The first thing my first boss said to me

[suityou01]

What a nasty person you seem to be

It's ok dude, I forgive him.

[suityou01]

It even happens at interview

I had an interview last week. Well a telephone one. It seemed I passed muster and was invited for a F2F the following day. 5pm, London.

I arrived on time, suited and booted. They were late.

Then I was taken into a meeting room, largeish with a large lozenge shaped table. 3 people sat opposite. No introductions. A thimble sized plastic beaker of tepid water was placed in front of me.

The bloke in the middle seemed to be doing the interviewing. The other 2 just stated at me coldly.

"So, take me through your CV" he said. "But make it quick as we want to be out of here before 6 as there's a tube strike"

"All of it?" I asked?

"Yes, from the beginning".

So I started giving a brief explanation of each role, from 1997 onwards. We got as far as 2003 and he said "Move on!".

"Where too?" I asked.

He bristled.

"So far we are going through the roles I did 18 years ago, and this could take some time to get through".

He was really really rude, and his interviewing style made no sense to me. If you are hiring for a C# guy, what does it matter what projects he did with VB6 18 years ago? Fair enough you might want to get the measure of how someone has grown over that time, to try and get inside their head a little, but for a contract gig it is normally the past 2-5 years, techy test, bit of a grilling, some scenario based questions and interview over.

This was just weird. And rude. What I am thinking is that when we got into the first 5 minutes of the interview, and he was stating his case he needed to leave early, and talking to me like a piece of tulipe I should have politely made my excuses and left.

Instead I sat there, again just trying to do my best in a bad situation, getting crapped on. Then I left. Then I rang the agency and pulled my CV.

So these guys must be super intuitive to develop such a loathing in such a short space of time, and I did this all to myself, right?

[browntractor]

I had an interview last week. Well a telephone one. It seemed I passed muster and was invited for a F2F the following day. 5pm, London.

I arrived on time, suited and booted. They were late.

Then I was taken into a meeting room, largeish with a large lozenge shaped table. 3 people sat opposite. No introductions. A thimble sized plastic beaker of tepid water was placed in front of me.

The bloke in the middle seemed to be doing the interviewing. The other 2 just stated at me coldly.

"So, take me through your CV" he said. "But make it quick as we want to be out of here before 6 as there's a tube strike"

"All of it?" I asked?

"Yes, from the beginning".

So I started giving a brief explanation of each role, from 1997 onwards. We got as far as 2003 and he said "Move on!".

"Where too?" I asked.

He bristled.

"So far we are going through the roles I did 18 years ago, and this could take some time to get through".

He was really really rude, and his interviewing style made no sense to me. If you are hiring for a C# guy, what does it matter what projects he did with VB6 18 years ago? Fair enough you might want to get the measure of how someone has grown over that time, to try and get inside their head a little, but for a contract gig it is normally the past 2-5 years, techy test, bit of a grilling, some scenario based questions and interview over.

This was just weird. And rude. What I am thinking is that when we got into the first 5 minutes of the interview, and he was stating his case he needed to leave early, and talking to me like a piece of tulipe I should have politely made my excuses and left.

Instead I sat there, again just trying to do my best in a bad situation, getting crapped on. Then I left. Then I rang the agency and pulled my CV.

So these guys must be super intuitive to develop such a loathing in such a short space of time, and I did this all to myself, right?

Here is the problem. C# is not a niche, there are many good C# developers around, so you are going to have to really shine to stand out. You are acting like you are Billy Big Potatoes. Get yourself a decent niche skill on top of C#, where you are one of possibly two or three candidates who they get in for interview - then you can act the big man. Until then, you are competing with bright graduates on two years experience. But you want 500 quid/day or something daft like it - suck it up.

[alluvial]

I had an interview last week. Well a telephone one. It seemed I passed muster and was invited for a F2F the following day. 5pm, London.

I arrived on time, suited and booted. They were late.

Then I was taken into a meeting room, largeish with a large lozenge shaped table. 3 people sat opposite. No introductions. A thimble sized plastic beaker of tepid water was placed in front of me.

The bloke in the middle seemed to be doing the interviewing. The other 2 just stated at me coldly.

"So, take me through your CV" he said. "But make it quick as we want to be out of here before 6 as there's a tube strike"

"All of it?" I asked?

"Yes, from the beginning".

So I started giving a brief explanation of each role, from 1997 onwards. We got as far as 2003 and he said "Move on!".

"Where too?" I asked.

He bristled.

"So far we are going through the roles I did 18 years ago, and this could take some time to get through".

He was really really rude, and his interviewing style made no sense to me. If you are hiring for a C# guy, what does it matter what projects he did with VB6 18 years ago? Fair enough you might want to get the measure of how someone has grown over that time, to try and get inside their head a little, but for a contract gig it is normally the past 2-5 years, techy test, bit of a grilling, some scenario based questions and interview over.

This was just weird. And rude. What I am thinking is that when we got into the first 5 minutes of the interview, and he was stating his case he needed to leave early, and talking to me like a piece of tulipe I should have politely made my excuses and left.

Instead I sat there, again just trying to do my best in a bad situation, getting crapped on. Then I left. Then I rang the agency and pulled my CV.

So these guys must be super intuitive to develop such a loathing in such a short space of time, and I did this all to myself, right?

I'd say that you missed the basic requirement when he stated that he wanted your run through of your CV to be done quickly. If you started going through each gig in chronological order at great length, then I can imagine that he was internally groaning. You should have given him a synopsis. Something along the lines of "I started hacking VB6 code in 1997 and worked for various clients in the x, y and z industries before competent arse licking and bending over got me to the heady heights of team leader for ClientCo." You should have thought more management summary rather than detailed analysis.

[suityou01]

Here is the problem. C# is not a niche, there are many good C# developers around, so you are going to have to really shine to stand out. You are acting like you are Billy Big Potatoes. Get yourself a decent niche skill on top of C#, where you are one of possibly two or three candidates who they get in for interview - then you can act the big man. Until then, you are competing with bright graduates on two years experience. But you want 500 quid/day or something daft like it - suck it up.

Experience doesn't count, grads do a perfectly good job, the rest of us should just pack up and go home?

Blimey.

Also, where did you get that I was acting the "big man" from?

[suityou01]

I'd say that you missed the basic requirement when he stated that he wanted your run through of your CV to be done quickly. If you started going through each gig in chronological order at great length, then I can imagine that he was internally groaning. You should have given him a synopsis. Something along the lines of "I started hacking VB6 code in 1997 and worked for various clients in the x, y and z industries before competent arse licking and bending over got me to the heady heights of team leader for ClientCo." You should have thought more management summary rather than detailed analysis.

Not sure if you are too busy to read me post thoroughly enough, but you do seem to have missed the bit where he asked me to go through the CV in chronological order. I did try and preci each role, but there were interjections like machine gun fire that required me to go a little deeper. This is the bit I was referring to when I said I did not understand why he was so interested in what I did 18 years ago, and did not ask one single question about what I did in the past 5 years.

Also you seem to have missed the bit where he was rude, boorish, hostile and down right obnoxious. Even introductions were not given.

[TheFaQQer]

"Yes, from the beginning".

At which point, you politely explain how it would be better to work backwards from the most recent client, and launch into that before they have a chance to stop you.

Then I rang the agency and pulled my CV.

Just remember that when you complain about agents and clients wasting your time.

[TheFaQQer]

Experience doesn't count, grads do a perfectly good job, the rest of us should just pack up and go home?

Blimey.

That's not what he implied. He implied that your experience didn't count

[tractor]

...

Or you fail to understand me.



I'm pondering this. Not dismissed out of hand, but pondering. I will get back to you.



Quite a bit of 1. I think a hefty pinch of 2. Now I think back, all the gigs where it's got nasty have been working with cowboys who ride into town, try and do a half arsed job and I gently push back and try and bring some quality / formality. I've never been very good at being sloppy, or "good enough is enough". My perfectionism is perhaps just north of sane.

Then again the one time I ran a project, and I mean ran it, I had quite a sizeable team, geographically distributed, we delivered on time and on budget. The CTO called me in his office after a week of go-live to congratulate me that this was the first go-live in living memory when he didn't get at least 1 email complaining. It was, genuinely a very well run project. Because I ran it.

I'm actually quite bright, and have an uncanny knack of seeing things way before others do. I get really frustrated when I'm shouting "iceberg" while others are just shuffling the deckchairs.



Again not dismissing this out of hand. Pondering.

Perhaps your latest failure is wondering why this is in the middle of your cv and you are going for ten a penny coder roles, big shot?

[suityou01]

At which point, you politely explain how it would be better to work backwards from the most recent client, and launch into that before they have a chance to stop you. [1]


Just remember that when you complain about agents and clients wasting your time. [2]

[1] Agreed. That's my lesson learned.
[2] I would have thought it far better to realise you don't want it and walk as staying in when you know you don't want it is wasting everyone's time far more.

It was the first time ever that I have pulled a CV after interview. That in itself should be a barometer of how bad it was. Seriously.