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I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

askamanager.org

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Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> She told me she had a technical background (although she had been in management 10 years so it’s not like her experience was even relevant) I want to say that this is absolutely troll behavior, but there's actually dingdongs who think like this - and who say things like this! - in the real world. But yes, if I read this on reddit's r/aita subreddit, I would assume this was mid-grade fiction.

there are many people who do behave like this , however I am not sure if anyone with this kind of behavior would write to online column seeking advice ?

I'm a member of an online site loosely formed around a shared interest but discussing all topics. There's two different users who spring to mind immediately as examples of people like this, who post questions pretty much like this.

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#12

This is clearly a made up example to illustrate intellectual arrogance and distain. I have interviewed a person who displayed those traits. He wasn’t as rude as described here, but maybe as clueless. He aced the technical(10/10) but nobody on the interview panel wanted to work with him(0/10) He got a unanimous “no”. Probably the only time I’ve seen so many people settle on the same conclusion in an interview. He said…

I had a similar experience but with an intern... well, actually two.

One was technically savvy, would go overboard with technical solutions, always had an answer or workaround for everything, and rarely would listen to any advice given. Was probably a 8/10 technical (impressive given his age), but a 0/10 on the want to work with scale.

The other was smart and very humble. He would come to me for mentorship, ask questions, and when nudged in the right direction, answer questions with revelations to himself.

The humble one has gone on to found a business and get his first exit (there will likely be more with him). Last time I checked, the arrogant one has been bouncing around jobs for 15 years.

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#13
post #3

This is pretty obviously either a troll, or slightly more likely the site making up fake letters to respond to them.

> She told me she had a technical background (although she had been in management 10 years so it’s not like her experience was even relevant) I want to say that this is absolutely troll behavior, but there's actually dingdongs who think like this - and who say things like this! - in the real world. But yes, if I read this on reddit's r/aita subreddit, I would assume this was mid-grade fiction.

I would also have thought that the letter was fictional, had I not worked directly with a handful of people exactly like this in tech. Zero E.Q. and zero idea about how much that it's holding them back. The idea of stalking the manager's manager on LinkedIn, figuring out their E-mail, and contacting them to tell them that they are wrong: Wow, but totally believable if it were one of the few "Raging Arrogant Engineer Jerk" personalities I've actually met in real life.

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> She told me she had a technical background (although she had been in management 10 years so it’s not like her experience was even relevant) I want to say that this is absolutely troll behavior, but there's actually dingdongs who think like this - and who say things like this! - in the real world. But yes, if I read this on reddit's r/aita subreddit, I would assume this was mid-grade fiction.

there are many people who do behave like this , however I am not sure if anyone with this kind of behavior would write to online column seeking advice ?

I could completely see it if the person is narcissistic enough to do all these things they’d also be fragile enough to seek out someone to say “YOU ARE RIGHT AND VERY SMART.”

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#15
> I told her maybe she made mistakes as a developer but since I actually went to school for it, I didn’t have that problem.

LOL. I also remember the CS-33B - Bulletproof your career - how to never make mistakes 1-0-1 class from college /s

This reeks for rage bait. Maybe askamanager's engagement numbers are going down and now they have to post content like this?

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#16
I had a similar but less dramatic experience interviewing someone once. I asked about a time where something went wrong on a project, and he sakd that had never happened to him. I tried asking the question a few different ways, giving him lots of opportunities to come up with something ("Did you ever have a teammate on a project in school who didn't contribute their fair share? Get sick before a deadline"?) and he insisted that he's never had any problems like that.

It was super weird for me. I guess maybe there's a school of thought that you should never admit to anything less than perfection in a job interview? But I wouldn't want to work at a place that expected perfection 100% of the time

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#17
> I told her maybe she made mistakes as a developer but since I actually went to school for it, I didn’t have that problem.

Sounds like a jerk. I definitely would not hire the person.

If you are developing anything interesting, you make mistakes. Getting the right abstraction is somewhat of an art. I have made things too flexible and it was a pain to use, and I have made things not flexible enough and it was a pain to adapt. I have denormalized my data too much and had too much repetition, and I have normalized my data too much and had performance problems with too many joins. I have spent too much time automating a five minute task that I did rarely, and I have spent too much time toiling away at something manually that I should have automated.

If you aren’t making any mistakes as a developer, you aren’t growing.

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#18
I have interviewed applicants with that sort of attitude. Needless to say, I didn't recommend hiring them either. Eventually the hard knocks of real life might chip off some of the sharpest edges. I doubt whether their unfortunate co-workers ever get on well with them.

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#19
post #3

This is pretty obviously either a troll, or slightly more likely the site making up fake letters to respond to them.

As someone who interviews people… definitely not a troll. There are SO MANY people like this and they’re so incredibly sure that they’re right that they absolutely DO write letters like this, because they’re SURE they’re going to be told they’re right.

Re: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes

#20
> I told her maybe she made mistakes as a developer but since I actually went to school for it, I didn’t have that problem.

I'd like you to remember these words.

Because the next time someone asks you about a mistake you made, you can tell them this story.

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