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P sure my interview today went badly, most of the questions were about how I’ve handled bad situations and I didnt know how to answer without sounding like someone whose career is a series of bad siguations (which it perhaps is, but why couldn’t they ask about something else) Also “design & PoC a microservice in 90 minutes given only informal requirements” (I have never built a microservice, nor any service using a well-known framework) Fuuuuuck fuckfuck Gazpacho fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Jun 12, 2019 |
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Jun 12, 2019 22:37
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| # ? Jan 23, 2025 16:51 |
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interviewing and recruiting: why couldn’t they ask about something else
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Jun 12, 2019 22:40
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If they ask about a lot of bad situations it means that the role will have you dealing with bullshit constantly. Steer away
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Jun 12, 2019 23:17
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the good news is that nobody should expect anything that went from nothing to produced in 90 minutes to work at all
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Jun 12, 2019 23:17
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Also blast the luck I arrived at the SF train station at the same time as my boss after writing in sick. Dunno if he saw me.PokeJoe posted:If they ask about a lot of bad situations it means that the role will have you dealing with bullshit constantly. Steer away Gazpacho fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Jun 12, 2019 |
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Jun 12, 2019 23:24
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Gazpacho posted:most of the questions were about how I’ve handled bad situations and I didnt know how to answer without sounding like someone whose career is a series of bad siguations (which it perhaps is, but why couldn’t they ask about something else) wat
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Jun 13, 2019 02:18
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JawnV6 posted:wat imposter syndrome and behavioral interview questions can do a number on people
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Jun 13, 2019 02:43
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hard to answer questions about bad situations I've had to deal with without also talking about what drove those bad situations (mgmt wants the feature deployed now, no excuses, oh drat the wheels fell off; previous coder refused to follow process and hacked the project to bits, then it became mine). I know you're not supposed to dump on previous employers because it looks bad but then why focus the whole interview on candidates' bad experiences?
Gazpacho fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Jun 13, 2019 |
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Jun 13, 2019 02:46
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it’s so they can see how you deal with bad experiences
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Jun 13, 2019 02:54
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seems a company should care more, or at least just a little, about whether someone knows how to create good situations
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Jun 13, 2019 03:17
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Gazpacho posted:seems a company should care more, or at least just a little, about whether someone knows how to create good situations yes, that is the purpose of the question they're asking
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Jun 13, 2019 03:22
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well, that's fine for folks who have worked under management that was receptive to industry standard practices
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Jun 13, 2019 03:35
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Gazpacho posted:well, that's fine for folks who have worked under management that was receptive to industry standard practices your experience is the industry standard practice, though
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Jun 13, 2019 04:05
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Gazpacho posted:seems a company should care more, or at least just a little, about whether someone knows how to create good situations yes, the best answer to “what did you do with a bad situation” is some flavor of “managed to turn it into a good situation”
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Jun 13, 2019 04:19
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Asking about negative experiences is really asking "When upper management pulls some BS and causes a problem, are you going to make it into 2 problems?"
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Jun 13, 2019 04:27
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Fiedler posted:your experience is the industry standard practice, though
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Jun 13, 2019 05:27
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Gazpacho posted:well, that's fine for folks who have worked under management that was receptive to industry standard practices Okay let me help you answer this question, and this is coming from someone who has had to deal with a lot of bad situations caused in total by a minority of willfully ignorant coworkers and management that is more concerned with releasing Now At All Costs, specifically from a single company that I worked with previously. This is the image to get across. First of all, never give off the impression that you are perfect. It doesn't even matter that you were not at fault at all for why the situation got so out of control, you need to let them know that you are not ruling out entirely the possibility you could've made things better. This makes you seem like a cool person who really did try and would pick up the slack when others fail. Secondly, never outright blame another person, ever, unless the blame is so obviously directly at that person's feet, and even then do so very sparingly. They want to see you do not throw others under the bus when they are perhaps not performing as expected. Thirdly, never ever at all under any circumstance show cynicism towards your previous colleagues/bosses. Cynicism is like a loving virus in an org and can totally destroy the morale on a team if entertained, and everyone worth their weight as a manager spots this a mile away. It's an instant red flag if a candidate is already doing this in an interview. No matter how awful a situation is, there is always something you could've done to finesse it into a better state. Focus on the things you tried to do, mentions the things you could've done better if you could do it again. Hopefully you'll pass as a cool guy who'd be great to work with under pressure, and that's what they are looking for!
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Jun 13, 2019 06:04
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i just got off a call for a position where the recruitment process is as follows: - initial phone screen - tech phone screen - two take home programming tasks - face to face interview/pair programming exercise - on site whiteboarding exercise - final on site/cultural fit interview this isn't for a faang, just a regular job. when did this process become so garbage/complicated?
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Jun 13, 2019 12:49
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I guess I could start working 80 hours week to save a project that the management did not get enough people for... 
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Jun 13, 2019 12:52
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Xarn posted:Wait, seriously? From the horse's mouth 'You must have worked for your employer for a minimum period before you qualify for the right to claim unfair dismissal at a tribunal. If you’re classed as an employee and started your job: on or after 6 April 2012 - the qualifying period is normally 2 years' New Labour brought it in at one year some time back to encourage 'flexibility in the labour market', the Tory/Lib Dem coalition doubled it because 'does the name of our parties even attempt to suggest we care about workers' rights? gently caress you'. Before the 2 year mark it's essentially the same deal as the US - you can be fired for anything or nothing bar absolutely blatant stuff like 'I am literally standing here telling you I'm sacking you for being black' and you just get to work out your notice period - which, granted, is more typically like a month or 6 weeks than the 2 weeks in the US (after you pass probation).
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Jun 13, 2019 14:43
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gov.uk posted:In Northern Ireland, the qualifying period is still normally 1 year.
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Jun 13, 2019 14:50
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i like to talk about how i handled a bad situation poorly early in my career, then talk about the lesson(s) i learned, then talk about how i applied them the next time such a situation came up
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Jun 13, 2019 15:09
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Bloody posted:i like to talk about how i handled a bad situation poorly early in my career, then talk about the lesson(s) i learned, then talk about how i applied them the next time such a situation came up i do similar for the old “biggest weakness” question, i give some weakness and then immediately talk about the steps i take to mitigate against it
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Jun 13, 2019 15:11
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major sports org recruiter "are you a fan of sport?" me: "no" msor: silence why does it matter if i care about the sport? i care about getting paid and delivering good product
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Jun 13, 2019 17:05
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Gazpacho posted:hard to answer questions about bad situations I've had to deal with without also talking about what drove those bad situations (mgmt wants the feature deployed now, no excuses, oh drat the wheels fell off; previous coder refused to follow process and hacked the project to bits, then it became mine). I know you're not supposed to dump on previous employers because it looks bad but then why focus the whole interview on candidates' bad experiences? i dunno it kinda sounds like the first story goes so bad that they write you off and decide to see what other horrors lurk in your career history this place kinda splits the conversational boundary, it's totally fine to blame That One Guy for hacking things up over beers with peers but in an interview context you want to play the game a little and use that blameless management speak and just talk about the trajectory up and out from the bad experience rather than poo poo talking people who aren't in the room. doesn't matter why the wheels fell off, they're off for Mysterious Reasons and we're discussing welding them back on. the project had been without resources for some time and lapsed into technical debt, who/why is irrelevant and it's you the hero adding new things while trying to clean up a bad legacy like compare "against my principled technical objection, the decision was made to launch a feature early. nothing immediately fell apart, but the increased load on a service blah blah" versus "oh yeah Jim had his buddy buddy PM give the green light despite my spreadsheets, what a poo poo CTO that guy is eh? anyway," this is 100% spot on take it to heart: qhat posted:Thirdly, never ever at all under any circumstance show cynicism towards your previous colleagues/bosses. Cynicism is like a loving virus in an org and can totally destroy the morale on a team if entertained, and everyone worth their weight as a manager spots this a mile away. It's an instant red flag if a candidate is already doing this in an interview.
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Jun 13, 2019 17:06
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KidDynamite posted:major sports org recruiter "are you a fan of sport?" This is one of the things I like about finance, everyone knows it's boring so the questions are more like "can you stand to work on stuff this lame?"
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Jun 13, 2019 17:28
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KidDynamite posted:major sports org recruiter "are you a fan of sport?" Because if you enjoy sports you're probably willing to be paid less to work in sports.
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Jun 13, 2019 17:52
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There's so many tech jobs out there why try to work in a subject field you have no interest in? (As always, the answer is figgies)
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Jun 13, 2019 18:13
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one time a manager called me from Salesforce and started out the interview by directing me to the Salesforce site that his group developed. For use by sales reps, of course. I don't even remember if it was Ajax-enabled. He walked me through a user flow and then: manager: does this interest you? me:  I have a sense of what's happening technically.manager: but does it interest you? me: no manager: then this is probably not the right job for you.
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Jun 13, 2019 18:39
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if you're not willing to tell a white lie on something like that you probably don't want to work at a company with "sales" in its name
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Jun 13, 2019 18:52
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Why would you say "no" to that question? That's like not even a curve ball question, the answer is yes and always yes. You numpty.
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Jun 13, 2019 19:02
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you say "no" when you're only interested in the job if "no" is an acceptable answer
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Jun 13, 2019 19:12
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because I assumed he would go on to ask what I liked about his lame site I don't have much patience for anyone who uses the recruiting process to puff themselves up. fortunately it doesn't happen often
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Jun 13, 2019 19:15
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Gazpacho posted:because I assumed he would go on to ask what I liked about his lame site in the example given you explicitly said you weren't interested in the job
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Jun 13, 2019 19:22
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qirex posted:This is one of the things I like about finance, everyone knows it's boring so the questions are more like "can you stand to work on stuff this lame?" this sounds amazing have to fake caring about some fart app is awful
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Jun 13, 2019 19:31
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hobbesmaster posted:in the example given you explicitly said you weren't interested in the job
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Jun 13, 2019 19:34
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hobbesmaster posted:in the example given you explicitly said you weren't interested in the job Yeah. You weren't rejected because you weren't personally interested in the dumb website, you were rejected because you came across like an rear end in a top hat who'd be a downer to work with since you couldn't feign even the smallest modicum of interest in what he's probably working on.
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Jun 13, 2019 19:35
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Gazpacho posted:I wasn't interested in the mere fact that his team had a functioning web site. "interest" generally means something different in a business situation. for example if you're interested in an opportunity that means you're willing to go along with it, not that you're excited about it. think of it in the same way of being interested in bidding on something or pricing something out
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Jun 13, 2019 19:35
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that said its fine to defacto decline a job after seeing what it is at an interview if you weren't interested in creating simple CRUD stuff at that point in your career
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Jun 13, 2019 19:38
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It's important to know what questions to be honest with and what questions are literally just requiring a human answer from a human. Getting these mixed up is a fatal blunder that you will not recover from.
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Jun 13, 2019 19:38
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