Interviews
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Last employment was a fiasco so I resigned and took a short holiday. Now I'm back and starting the rounds of interviews. First problem: After the last experience, I don't trust employers, and I don't trust the recruitment process. Second problem: Companies want vampires (male, young, passionate, pale, sleep all day, code all night, live on coffee). Interview: Sonic the Hedgehog in a natty shirt sells Google-like startup environment with a big budget, Agile, and coffins in the basement. Daily scrums. Pair programming. TDD. Code quickly and through the night because you're passionate, fail quickly. Throw code away and start from scratch because requirements changed 2 seconds after you completed the app. Structure kills vampires innovation. Chaos! That is what we need. I smile politely and tell them I'm not the vampire they're looking for. I'm thoughtful, analytical, structured and pedantic female. I'd flood trainees with too much information. My perfect work environment would contain only me, because interruptions kill productivity. I leave the interview feeling like BatCoder - I'm the coder they need but not the one they deserve. I confidently tell the recruiter we had a lovely chat but they won't invite me back. Voice mail today: They LOVED me. I'm through to the next round (online testing FTW :doh: ) ... What?!?! :confused: Did tech sanity prevail over marketing hype? Or does my relatively low salary expectations/availability/ experience/knowledge/gender/dry humour appeal? And do I take a chance that this might work out, or decline? Gah!! You'd swear I had to consider a marriage proposal and I haven't even passed a test yet :~
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Last employment was a fiasco so I resigned and took a short holiday. Now I'm back and starting the rounds of interviews. First problem: After the last experience, I don't trust employers, and I don't trust the recruitment process. Second problem: Companies want vampires (male, young, passionate, pale, sleep all day, code all night, live on coffee). Interview: Sonic the Hedgehog in a natty shirt sells Google-like startup environment with a big budget, Agile, and coffins in the basement. Daily scrums. Pair programming. TDD. Code quickly and through the night because you're passionate, fail quickly. Throw code away and start from scratch because requirements changed 2 seconds after you completed the app. Structure kills vampires innovation. Chaos! That is what we need. I smile politely and tell them I'm not the vampire they're looking for. I'm thoughtful, analytical, structured and pedantic female. I'd flood trainees with too much information. My perfect work environment would contain only me, because interruptions kill productivity. I leave the interview feeling like BatCoder - I'm the coder they need but not the one they deserve. I confidently tell the recruiter we had a lovely chat but they won't invite me back. Voice mail today: They LOVED me. I'm through to the next round (online testing FTW :doh: ) ... What?!?! :confused: Did tech sanity prevail over marketing hype? Or does my relatively low salary expectations/availability/ experience/knowledge/gender/dry humour appeal? And do I take a chance that this might work out, or decline? Gah!! You'd swear I had to consider a marriage proposal and I haven't even passed a test yet :~
Ri_ wrote:
I don't trust employers, and I don't trust the recruitment process.
Trust no one, ever! Ok, there are exceptions to that but none in the workplace.
Ri_ wrote:
Voice mail today: They LOVED me. I'm through to the next round (online testing FTW :doh: )
Online testing is very hit-and-miss but good luck!
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Last employment was a fiasco so I resigned and took a short holiday. Now I'm back and starting the rounds of interviews. First problem: After the last experience, I don't trust employers, and I don't trust the recruitment process. Second problem: Companies want vampires (male, young, passionate, pale, sleep all day, code all night, live on coffee). Interview: Sonic the Hedgehog in a natty shirt sells Google-like startup environment with a big budget, Agile, and coffins in the basement. Daily scrums. Pair programming. TDD. Code quickly and through the night because you're passionate, fail quickly. Throw code away and start from scratch because requirements changed 2 seconds after you completed the app. Structure kills vampires innovation. Chaos! That is what we need. I smile politely and tell them I'm not the vampire they're looking for. I'm thoughtful, analytical, structured and pedantic female. I'd flood trainees with too much information. My perfect work environment would contain only me, because interruptions kill productivity. I leave the interview feeling like BatCoder - I'm the coder they need but not the one they deserve. I confidently tell the recruiter we had a lovely chat but they won't invite me back. Voice mail today: They LOVED me. I'm through to the next round (online testing FTW :doh: ) ... What?!?! :confused: Did tech sanity prevail over marketing hype? Or does my relatively low salary expectations/availability/ experience/knowledge/gender/dry humour appeal? And do I take a chance that this might work out, or decline? Gah!! You'd swear I had to consider a marriage proposal and I haven't even passed a test yet :~
Start laying down some of your own rules if you are not pressed for the job! Do I get an office, can I spec my workstation, do I get admin rights! Just some basics, you should then find out if they are serious.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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Last employment was a fiasco so I resigned and took a short holiday. Now I'm back and starting the rounds of interviews. First problem: After the last experience, I don't trust employers, and I don't trust the recruitment process. Second problem: Companies want vampires (male, young, passionate, pale, sleep all day, code all night, live on coffee). Interview: Sonic the Hedgehog in a natty shirt sells Google-like startup environment with a big budget, Agile, and coffins in the basement. Daily scrums. Pair programming. TDD. Code quickly and through the night because you're passionate, fail quickly. Throw code away and start from scratch because requirements changed 2 seconds after you completed the app. Structure kills vampires innovation. Chaos! That is what we need. I smile politely and tell them I'm not the vampire they're looking for. I'm thoughtful, analytical, structured and pedantic female. I'd flood trainees with too much information. My perfect work environment would contain only me, because interruptions kill productivity. I leave the interview feeling like BatCoder - I'm the coder they need but not the one they deserve. I confidently tell the recruiter we had a lovely chat but they won't invite me back. Voice mail today: They LOVED me. I'm through to the next round (online testing FTW :doh: ) ... What?!?! :confused: Did tech sanity prevail over marketing hype? Or does my relatively low salary expectations/availability/ experience/knowledge/gender/dry humour appeal? And do I take a chance that this might work out, or decline? Gah!! You'd swear I had to consider a marriage proposal and I haven't even passed a test yet :~
Ri_ wrote:
Companies want vampires (male, young, passionate, pale, sleep all day, code all night, live on coffee).
Decent companies nowadays are more interested in what they call 'behaviours'(urgh horrible buzzword) rather than eidetic memory at interview. It's much better to be a no-b*llsh*t type communicator at interview as although it is flattering to be offered a place, working in a crappy environment sucks much more than having to look a bit longer for that decent job(speaking from past experience here :sigh:). I have turned down people with 1st class degrees who answered every technical question perfectly but who were incapable of a smile or a laugh, at one of my try to help them relax jokes(I may have just identified why they were unable to relax...), at interview over people who have some ability to communicate but may not be as technically qualified. That's because I know when it comes to the crunch I would much rather work with someone who has some ability to communicate than a savant who may be technically brilliant but is inflexible. Good luck finding a job/environment that works for you!:thumbsup:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Ri_ wrote:
Companies want vampires (male, young, passionate, pale, sleep all day, code all night, live on coffee).
Decent companies nowadays are more interested in what they call 'behaviours'(urgh horrible buzzword) rather than eidetic memory at interview. It's much better to be a no-b*llsh*t type communicator at interview as although it is flattering to be offered a place, working in a crappy environment sucks much more than having to look a bit longer for that decent job(speaking from past experience here :sigh:). I have turned down people with 1st class degrees who answered every technical question perfectly but who were incapable of a smile or a laugh, at one of my try to help them relax jokes(I may have just identified why they were unable to relax...), at interview over people who have some ability to communicate but may not be as technically qualified. That's because I know when it comes to the crunch I would much rather work with someone who has some ability to communicate than a savant who may be technically brilliant but is inflexible. Good luck finding a job/environment that works for you!:thumbsup:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
:thumbsup:
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Last employment was a fiasco so I resigned and took a short holiday. Now I'm back and starting the rounds of interviews. First problem: After the last experience, I don't trust employers, and I don't trust the recruitment process. Second problem: Companies want vampires (male, young, passionate, pale, sleep all day, code all night, live on coffee). Interview: Sonic the Hedgehog in a natty shirt sells Google-like startup environment with a big budget, Agile, and coffins in the basement. Daily scrums. Pair programming. TDD. Code quickly and through the night because you're passionate, fail quickly. Throw code away and start from scratch because requirements changed 2 seconds after you completed the app. Structure kills vampires innovation. Chaos! That is what we need. I smile politely and tell them I'm not the vampire they're looking for. I'm thoughtful, analytical, structured and pedantic female. I'd flood trainees with too much information. My perfect work environment would contain only me, because interruptions kill productivity. I leave the interview feeling like BatCoder - I'm the coder they need but not the one they deserve. I confidently tell the recruiter we had a lovely chat but they won't invite me back. Voice mail today: They LOVED me. I'm through to the next round (online testing FTW :doh: ) ... What?!?! :confused: Did tech sanity prevail over marketing hype? Or does my relatively low salary expectations/availability/ experience/knowledge/gender/dry humour appeal? And do I take a chance that this might work out, or decline? Gah!! You'd swear I had to consider a marriage proposal and I haven't even passed a test yet :~
Ri_ wrote:
First problem: After the last experience, I don't trust employers, and I don't trust the recruitment process.
This will help to resolve your confusion over...
Ri_ wrote:
Voice mail today: They LOVED me.
Certainly they did. See ?
Ri_ wrote:
I'm through to the next round (online testing FTW :doh: )
My uneducated guess is that this is the post-interview version of "*Click Here To Apply*" i.e., if you're not a young white male, then they need something tangible; i.e., an empirical data set that demonstrates that you aren't the sister-in-law of the receptionist's friend for whom they really created the job in the first place. (Place into the Babel speak translator, legal verbiage transformer, then tested on the lawsuit shield defender: "She did not score as highly as the other candidates on the exact same test.") I would find it very interesting if the test actually gives any semblance of an accurate reflection of the thinking skills that the chosen employee would in fact be required to execute; particularly if that's a mostly techno-nerd type of position. I would like to encourage you to do yourself, and the people in that company (and those of us reading) a favor and take the online test. Let us know if any of this comes true or not. (Psychic trance moment, please play some woo-wee-zoo-ee theremin sounds and read on) That test will have 3 questions that are even partially relevant to the needed job skills, and 37 questions which are from barely tangential technical disciplines of which you, and everybody else on earth, have absolutely zero knowledge. (With the sole exception of the receptionist's sister-in-law.)
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Ri_ wrote:
Companies want vampires (male, young, passionate, pale, sleep all day, code all night, live on coffee).
Decent companies nowadays are more interested in what they call 'behaviours'(urgh horrible buzzword) rather than eidetic memory at interview. It's much better to be a no-b*llsh*t type communicator at interview as although it is flattering to be offered a place, working in a crappy environment sucks much more than having to look a bit longer for that decent job(speaking from past experience here :sigh:). I have turned down people with 1st class degrees who answered every technical question perfectly but who were incapable of a smile or a laugh, at one of my try to help them relax jokes(I may have just identified why they were unable to relax...), at interview over people who have some ability to communicate but may not be as technically qualified. That's because I know when it comes to the crunch I would much rather work with someone who has some ability to communicate than a savant who may be technically brilliant but is inflexible. Good luck finding a job/environment that works for you!:thumbsup:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens