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The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

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Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#91
post #20

Just a periodic reminder that 'Beyond the Pale' is a pro-colonialist phrase that many believe was was part of Britain's Centuries-long campaign to eliminate Irish culture. https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/12/beyond-the-pale.h...

It makes sense you tacitly think colonialism is necessarily bad.

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#92
post #15

It's kind of fascinating to see companies I've interviewed at, where I did well enough in my honest opinion to get something of an offer in yesterday's market where they didn't even went for a better candidate but simply reposted the job the same week. What is the idea? They just have it up to find that one 0.1% developer that happens to walk through the door? I can't imagine companies simply want to wait to roll out…

Same experience. BBC links an article about exactly that phenomenon:

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240315-ghost-jobs-dig...

I think that often it actually is about the 0.1%, it's the simplest explanation (but the ghost jobs article gives a few other explanations that are also good). Software development does not have a minimum headcount, everything you can build with four you might also be able to build with three, it's not like you need a well defined number of chairs to be occupied.

And it's actually worse than a naive look at the numbers suggests. Some of those forever openings aren't just listed by the would-be hiring company, but also by a happy flock of companies from that cottage industry of recruiting middle men, some disguised a little through different wording, others not disguised at all. Five companies looking for skill xy, and they are all the for same position that is only ever filled if the 0.1% happens to pass by.

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#93

A variant: government of canada/province jobs that re-post your job every season; requiring you to fully re-apply and re-interview over and over with your boss while they endlessly try to replace you, no matter how well you did. Until you get promoted or they find somebody they like better and you have to move 500+ km to get a different position I honestly think amazons stack ranking is less humiliating and skeezy

Is this fr? Wtf..

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#94

We'll eventually get to the point where anyone willing to jump through these stupid hoops is primarily motivated by greed.

Someone jumping through lots of hoops to get a job is greedy? Why would that make sense?

I guess GP was only thinking of people that do have a job looking for greener grass. For that subset I'm inclined to agree, despite vigorously agreeing with the counter opinions in the general case.

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#95
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone jumping through lots of hoops to get a job is greedy? Why would that make sense?

I guess GP was only thinking of people that do have a job looking for greener grass. For that subset I'm inclined to agree, despite vigorously agreeing with the counter opinions in the general case.

Why would looking for a better job be greedy?

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#96
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess GP was only thinking of people that do have a job looking for greener grass. For that subset I'm inclined to agree, despite vigorously agreeing with the counter opinions in the general case.

Why would looking for a better job be greedy?

The not so greedy might certainly be looking, but their willingness to jump through hoops would have a limit somewhere.

Require a very large number of hoops to be jumped through and every single hire will be of the kind who would have zero qualms to sell your company internals to the highest bidder if given the chance.

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#97
post #39
post #15

It's kind of fascinating to see companies I've interviewed at, where I did well enough in my honest opinion to get something of an offer in yesterday's market where they didn't even went for a better candidate but simply reposted the job the same week. What is the idea? They just have it up to find that one 0.1% developer that happens to walk through the door? I can't imagine companies simply want to wait to roll out…

Having been on the other side, hiring is really hard, and it's usually worse to have a bad developer in place than it is to have no developer. So the smart thing to do in most situations is err on the side of not hiring in marginal cases. > I did well enough in my honest opinion At a previous employer, I helped design the developer hiring process. The first step in the process was to ask candidates to pass a "do you…

I'm not delusional there are quite a few better programmers out there, but I know I'm in the upper ranks within my field worldwide. I hired plenty of people both as developers for me as for other companies I worked at. There were a few people that really blew me away, but usually I was just glad to find somebody near my capabilities.

At one company they gave me a "PR from a junior member" to review. I thought it was great. You were challenged to both find issues but also how to communicate them in a constructive way.

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#98
If you want insanity, try the "Datadog" hiring process.

I don't know how efficient it is, but from my point of view it is the most stupid one that I have encoutented:

Imagine that they tell you to take "weeks" to train specifically for their 5 leetcode interviews process. And still, at this point, it is just to "determine your level". Will it be done then? no, you will still need to do more interviews with a few different teams to see which one can be a mutual fit between you and them.

And I guess that you will still have management/HR interviews to complete that.

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#99
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would looking for a better job be greedy?

The not so greedy might certainly be looking, but their willingness to jump through hoops would have a limit somewhere. Require a very large number of hoops to be jumped through and every single hire will be of the kind who would have zero qualms to sell your company internals to the highest bidder if given the chance.

This seems like you're bending over backwards to hallucinate some made up exotic scenario that has never happened.

Require a very large number of hoops to be jumped through and every single hire will be of the kind who would have zero qualms to sell your company internals to the highest bidder if given the chance.

What are you even talking about. What are you basing this on?

Re: The return of never-ending job interviews: 'It can go beyond the pale'

#100

When I first moved back to Alabama, I took a job running 6 different 5 axis CNC machines for a Korean company. They had a policy that forced every new hire to go through a temp hire process and work for at least 3 months before being hired on with the company and receiving benefits and decent pay. There was no way I was going to allow myself to do the same work for less pay and no benefits for 3 entire months or more…

Kudos for knowing your worth and maximizing the leverage it gave you.
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