Interview red flags

[JoJoGabor]

Not answering the OP's question but I was interviewing somebody for a graduate scheme years ago and we were trying to work out his motivation for a career in IT. When we asked "Why do you want a job in IT" his answer was, "When I'm at home I like to play with myself". I think he meant he enjoys exploring computing concepts in his own time. It must have taken a good 40 seconds for the HR girl to be able to respond with the next question. I was done, I couldn't speak for the rest of the interview I was laughing so hard. We offered him the job but he didnt accept the offer.

[PerfectStorm]

I had a young kid interview me a few years ago and his first question was "so why are you a contractor?"

When interviewing for a perm role once, I was asked why I wasn't.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

the TM was absolutely hopeless at management........ The TM had been on long term sick and just come back to work, hence the delay with the interview.

He apologised and said the TM had just got back to work after a nervous breakdown. I said he's going to have another because he hasnt a clue what he's doing!

What's a TM in this context?

[BolshieBastard]

What's a TM in this context?

Test Manager, as in couldnt manage her own time and workload never mind overall management and delivery of an area of system functionality.

She even had a old Landie yet couldnt make it into work when a few inches of snow fell one morning. Everyone else on the team made it in despite only having 2 wheel drives.

[malvolio]

Had a serious meeting booked with a Change Manager in one gig, to look into and hopefully sort out the whole process. Drove many miles to get to her, only to discover she wasn't there. So drove all the way back again having achieved precisely nothing.

Turned out the following day, when having a moan to her line manager, about me losing a day's productive work, that she was booked on a Time Management course...

[hairymouse]

I always ask explicitly about the expectations for unpaid overtime (as a permie). Had one recently tell me "Expectations are high" before letting slip about being on call over weekends and working over Christmas. Another guy with the same company said "our contract says 37 hours, but pffffft, whatever!" PM me for details if you want to be worked to death for a famous boot company.

[SueEllen]

I always ask explicitly about the expectations for unpaid overtime (as a permie). Had one recently tell me "Expectations are high" before letting slip about being on call over weekends and working over Christmas. Another guy with the same company said "our contract says 37 hours, but pffffft, whatever!" PM me for details if you want to be worked to death for a famous boot company.

Some companies really do do it to themselves.

Ask them the standard "Why is this role available?"

And they come back with the person you are replacing left because they wanted to spend more time with their family.

Then every few months every year for the next decade you see the role advertised.

[hairymouse]

Some companies really do do it to themselves.

Ask them the standard "Why is this role available?"

And they come back with the person you are replacing left because they wanted to spend more time with their family.

Then every few months every year for the next decade you see the role advertised.

There's nothing like the sinking feeling that another guys spent a few months working on the same project you've been given before quiting. It comes out in drips and drabs, a name dropped here and there, some random stored procedures that are just like the one you need to write, etc. Worst is when they give you his laptop and his profile is still there!

[lecyclist]

There's nothing like the sinking feeling that another guys spent a few months working on the same project you've been given before quiting. It comes out in drips and drabs, a name dropped here and there, some random stored procedures that are just like the one you need to write, etc. Worst is when they give you his laptop and his profile is still there!

Many years ago I wrote some scripts for a customer that trawled the metadata tables of their proprietary ETL tool and various databases, and unloaded the relevant information in different formats; e.g. generating source to target mapping spreadsheets for them to use for documentation purposes. There were a few transformations and nuances that I couldn't get to unload perfectly, and I left a comment in the code saying "Can't get X to work" with my initials.

Fast forward 3 years, and I'm working for another consultancy, and come across similar scripts (greatly enhanced to be fair).

Curious, I navigate to one of the areas I struggled with, and my original comment is still there.

Followed immediately after by a fresh section of code, and another comment - "I can't get it to work either".

[TheDude]

There's nothing like the sinking feeling that another guys spent a few months working on the same project you've been given before quiting. It comes out in drips and drabs, a name dropped here and there, some random stored procedures that are just like the one you need to write, etc. Worst is when they give you his laptop and his profile is still there!

I prefer to think of the ski holday and nice things the other guy is probably enjoying...