At the interview you find out you don't want to work there...
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1. Be polite; you never know when you will need to work again with the people you are interviewing with. They will remember "rude" if they encounter you again. 2. Do a good job, don't intentionally blow the interview. After all, you never know when you will need to work with the people you are interviewing with. They will remember "idiot" if they encounter you again. 3. Decline a follow up interview or offer, and don't mention your personal reasons, just don't go back. If they encounter you later they will likely remember you as "the one that got away". Be professional! You never know when you will need to work with the people you are interviewing with.
WPerkins wrote:
You never know when you will need to work with the people you are interviewing with.
Sometimes those are the problem in the interview, I strategically used rudeness to ensure I will not work with those people at all. The way I see it is: if we're going to work together and they have the position of power, I'm out. If I am in the position of power, bad for them. If we're at the same level, I gave all the :elephant:s I had during Halloween, sorry.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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I once interviewed for a company whose headquarters were in Buffalo NY but they had a satellite office in Albany. The commute to Albany would be about an hour but I was definitely needing work at that time. So, they told me they wouldn't do a Zoom interview, I had to come in to the office at Albany. OK, I can do that. In the Albany office, I was led into a conference room where the freaking interview was conducted over Zoom with me being the only person in the conference room. F***ing morons. I was so pissed off that I tried my new line on them. When asked "what is an abstract class" I told them, "please don't ask me junior programming questions and that anyone can Google the answer for." The silence was stunning and deeply satisfying. :laugh:
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Create a Digital Ocean Droplet for .NET Core Web API with a real SSL Certificate on a DomainI once got asked how I'd reverse a string. "String.Reverse, of course." Well, what if you were working in an environment that didn't have that? "I'd start looking for a new platform." Then went through the algorithm. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Got called back later that morning by the headhunter saying, "They loved you! Can you come back this afternoon for a follow-up interview?" --------------- At the same time as above, had an interview with another organization. Get there, nobody's out by the reception area. Wandered down the hall, found someone and explained I was here for an interview. While waiting back in the reception area, saw a bookshelf filled with self-help management titles. My initial thought was, "these guys don't know what they're doing, and are grasping at straws." Turns out, I was right. Unfortunately for me, I thought position #2 would be a better use of my skills from the standpoint of being more socially responsible, and took it. Oops.
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I once had : "Do you have questions ?" "Yes, a few, thanks for asking. What tool are you using for source control ?" "Source what ?" "Mmhh, sorry, I gotta go"
You missed a golden opportunity to be master of the domain. Workplaces like that are in need of someone to lead them out of the dark ages - and that someone inevitably gets paid more.
------------------------------------------------ If you say that getting the money is the most important thing You will spend your life completely wasting your time You will be doing things you don't like doing In order to go on living That is, to go on doing things you don't like doing Which is stupid. - Alan Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXTZM\_uPMY
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I have, on more than one occasion been called for an interview for a job that, on paper, seemed like a good opportunity; only to find, during the interview itself (or the workplace tour on occasion), that the workplace was toxic, corrupt, disorganized or just plain bad and that I definitely wasn't going to take the job. Have you?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
Yep. Most of my turnoff for companies have been related to requiring a suite and tie or requiring 60+ hours a week. At my last interview (back in the early 80s) I wore sneakers, corduroy jeans, a flannel shirt and Mork style rainbow suspenders with a "Don't Panic" button. They hired me and it turned out to be one of the best places I ever worked at.
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I have, on more than one occasion been called for an interview for a job that, on paper, seemed like a good opportunity; only to find, during the interview itself (or the workplace tour on occasion), that the workplace was toxic, corrupt, disorganized or just plain bad and that I definitely wasn't going to take the job. Have you?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
Yes, the interview is also for you to see if you want to work there. Success is not having to work where you don't want to. Nevertheless keep your questions on discovering what the job is up to the point that you can credibly say if you are up to it or not. If you can't get to that point then you have encountered incoherence on their part or yours - it isn't going to work. You find out about toxic environments by listening and observing, not by asking questions that make you sound picky. Toxic bosses are very often fond of telling you so in the interview: 'I am a bit of a perfectionist' etc. Listen carefully to their spiel. You can smile politely as they say it but don't think that they don't mean it.
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You missed a golden opportunity to be master of the domain. Workplaces like that are in need of someone to lead them out of the dark ages - and that someone inevitably gets paid more.
------------------------------------------------ If you say that getting the money is the most important thing You will spend your life completely wasting your time You will be doing things you don't like doing In order to go on living That is, to go on doing things you don't like doing Which is stupid. - Alan Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXTZM\_uPMY
MMh ... no. Been there tried that. You land in the middle of people who simply do not understand or do not want or whatever, and you end up being the one who does everything because he knows how to while others get promoted. Forget about it.
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MMh ... no. Been there tried that. You land in the middle of people who simply do not understand or do not want or whatever, and you end up being the one who does everything because he knows how to while others get promoted. Forget about it.
Exactly right, THEY need to understand they have a problem they need to fix before someone with the knowledge and skills (and mandate) can go fix it. Otherwise it is lose lose. You can't teach a pig to sing, first you'll be unsuccessful, second, it will just irritate the pig. :-)
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MMh ... no. Been there tried that. You land in the middle of people who simply do not understand or do not want or whatever, and you end up being the one who does everything because he knows how to while others get promoted. Forget about it.
yeah, I also have "been there, done that" - several times - and I can confidently say that whilst it's not an easy trick to pull off, steering a company's tech base from the shadows can be really rewarding (:
------------------------------------------------ If you say that getting the money is the most important thing You will spend your life completely wasting your time You will be doing things you don't like doing In order to go on living That is, to go on doing things you don't like doing Which is stupid. - Alan Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXTZM\_uPMY
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I have, on more than one occasion been called for an interview for a job that, on paper, seemed like a good opportunity; only to find, during the interview itself (or the workplace tour on occasion), that the workplace was toxic, corrupt, disorganized or just plain bad and that I definitely wasn't going to take the job. Have you?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
I have, on a number of occasions been on job interviews that, during the interview, I decided I did not want the job. I then proceeded to shoot myself in the foot and lose the interview, sometimes regretting it. The Interview is NEVER the time or place to decide whether or not you want the job. Always sell yourself throughout the process. Only when you have a firm offer in front of you is the time to decide whether or not you want the job. Sometimes after thinking about it you may decide to give it a shot!
DonD
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I once had : "Do you have questions ?" "Yes, a few, thanks for asking. What tool are you using for source control ?" "Source what ?" "Mmhh, sorry, I gotta go"
Yes: the interview should always be you interviewing them, not them interviewing you!
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I once had : "Do you have questions ?" "Yes, a few, thanks for asking. What tool are you using for source control ?" "Source what ?" "Mmhh, sorry, I gotta go"
Rage wrote:
"Yes, a few, thanks for asking. What tool are you using for source control ?" "Source what ?"
Basically same thing happened to me. They did say however that they were thinking about doing that pretty soon. I didn't get the impression that they thought it was a priority. I heard about another place which had source control. For every release a developer would build it locally then zip the binaries and check that zip file into source control. Yep - only thing in source control was the binary builds of the release.
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honey the codewitch wrote:
or so not to "dress up" for interviews.
This is golden advice that I learn myself. I am not that weird - I'm a bog standard metalhead in his 30s that no longer wears band sweaters because the last ones he bought no longer fit (I swear these new fabrics tighten with time). That said, I don't wear suits or ties and it shows. When I wear one it is painfully obvious that I'm not used to that dress code, and that since I'm paid like an engineer in my country (little more than a manula laborer) I have to wear mass produced suits, which exacerbate the "man who stole some clothes from the garbage can" impression. I also learnt to not hold back my true character too much: I am direct, inquisitive and I do have my needs, wants and lacks. Let's be honest from Time0 since if it goes well we'll be working together for way too much time, if it doesn't it doesn't and that's it.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
den2k88 wrote:
That said, I don't wear suits or ties and it shows. When I wear one it is painfully obvious that I'm not used to that dress code,
'business casual' - I add 20,000 to my ask. But places like that usually have additional adds so I price myself out. 'suit' - I would add 60,000 but been a really long time since I thought that was a possibility.