Yet Another Knock Back

[Gibbon]

My bad. Should be 37-0-1.

When I hit 40 contracts I'm retiring.

That's poor, I haven't had a interview for 5 years unless you count "when are you available next Gibbon".

[suityou01]

I can't believe it.
Five bloody interviews in the last couple of months and each time it's been that I was really good but just pipped by someone else.
Bah! Used to be that if I got to interview, I got the job. I've never had two failing interviews in a row before, let alone five. Perhaps I've become a bit tulip in my dotage.

Actually, one thing that I have noticed is that I think my CV has become a bit too detailed. This gives the interviewer too much scope for probing questions about projects I've worked on and as I spend my time fielding questions, I don't get enough opportunity to highlight what I want to highlight. Time to do some trimming I think and to see if that helps.

There again, I am quite enjoying being able to stay up into the wee hours drinking Stella and then wasting half the day by lying in bed. Followed of course by getting up and undertaking a frantic hour or two of DIY tasks before the wife gets home to make it look like I've been busy since she went to work in the morning.

Whoomp, there-it-is.

JSL

[bobspud]

The old successful interviewer is still inside your mind somewhere. You have just forgot how to bring them out to play.
I had a 100% record until 2007, when I got a sloppy head on, and screwed up a few interviews. At the time it really shook me.
I dropped 3 more last year (same reason: I got sloppy didn't treat the process with the respect it demands).
Then one afternoon I got into one particular interview and something snapped back in place. I sat in the interview and thought hang on! Who are you? Where the hell are these words coming from? Stop being crap! and start doing what you get paid for...
I turned the interview round then later I turned the job down because I didn't want it.

I am back on the "if I interview for it, I own it" streak.

First rule: Its not an interview! Its the first discusion that will last the rest of the contract. Get it right. Own the agenda and don't sit on your arse waiting for someone to ask you questions.... Unless thats what your skill is (being the project sofa...)
Second rule: Sit down in your mind and get your story straight. Get some words in your mind about your last few roles NOT THE TECHNICAL BIT the high level stuff thats full of the YAY words about your skills. Then drill down if the interviewer wants to. If you start on the nano scale the only place to go is deeper. If you set the detail at several levels above your comfort zone the interviewer will dive down to the level you are happy at. rather than start the interview where you are comfortable only to have the guy start talking about xvz setting in a config file or a tcp stream packet in soap...

If you are not one to stick around in a role for years then protect the fact that your CV is short on renewals and have a good story about it... I look at a CV full of 6 month jobs and think:

a) The candidate is technically inept or great at pissing people off.
b) There is something even worse in the background that makes this person unable to commit to regular paid work...

The interview is your sales call start treating it like one. Oh and lay off wife beater until you have another job. That should provide you with some hunger

[MarillionFan]

Good post from spud.

To be honest I don't think I actually interview in the classic sense. I go in. Listen. And from there take control of the interview process by asking the questions. As a lot of what I do is around solutioning I treat it as a working session, stopping at the point where I tell them how to do it(once had a client thank me for the input and gave the design I had white boarded to their internal team to develop. You only make that mistake once).

I find this works for me.

[bless 'em all]

once had a client thank me for the input and gave the design I had white boarded to their internal team to develop......

.... and that's where the Austin Allegro came from.

Finish the story MF, finish the story!

[MarillionFan]

.... and that's where the Austin Allegro came from.

Finish the story MF, finish the story!

Sorry.

And that's how I created the world wide web. Which was nice.

[Doggy Styles]

.... and that's where the Austin Allegro came from.

Finish the story MF, finish the story!

Someone's already invented the Austin Allegro?

Feck, another Plan B bites the dust.

[oscarose]

I can't believe it.
Five bloody interviews in the last couple of months and each time it's been that I was really good but just pipped by someone else.

Keep plugging away old boy.

[norrahe]

Sorry.

And that's how I created the world wide web. Which was nice.

and discovered the Higgs Boson particle, which should have been called the MF particle but this Higgs guy took all the credit ( bloody permies)

[alluvial]

Cheers all.

I think I need to get my own the interview head back on.

One thing that I think may be the problem is the intrusion of HR into the recruitment process these days.
It used to be that you'd have a meeting with the hiring manager, he might ask you a few technical questions but it was more likely that you would discuss the role and the project with the aim on both sides of deciding if the person/role is suitable.

Nowadays, I'm getting a lot more of the formula interview where the whole interview is planned and even scripted in some cases. I had one where the interviewer was asking pre-prepared questions (including the weaknesses one) from a printed sheet. I used to find as well that it was rare to have more than one interviewer, now there always seems to be the questioner and the scribe who furiously notes down everything you say.
I never really had to prepare for interviews in the past, just read through the job spec and CV. Now though, I think one really has to get the head around the HR questions that seem to come in from left field.

I did have one weird one where the interviewer cam in and gave me a presentation. I mean WTF? I wondered if I was supposed to compliment him on a well laid out and thought out presentation with perhaps some marks out of ten. I just smiled and nodded though as one does with a toddler that presents you with the mud pie they are so proud of.

Guess I could work on my Plan B. I was going to discover the Higgs Boson. I mean it can't be that difficult. I've already knocked up my particle accelerator in the workshop from some empty coke cans and an old washing machine motor but I see that some bugger went and beat me to it. Ah well, I did manage to get a fusion reaction going at room temperature but I can't see there being much interest in something like that.