What is the worst company you ever interviewed with?
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Well, my story is more about the job that didn't live up to the advertising. I had interviewed at two different places. One was an internet blog software company touting its killer web server that was all written in C and faster than anything else. It was a small start up but had decent funding and the CEO was an industry veteran and the lead developer. Not a bad deal, except that the commute was two hours on a good day. I accepted that position. Then... Company #2 was medical company that had a large legacy system in linux and windows. They were looking to upgrade the system with a new architecture and the bullet point was that they either might buy a system and plug it in, or develop one from scratch. This inticed me. To be part of a large scale system and design it from scratch. But I still accepted the other one, as the code itself was more exciting to me. Well, I call up to decline the position and the guy talks me out of it stating that they really wanted me and that I was their first pick. They wanted an architect and that was supposed to be my job. So, taking the carrot I accepted that one and declined the other one. Mistake. When I actually start, their system consists of ASP.NET apps that work on reflected data from the legacy system, but the engineers aren't given the chance to make it work, so its buggy and slow. The stories are 11 hour days and working holidays. I'm told even to not make sure that my own project works well, just make it work, bugs are ok. :wtf: After I discover they think I'm wasting their time to make it work right, I decide to give notice and move on. I write my resignation letter on Saturday instead of working and leave refreshed. I come in Monday and the VP of Marketing has a sit down with me. The Development branch of their company is run by the VP of Marketing, no kidding. He asks me why I'm choosing to burn my bridge with them. I tell him that well, his system is in disrepair, and they offered me an architect role as a carrot to counter my decline of their offer, when they really just wanted another warm body to throw at production. I tell him that they falsely misled me to accept the position and lost my respect. He says: "I don't know what to say, your right. I just wish you wanted to stay and work it out." :wtf: Sorry dude, you burned your bridge with me by leading my with false pretenses to be another tiny Tim with his finger plugging the dike. He handed me my check right there and asked me to leave. L8r dude.
This st
Chris S Kaiser wrote:
The Development branch of their company is run by the VP of Marketing,
That must have been a nightmare :omg:
I'd like to help but I don't feel like Googling it for you.
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Chris S Kaiser wrote:
The Development branch of their company is run by the VP of Marketing,
That must have been a nightmare :omg:
I'd like to help but I don't feel like Googling it for you.
It was. There's more too. DataReaders everywhere not being disposed of so that the connection pool gets locked up. The reflected data from the legacy system was a new MSSQL Db for each use, instead of mirroring the data in a common db that all apps used, they had umpteen different versions of the same data. I built a tight NT Service in .NET that scraped shipping sites to track packages that was data driven and asynchronous, while their new guy worked on some bells and whistles in a Crystal Report. Management was more impressed with the report. The report guy questioned my whole design until they saw it work. "Oh that's gonna take a while..." then it runs: "What? 30 seconds? No way." The other engineers liked it. Oh well.. I really wanted to design and build that system, but knowing the conditions, it would take a year to get there, and then I'd just be integrating a 3rd party system that didn't do what they wanted. The engineers to their credit did what they could, but they were kinda held hostage in that they are HB1s and couldn't really leave or stand up for themselves, and management took advantage of that in my opinion. I felt bad leaving them in that situation as I really liked the people, but this was a quality of life choice.
This statement is false.
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
In 1988 I interviewed at Artisoft in Tucson (the people that made LANtastic.) My first interview was with the CEO, the VP of R&D and the acting enginering manager. It went extremely well with the latter two, but during the entire interview the CEO kept muttering, "No, this isn't what we want." Turns out he wanted another hardware engineer turned programmer, not a pure programmer. I got the job, but the CEO hated me especially when I redesigned and rewrote all the client LANtastic utilities which, it turns out, he had written. Needless to say, fifteen months later, after screwing over the VP of R&D by diluting his stock options, he laid me off (got a very good severance package though.)
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
My worst interview began with me sitting at one end of a long conference room table, and the three founders at the other end. We shouted at each other (it was a looooong table) for about 15 minutes, and then the president gave me a tour. Everyone in the place was wearing a jacket and tie. Open desks everywhere; no partitions or cubicles. The boss tells me he likes it that way, to foster communication. If that's the case, why aren't people talking to each other? It was dead silent in the place :~. We wander back to the labs, and it's the same way there. The techs are wearing jackets and ties, and nobody is talking. The boss leaves me with a programmer for a while. I asked the guy about the dress code. He told me that the boss requires jacket/tie, in case a customer comes in. When asked how often that happens, he tells me: twice in three years. He also tells me that the real reason for no partitions is that the boss likes to hang over everyone's shoulder and critique what they are doing. He also told me that most of them were pissed at each other, because the current project was way behind schedule and the boss was pitting them against each other to make progress. I end up back in the president's office. He makes me a low-ball offer for a s/w engineer slot, that I decline right then and there. He then offers me a "Vice President of Engineering" position for about $10K more than I'm making at the moment. I consider it until he mentions that the workload means being in the office whenever he is, and that he works 60-70 hours a week. It also means traveling two weeks of every month, since the "VP of Engineering" is responsible for hawking the company wares at conferences and such. No frigging thanks :suss:.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
It was. There's more too. DataReaders everywhere not being disposed of so that the connection pool gets locked up. The reflected data from the legacy system was a new MSSQL Db for each use, instead of mirroring the data in a common db that all apps used, they had umpteen different versions of the same data. I built a tight NT Service in .NET that scraped shipping sites to track packages that was data driven and asynchronous, while their new guy worked on some bells and whistles in a Crystal Report. Management was more impressed with the report. The report guy questioned my whole design until they saw it work. "Oh that's gonna take a while..." then it runs: "What? 30 seconds? No way." The other engineers liked it. Oh well.. I really wanted to design and build that system, but knowing the conditions, it would take a year to get there, and then I'd just be integrating a 3rd party system that didn't do what they wanted. The engineers to their credit did what they could, but they were kinda held hostage in that they are HB1s and couldn't really leave or stand up for themselves, and management took advantage of that in my opinion. I felt bad leaving them in that situation as I really liked the people, but this was a quality of life choice.
This statement is false.
Chris S Kaiser wrote:
instead of mirroring the data in a common db that all apps used, they had umpteen different versions of the same data.
:omg: :wtf: That must've been fun determining what version of the data was truely current.
That's no moon, it's a space station. - Obi-wan Kenobi
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My worst interview began with me sitting at one end of a long conference room table, and the three founders at the other end. We shouted at each other (it was a looooong table) for about 15 minutes, and then the president gave me a tour. Everyone in the place was wearing a jacket and tie. Open desks everywhere; no partitions or cubicles. The boss tells me he likes it that way, to foster communication. If that's the case, why aren't people talking to each other? It was dead silent in the place :~. We wander back to the labs, and it's the same way there. The techs are wearing jackets and ties, and nobody is talking. The boss leaves me with a programmer for a while. I asked the guy about the dress code. He told me that the boss requires jacket/tie, in case a customer comes in. When asked how often that happens, he tells me: twice in three years. He also tells me that the real reason for no partitions is that the boss likes to hang over everyone's shoulder and critique what they are doing. He also told me that most of them were pissed at each other, because the current project was way behind schedule and the boss was pitting them against each other to make progress. I end up back in the president's office. He makes me a low-ball offer for a s/w engineer slot, that I decline right then and there. He then offers me a "Vice President of Engineering" position for about $10K more than I'm making at the moment. I consider it until he mentions that the workload means being in the office whenever he is, and that he works 60-70 hours a week. It also means traveling two weeks of every month, since the "VP of Engineering" is responsible for hawking the company wares at conferences and such. No frigging thanks :suss:.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
He also tells me that the real reason for no partitions is that the boss likes to hang over everyone's shoulder and critique what they are doing. He also told me that most of them were pissed at each other, because the current project was way behind schedule and the boss was pitting them against each other to make progress.
Sounded like a rather hostile place.
Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
He then offers me a "Vice President of Engineering" position for about $10K more than I'm making at the moment. I consider it until he mentions that the workload means being in the office whenever he is, and that he works 60-70 hours a week. It also means traveling two weeks of every month, since the "VP of Engineering" is responsible for hawking the company wares at conferences and such.
:~
Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
No frigging thanks
Exactly my thoughts :-D
That's no moon, it's a space station. - Obi-wan Kenobi
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
I can't even come close to topping this. My worst was going to an Oracle PL/SQL interview after beeing told it was for C# & MSSQL. I first interviewed with the "boss" and things went very well. Then the tech guy came in and asked me to define a cursor. Sure, no problem. Then he asked me to build a "package" to handle such and such. A what? Was my question back to him :) Needless to say it went downhill quickly.
Hey don't worry, I can handle it. I took something. I can see things no one else can see. Why are you dressed like that? - Jack Burton
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Chris S Kaiser wrote:
instead of mirroring the data in a common db that all apps used, they had umpteen different versions of the same data.
:omg: :wtf: That must've been fun determining what version of the data was truely current.
That's no moon, it's a space station. - Obi-wan Kenobi
No doubt.. it really wasn't the engineer's fault either as they only had enough time to mirror what they needed at the time. Bummer...
This statement is false.
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
I went to an interview in my City. I was told that the interview would be strictly internet devlopment and marketing. Now this was fine since I have lots of marketing experience and Development is my second nature. They phoned me and asked if I could come down for an interview. I went for the first round, firsly I found the place very odd. In one of the more deserted parts of the City. I went sat down with a lady with a canadian acsent, she asked me all about my skills and qualification and made lots of notes when it came to my software development skills. Few days later she phones me and congratulate me on making it to the second round interview, and on this interview I would see how a normal work day would be like. I went down to the same building, got oriented and got into a busted ass car with my "Collegues" and off we went to the metro-plex of the city, The I found out this job didn't have anything to do with maketing or development. You know those annoying sales people that shows up at businesses selling shit you would not even get payd for to buy. Now these poeple wanted me to become one of those morons. I was furious, I told them to take me back immediately. I went to the office and went strait for the managers office, the receptionist tried to stop me but I gave her one look and she immediately shut her mouth. And I gave that manager a lecture she would never forget.:mad:
Oliekrokenosterpikkelikkeastrysvoel
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
I once wend to a company that said they were professional and they warned me that I would had to be paying extra attention to designs and documentation. Sadly they didn't design themselves (Ok, they wrote something on paper, but that was everything BUT a design...). I worked there for three months and left the company. Their design was nothing more than a marketing story about the feature of the application. When I came up with a a real design specification they simply told me that I was crazy and that wasn't what they wanted. I had too much documents (Vision and Scope,Requirements, Use-cases, Design specification, Testplan etc.). How can you work without these documents? You simply dont know what to build without these documents and the maintainability is rubbish! Anyway, this company was a) Too small and b) Too unprofessional. So I left it and am now working for a much larger company that has better standardisation, plus they support their architects when they want something new and innovative.
WM.
What about weapons of mass-construction? -
My worst interview began with me sitting at one end of a long conference room table, and the three founders at the other end. We shouted at each other (it was a looooong table) for about 15 minutes, and then the president gave me a tour. Everyone in the place was wearing a jacket and tie. Open desks everywhere; no partitions or cubicles. The boss tells me he likes it that way, to foster communication. If that's the case, why aren't people talking to each other? It was dead silent in the place :~. We wander back to the labs, and it's the same way there. The techs are wearing jackets and ties, and nobody is talking. The boss leaves me with a programmer for a while. I asked the guy about the dress code. He told me that the boss requires jacket/tie, in case a customer comes in. When asked how often that happens, he tells me: twice in three years. He also tells me that the real reason for no partitions is that the boss likes to hang over everyone's shoulder and critique what they are doing. He also told me that most of them were pissed at each other, because the current project was way behind schedule and the boss was pitting them against each other to make progress. I end up back in the president's office. He makes me a low-ball offer for a s/w engineer slot, that I decline right then and there. He then offers me a "Vice President of Engineering" position for about $10K more than I'm making at the moment. I consider it until he mentions that the workload means being in the office whenever he is, and that he works 60-70 hours a week. It also means traveling two weeks of every month, since the "VP of Engineering" is responsible for hawking the company wares at conferences and such. No frigging thanks :suss:.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
Everyone in the place was wearing a jacket and tie.
That's a fundamental no-no. Devs at financial firms usually need to wear that archaic crap. Wearing uncomfortable clothes really stifles creativity, IMO.
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
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When I was young and naive and first time living in a city of any size I applied to a sales job which turned out to be door to door selling crap when I got there and nothing like the newspaper description. I didn't have a car then and so took busses to what turned out to be some industrial warehouses in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of the city, the guy took me around on his route going door to door selling literally junk (cheap asian imported paperweights, toys, pencils what have you) to old people (who were the only ones home at that time of day). Within 5 minutes I was back on a bus home having learned a lesson about the jobs listings in the paper.
My first job interview was for a "position" quite like yours. While I was waiting for the interviewer to come I saw the "employees" hitting the street with some big cardboard boxes filled with cheap junk toys! I literally ran away!
B#
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
Many years ago during the height of the "dotcom buble" I took an interview with one such compnay that was very proud of their product which they had acquired from an aquisition company in Germany. My resume clearly demonstrated that I was a database developer but upon interviewing me they begna asking me questions that involved system internals, an area I had never really worked in before. When I finally told them that I didn't think the position was a good fit for me as I was not an internals developer the head of the development section who was interviewing me replied by telling me that they would give me 30 days. I asked him by "30 days" what did he mean since he hadn't been very clear when he first mentioned this. He said, "Well, if in 30 days it appears you are not working out we'll fire you.". Needless to say, I didn't see a future with that company and left.
Steve Naidamast Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@ix.netcom.com
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That's annoying. You find a position that sounds good, get all dressed up, and realize that you wasted your whole day.
Logifusion[^] If not entertaining, write your Congressman.
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I had an interview several years ago at a place and was offered the job but something wasn't quite right so I asked to visit them again. This time I made sure I got a chance to look around and talk to people - they were scared to look up from their desks and then the boss showed me how he allocated tasks to software engineers timed to within 30 minutes :wtf: Run, run away now...
Wow... :laugh:
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
It was in the year 2001 when I was invited for an interview with a japanese firm located at ermita manila. Their HR personnel told me that they need a VB developer using access and oracle as the backend. I got interested so i went there immediately. But when I got in the office the HR guy gave me a written exam. It is somewhat like a logical exam fortunately I passed the exam and I was told to come back next week and so I did. Again they gave me an exam but this time an actual programming examination. Ofcource I was able to do what they want me to do. Then the HR guy told me to come back again next week for the final interview. I really got excited because this would be my second job and im looking forward to having a bigger pay. So after a week I came back this time the japanese project manager interviewed me. Telling me all the things I should know. after that short conversation she brought me to my own working table. When I opened the computer i was surprised cause the O.S. was in japanese language and worst the lead programmer a "filipino" told me that they don't allow the use of DLL, CLASSES etc., in their projects. And theres more, to my surprise this lead programmer told me that I should use MSaccess or VBA for that specific project. Imagine wasting my time. Thats almost 1 month telling me later that I have to use VBA. What a fucking story ha!!!.
geboy
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
My worst interview was during the .COM boom, when I interviewed to be a database designer for a startup web site. When I arrived, the office was filled with about 40 people, most of whom seemed to have no experience whatsoever, as I discovered by chatting with people during the very long wait. The first thing they did was to give me a long personality test. Multiple choice. Then someone who appeared to be a secretary told me that the company is run based on the principles of Scientology, and did I have a problem with that? Since I had already wasted my day and at that point it seemed that there was at least a slight chance that one of the principles of Scientology as they understood it might be to hand large bags of cash to spiritually promising interviewees I said that I wasn't familiar with Scientology but I'd keep an open mind. Then I was interviewed by several people in a conference room, only one of which ever spoke to me, and asked suspiciously about whether I knew various areas of programming, though no one ever asked an actual technical question. Then they told me that the job paid far less then they had advertised, but that "there might be some stock options at some point". On the good side, the whole experience galvanized me to move into more defensive stocks ahead of the market crash. Of course, the owner probably became a millionaire... Paul
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
I have to say that the worse interview was at Microsoft, of all places. It was a long time ago, and I think I was interviewed with either the VB team or the C++ team. I don't remember. The guy that interviewed me as named Steve Bond. I thought it was a cool name, which is why I remembered it. The thing that sucked about it was: 1) I had written a BASIC interpreter at a previous job. One of the other interviewer read it out loud and said something to imply that it wasn't true -- something like, "Well, you claim you've even written a BASIC interpreter...". Didn't really ask me anything about it.. It kind of put me off, but I let it go. 2) Then Steve asked me to implement strtok(), the C-runtime library function -- well, not the exact version, but other than one minor change, it was basically that function. He wanted me to do it on the whiteboard, which is fine. So I started doing it, and speaking what my thought process was as I did, which is what he wanted. I went through the whole thing.. told him, weird to write code without actually testing it as you go. He found this bug on it.. which I admit. but I'm thinking, okay, well, it's not like I'm saying I write bug free code, and that's not a bug that would happen in real life because I would testing my code as I wrote it. So based on that, they told me that they didn't think I had very good coding skills, but wanted me to interview for a program manager position. I might have done that, but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I kinda felt that I really didn't want to work with this team that behaved this way. It was just a weird experience. I doubt this is common practice in that company. It must have been my great luck. ;P
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
After several interview I was offered the position of "Director of Internet Technologies" for a utility company in Hong Kong. I was dubious as to what exactly I was meant to be doing, so I asked to meet my future-supposed-boss one last time before I accepted the job. My first question was could he just outline who I would be accountable to and who I would have working for me in my team. Two hours later he was still trying to answer that question, and the white board he was demonstrating on was a morass of black lines. Basically from what I could work out, I would be accountable to everyone, would have no-one working for me, and had only 3 months to totally migrate their internet site to a new content management based system (as yet to be defined/agreed/budgeted/etc) or I would be fired. Needless to say I didn't accept the job offer.
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Have you ever gone to an interview at some company to find that the company is a complete and utter joke? I have. No names, just descriptions. Here's my worst... Went to an interview at some company in NYC, at the time that I was looking for my current job. The "HR" person I spoke with told me that the gig was all .NET 2.0 and I'd be working with a team of .NET devs. That's what I was looking for, so I went to the interview. I show up, the office is in shambles. Disassembled furniture all over the place. Cardboard boxes laying around, with styrofoam sticking out. Really messy. I first interview with this guy, the "HR" guy (he actually was co-owner I think), and he ends up rambling on about some theory of economics that he couldn't quite remember. He showed me the product and tried to impress me with the fact that people from all over the world use it on a trial basis. oooh ahhhh. After that, while waiting for the CEO to show up, I get interviewed by one of their developers. He told me that he was interested in C#, but they only use VBScript there. My stomach turned. VBScript?! Yikes! Ugh. I then tell him that I was told that the company uses only C# 2.0, and he gets all emotional yelling "Well, we use VBScript here, and if that's not good enough for you, you should just leave!" :| After that, I'm still waiting for the CEO. As I wait in a room full of disassembled office furniture, I overhear two people in the office say how much their jobs suck. At this point, I stuck around just to see how much worse it could get. It was fun, at this point. Sort of. The CEO finally shows up and brings me into his office. He tells me that the company has always used free-lance developers and wants someone to "hold accountable" for their product. Let me rephrase that..."We want you to inherit this mangled blob of VBScript and then we'll hold you responsible for making it work." No thanks. To determine if I was technically savvy, he asked "If you were to design a database that stored info about books and publishers, how would you set it up?" I was very tempted to say "I'd copy the pubs sample db." :laugh: The moron thought that I wouldn't have seen Pubs. What a loser. Well, that's my tale. I hope you can top it! :-D
:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
I'm not sure I can top that, but I have a fairly scary story. I went for an interview with a company that sell branded shoes in shops in the UK and over the internet. I went for an interview for the position of "Web Developer" at this company and as part of the interview I was to do competency test, which involved working my way around a mock up version of their live system and doing various tasks with it. I had a "temporary" username and password which allowed me access into the mock up database through enterprise manager and query analyser. Once I had finished the competency test and even completed the "if you have additional time" section I decided to have a look through some of the other table in the database which I never really used. After bored with picking thorugh thoseI went back up to the main node only to notice a few other databases in the list. Yes, you can see it galloping over the horizon; it was the live database which my "temporary" user certainly had SELECT permissions to all tables (don't know about the other - i didn't think it was entirely ethical to try it!), including a table which contained all the users credit card details....unencrypted! I got the job and within the first few days I'd made many suggestions to tighten up on security, etc. Funnily enough I got hauled into the bosses office on the thursday after I started and got told that there had been a mistake about the position I was offered and I was being asked to leave with immediate effect...with 2 months salary. It does make me wonder how some of these companies survive!
Pol