and collaborated with the Network Engineering team to fix an issue I discovered that affected more than half of the employees in the building. I've networked my butt off since I get to meet people from various departments and now I'm comfortable enough to say I would love to continue my journey to become a Machine Learning Engineer. I know that I will not be making a jump into this role 5 months in like I did my current one, but I am STOKED to learn.

So what's the goal now?

Well, my focus is going to be learning Python first -- I'll be using Codecademy for structured learning and I am also reading Automate The Boring Stuff With Python (great book so far!). Every project I complete on Codecademy, I go back and see how I can improve my script and it's capabilities. I'll be using Dev.To , to record my progress, frustrations and success!

I'd love to hear about any advice you have or if you have any questions about what I did in my job search, feel free to ask! See you later <3

"We've decided to move forward with candidates more aligned with our company..."

GrimKillingbeck — Wed, 01 May 2024 18:18:17 +0000

In this job market, when applying for jobs and braving several rounds of interviews, in my opinion, there is nothing more triggering than seeing, "We've decided to move forward with candidates more aligned with our company."

What do you mean by that?

Other than the fact that it's a general way to say you weren't chosen, it could mean several things:

Skills and experience

The competition is FIERCE, especially when you're just starting your career and you feel as if your skills and experience fit perfectly for the position. You may even have worked in the same industry as the title you're applying for, but if the interviewers feel like someone relayed their skills and experience better, it's game over.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you have years of experience, entry-level jobs will say that you're overqualified for the position. Usually, it's from a bag of assumptions on the employer's part:

"They will leave for a better salary/position."

"They will likely get bored with this position."

"This person could advance quickly, and we will need to hire for this position again sooner than later."

Cultural Fit

Cultural fit could mean so many things, but I take it as meaning that the company wants everyone to have the same goals. This is why it's important to do some reconnaissance on any company you know you're going to have an interview with! Visit their website and read their mission statement so you can find a way to work it into why you applied and how you'd be a great fit. But remember, you are also interviewing these companies; checking their mission statement and reading reviews from past employees can help you decide if you want to spend your time applying.

Reconnaissance is a good way to spot any red flag language similar to :

"We are all family here!"

Translation: We don't have boundaries, and you'll never know what work/life balance is.

"This is a fast-paced environment."

Translation: big workload, barely any breaks.

" You'll wear many hats in this position."

Translation: Again, boundaries. This phrase is typically used with postings I describe as "bag 'o' jobs" because the job title says, "Graphic Designer," but the job description also lists tasks aligned with a videographer or a producer.

Picture credit : Getty Images

Salary Expectations

Unfortunately, profit is the bottom line for much bigger companies, so if they can squeeze every ounce of life out of you for a barely livable wage, they'll do it. That's why being vague about salary expectations is one of the main problems of today's job landscape. We've all heard about the job descriptions listing the salary as a range between $29,000 - $100,000 which translates to a lack of transparency. What I like to say in response to salary expectations is : " What is the range for this position?" when I speak to the interviewer or recruiter, because it usually catches them off guard and they'll tell you the actual range. This is a good way to decide if you want to move forward and negotiate your salary.

Solution: Feedback

It's unrealistic to expect every company to give personal feedback when you apply for a job, but it is reasonable to want feedback on why you weren't chosen for the position after an interview. If you have the email of the person that interviewed them, send a note thanking them for the opportunity ( I know, I know), and ask for any feedback they have on your interview to help you improve your skills as you navigate the job market.

Be prepared to receive silence or a "non-answer", but it's worth it if you can get some worthwhile information on how you can elevate your interview experience.

Overall, this sucks.

I'm unemployed and learning just like anyone else, but I don't want anyone to make the mistake of internalizing rejection as something wrong with them like I did.

Just got a phone call for an interview by a robot... Are we ready for AI gatekeepers?

GrimKillingbeck — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 15:13:49 +0000

Something interesting happened to me last week: I applied to a position and then received a text from someone named Jamie about setting up a time to talk about the job description. At the moment, I was busy, so I didn't answer the text, however, about 10 minutes later, my caller ID said, " Maybe: Jamie". I picked up because I figured, "Why not do this now?", until I heard a robotic voice.

"Hello, this is Jamie from (Company). I am calling to talk to you about the position and ask some questions to see if this job is a good fit. I will ask you some questions and then you can answer. This session will be recorded."

I was immediately turned off and hung up. To have a robot/AI call and ask you questions about something as important as possible employment seems so impersonal, but I'm sure to a company, it may seem efficient.

Are these recordings being reviewed by humans?

I know that may seem like a silly question, but considering recruiters and companies are using AI to sort through everything, including resumes and job applications, I think it's a very important question that can add some context to the selection process. Last week, I was interviewed by a company that disclosed that they have AI create transcripts of their telephone agents' conversations with customers, and then the AI scans said transcripts and grades them with "Neutral, Good, or Bad." as part of their metrics. Is it efficient? Probably, but what about context?

AI is not perfect, and biases are embedded in it's training more often than not, so I feel this could be a problem, especially if it is used in the employment process. What steps are being taken for those whose first language may not be English?

And then there are the security risks...

We have something in cybersecurity called the "inherence factor" which often appears in the form of biometrics— something unique to us like fingerprints, retina scans or voice recognition.

What happens to the recordings if we don't get the job?

How do we know if our biometric data isn't being used?

What is the company's data retention policy (how long are you keeping my voice in your system)?

Let's say the company is ethical and has good intentions : is my biometric data secure from hacking?

I feel that companies should have the answers to these questions readily available before using AI. It's become a trend to use AI in almost everything that we do to streamline processes and cut costs, but we also seem to be cutting out the human aspect of finding a good fit for a position.

What are your thoughts on AI interviews? Are they the future?

If you've had a similar experience, please share in the comments!

Picture credit : Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

How far is too far for a job?

GrimKillingbeck — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 01:28:17 +0000

I've filled out several hundred applications since January looking for work and I've built what I like to call "application endurance."

My hard stop used to be uploading my resume and then having to enter the information manually. To me, that was and still is a sign of company inefficiency. Why wouldn't you want to make it easy for talent to sign up? Now, my hard stop is seeing a 30 minute assessment or more than two interviews for a low paying job.

Today, I listened to a podcast called The Lonely Office and in this particular episode, a candidate went through 11 interviews.

ELEVEN INTERVIEWS.

At the end, he received the usual, "We had so many great candidates, but unfortunately we chose someone else."

I told a friend that if I go through 11 interviews, I'm just going to show up to HR and claim that I work there. If it takes 11 interviews for you to figure out if someone is for the company, to me that is a huge red flag.

A friend of mine is an animation background artist and she said some companies will disguise work as "tests" of your skill; they tell you to do 6 shots/scenes and some unlucky folks, although not chosen, will see the work they've done in show, with no credit.

So, I ask : If you are looking for work right now, what will immediately make you X out the page and move on to the next application?

Just had my first interview in 3 years

GrimKillingbeck — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 02:08:18 +0000

I was laid off in January and it's been a struggle since then. I've applied to over 300 jobs and I have several iterations of my resume, which I now think is perfect (for now). Although many people have advised against it, I've started applying directly to company websites out of frustration that Easy Apply listings bore no fruit.

I'd also decided that although I am looking for a job in IT, I needed to spread my net a little wider in case I needed to start from "the bottom" in customer service and then perhaps move up into the company's IT department if the opportunities arise.

I applied directly on this ISPs website , took a 30 minute assessment ( this might have been the only fun assessment I've ever taken), and they called me the next day. I had a phone interview with HR/gatekeeper and was invited to an in-person interview the next day. I purchased a suit last week just in case of an occasion like this, so I was prepared and received many compliments when I arrived!

The Good

First Impression

I felt truly welcomed when I arrived by HR! She was vibrant, and spent some time with me explaining when she first came to this country, how she made it to the company and her career at the business over 13 years. She explained benefits, the company culture, answered any questions that I had, and gave me interview tips.

Environment

The work area was mostly a cubicle set up and but it wasn't crowded and everyone had their own personal space. While walking around, it was nice to see people express their personality with pictures, action figures and the awards they've received while working there. It also helped that it didn't seem hectic. I've worked in call centers before, and everyone was miserable since it felt like you couldn't take a second to think or breathe before the next call came in.

Talking to the managers

The interviewers seemed very down to earth, and the questions were basic, but I did have some concerns (more on this later), but overall they seemed liked active listeners who genuinely wanted to hire the right people for the job. Everyone seemed to stress that you cannot take anything personal in customer service and I made sure to let them know that I understood as I've worked in customer service in several industries. But now that we're in the age of the internet where everything depends on your connection, I can understand why people can be quick to become irate and why it's important to put yourself in the customer's shoes to see their perspective.

Room For Growth

This was one of the reasons that I applied to this company, because I felt that since they are one of the top ISPs, they would have room for me to grow, even if I were to start in customer service, over time, I could move into the cybersecurity department of the company.

The pay is great

No need for an explanation here -- the pay is much higher than most call center jobs and you get free internet and you only pay part of your phone bill.

Option For Remote

Once you are trained and your performance is satisfactory, you are offered the option to be put on a waitlist for working at home. If your performance suffers while working remotely though, they'll make you work in-office again!

The Bad

Metrics

Metrics, metrics, metrics. If I recall correctly, they had 5 different metrics that they evaluated you by, but from what I gathered, time spent on the call and First Call Resolution (FCR) were the most important.

One example was if a customer calls and you scheduled an appointment for a technician to stop by, and maybe you forgot to tell them that they can check for their appointment date and time in the company app, if the customer calls back within a week, and they are asking for their appointment date and time, that will lower your score for FCR. I was a bit put off by this as, there are so many people that would forget, or you have the folks that will call in because they would rather call instead of checking an app ( I am not sure why people do this, it's like they are allergic to convenience), and that could mess up your metrics.

Call center energy

Let me explain lol If you've worked in a call center before, you know you're not expecting for people to be walking around , singing songs and smiling. Although, I mentioned earlier that it seemed like a calm environment, everyone still had a look of "OMG I really cannot wait to go home."

Listen, I know nobody wants to be at work all day; it's hard to explain, but if you've worked long enough, you know the difference between wanting to go home because of hard work and wanting to go home because of the combo of hard work and this job being something you're only doing to make ends meet.

The Ugly

AI grading transcripts

The first interviewer mentioned that they have transcripts of your conversations and AI evaluates the transcripts, then grades it as Neutral, Good or Bad.

YUCK.

I do understand the convenience of using AI for this, but I also feel like this is a slippery slide. There are so many things that could go wrong with this, like nuance/context, slang being used that can be misunderstood from the customer's end, etc. I know that using AI saves the company lots of money and they've probably saved a ton from getting rid of call auditors, but it still feels so icky for me.

Personal nitpick

There were two interview questions that irked me, but this is a personal issue:

Where do you see yourself in two years?

I don't know. That wasn't the answer I gave but... I don't know. Two years ago, I didn't know I'd be laid off and looking for a new job. Two years ago, I was happy at a company and wanted to grow there ( I did, but I still wanted more!). I made it through two lay off rounds and then was laid off on the third.

I'm not sure what answer was expected here -- perhaps the usual " I see myself here working as a supervisor, yadda, yadda", but this economy has been way too volatile for me to even think about that. I bob and weave, then get in where I fit in.

Are you interviewing with other people?

I answered , " You are the first." Instead of answering yes, because I didn't know how to answer that. I felt it was a strange question and wondered if they would pass on me if they felt I had other options.

Later on, I asked folks on Facebook, and a hiring manager and an executive recruiter advised that I always answer yes. The reason is , more than likely, they are interested in hiring you, however, Hiring managers want to gauge if they should snatch you up right now, or put you on ice until they look at other candidates. I feel this is such a slack footed way to engage as if you have a quality candidate, why not just snatch them up right away, especially if you have several spots for the same position?

It almost feels like your partner knowing you want to get married and then they only propose because you're leaving lol Weird.

Overall, I gained so much from this experience! As someone who knows their interviewing skills are their weakness, I know that I did well with the two interviews and there were minimal "ums". I kept myself calm, gave thoughtful answers and remembered to ask questions for the interviewers -- after all, I am interviewing them as well!

I received two more voicemails with requests for interviews, and I have a video interview on Tuesday which I am studying for all weekend. Whether I get the job or not, I'm so happy for the practice!

Accountability Post For April 24, 2024

GrimKillingbeck — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 18:28:13 +0000

I feel embarrassed because I forgot to make my post yesterday and now I've lost my streak!

I started my morning off by addressing a small correction in self-sabotage, and that was me procrastinating with sending my friend Justin my resume. I'd mentioned to him a few days ago that I was looking for work, and that I would send my resume. I know myself, and sometimes, my anxiety stops me from progressing, but I pushed past it and emailed him my resume.

Creating An Industry Specific Resume

I was laid off in January and my goal is to transition into cybersecurity, but I had no idea how difficult it could be! I've sent out hundreds of resumes since January (around 350) and have received mostly scams, ghost recruiters and rejections. That said, I've gained so much knowledge about my strengths, weaknesses to work on and way too much about ATS. Recently, I did some research on ATS friendly resumes and also, how to make it easy on human eyes once it makes it through ATS.

I finally came across a Youtube video by Josh Madakor :

youtube.com

In the description, there is a link to an extremely simple resume template that I've used for a week now, along with some tweaks to my resume bullet points ( making sure that my resume bullet points do not just list what I do, but also what my tasks resulted in /helped with) and I also made sure to bold certain parts of said bullet points, so that it would draw the recruiter/HR's eyes to my skills.

Since then, I have had FOUR interviews and tomorrow I have an in-person interview (As I am writing this, I just got a call-back for another in-person interview). I would say that since last week, I've applied to maybe 45 jobs with the majority being Easy Apply, and I believe 15 of them were postings that I applied to directly on the company site. 2 of the 4 interviews were from applying on the company site, the other 2 were from applying on Indeed.

At the moment, I have a resume for transitioning into Cybersecurity and now I have a Customer Service resume, too.

What I Did To Make A Customer Service Resume

The general rule is to make sure that your resume isn't more than two pages, so for my Customer Service focused resume, I removed the Home Labs/ Project section and listed my most recent customer service position, making sure that if my title wasn't customer service representative, I had customer service mentioned once somewhere in my bullet points for that position.

At this point, almost every company is using AI, even if they aren't using it properly, so you have to start thinking like a robot if you want to get past one -- look at the job description bullet points and if it makes sense , find a way to integrate those words in there. Don't worry about having a million copies of the same resume, keep a sile of your original resume and then make a copy of that file, so that you can overwrite it with iterations or your resume. A large majority of these job postings are written by ChatGPT (you'll be able to tell the more you use ChatGPT, trust me), which tend to use the same verbs like : analyze, contributed, proactively, monitored, managed -- you get the drift. As you create new iterations your resume, you WILL learn what is worth changing.

Application Count of the Day

I filled out a whopping * drum roll * 18 applications. I know that is less than 50% of my goal, but to be fair, many of the postings that I went to apply to, I'd already done! Then there were the job listings that were conveniently reposted after a week or so ( don't bother re-applying, it's highly likely that they aren't really looking to fill the position). Although I wasn't satisfied, there wasn't anything I could do about it, so I let it go and planned for the next day.

I scheduled my SEC + Exam

I did take the time to complete more videos with Dion Training for the Sec + exam with the last section covering Audits and Assessments. There is so much that goes into making a company's assets secure and I respect the long process. But I especially enjoyed the convenient checklists they have to address any gaps in security.

To top off the night, I added some terms to my Sec+ flashcards, then went to take a nap, that turned into full-fledged sleep.

Your Name Is Not Administrator

GrimKillingbeck — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 21:15:01 +0000

If you've worked with command prompt before, you know that when you run it as administrator, you can use it to point to a specific file and open it. In this case, I was testing out my memory by opening Chrome through command prompt.

When I typed and tabbed everything through, it asked for my password and

.... password is incorrect.

After few times, I was wondering if I was crazy! I even reset my password for the account and saw that it was STILL incorrect.

Frustrated, I asked my friend Nick (practically the god of IT in my eyes) and as soon as the message, it hit me :

Makeda, you are the administrator, but your username... it's not administrator.

Sigh.

Accountability Post For April 22, 2024

GrimKillingbeck — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 20:57:52 +0000

I've decided to make accountability posts for each day so that I can keep up with how much I am doing and so that I can look back on this in the future and feel grateful about where I am at the moment.

So let's take a look at my day :

Yesterday, I claimed that I would work a 12 hour study day... apparently that was a lie! I woke up late for the day and then went to take a nap after a few hours, but unfortunately, slept through the whole night. I've been working my butt off studying for certs and such , but I did get plenty of things done!

In the morning, I go through the same routine:

Give myself 5 minutes to truly wake up and make my bed
Say affirmations out loud to help hype myself up and keep positive
Visualize or meditate to keep myself from feeling sad ( This will all work out!)
Exercise and stretch
Reading any trending cybersecurity news and save for sharing later
Write at least 3 pages in my journal about whatever is on my mind to clear out floating thoughts

Then I got to work.

Updated resume on USA Jobs

I revamped my resume recently, as the previous iteration of my resume just listed job duties but it didn't convey how those duties contributed to my company's services, so I transferred my new resume bullet points to USA Jobs to apply for federal positions.

While I was on the site, I applied to 3 IT Specialist positions that were direct to hire.

Attack the Easy Apply Jobs

My next move was to make sure that I used Easy Apply on job sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Dice and Indeed. I will say that I haven't had much luck with these sites as I always seem to get emails from recruiting companies I have never heard of, that usually lead to obvious phishing scams. But every once in a while, I will get an answer back and a gatekeeping/phone interview.

I didn't mention LinkedIN as an Easy Apply option because I've received the most automatic rejections from there and I see job postings reposted so many times, it makes me wonder if that particular company is even hiring at all. I've also noticed that there is an incentive for companies to post positions, as there is an automatically checked box at the end that asks you to follow the company page. To me, this seems like a sure way to gather numbers for clout.

Newer, More Helpful Job Sites

Next, I used newer job aggregation sites like True Up and Earn Better. Out of these two, Earn Better is the winner when it comes to finding potential jobs in all areas of life. I use Earn Better to to make sure I don't miss any potential opportunities since it sources job postings from all the popular sites and more.

Unfortunately, Dice bore no fruit as their site would not load, so I tossed it to the wind and said I would come back another day.

Job Applications For The Day: 34
Goal: 40

I almost made it, but I am still satisfied with what I came out with by the end of my workday. I did use the 24 hour filter, as in my experience , there's more of a chance for your application to be seen if you apply with the first 24 hours. I did not solely choose remote positions either.

Tomorrow, I will go through customer service position jobs and apply so I can cast a wider net.