I am expecting you to be one of the 99%+ people who I know I won’t hire in the first 5 minutes.
If you can't narrow down resumes and phone interviews to candidates with better than a 1% chance of being accepted, then your interviewing pre-screening process is flawed. What other processes in our everyday work will also be flawed?
You send me a stupidly long resume
90% of all written correspondence (from customers, users, collaborators, vendors, etc.) is too long. Do you think they're all stupid, too?
You have annoyed me.
You're a manager. Your job is to properly deal with issues that would annoy others. Why would anyone want to work for someone so easily annoyed?
...do I really want to look forward to your rambling emails every day?
Do I really want to look forward to your sour attitude every day?
You can’t tell me why you like your current job
If I liked my current job, I wouldn't be here.
I don’t hire awesome people who don’t have the right skill mix.
Here's a clue: technologies change. By definition, anyone with the "right skill mix" won't have the "right skill mix" for long. Amesome people adapt. But how would you even know that if you don't hire them?
No career plans or vision
I've been programming for 33 years and still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up. This is an interview for an open job, not Dr. Phil.
If you don’t think well on your feet, spend some time reading through and practicing situational interview questions.
Are you serious? I'm a programmer, not an Americas Got Talent contestant. What you see is what you get.
If you are missing even one, I’m probably going to pass you up for someone who doesn’t.
Wait a minute. You want to hire perfect people, but you also want them to have "career plans or vision"?
I have a super BS detector
Obviously not, since so many of your questions can only be answered with BS.
The End
That's just about the only thing you've said that I agree with.
You sound like you have a serious attitude problem. I can't imagine working for someone like you. But thanks for writing this. You've solved many problems in advance. I won't be applying. And I don't imagine many people like me will be either.
Interviews are a two way street. If I am applying for a job, my role during the interview is to convince you why I am a worthwhile hire, your role during the interview is to convince me that you are a worthwhile employer. If he was one of my clients I would disassociate myself from him very quickly.
As for his 5 points, I wonder if he realises that all 5 inversely apply to him just as much as they do to the candidate being interviewed.
1.Show me you can get things done. This means you can set realistic deadlines for projects and meet them consistently. You must be a good motivator.
2.Show me you are intelligent. I will ask you questions to discern how in touch you are with todays market. I don't care if you've interviewed a dozen people for this job, I want to know if you've actually read my resume.
3.Show me how I fit into your vision. Truthfully, we’ll work best together if you sincerely think I am the best person for this job in the long run. I want to know how you can help me succeed in my career, Tell me.
4.Be highly skilled. If your job advert says that you need a highly skilled Developer then don't have me sitting in a corner refactoring shitty code for the first 6 months.
5.Be Passionate. If I feel like the interview process is boring you, I will end the interview prematurely but politely.
this is absolutely true. almost 100% of job ads are terrible. They are focused exclusively on what the company wants. Instead the ads should be marketing to attract the best. The ads should explain why someone great would want to work there.
You summed it up well, this guy needs to stay as far away from interviewing as possible. This attitude is why people can't find the 10Xers, they interviewing process is set up to filter them out. Your observation here:
Here's a clue: technologies change. By definition, anyone with the "right skill mix" won't have the "right skill mix" for long. Amesome people adapt. But how would you even know that if you don't hire them?
gets to the heart why they cant. 10Xers are not a technology they are personality and a attitude. Hell some of them are not ever that great at some of the technologies they use, but they know how to use the parts they need to get them to the finish line. They know the principles of elegance in clean code, and simple systems that are only as complex as they need to be.
These people are not showing up to the door of people that interview like the author, and if they do they are not taking the position and probably recommending to other 10Xers to go ahead and avoid the interview.
I get the feeling from reading the article, that the author has not learned how to spot technical talent and is growing frustrated with it.
Also this: "Let me know your passionate or don’t waste my time." (you're!)
This is why I love being a contractor / consultant. Clients don't ask for a little lap dance and a smile before we can do business, like this guy seems to expect.
They have a job to do that they think I can do, I give a quote, they say yes or no (usually yes, if we went this far). I do it, they pay me.
No resume-this, resume-that, what's your vision, are you passionate, what do you love or hate. I hate being in an office with a stranger in the middle of the afternoon, talking about my passions.
> Do I really want to look forward to your sour attitude every day?
This sums it up for me. The author sounds like a grumpy person who would be terrible to work for. I also suspect many of these rejections are self-fulfilling prophecies. When you're actively looking for a reason to reject candidates, you're probably going to find one.
It's great how the same sort of folks who put out these diatribes on how easy it is to run afoul of their hiring processes will also complain about how very difficult it has been to find qualified candidates.
Pretty much exactly right. 1 difference for me, though. I already know what I want to be when I grow up:
A programmer!
Yes, I've reached the end of my career. I'm where I want to be, and I don't want to change. I don't want to be a manager, team leader, or otherwise do anything other than programming. If there were any change I wanted, it would be 'do fewer non-programming things'.
THANK YOU! I feel the same way. Why is it that people who supposedly love programming are somehow expected to no longer want to be programmers at some point in their career? Being a great manager / team leader takes a whole different skill set than being a great coder.
Obviously not, since so many of your questions can only be answered with BS.
Then we get to his example of a "good" answer for career plans: yet another instance of "In this many years, I see myself that many steps up the corporate ladder. … communication … leadership … responsibility …"
90% of all written correspondence (from customers, users, collaborators, vendors, etc.) is too long. Do you think they're all stupid, too?
"
I agree with most of your post, but after doing a lot of interviews as the hiring manager, I have to agree that resumes should be short. I won't exclude a candidate just for sending a resume that is long, but as a general rule, don't expect me to go past page 2, especially for an entry-to-mid level position.
If you can't narrow down resumes and phone interviews to candidates with better than a 1% chance of being accepted, then your interviewing pre-screening process is flawed. What other processes in our everyday work will also be flawed?
You send me a stupidly long resume
90% of all written correspondence (from customers, users, collaborators, vendors, etc.) is too long. Do you think they're all stupid, too?
You have annoyed me.
You're a manager. Your job is to properly deal with issues that would annoy others. Why would anyone want to work for someone so easily annoyed?
...do I really want to look forward to your rambling emails every day?
Do I really want to look forward to your sour attitude every day?
You can’t tell me why you like your current job
If I liked my current job, I wouldn't be here.
I don’t hire awesome people who don’t have the right skill mix.
Here's a clue: technologies change. By definition, anyone with the "right skill mix" won't have the "right skill mix" for long. Amesome people adapt. But how would you even know that if you don't hire them?
No career plans or vision
I've been programming for 33 years and still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up. This is an interview for an open job, not Dr. Phil.
If you don’t think well on your feet, spend some time reading through and practicing situational interview questions.
Are you serious? I'm a programmer, not an Americas Got Talent contestant. What you see is what you get.
If you are missing even one, I’m probably going to pass you up for someone who doesn’t.
Wait a minute. You want to hire perfect people, but you also want them to have "career plans or vision"?
I have a super BS detector
Obviously not, since so many of your questions can only be answered with BS.
The End
That's just about the only thing you've said that I agree with.
You sound like you have a serious attitude problem. I can't imagine working for someone like you. But thanks for writing this. You've solved many problems in advance. I won't be applying. And I don't imagine many people like me will be either.