Reply to: Interview fail

[jimjamuk]

Flounce and email back saying you wouldnt have taken it anyway

[bobspud]

I've seen it as much from people I know to be right or left wing.

One (Socialist with capital S) banker informed me that in his interpretaton of Judaism, he was required to kill the candidate in a specific way and personally ensure the destruction of their body. He then offered the newbie 90K straight out of college, C++/Maths skills being more important than their frankly bizarre behaviour.

On The Register I go on and on about "Cultural fit" and if you read the (never censored) comments get slagged for it.

We pimps call it the "pub test", would you go drinking with the candidate ?

That's subjective of course and it costs a lot of ITpros especially contractors real money when they screw it up.

Whilst still a contractor I went for an interview, unaware of my destiny as a pimp I'd misread the situation and the smarm vector of my interview persona was turned up too high, enough that they thought I could not be a hardcore techie, until one person (after the i/v) pointed out to the others that I was gay, which made it all right
Apparently my behaviour (smilling, thanking the junior who brought me coffee, Thomas Pink Shirt, shoes I'd polished until you could see your face, arriving at reception exactly 5 minutes before the interview, nodding every so often when they explained things, clean new suit, etc) was acceptable in a gay techie.

One of my sidelines is training bankers in soft skills and one of the more amusing and valuable is teaching them to breathe (not say) the word "excellent" during interviews at the right point.

My gayness caused some problems when Mrs. Dominic turned up in the pub, apparently they had interpreted my wedding ring as one of the pretend marriages gay people had done before it was made legal, it was only then I discovered their entirely false reasoning.

There are at least two things to take away from this.

Employers want components, things that fit the shape of what they perceive as right for that sort of work.

Do not ever believe that any firm has a high quality employment process, one piece I've got in the queue for The Register has rather interesting evidence of racism at Google.

That post should be a sticky. Its amazing how many contractors don't seem to get it.

[Dominic Connor]

Cultural fit has been hijacked by the lefties and bleeding hearts

I've seen it as much from people I know to be right or left wing.

One (Socialist with capital S) banker informed me that in his interpretaton of Judaism, he was required to kill the candidate in a specific way and personally ensure the destruction of their body. He then offered the newbie 90K straight out of college, C++/Maths skills being more important than their frankly bizarre behaviour.

On The Register I go on and on about "Cultural fit" and if you read the (never censored) comments get slagged for it.

We pimps call it the "pub test", would you go drinking with the candidate ?

That's subjective of course and it costs a lot of ITpros especially contractors real money when they screw it up.

Whilst still a contractor I went for an interview, unaware of my destiny as a pimp I'd misread the situation and the smarm vector of my interview persona was turned up too high, enough that they thought I could not be a hardcore techie, until one person (after the i/v) pointed out to the others that I was gay, which made it all right
Apparently my behaviour (smilling, thanking the junior who brought me coffee, Thomas Pink Shirt, shoes I'd polished until you could see your face, arriving at reception exactly 5 minutes before the interview, nodding every so often when they explained things, clean new suit, etc) was acceptable in a gay techie.

One of my sidelines is training bankers in soft skills and one of the more amusing and valuable is teaching them to breathe (not say) the word "excellent" during interviews at the right point.

My gayness caused some problems when Mrs. Dominic turned up in the pub, apparently they had interpreted my wedding ring as one of the pretend marriages gay people had done before it was made legal, it was only then I discovered their entirely false reasoning.

There are at least two things to take away from this.

Employers want components, things that fit the shape of what they perceive as right for that sort of work.

Do not ever believe that any firm has a high quality employment process, one piece I've got in the queue for The Register has rather interesting evidence of racism at Google.

[amcdonald]

Don't panic. It's just your right wing paranoia speaking.

Just because you're not paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you

[Old Greg]

Cultural fit has been hijacked by the lefties and bleeding hearts

It's supposed to be there as a catchall for: I don't bloody like you, you did not answer my questions to my satisfaction and you just spent an hour sat in front of me looking like a startled rabbit in my headlights...
For crying out loud being old,white,black,brown,gay,fat or all of the above is not going to get you turned down if your skills can be demonstrated and you can socially get on with the person on the other side of the desk.

for what its worth needing a grey beard is a perfectly sound answer. There is no bloody way a 50 year old C x O wants to be lectured by a tadpole that wasn't even out of their fathers balls when the C x O started their career.

Don't panic. It's just your right wing paranoia speaking.

[bobspud]

Cultural fit has been hijacked by the lefties and bleeding hearts

It's supposed to be there as a catchall for: I don't bloody like you, you did not answer my questions to my satisfaction and you just spent an hour sat in front of me looking like a startled rabbit in my headlights...
For crying out loud being old,white,black,brown,gay,fat or all of the above is not going to get you turned down if your skills can be demonstrated and you can socially get on with the person on the other side of the desk.

for what its worth needing a grey beard is a perfectly sound answer. There is no bloody way a 50 year old C x O wants to be lectured by a tadpole that wasn't even out of their fathers balls when the C x O started their career.

[Old Greg]

If you aren't white middle class or they weren't I'd get yourself a lawyer. That's suing talk!

This is why a gent should always wear cerise fingernail polish to an interview. It makes the interviewer think extremely carefully about considering cultural fit.

[Chunk]

The cheese man! The cheese! You forgot the cheese!

[SueEllen]

Back when I was in my mid twenties I applied for a perm lead consultant role which admittedly was a far reach at the time. When I sent my CV over and the agent saw my DOB he laughed at me and said he was after an older silver haired candidate. Absolute moron. I regret not taking that further, it probably would have been worth something in court or at least cost the fool his job.

Ageism laws are new so weren't around when you were in your 20s.

[CheeseSlice]

If you aren't white middle class or they weren't I'd get yourself a lawyer. That's suing talk!

Back when I was in my mid twenties I applied for a perm lead consultant role which admittedly was a far reach at the time. When I sent my CV over and the agent saw my DOB he laughed at me and said he was after an older silver haired candidate. Absolute moron. I regret not taking that further, it probably would have been worth something in court or at least cost the fool his job.

[vetran]

WTF?? are they allowed to give that as a reason?

If you aren't white middle class or they weren't I'd get yourself a lawyer. That's suing talk!

[CheeseSlice]

.....we have other candidates in process that were a closer fit for the role from a technical, team and cultural perspective.

WTF?? are they allowed to give that as a reason?

Either way 'culture' can mean so many different things so I've googled a list of possible meanings for you to figure out where you may have fallen short of their selection criteria. Perhaps you demonstrated too much or not enough of the following:

Examples of such "human cultural" traits include:

1. communicating with a verbal language consisting of a limited set of sounds and grammatical rules for constructing sentences

2. using age and gender to classify people (e.g., teenager, senior citizen, woman, man)

3. classifying people based on marriage and descent relationships and having kinship terms to refer to them (e.g., wife, mother, uncle, cousin)

4. raised in some sort of family setting

5. having a sexual division of labor (e.g., men's work versus women's work)

6. having a concept of privacy

7. having rules to regulate sexual behavior

8. distinguishing between good and bad behavior

9. having some sort of body ornamentation

10. making jokes and playing games

11. having art

12. having some sort of leadership role for the implementation of community decisions

[gingerjedi]

It was my 1st interview in 2 years so I'm treating it as practice.

I only knew I had one on the Friday and it was scheduled first thing Monday, I had a heavy drinking sesh in between so probably didn't show myself in the best of light.

Stooopid gig anyway.

[bobspud]

Feck me, on how many levels did I not fit??

At least I got a response which is a first.

Don't worry I just busted out of a 5 year role in Bristol on a sky high rate or at least I think I have based on my interview standard, I have not heard back yet Sometimes it just happens.

[MarillionFan]

Feck me, on how many levels did I not fit??

At least I got a response which is a first.

Beaten by a better candidate.