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The worst job interview I ever had

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Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#571

Post by gamblor956 »

anyfoo wrote: post #135
gamblor956 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's usually just a meet-and-greet. Yes, it usually is. But in this case the problem was that the CEO could unilaterally override the decision made by everyone else, so it wasn't just a meet-and-greet.

That is exactly the assumption I was operating under, I even called it a "veto". Does not change anything I wrote. (And of course the CEO can override any hiring decision anyway. The question is if they will.)

The point of my comment (and yours) was that the hiring decision wasn't actually made, because as you point out (again): the CEO's decision was the only one that mattered.

That's a huge red flag for any workplace. The only time you should ever consider taking a job at a company like that is if you're unemployed and you need the job and have no other prospects.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#572

Post by gamblor956 »

ryandrake wrote: post #145
gamblor956 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's usually just a meet-and-greet. Yes, it usually is. But in this case the problem was that the CEO could unilaterally override the decision made by everyone else, so it wasn't just a meet-and-greet.

Yea, it's not a meet-and-greet, as in there can be no impact to the outcome of the interview. You're definitely still interviewing. But, in every case where I got to the point of "You're going to chat with the [Founder|CEO|BigTech VP]," at that point the job was mine to lose . They're not going to waste a VIP's time if they're not serious about making you an offer. You effectively have the offer. Your job when talkin…

You effectively have the offer.

No, you don't have the offer at all. If you did, you would already have the offer letter in hand and the meeting with the VIP would just be a casual meet-and-greet. When it is part of the interview process, it is very deliberately because the VIP has veto power, and thus the decision to hire has not been finalized.

Your job when talking to the VIP person at the end is to "sound like a likable, competent person, who VIP would be cool with saying 'yea I hired this person'."

As you point out, the VIP is the one making the hiring decision. Everyone before the VIP was just a filter before the actual decision-maker.

(Outside of tech) the only time it's normal for a VIP to be involved in the interview process is when they're interview for executive or other management level positions, or for a role that would be working directly with management on a regular basis. But tech likes to do things backward, and insist that a VIP wasting their time on a lower-level hire is somehow normal. It's not normal in any other industry.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#573

Post by dpark »

cdud3 wrote: post #568
dpark wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally he’s saying to behave inappropriately in a professional interview and see if the candidate plays along. Might as well see if you can get the candidate to offer a bribe or sexual favors for the job since we’re going all in on entrapment.

The opposite. Are you breaking the rule to leave your private stuff home just because the other side is or are you capable of keeping out of such sources of interpersonal conflicts, take over and redirect the discussion back to a professional level? Of course it depends for what field and role you apply. For any leading role or customer contact point the capability to stay professional is essential. If you flip burge…

You are literally saying it’s a good idea to attempt to entrap potential employees by intentionally behaving the way you want them to not. It’s like pouring margaritas for you and the interviewee and then after they take a sip you say you don’t hire people who drink on the job.

This is unethical and it’s also a shitty filter because they people you want to hire (the ones why won’t talk personal stuff at work; or won’t drink on the job) are likely to write you off because they also don’t want to work with the guy who wants to drink margaritas and chat personal trauma at work.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#574

Post by Izkata »

jszymborski wrote: post #20
Avicebron wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fairly common english phrase that originated out of the gaming culture of the US in the mid 2000-2010s. "He's so good (plays aggressively) he must be on crack" sort of became "he's cracked", etc. Now that the people who were killing CoD lobbies are writing code full time or running companies, its seeped out. Actually I think "it's cooked" came from this as well.

Notably, if someone is "cooked", it's bad. If someone is "cooking", it's often (but not necessarily) positive, most commonly in the form "let him/her cook" or "he's/she's cooking".

I have no idea where "cooked" came from, but "cooking" seems to be from the very old phrase "cooking up" which broadly meant something like "creatively making" and didn't specifically refer to food.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#575

Post by alexandre_m »

m463 wrote: post #372
rigonkulous wrote: post #40

I was excited, it was a game company, and I'd wanted to get back into games - or more specifically, game engines - for a few years. The tech of this particular company was interesting, an in-house engine developed by wunderkind, of course, and they'd invited me for an interview because I had done a fair bit of low-level work, which would be handy for their rough edges. Apparently. Half way through the interview, I ha…

I remember interviewing once and they told me what they were working on. I was actually familiar with the product, but it had some glaring shortcomings, and I kind of groaned a little inside. And I told them that I liked some things about the product, but then I unfiltered sort of pointed out what was wrong. I really wasn't interested in working on it (though I didn't say that outright) And then they decided they lov…

It's basically the confidence and being blunt.

Pretty much like that Office Space scene when main character meets the Bobs.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#576

Post by SenHeng »

dieselgate wrote: post #458
SenHeng wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend has been contracting at $STARTUP for a couple of years now with a revolving 2 month contract. His managers have not attempted to hide the fact they would likely end his contract once they've managed to hire a full timer into the team. Sadly, their CEO has veto-ed every single full time hire they've tried to bring on for past 2 years now.

I never understand this dynamic, why not hire the friend after like 6 months of contract or whatever?

The product is old school PHP. They want to convert it to Go but none of the young engineers are interested in touching the codebase. My friend is the reverse instead, uninterested in learning new languages/technologies.

So neither of them want to hire each other.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#577

Post by t43562 »

pacman128 wrote: post #326
t43562 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviewing is difficult IMO - asking imperfect people to judge imperfect people in a short time. In my experience, which is not that great, it's the attitude that people have which is more important than the perfect answers. You're usually hiring for a team so someone who is prepared to be decent to others is essential and IMO their 10xness is much less important than this. Then I want someone who is interested in…

I've been on both sides of the interviewing process and I agree with you. It's the questions like "what is you greatest weakness?" that tick me off where an honest answer at most places will probably kill you chance of getting the job. Instead you are told that the "right" answer is to pose a strength as a weakness. I don't see the point of asking questions like these. What are you learning about the candidate from g…

The best that I think you can say about it is that working for such people wouldn't be fun.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#578

Post by razodactyl »

burnte wrote: post #482
Aurornis wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I ask if he is the ML team lead. Turns out this absolute Chad is a mobile dev the client asked to interview candidates for the MLE role. Some times I run into companies like this: The people you talk to are so visibly inexperienced that you can't comprehend how the company functions, let alone makes money. Some times it's a zombie company. They received funding or got a windfall from some early business moves, hire…

I've had very few bad interviews, I've had very few interviews that didn't lead to offers, but I've declined a few. One was semi-recent and it was in in-person in-office interview but the CEO joined remotely. We chatted for a few minutes, then the COO came into the room and we began the interview. The CEO asked one question in the beginning, then the COO asked all the questions. The CEO sat on the screen like a lump.…

Yep. Anyone can call themselves a CEO. You want proper managers. Check General Hammond from Stargate for a shining example haha

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#579

Post by cdud3 »

dpark wrote: post #573
cdud3 wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite. Are you breaking the rule to leave your private stuff home just because the other side is or are you capable of keeping out of such sources of interpersonal conflicts, take over and redirect the discussion back to a professional level? Of course it depends for what field and role you apply. For any leading role or customer contact point the capability to stay professional is essential. If you flip burge…

You are literally saying it’s a good idea to attempt to entrap potential employees by intentionally behaving the way you want them to not . It’s like pouring margaritas for you and the interviewee and then after they take a sip you say you don’t hire people who drink on the job. This is unethical and it’s also a shitty filter because they people you want to hire (the ones why won’t talk personal stuff at work; or won…

I am literally saying that the role the person applied to was for a "founding engineer at a mental health startup".

This is a leading role(!) in the mental health(!!) industry. That should give some clues. They also announced that the follow-up interview as a "non traditional - a ~90 minute culture fit chat" dropping more hints.

Unfortunately he also "fail to recall the exact wording of the discussion topics".

I bet the exact wording was open enough to leave enough room to not "felt completely emotionally drained" afterwards.

I think the interviewer did him a favor. He is just not able to handle a leading role in the mental health industry in a way that would have been mental healthy for him.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#580

Post by like_any_other »

rad-b wrote: post #424
like_any_other wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even just an IQ test [1] or teacher licensing test [2,3] opens them to illegal discrimination, so that's not saying much. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co . [2] https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/black-latino-teachers-... [3] https://teachercertification.com/nystce/multi-subject-arts-a...

Working in selection, I can say it’s more nuanced than that. Any measurement can be used as long as it is relevant to the business and related to performance. For example, you’re fine to reject people based on height if you’re hiring basketball players and being higher predicts scoring more points. Or even reject people based on gender (or other protected classes) if you can demonstrate that that specific group is ab…

Yeah if you're willing to go into a decade-long court fight then maybe they'll allow you to use a test (where the burden of proof is on the employer to show the test is necessary, i.e. guilty until proven innocent). Or maybe you'll be liable for millions of dollars in compensation. And even something as seemingly reasonable as an IQ test for a knowledge work position is illegal.
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