6 Hours worth of interview for a humble Test Analyst Job......

[Gruffalo]

Only to be told that the Test Manager felt threatened because I was too good.

I can't win.

There are plenty of permie interviews at not too shabby money that I am going for, but a total absence of any semi-decent contracts at present.

On the plus side I have my redundancy money, so need to decide if I should go for a permie offer I am expecting, fairly easy commute from home, or if it is worth chilling until the new year.

My problem is that I don't fancy working away, so would be holding out for a contract commutable from home. Sick of Etaps and Travelodges, done enough of that malarky.

[vetran]

9.5 hours to install their tat in what I found out would be war zones and they offered me a few thousand less than I was earning.

I made my apologies & left.

[Gentile]

Only to be told that the Test Manager felt threatened because I was too good.

I can't win.

There are plenty of permie interviews at not too shabby money that I am going for, but a total absence of any semi-decent contracts at present.

On the plus side I have my redundancy money, so need to decide if I should go for a permie offer I am expecting, fairly easy commute from home, or if it is worth chilling until the new year.

My problem is that I don't fancy working away, so would be holding out for a contract commutable from home. Sick of Etaps and Travelodges, done enough of that malarky.

Unfortunately, I've found a rule of thumb to be that the pickier a recruitment process is, and the more hoops you're asked to jump through, the less desirable the role on offer will be when the dust settles. I've therefore learned just to walk away at an early stage if things aren't right.

E.g., I had an 'interview' the other week that was meant to be for a lead developer position. Instead, when I arrived I was walked through a dev office in which the miserable-looking staff were munching on doughnuts and slurping hot tea. I wasn't offered a hot drink. Instead, I was shown into a freezing cold side room without a heater on just about the coldest day in October, handed a ten-page print out of a complete programme whose pages weren't even numbered, and asked to find some bugs in the thing. She then made to leave the room back to the heat and doughnuts. To cap it all off, the 'interviewer' appeared to have come dressed as Worzel Gummidge: her hair was a mess, and her jumper had several big holes in it.

I looked at her print out for all of ten seconds before deciding it was a complete waste of my time. I told the interviewer that I'd come for a serious interview, not a ill-conceived technical test of how well I work with the wrong tools. So I was ending the interview right there only thirty seconds after it had started.

On our way downstairs, I asked her if she'd used a computer to write the program she'd expected me to debug using pen and paper? Of course she had. I asked why, then, she thought it'd be possible to debug it without a computer, since it's well-understood that debugging code that doesn't work is at least as hard as writing a solution that does? I don't think it made it through the fog in her brain. I'm sure she's outstanding in her field.......but then we're back to Worzel Gummidge again.

Later that same day, by contrast, I had a separate interview with another company that does cutting-edge social media work. Their interview was a two-way process, with no meaningless or ill-conceived technical tests. Just someone their end that knew their stuff asking questions, and me answering them. Then me getting to ask some questions of my own. I got the gig. I was glad I didn't waste too much time or energy on the other opportunity.

So, bottom line, if I were you, I'd hold out for the right role. No doubt you'll encounter some tulip ones on the way. We all do. It's just a matter of waiting for the right opportunity to come along at the right time, and not allowing yourself to be distracted too much by the odd gig that will come up that isn't right.

[AtW]

My problem is that I don't fancy working away

Dear Wimslow - this is just one of the many fatal problems that you suffer from.

Remember - beggars can't be choosers.

[NotAllThere]

Unfortunately, I've found a rule of thumb to be that the pickier a recruitment process is, and the more hoops you're asked to jump through, the less desirable the role on offer will be when the dust settles. I've therefore learned just to walk away at an early stage if things aren't right.

E.g., I had an 'interview' the other week that was meant to be for a lead developer position. Instead, when I arrived I was walked through a dev office in which the miserable-looking staff were munching on doughnuts and slurping hot tea. I wasn't offered a hot drink. Instead, I was shown into a freezing cold side room without a heater on just about the coldest day in October, handed a ten-page print out of a complete programme whose pages weren't even numbered, and asked to find some bugs in the thing. She then made to leave the room back to the heat and doughnuts. To cap it all off, the 'interviewer' appeared to have come dressed as Worzel Gummidge: her hair was a mess, and her jumper had several big holes in it. ... blah...

So, basically, what you're saying is, that you weren't skilled enough to find the bug, realised that task was too difficult for you, panicked, legged it, and blamed your own incompetence on the lack of sartorial elegance of the interviewer.

[centurian]

Unfortunately, I've found a rule of thumb to be that the pickier a recruitment process is, and the more hoops you're asked to jump through, the less desirable the role on offer will be when the dust settles. I've therefore learned just to walk away at an early stage if things aren't right.

+1

Had a pimp pushing me to go for an interview, which would take most of the day. This was a small compnay, but had a "rigourous recruitment process", although salary rates were very good.

After much to-ing and fro-ing back and forth just to establish when/where/how the interview would take place (i.e. jumping through hoops just to get to the hoops), I decided that I didn't want to work for such a company, and so I told the pimp I was pulling out.

I think because they were paying good rates (although they weren't that exceptional), they thought they could snap their fingers and you would jump. I shudder to think what the working environment would have been. Give me an IB any day.

[The Spartan]

My problem is that I don't fancy working away, so would be holding out for a contract commutable from home. Sick of Etaps and Travelodges, done enough of that malarky.

What part of the UK are you living in?

[sbakoola]

There's also the one where the interview is just far too easy and this is usually where they are hiding something and desperate to get anyone in.

[DimPrawn]

So, basically, what you're saying is, that you weren't skilled enough to find the bug, realised that task was too difficult for you, panicked, legged it, and blamed your own incompetence on the lack of sartorial elegance of the interviewer.

I'm with Gentile on this one. The longer and more ill thought out the interview process the worse the gig is. Also how you are treated at interview is a reasonable indicator on how you will be treated doing the job.

I would have walked too knowing that something better is usually just around the corner.

[NotAllThere]

I'm with Gentile on this one. The longer and more ill thought out the interview process the worse the gig is. Also how you are treated at interview is a reasonable indicator on how you will be treated doing the job.

I would have walked too knowing that something better is usually just around the corner.

Oh indeed, it's been my experience as well, and I've walked out of interviews before. I was just divulging the real reason she walked away.