Reply to: permie interview today

[slickcontractor]

My my my....
How the mighty have fallen.

It was only a year ago that many here were the "tough guys"
"Permidom? Nah... not for me - wouldn't get out of bed for less than..."

Well spacemen, its "back to earth with a bump" time.

So lets see who gets riled by this.....

Right....The point is this.
Unless you can take that sort of abuse above (i.e. You don't get riled, you don't react and you pass it off quietly), you ain't gonna pass an interview.

Not only that, no amount of "look how good I am" is going to get you a role. In fact it will do the reverse.

This is a PERMIE interview. You are being interviewed to see if you fit in first and foremost.
Think about all the bitter and twisted permies you have encountered.
It is your assignmnet in the interview to be able to get on with them - to NOT be a threat to them
Its usually the case that the last thing a boss wants, is a "new broom sweeps clean".

Stop trying to impress. Try to be earnest.

am not a permie but i see your point

[lightng]

You are being interviewed to see if you fit in first and foremost.

Yes, pretty much agree with that one.

Think about all the bitter and twisted permies you have encountered.

The best permie interview I had was with two such characters. Their bitterness was quite refreshing - they didn't hide it one bit.

Try to be earnest.

I can now see the importance of this. IGMC.

[Fred Bloggs]

That's pretty good advice I think.

However, I feel that a lot of the "permie" roles being filled with ex-contractors at present will be terminated within a year. That way, the employer gets the contractor but without paying the contractor premium. Some firms locally have actively sacked contractors and replaced them with "permies". I wonder how "permie" it will turn out to be on the part of the employer?

[Ivor Bigun]

My my my....
How the mighty have fallen.

It was only a year ago that many here were the "tough guys"
"Permidom? Nah... not for me - wouldn't get out of bed for less than..."

Well spacemen, its "back to earth with a bump" time.

So lets see who gets riled by this.....

Right....The point is this.
Unless you can take that sort of abuse above (i.e. You don't get riled, you don't react and you pass it off quietly), you ain't gonna pass an interview.

Not only that, no amount of "look how good I am" is going to get you a role. In fact it will do the reverse.

This is a PERMIE interview. You are being interviewed to see if you fit in first and foremost.
Think about all the bitter and twisted permies you have encountered.
It is your assignmnet in the interview to be able to get on with them - to NOT be a threat to them
Its usually the case that the last thing a boss wants, is a "new broom sweeps clean".

Stop trying to impress. Try to be earnest.

[expat]

Perhaps they thought you'd be off to Montana soon?

I've had this problem in my field a number of times. We'd love to offer you the job but you're over qualified/experienced.

My answer has always been that there's no guarantees in this world, your appointee may be hit by a bus within a week of starting. However, while I'm with you, you could learn from my experience and qualifications and make vast improvements in your performance.

Never worked though!

Too old, too expensive, or we don't like you for some reason that we're not prepared to state. Or we are stupid, tossers, insane, like abusing power, pathological liars, etc etc etc

[thelace]

Perhaps they thought you'd be off to Montana soon?

I've had this problem in my field a number of times. We'd love to offer you the job but you're over qualified/experienced.

My answer has always been that there's no guarantees in this world, your appointee may be hit by a bus within a week of starting. However, while I'm with you, you could learn from my experience and qualifications and make vast improvements in your performance.

Never worked though!

[TheRefactornator]

• 1st permie interview on 26/05. I appear to have been dropped like hot tulip..no communication from the agent whatsoever despite the client advising in the interview they would be making a quick decision. I suspect some other candidate has had an offer and I'm being kept swinging as their backup plan.

This one is now officially dead. The client feedback passed on by the agent is that I was technically strong, but they have concerns about whether the role's technologies are diverse / interesting enough for me and also concerns about my ability to stick the role long-term. To some degree they are right about me, however just because they will eventually choose to take on someone without a contracting history does not mean that that individual will stick with them forever.

Prior to the interview I had to code a mini task to be discussed during the face to face. This they could not fault and I actually did more work on it than expected. During the interview there was a white board session where I had to design a database and screens for another hypothetical system and again no problems there. And then there were a load of competency based questions from HR..the usual carp.

As it stands after a week of interviewing they have not filled the role and the agent I worked with on this, is just as hacked off with them as I am. I say screw 'em, it's their loss. Next!

[hmmm]

Are you guys looking for contracts too?

I have a permie interview tomorrow... fingers crossed. Potential contracts (that seemed to exist and even had job specs) have been too far away from home for my liking.

[lightng]

Had one on Friday and got feedback that day. I wasn't successful. Felt like it was a role I could do standing on my head - not technically challenging at all. The feedback was that I was a strong candidate but the successful one had stonger experience. How much experience do you need to clean toilets FFS.

Got two second interviews this week though.

[TheRefactornator]

Update:

• 1st permie interview on 26/05. I appear to have been dropped like hot tulip..no communication from the agent whatsoever despite the client advising in the interview they would be making a quick decision. I suspect some other candidate has had an offer and I'm being kept swinging as their backup plan.
• 2nd permie interview on 28/05. Initial feedback suggests the client was concerned about giving the role to a contractor because they've had their fingers burnt in the past. This one is not entirely dead yet though - there's still an inkling of hope. This really is the one I want so far.
• Another permie interview today 01/06. The inital face to face went well but I'm starting to get a little pessimistic so who knows..feedback expected by the end of this week.

It's clear there's nothing really technically difficult about any of these roles..just gizza job!

[lightng]

Good Luck.

Had a couple myself. Went well but still to hear. I've got a contractor phone interview and another permie one on Friday.

Whatever happens, I'm hoping to keep my company alive with my plan B.

[zara_backdog]

Good Luck!

[gingerjedi]

When I started looking at perm roles it quickly became apparent that I was restricted to a very narrow pay band with my support skills, trying to up the rate by just 2k was never going to happen.

With contracting it can vary wildly up to double the perm rate for a similar role, not a hard decision on where to concentrate my efforts.

Good luck BTW.

[BrilloPad]

Very best of luck : at the moment bring in the money is what counts.

[Zippy]

Good luck