State of the Market

[Fraidycat]

I was always under the impression that sw dev typically walk into jobs, but this example shows how that's maybe no longer the case. I'd focus on why, is it the sw skills? companies use other languages? I thought Java is still a good skill to have, especially with Docker, Node etc. Is it just the UK market, or is Europe as fecked as here?

Software development roles have always been hit in downturns since as long as i can remember, eg downturns in 1992 and 2001..
Companies are not starting big new development projects and the few that are have the pick of the market and can lower rates..

[avonleigh]

Why on earth do these people bother inviting people for an interview, if they are overqualified? You can tell by people's CV if they are overqualified or not. Complete waste of people's time.

[Fraidycat]

Why on earth do these people bother inviting people for an interview, if they are overqualified? You can tell by people's CV if they are overqualified or not. Complete waste of people's time.

Companies do look past 'overqualified', if an overqualified candidate shows enthusiasm beyond what the less qualified candidates show. For a job that pays that low you would really have to fake enthusiasm to the extreme.. While a grad out of uni wouldn't have to fake it so much..

[gables]

Companies do look past 'overqualified', if an overqualified candidate shows enthusiasm way above and beyond what the less qualified candidates show. For a job that pays that low you would really have to fake enthusiasm to the extreme.. While a grad out of uni wouldn't have to fake it so much..

And I'm glad they do look past 'overqualified' as I've applied and got contracts that are well within my capability\skills\experience i.e. 'overqualified' - but don't then reject them because they're 'overqualified'!!

[rocktronAMP]

8 people able to get SC? that's a fair bit, I'm actually surprised, SC reqs typically cut the amount of people asked for an interview in half or more.

I was always under the impression that sw dev typically walk into jobs, but this example shows how that's maybe no longer the case. I'd focus on why, is it the sw skills? companies use other languages? I thought Java is still a good skill to have, especially with Docker, Node etc. Is it just the UK market, or is Europe as fecked as here?

They don' t typically walk into jobs, because:

• Bad interviews, insane interviewers, bad managers, who lose the serious talent folk - like A&R in the early 1960's missing out on signing the four young guys from Merseyside, who didn't fit the mindset profile of the interviewer.
• Bad code / overly extreme death programming exercises - take home projects that seriously do your brain in (only desperate devs will ever mount them)
• Terrible code interview experiences - if you are nervous during live coding, dyslexic, or the exercise is so stupid, "build a merge sort from scratch" - who knows that since university? If you need a sort, call a library API for it.
• Prejudice against ethnicity, sexuality and "othering" so called culture-fit issue
• Elitism - we are bad-8ss ThoughtWorkers and we need people who look like us and behave like us, sing like us, dance like us, and obey the rules like us, and we only hire people like that, lady.
• Far too many steps in the interview process (Goldman Sachs investment bank, I am looking at you with the 7 stages of process and this was in the "Noughties" J.F.C!)
• The right CV fit - that old chestnut suited to the industry, vertical sector and niche - "no banking experience" "not enough digital agency jobs / contract. Sorry."

[hungry_hog]

Why on earth do these people bother inviting people for an interview, if they are overqualified? You can tell by people's CV if they are overqualified or not. Complete waste of people's time.

sometimes box ticking
They find someone they like but need to show they have interviewed "x" number. So they interview someone not qualified and give them a hard time. Happened to me with one of the credit card companies that sounds a bit like "nasty card".

[Fraidycat]

So they interview someone not qualified and give them a hard time.

The good thing about remote interviews, is we can now end them early if the interviewer is a ****.
In the old days we got suited and booted and took half a day out of our lives while the interviewer did it on company time. So you felt more obliged to yourself to sit through the abuse.

[SchumiStars]

This is crazy
Not being funny but seems like you are being paid an offshore rate for an onshore job.

Have you looked at companies like Detica / BAE systems? They are chock full of technical people from top unis.

The good thing about remote interviews, is we can now end them early if the interviewer is a ****.
In the old days we got suited and booted and took half a day out of our lives while the interviewer did it on company time. So you felt more obliged to yourself to sit through the abuse.

Lol, this one was face2face, @~40miles drive away. Still got to take the positives, at least they read the CV and asked me some competence based questions.

Usually in a down-turn, it can take a few interviews to get back into the swing of things, so just used it for that.

[TheDude]

They don' t typically walk into jobs, because:

• Bad interviews, insane interviewers, bad managers, who lose the serious talent folk - like A&R in the early 1960's missing out on signing the four young guys from Merseyside, who didn't fit the mindset profile of the interviewer.
• Bad code / overly extreme death programming exercises - take home projects that seriously do your brain in (only desperate devs will ever mount them)
• Terrible code interview experiences - if you are nervous during live coding, dyslexic, or the exercise is so stupid, "build a merge sort from scratch" - who knows that since university? If you need a sort, call a library API for it.
• Prejudice against ethnicity, sexuality and "othering" so called culture-fit issue
• Elitism - we are bad-8ss ThoughtWorkers and we need people who look like us and behave like us, sing like us, dance like us, and obey the rules like us, and we only hire people like that, lady.
• Far too many steps in the interview process (Goldman Sachs investment bank, I am looking at you with the 7 stages of process and this was in the "Noughties" J.F.C!)
• The right CV fit - that old chestnut suited to the industry, vertical sector and niche - "no banking experience" "not enough digital agency jobs / contract. Sorry."

I had 10 interviews for Goldman Sachs. Eight in one day.

[Fraidycat]

I had 10 interviews for Goldman Sachs. Eight in one day.

For a contract? Contractors i knew there in the naughties had just one. While the one permie i knew there said he had to do multiple interviews and they phoned his previous manager for a reference, a written reference wasnt enough.. I guess they wanted to hear some enthusiasm in his previous managers voice...