When the guy interviewing you is way below your level......

[TheFaQQer]

Had a really weird phone interview the other day....

Was asked some pretty primitive questions you would expect to be asked as a junior. Started to get really fed up after a while so began to explain things at a more advanced level, hoping the guy would be able to keep up. Kept being polite like but you can only take being asked so many basic questions for such an advanced/high level role.

Got quite peed off and actually fed back to the interviewer that how are they going to gauge my level by bringing a junior techie to interview somebody working at a more advanced level.....

Anybody else had such an experience before?

I've never had to feedback my thoughts on the client interview process before, no. The client chooses the most appropriate method of identifying the best resource to help them solve their particular problem - if they choose a method that I find unbearable (and I'm yet to find it) then that is their choice and my choice whether I want to work with them.

I don't care about the level of the interviewer (or my perception of their level, which isn't always apparent in an interview), because they are (in most, if not all situations) less able to do the job than I am - if they weren't, then they wouldn't be looking to the contract market to get someone to do it.

I've had interviews where I've been asked basic questions because they ask everyone the same questions - the interviewer at one of them apologised to me afterwards, given that I trained him in the technology years ago when I worked with him. I've had interviews where the only questions asked were "when can you start and do you have any holiday booked". I've had interviews to work on a product that I developed that was sold to them by my former employer.

In each of those situations, the person interviewing has been "way below my level". The important thing is that in each of those situations, I have got the work, had a lot of fun on the contract, and left once I've completed the project to the satisfaction of the client. Anything else is irrelevant.

[SimonMac]

As this has now gone from the sublime to the ridiculous....


If I want to work with an organisation I don't care who interviews me, I like to think that I can change my pitch to suit the audience, if there is a techy person there I can go into granular details on technologies, if there is CxO i can go high level benefit realisations, hell if there is even a HR person I can even speak bulltulip competencies with the best of those types.

You may think you are more important, but most cases the customer is always right, so maybe they are looking into hiring you because they don't have the necessary experience and knowledge within the organisation already, so by treating the "junior" with distain you have shot yourself in the foot.

[sasguru]

I've never had to feedback my thoughts on the client interview process before, no. The client chooses the most appropriate method of identifying the best resource to help them solve their particular problem - if they choose a method that I find unbearable (and I'm yet to find it) then that is their choice and my choice whether I want to work with them.

I don't care about the level of the interviewer (or my perception of their level, which isn't always apparent in an interview), because they are (in most, if not all situations) less able to do the job than I am - if they weren't, then they wouldn't be looking to the contract market to get someone to do it.

I've had interviews where I've been asked basic questions because they ask everyone the same questions - the interviewer at one of them apologised to me afterwards, given that I trained him in the technology years ago when I worked with him. I've had interviews where the only questions asked were "when can you start and do you have any holiday booked". I've had interviews to work on a product that I developed that was sold to them by my former employer.

In each of those situations, the person interviewing has been "way below my level". The important thing is that in each of those situations, I have got the work, had a lot of fun on the contract, and left once I've completed the project to the satisfaction of the client. Anything else is irrelevant.

Well said. You are definitely COTBAC!

[mudskipper]

[LondonManc]

As this has now gone from the sublime to the ridiculous....


If I want to work with an organisation I don't care who interviews me, I like to think that I can change my pitch to suit the audience, if there is a techy person there I can go into granular details on technologies, if there is CxO i can go high level benefit realisations, hell if there is even a HR person I can even speak bulltulip competencies with the best of those types.

You may think you are more important, but most cases the customer is always right, so maybe they are looking into hiring you because they don't have the necessary experience and knowledge within the organisation already, so by treating the "junior" with distain you have shot yourself in the foot.

Pretty much sums it up - know your client, know your audience.
They're more important - they approve your timesheets.

[Bee]

Had a really weird phone interview the other day....

Was asked some pretty primitive questions you would expect to be asked as a junior. Started to get really fed up after a while so began to explain things at a more advanced level, hoping the guy would be able to keep up. Kept being polite like but you can only take being asked so many basic questions for such an advanced/high level role.

Got quite peed off and actually fed back to the interviewer that how are they going to gauge my level by bringing a junior techie to interview somebody working at a more advanced level.....

Anybody else had such an experience before?

Yes, they don't know what are talking about.

[northernladuk]

Yes, they don't know what are talking about.

The irony

[FatLazyContractor]

Yes, they don't know what are talking about.

Are you talking about what we think he is talking about?

[ironman20]

its a waste of time time to interview anyway they should just give you a test. if you can do the work you can pass. if not bye. what a stupid thing this country has where you have to dress up and act an idiot just to be like "well, i can do the job"

[WTFH]

its a waste of time time to interview anyway they should just give you a test. if you can do the work you can pass. if not bye. what a stupid thing this country has where you have to dress up and act an idiot just to be like "well, i can do the job"

I'm not sure anyone could write a test for what I do, then again my job isn't writing SQL statements or bits of code.


Also, I tend to work on projects as part of a team with a diverse skill set. If I worked on a helpdesk the answer might be different (so would the daily rate)