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contractor interview vs permie interview

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    #11
    banks
    I'm alright Jack

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      #12
      I'm on my third contract and the interviews have been easy. About 30 to 60 minutes where I prove I know the buzz words and I'm not a complete dork. My current client have made it clear that the main problem with permie hiring is HR nonsense. Odd because they've said I can go permie if I want.

      During the last IT boom I only had to turn up to interview to be offered a permie job. I went for interview at that big dot com company that did the internet security hardware stuff and which later went bust and was offered the job after 30 minutes. Thank God I went contract.

      Before that most permie interviews seemed to be an opportunity for some sad gits to try and humiliate me by asking me about things I barely knew. Then I figured out that it was nothing to do with techical ability and in fact what they were doing was choosing who they wanted to sit next to for the next 5+ years. Lord knows why that takes so long.

      I'm told that the 2 day interviews that were so popular 20 years ago are now passe. I recall several 2 day interviews with Shell including me giving a presentation. Sigh.

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        #13
        Think all this stuff goes through phases depending on the market, but generally I'd expect that someone hired as a contractor, or 'consultant' as I seem to be called here most of the time, should expect the interview to be more a case of simply what's your skills, what experience (and proof of that) you have, and what you can provide them (from a business perspective) for the money/budget they can spend.

        One thing you can almost always be sure of is some permie trying to make themselves look good, whether it's trying to show how much smarter/better they are than you...or how smart they are for hiring you in the first place...

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          #14
          Last interview I had was on the phone and lasted 10 minutes including negotiating a start date.

          They accepted my experience from my CV (I still use a CV style rather than a business presentation as most clients prefer that IMO). Their biggest concern was whether I would be willing to contract to them.

          For once it felt like a proper business to business discussion, much like the one I have had with plasterers plumbers and roofers over the last 12 months.

          Pity the agent is such an arse, I am still ironing out wrinkles in the contract placed there by him which expose me to IR35 when this job clearly isnt.

          BTW. 3 months in to a 6 monther they have offered to make it 12 and I am still on 10 quid an hour better than other contractors here.
          I am not qualified to give the above advice!

          The original point and click interface by
          Smith and Wesson.

          Step back, have a think and adjust my own own attitude from time to time

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            #15
            Interesting thread.

            I also work in banking like BlasterBates and have found that the testing has got harder.

            Most of the permie banking jobs have loads of applicants and so they've made the tests harder. Went to a UBS test the other day and they had a room crammed with people sitting tests.

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              #16
              Harder maybe, but I could flip a coin to determine who gets the job. That would make it hard to get in and filter out the applicants. What is the merit of these tests over flipping a coin given that they bare very little relationship to the the job. Do banks need better C++ gurus given that most of the code they produce is over-engineered spaghetti ?

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                #17
                a) bear
                b) I got this gig without even having an interview. My fame precedes me.
                We must strike at the lies that have spread like disease through our minds

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