Reply to: 3 stage interviews

[northernladuk]

Agreed. Anyone who wants to hire a contractor and put him through 3 interviews doesn't really want to hire a contractor. Or has never hired one/doesn't know what contractors are/has no appreciation/hates contractors. Either way it is a heavy warning flag.

The post above the quoted one kinda debunks this though...

[unixman]

Yep. Contractors don't need to fit in as much, they need to be able to do the piece of work asked of them. Ask them about their hobbies to make sure that they aren't a freak and that's about it.

Agreed. Anyone who wants to hire a contractor and put him through 3 interviews doesn't really want to hire a contractor. Or has never hired one/doesn't know what contractors are/has no appreciation/hates contractors. Either way it is a heavy warning flag.

[edison]

I don't agree at all. Depends on what you are after. If they are just turning code out quietly in the corner maybe but if you are looking at any kind of PM, Service, BRM you haven't a clue how that person communicates, whether they will be a fit or just not work. No chance you can see that from a CV at all. You can check someone has skills and experience but A) you've got to find out if they are lying and B) that's not everything that is needed to do many roles.

I totally agree with Northern Lad about the difference with more 'customer' facing roles. I work in Business Relationship Management and as a mainly non technical but very people orientated role, much of my effectiveness depends on how I work with senior stakeholders up to Board level. Typically I've had 3 interviews (mix of phone/face to face) including the CIO and someone senior from the rest of the organisation like the Finance Director.

Mostly they're trying to assess cultural fit and my credibility in front of senior people. It's difficult to do that only from a CV and phone interviews.

It's horses for courses and ultimately it's up to the client. My current gig is the most senior contract role I've ever had and that was just a single 45 minute interview with the CIO plus two others.

[psychocandy]

I thought we'd agreed to lay off psychocandy in the professional forums.

LOL. No oncall for me OG.

Or free weekend work. Peanuts? yeh ok.

[Old Greg]

And some people work for peanuts and are on call at evenings and weekends....

I thought we'd agreed to lay off psychocandy in the professional forums.

[6128k]

Thank you for your comments.

The client has agreed to cover my expenses

It's a goer for now!

Cheers
6128k

[MyUserName]

The best gig I landed had an weird logic test thing and then the actual interview with the manager and a senior programmer. It lasted about 15 minutes. As he walked me to my car he told me that he gets hassle from people because they want him to spend hours interviewing but he can't see the point and would rather just end it when he has made his decision.

I found out later that they got me out so fast because the MD wanted to interview me and they didn't want me to meet him in case I turned them down

[LondonManc]

I recently interviewed for a perm job at the bank I am contracting at.

I wasn't bothered about going perm but it was an interesting high profile role working on the trading desk so I thought I would apply for it, get some relevant experience and I could always go back to contracting again in the future with some additional skills under my belt.

I had an initial face to face meeting with one of the Strats that works on the team. He gave me an overview of the role, what projects were in the pipeline etc. The problem is that the bank I contract at is currently split over two sites, one in Canary Wharf and the other in the City and it takes 30 minutes to get from one to the other. As a contractor it isn't so easy to slip away from my desk especially for a few hours at a time so I had to make excuses, WFH etc.

Team was based in Hong Kong, London and the US. Since I was already in the bank, the HR co-ordinator set up telepresence meetings.

I had 3 telepresence meetings individually for the HK guys and one for a US guy

Then I was called to a face-to-face meeting at City office where I met a couple of Quants and another Strat developer that works on the team

Then I was called back again another day to meet the desk heads and other directors, that was another 3 people I met

After that I heard back a few days later that they decided to go with another candidate.

All in all I met 11 people, practically every single person I would have been working with and I didn't even get the role! Feedback (apparently) was positive so I was a bit gutted, not because I missed out on the role but more because of the amount of time I invested in interviewing.

That's perm roles in IB for you. Sounds a bit lightweight for some.

[MrMarkyMark]

Done loads and loads of interviews from both sides of the table. Usually it takes me about 20 mins to decide if someone can do the job or not. If you can't decide on a contractor in that time then there is something incredibly wrong.

My current gig has been great and the director who hired me spent 30 mins with me talking about football, then the HR business partner came in, asked me why I wanted the job, what I could add to the organisation and what my weaknesses were. Eventually he had to go to another meeting, the director apologised, called him a numpty and asked if I could start Monday.

This and sometimes less than that is needed...

[dx4100]

But you be just ruined your argument with that assumption. The only way to be sure is to interview ergo you cannot tell just from a CV.

The post you are talking about qualified it with, of course you interview them to check...

I can usually spot a bulltulipter from a CV. Not enough people spend time reading them to be frank. When I interview I just have conversations I know would unstick a bulltulipter.

[CompulsiveArsonist]

I recently interviewed for a perm job at the bank I am contracting at.

I wasn't bothered about going perm but it was an interesting high profile role working on the trading desk so I thought I would apply for it, get some relevant experience and I could always go back to contracting again in the future with some additional skills under my belt.

I had an initial face to face meeting with one of the Strats that works on the team. He gave me an overview of the role, what projects were in the pipeline etc. The problem is that the bank I contract at is currently split over two sites, one in Canary Wharf and the other in the City and it takes 30 minutes to get from one to the other. As a contractor it isn't so easy to slip away from my desk especially for a few hours at a time so I had to make excuses, WFH etc.

Team was based in Hong Kong, London and the US. Since I was already in the bank, the HR co-ordinator set up telepresence meetings.

I had 3 telepresence meetings individually for the HK guys and one for a US guy

Then I was called to a face-to-face meeting at City office where I met a couple of Quants and another Strat developer that works on the team

Then I was called back again another day to meet the desk heads and other directors, that was another 3 people I met

After that I heard back a few days later that they decided to go with another candidate.

All in all I met 11 people, practically every single person I would have been working with and I didn't even get the role! Feedback (apparently) was positive so I was a bit gutted, not because I missed out on the role but more because of the amount of time I invested in interviewing.

[northernladuk]

I agree. Always assuming that you're confident the CV is not made up or fictitious in any way.
!

But you be just ruined your argument with that assumption. The only way to be sure is to interview ergo you cannot tell just from a CV.

[psychocandy]

You can spot a good contractor or permie for that matter from the CV, obviously you need to check with an interview. The main thing you're looking at the interview is someone who is compatible to work with, not someone who knows Java syntax backwards.

I used to be involved in selection, and doing that i.e. selecting based on the CV combined with a few pragmatic project related questions on how they would go about doing something will weed out all numpties. In the 5 years I was working there we only had one "numpty" and the PM knew he might not be up to it and so gave him a trial, i.e. he looked suspect on the CV.

I agree. Always assuming that you're confident the CV is not made up or fictitious in any way.

Not waving my willy here, but I've worked for some large companies in various industry sectors over the past 25 years. I've obviously got on ok.

So it peeves me a bit that someone from a small company thinks they can catch me out with silly trick tech questions. And dont get me started on bob interviews!

[MarkT]

Done loads and loads of interviews from both sides of the table. Usually it takes me about 20 mins to decide if someone can do the job or not. If you can't decide on a contractor in that time then there is something incredibly wrong.

My current gig has been great and the director who hired me spent 30 mins with me talking about football, then the HR business partner came in, asked me why I wanted the job, what I could add to the organisation and what my weaknesses were. Eventually he had to go to another meeting, the director apologised, called him a numpty and asked if I could start Monday.

[BrilloPad]

You can spot a good contractor or permie for that matter from the CV, obviously you need to check with an interview. The main thing you're looking at the interview is someone who is compatible to work with, not someone who knows Java syntax backwards.

At one bank, someone was sacked. Someone else got a copy of his CV he used to apply to another bank, so we could read what he had put he was doing at the bank he was sacked from. It was total nonsense. Though someone quipped "As he is that good, we should take him back".

People should know the basics. Interviewing obscure syntax that can be googled is very poor.

Problem is that with more regulation, interview processes get longer. If we vote leave on June 23rd, this process will go into reverse. The UK will have less red tape and will become great again. Sadly, it won't happen.