Re: Finding a job sucks thread

91
I'm definitely not looking at anything as technical as some of you folks, but one of the first interviews I ever had for a role in my field, the person who had the job currently was doing an Excel assessment with me. When I told him there was something I couldn't figure out he said "here let me show you how I do it", and showed me on his laptop that he just went to Google, searched for what he was trying to do in Excel, and then found an answer from someone who'd already figured it out. Absolutely blew my mind that you could just do that.

I've had to do a few basic Excel assessments over the years, but really it was just for teams who'd been burned by someone claiming to be a wizard at everything Excel who then couldn't barely even open a fucking Word doc.
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Re: Finding a job sucks thread

92
Had my final, final interviews this week. I feel like I did a great job. One was a very casual Q&A and I got a long with the interviewer on the other end. She and I had a similar experience and we had a lot in common, so it was a very chill and fun conversation. The second was a systems design challenge, but the interviewer said the he was asked to do something different with me, and so he had this half-baked idea that we both expanded on together. Again, very fun and casual and we got a long great, we even crossed paths with some of the same colleagues, despite being at different ends of the country.

If I don't get an offer, then I fucked up somewhere and have a false sense of security. It sucks playing the waiting game.

On the brighter side of things, I helped an engineer I manage during his job search. We would do leetcode challenges for our weekly 1on1s together, and I did a critical review of one of his take home assessments and gave him some advice on what to ask for in his interview. Well, that interview was yesterday and today he got an offer!

An online friend I've been helping through his applications and interview processes to land his first tech job is now into his third and final round of interviews. It's looking good for him, so I'm happy to see that he's finally gotten an interview and has been able to get to the final round.

To the rest of you that have reached out to me, I hope all is going well. I know some of you are just starting to look and others have been at it for awhile. Don't hesitate to continue reaching out to me for whatever. Regardless of the outcome for me, not having any interviews or practice to be had has taken a lot of weight off my shoulders and I can give a little more of my time to you, if you need it. It's great to see others have success and means a lot to me personally to be able to help out where I can, even in the smallest ways.

Re: Finding a job sucks thread

94
I got an email on Friday from a recruiter to wrap up my interview process and find out whether or not I got the job. They ask when is a good time to call to go over the feedback and give me the final decision. To me, this sounded like it was going to be a rejection. I write back 5 minutes after receiving it and say I'm available anytime that day. I get an automated message back from his email saying he's going to be on leave for a month. The next day, he wrote me back and he had an emergency, but he wanted to call me that afternoon. I said, sure I'm around. I spent all day waiting, no call. Finally, on Monday morning, I write back and tell him since he's now on leave, I'll reach out to the contact he left. He replies and says he'll call me in a bit. I waited all day to get a call at 5pm. He starts by saying he's got bad news, but I didn't get the job, so no surprise. But, I'll hand it to him, he asked me if I wanted the raw details or just keep it simple, so I said just give it to me strait. I appreciated that he didn't ghost me or send me a rejection letter, but it was crazy to go through this for three days to be told that I didn't get a job. Anyway, the feedback was essentially that I would be a great fit and everyone liked me, but that it seemed I was a little too lopsided on the frontend. Now, this was for a frontend heavy role, which honestly, I was willing to take on because the job would have been good in the long-term, but I would prefer something full-stack. The interview part that focused on backend was, in the beginning of the interview, admitted to me by the interviewer that he hadn't really prepared the right kind of tech interview for me, so he wanted to wing it. I thought we did alright, it wasn't that deep and we didn't have more than 30 minutes to do it.

I was told that even though its a frontend heavy role, the level is pretty senior so they expected more of me. Ok, I get it. Generally, I feel that personality can really get you far, but this kind of company has some pretty high standards, so every ounce counts. This is the story of my career, aim high, get rejected because I don't have the exact experience, find a job at a smaller place where everyone is cool and chill. It hurts every time regardless. So, I feel I lost a job on a technicality. It kind of stings, but whatever I don't really want to dwell on it, I just need to get this off my chest.

I've got a final interview this week for a full stack role. I'm getting the feeling that I will get an offer, this last interview was explained to me that it's a formality before getting an offer. I've made it clear to every company that I've been interviewing with that I want to pivot into full stack, so it's not like I'm not honest about where my skills lie. I even did a better job on their technicals, which were a little more challenging, to be honest. I just want to get this all over with. The thought of having to start over makes my stomach turn.

Re: Finding a job sucks thread

95
I really feel for all you looking for work. It seems to me, after reading many of these posts, that two things have changed a lot in the past decade or so.

1) It used to be that you interviewed with the company doing the actual person looking for the employee rather than a recruiter (in house, or contract), who, these days, seems to not have all the relevant information needed to make a decision. And then it's a game of telephone between the recruiter and the person actually needing a worker. My wife recently went through this a number of times.

2) In the past, it was almost expected that whoever was hiring would want someone who could grow into a position, like there was a minimum expected and "you'll learn/we'll teach you the rest" when you get hired. You were hired based a little more on a feeling they had about your ability to grow. Every successive job was a "stretch," we used to hear, and that was great, because no one wanted a bored employee.

Now they want someone who can do exactly the job already.

I could be wrong.

Anyway, best of luck to you all.
Last edited by enframed on Tue May 07, 2024 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Finding a job sucks thread

96
Bummer. I feel like in these cases they probably could have figured that out (if it's even true, doesn't seem like you were fairly evaluated) in 2 rounds of interview. In some cases, straight off the fuckin' resume. I've had several versions of this kind of rejection and the explanations never add up to me.

But yes to moving on.. good luck with the interview later this week!
enframed wrote: Tue May 07, 2024 11:42 am Now they want someone who can do exactly the job already.

I could be wrong.

Anyway, best of luck to you all.
Yeah. With 1. they can certainly be an annoying barrier, especially when they don't bother to understand the technical requirements and are pretty much mashing words together. 2. that's still the case when workers have the advantage, which isn't right now, which is why companies are Goldie Locks-ing the shit out of every decision.

blech..
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Re: Finding a job sucks thread

97
cakes wrote: Tue May 07, 2024 11:08 am I got an email on Friday from a recruiter to wrap up my interview process and find out whether or not I got the job. They ask when is a good time to call to go over the feedback and give me the final decision. To me, this sounded like it was going to be a rejection. I write back 5 minutes after receiving it and say I'm available anytime that day. I get an automated message back from his email saying he's going to be on leave for a month. The next day, he wrote me back and he had an emergency, but he wanted to call me that afternoon. I said, sure I'm around. I spent all day waiting, no call. Finally, on Monday morning, I write back and tell him since he's now on leave, I'll reach out to the contact he left. He replies and says he'll call me in a bit. I waited all day to get a call at 5pm. He starts by saying he's got bad news, but I didn't get the job, so no surprise. But, I'll hand it to him, he asked me if I wanted the raw details or just keep it simple, so I said just give it to me strait. I appreciated that he didn't ghost me or send me a rejection letter, but it was crazy to go through this for three days to be told that I didn't get a job. Anyway, the feedback was essentially that I would be a great fit and everyone liked me, but that it seemed I was a little too lopsided on the frontend. Now, this was for a frontend heavy role, which honestly, I was willing to take on because the job would have been good in the long-term, but I would prefer something full-stack. The interview part that focused on backend was, in the beginning of the interview, admitted to me by the interviewer that he hadn't really prepared the right kind of tech interview for me, so he wanted to wing it. I thought we did alright, it wasn't that deep and we didn't have more than 30 minutes to do it.

I was told that even though its a frontend heavy role, the level is pretty senior so they expected more of me. Ok, I get it. Generally, I feel that personality can really get you far, but this kind of company has some pretty high standards, so every ounce counts. This is the story of my career, aim high, get rejected because I don't have the exact experience, find a job at a smaller place where everyone is cool and chill. It hurts every time regardless. So, I feel I lost a job on a technicality. It kind of stings, but whatever I don't really want to dwell on it, I just need to get this off my chest.

I've got a final interview this week for a full stack role. I'm getting the feeling that I will get an offer, this last interview was explained to me that it's a formality before getting an offer. I've made it clear to every company that I've been interviewing with that I want to pivot into full stack, so it's not like I'm not honest about where my skills lie. I even did a better job on their technicals, which were a little more challenging, to be honest. I just want to get this all over with. The thought of having to start over makes my stomach turn.
I bet : /

Rooting for you for the final!
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Re: Finding a job sucks thread

98
To put a cap on a very difficult week, I just got an offer. I spent all day assuming the worst, so I teed up a bunch of applications just in case and took a couple of calls from people hiring.

Some very strange things happened today, though.

- I got a message from a guy who I know tangentially through the industry. We chatted a bit on video. He was looking to hire a subcontractor for his consulting company. He had a guy who left for a full-time job, since he was getting married and wanted something more stable. The job he got? The one I just got a rejection for earlier this week.

- I got a call from a recruiter later in the day. Turns out, we know some of the same people in the industry. He had placed an old friend of mine at a company a few months back. That company? The one that I just got an offer from. Guess who my manager will be? That old friend.

I'll be signing the paperwork over the weekend. Good luck to you all out there. And again, please don't hesitate to reach out for help, ranting, advice, whatever you need.

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