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If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

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Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#51

Post by dsr_ »

dsacco wrote: post #34
dsr_ wrote: post #24

I am, now and on occasion, a hiring manager. Naturally, every freelance recruiter wants to be my friend. They often start cold calls with a description of a person's technical abilities, and then ask if I would be interested in interviewing that person. When that happens, I ask them to define one of the buzzwords that they have just used. "Could you tell me what 'big data' means?" or "What's the difference between AW…

Please, please share one of the funnier stories you have about grilling recruiters who didn't know the difference between AWS and GCE.

Most recently I asked if the recruiter knew the difference between Java and JavaScript, since he had just mentioned both of them.

"Uh, they're web technologies... in very high demand."

"Yes, but is there a difference between them? What kind of web technologies are they?"

Long pause.

The background silence changes a little, as though a hand were placed over the telephone's mouthpiece.

I can't hear the word in the conversation he's having, but it's clear that he is talking to someone.

The hand goes away.

"Java is a general purpose computer programming language with concurrent objects, and JavaScript is the script version."

Pause.

"Did I get that right?"

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#52

Post by ryandrake »

jordanpg wrote: post #20

When I read articles like this, I tend to assume that they are exaggerations written by people who feel burned because they didn't get the job they want and that the reason was unfair interview questions. In other words, I simply don't believe that interviewers are, as a group, so stupid that they regularly ask obscure Excel questions when they are plainly not relevant. To continue with the recruiting example, I susp…

I don't think this is a huge exaggeration. This falls directly into the "it's funny because it's true" category, down to the last sentence. I've had far more interviews that went like this than I care to admit. Most of them (mercifully) end at the phone screen and I don't have to haul myself into an office for more of this treatment.

For an industry constantly whining about the "shortage of tech talent" we treat tech talent pretty horribly while we court them. It's like a guy complaining there aren't enough good women out there, starting a date by pulling out a tape measure.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#53

Post by AndyMcConachie »

mrfusion wrote: post #31
dagw wrote: post #15

On the flip side I recently interviewed for a programming position at a civil engineering company and at no point in the process did anybody ask any questions that would in any way test if I actually knew any of the things I claimed to know. The entire "programming" part of the interview was essentially: "We use quite a bit of python. I see from your CV you've used python". "Oh absolutely, I consider python the langu…

We all deserved to be treated with that kind of dignity. I'm not sure where our industry went wrong. You'd never ask a doctor medical school trivia during an interview.

In this hospital we use scalpels. Are you familiar with scalpels? How would you rate your experience in scalpels?

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#54

Post by dagw »

ryandrake wrote: post #49
mrfusion wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all deserved to be treated with that kind of dignity. I'm not sure where our industry went wrong. You'd never ask a doctor medical school trivia during an interview.

Further, when I hire someone to fix my roof, I don't make him build me a doghouse first to scrutinize whether he's any good. On the other hand, if you don't ask at least some basic questions, you risk hiring the Brillant Paula Bean [1]. 1: http://thedailywtf.com/articles/The_Brillant_Paula_Bean

I kind of wish I'd gotten the people I hired to build our terrace to first build something small, like a doghouse, before hiring them.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#55

Post by lolptdr »

partiallogic wrote: post #13
IceyEC wrote: post #3

Why are we suddenly inundated with "If companies interviewed * the way they interview programmers" posts?

This is the first one I’ve seen in response to the translator one and would love to see more.

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/welcome-to-the-software-inte...

I believe this is the first of its kind. Enjoy.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#56

Post by dsacco »

dsr_ wrote: post #51
dsacco wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, please share one of the funnier stories you have about grilling recruiters who didn't know the difference between AWS and GCE.

Most recently I asked if the recruiter knew the difference between Java and JavaScript, since he had just mentioned both of them. "Uh, they're web technologies... in very high demand." "Yes, but is there a difference between them? What kind of web technologies are they?" Long pause. The background silence changes a little, as though a hand were placed over the telephone's mouthpiece. I can't hear the word in the conv…

Perfect.

Next time you should respond, "Hmm...that's not what I have here. The answer is, 'JavaScript uses Electron and Java uses Spring.' I'm sorry, I don't think you're a great fit for us. Best of luck and have a good day."

Then hang up, and kill two birds with one stone in the process: the tone-deaf recruiter finally understands how the buzzword bingo interview feels, and you have one less incompetent recruiter to deal with.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#57

Post by majewsky »

quantumhobbit wrote: post #27
jordanpg wrote: post #20

When I read articles like this, I tend to assume that they are exaggerations written by people who feel burned because they didn't get the job they want and that the reason was unfair interview questions. In other words, I simply don't believe that interviewers are, as a group, so stupid that they regularly ask obscure Excel questions when they are plainly not relevant. To continue with the recruiting example, I susp…

Sure, but I've just had an interview with a recruiter who literally did the "Do you know Reactjs? Yes. But do you know JavaScript?" face-palm to me. Only with Angular instead of React. Not all recruiters are this dumb, but I promise you I have encountered plenty who are.

That's not "dumb", that's just "incompetent".

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#59

Post by nulagrithom »

beager wrote: post #43
TamDenholm wrote: post #12

I get at least 5 phone calls from recruiters a week, being a contractor. The amount of times i get someone that asks me something like: Recruiter: "We're looking for someone with React experience, do you have that?" Me: "Yes" Them: "Ok, how about Javascript?" I want to explain to them but i end up just saying yes to every acronym on their list since they've no idea what they're asking for.

It's funny because in a different context, that's exactly a sequence of questions that I as an engineer would ask: > Do you have experience with React? > Okay, do you have experience writing pure, vanilla JavaScript? Absent a framework like jQuery or Backbone or Angular? The second question can often screen out people who simply maintain framework apps rather than those who actually know JS.

Are you assuming that people who haven't maintained a vanilla JS app don't actually know JS?

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#60

Post by collyw »

quantumhobbit wrote: post #27
jordanpg wrote: post #20

When I read articles like this, I tend to assume that they are exaggerations written by people who feel burned because they didn't get the job they want and that the reason was unfair interview questions. In other words, I simply don't believe that interviewers are, as a group, so stupid that they regularly ask obscure Excel questions when they are plainly not relevant. To continue with the recruiting example, I susp…

Sure, but I've just had an interview with a recruiter who literally did the "Do you know Reactjs? Yes. But do you know JavaScript?" face-palm to me. Only with Angular instead of React. Not all recruiters are this dumb, but I promise you I have encountered plenty who are.

After giving them a quick overview of my 6 years worth of Django experience, I was asked if I know Python.
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