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Idiot Interviewers

Started by Kyle Brady · 1 year ago

I really hate people sometimes.

 

I just got off the phone with the “Lead” on a project over at Slide (very much like RockYou), who was supposed to gauge my technical abilities.  He asked about my experience - fine.  He then asked me a database question that I answered, but prefaced with “I’m not a db admin, and […] ... Continue reading »

8 comments

  • Kevin Marshall

    1 year ago

    Yeah - interviewing is a bit of an art in itself that most people really aren't any good at...and often the things that come out in interviews are not really related to the work you would be doing (or to the skills that you'll bring to a project).

    What I'm wondering though is why you agreed to interview with them in the first place? I think you made a lot of good points about why you wouldn't want to work for RockYou...and in my opinion Slide is pretty much going down the same path.

    If you're working with a recruiter (or a handful of them) you should probably try to be very specific with them about the type of company/job you are willing to interview for...I've personally found that is the best way to save yourself a lot of aggrevation. Besides it makes them earn a little of the fat check they get every time they connect a dice.com post to dice.com resume ;-D
    reply
  • Kyle Brady

    1 year ago

    Her Mr. BotFu! I picked up your feed a few days ago...

    It's not that I'm "not really good at it", it's more that it wasn't an interview at all. We had a conversation and then two questions. One of which wasn't relevant, the other of which I had decent answers to.

    As for 'why'? Slide is a little less evil/stupid in my opinion, and the hiring manager actually came at me, pitching why I should work for them (after finding my resume, blog, etc.)... I thought it would be a better interviewing experience than it was, and it would have had some nice reasons to work there. But it was just a "feeler".

    Recruiters: I'm trying. I thought I found one of those places who would want to place me somewhere, but they've been ignoring me for the last week.

    Argh

    --Kyle
    reply
  • Kevin Marshall

    1 year ago

    Cool and thanks...I didn't mean you weren't any good at interviewing...I meant there are a lot of people who are bad at interviewing canidates (ie. them not you)...I really try to limit the number of interviews I have to go through, but I've still had my share of REALLY stupid questions...I especially love when a non-tech person asks you some tech questions, expects certain answers (that are actually the wrong answers but they don't know that), and then explains to you why you don't know what your talking about...ah but I guess that's just one of the joys of our tech world right now eh?
    reply
  • Kyle Brady

    1 year ago

    haha, exactly.

    "Would you consider yourself a LAMP developer?" / "Yes, but just so we're clear, I'm not a server admin." / "So, that would mean no?"

    ---Kyle
    reply
  • Kevin Marshall

    1 year ago

    Nice. "So would you consider yourself a LAMP developer?" / "Yes" / "So what kind of light bulb do you prefer?" / "Um...what?" / "Oh so you're a really junior LAMP developer then eh?" / "No it's just that I'm a bit confused about what you are asking me..." / "LAMPs use lightbulbs, no? It's no matter though, this interview is over, thank you for your time..."

    Six months later...

    "Can you come in for an interview?" / "Um, I interviewed with you 6 months ago and it didn't go well" / "We've completely changed and are on the right path now...the developer we hired then turned out not to know anything and so we have learned our lesson and want to talk to you again. I promise we'll make it worth your time." / "OK I guess...what do you have for me?" / "Are you still doing LAMP? We really need a sys. admin...could you do both?" / "Well yes but I don't really..." / "OK great, can you also clean the toilets, cook, and integrate some features we used to have on punch cards? Oh and we're willing to pay as much as $5.50/hour...when can you start?!" / CLICK...BZZZZZZ....

    :thumbsup:
    reply
  • Kyle Brady

    1 year ago

    haha apparently I'm not the only one with this problems...

    --Kyle
    reply
  • ashleyp

    1 year ago

    BTW, recruiters don't get paid till the consultant/candidate gets paid. Unfortunately, downloading resumes and submitting candidates doesn't pay the bills :(
    reply
  • Kyle Brady

    1 year ago

    Hi Ashley,

    I know that. But in this case it wasn't a recruiter... it was an internal employee in the hiring department.

    At the same time, I have dealt with some really ignorant and misleading recruiters. You're one of the few who seems to "get it" and is pretty straightforward.

    Which is nice. ;-)

    --Kyle
    reply

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