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The Big InterviewJune 13th, 2005 by Hans Bjordahl :: see related comic |
We’ve all had to sweat “the big interview.” I suspect that, like me, you’ve had your share of good and bad experiences.
My examples of “the bad”:
- The interview where things seemed to go well, but the phone call I received was to inform me that instead of hiring, the company was going to undergo a round of layoffs. A year later, the company was no more.
- The interview where the interviewers were so obviously depressed and unenthusiastic about their jobs, that the company could have increased efficiency by putting the suicide hotline on speed-dial.
- The interview where the questions revealed that the company had no focus, few customers, no momentum, and absolutely no understanding of the position they were hiring for. All I could think afterward was, “Wow, are they in trouble.” A year later, the company was no more.
The good:
- The ones where I got the job, of course. : )
- The interview process at a Large Northwest Software Company, where traditional interview questions were interspersed with “puzzle questions” that were actually pretty fun to tackle. Puzzle questions have pros and cons, but a big pro is that you can’t address them with rehearsed stock answers.
- The interview for my first ever “real job,” which included what I consider to this day the hardest interview question I’ve ever fielded. Across the table from me sat a half-dozen interviewers, and toward the end of the interview, one of them leaned forward, looked me in the eye, and asked, “Hans, what are your values?” The room went quiet. I had no rehearsed stock answer for that one. It was a hard question. But it was a great question, one I wish more companies asked their employees and themselves.
What’s the worst interview experience you’ve ever had? What’s the best?
Not so much bad, just unfortunate interview experience: Applying for a corporate job and being told there would be no drug testing, getting high as a kite at a Nine Inch Nails show, and then getting the call the next day saying “Congratulations! You got the job! Just one thing, we do need you to take a drug test in the next two weeks after all.” Two weeks of drinking gallons of cranberry juice, vinegar shots, Gatorade, and buying questionable internet products to clean out the system. Sheesh.
My recent interview started with “So is it easier to get an american driving licence or an english one?”. The rest of the interview went rather well after that. Unfortunately they didn’t bother to contact me to say whether I had got the job or not - that is just plain rude.
Bad experieince; I once interviewed to work on the production staff for a local paper and not only did I not get the job, later in the week I took a line drive off my right big toe via the guy who I interviewed with as my softball team took on the local paper’s squad. The ball ripped off my entire toe cuticle and my sock looked like Curt Schilling’s from last year’s WS. I kept pitching, though.
Epilogue: To this day I still resent that paper and, FYI, cuticles grow back kind of slow.
Bug Bash
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So…
The one where the interviewer kept asking whether I liked gladiator movies.
Worst: drove to South Denver, met employer rep, noticed serious depression - got the job, luckily got out quick too. People were freaking from a soon-to-occur merger (and routine purge).
Best: Got a call from an ex-manager I’d stayed on good terms with, got a killer referral, got a 2.5 yr contract job out of it - pays to be nice when you leave!
Worst : worked for a man I swear was so high strung he was going to give himself a heart attack. The ISP was crappy at best. Quit 2 days after starting.
He died 6 months later. (of a heart attack)
Best : My job now. Interviewed with all of the members of our team. Spent 4 hours talking to everyone about the job. Actually KNEW what I was in for by the end.
Comics
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* I was away on vacation when I got an interview call from Big Northwest Software Company. They were so hot to interview me that they insisted on a phone interview at 8:00 am the day I got back, before my 9:00 am interview with Big Northwest Internet Bookseller. Turned out to be a nonsense “pre-interview” (with the obligatory puzzle question), and three days later, I get an e-mail saying that my skills didn’t match the job. (Funny, having just come off a job testing UI on Product Type X for another company, you’d think that my skills wouold be agood match for testing UI on Produdct Type X for this company. But noooo!) Translation: they were hiring an internal candidate but policies required them to interview-and-ignore someone external to the company before doing the hire.
* Same interview cycle, other companies. Then with 10 years experience in QE/software testing/pick your term. “Ten years in QE, huh? Why haven’t you moved into programming or management?” (So, you’re looking for someone who won’t want to stay long in the job you are hiring them for? Or are you just unable to conceieve of someone *liking* to do QE?)
* First real world interview: “Since we flew you down here and we’re done with this interview for the Tech Support position, are you interested in interviewing for the Quality Assurance one we also have open?” “Sure, what the heck.” 15 years later…
My worst interview experience was from the other side of the table. The candidate was a bit odd, but “we value diversity”, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. Half an hour into the interview, it seems clear that the experience he claims to have is certainly relevant, but I’m not quite sure. I ask my usual first “doesn’t seem like it should be hard but it is” question: “what was the most interesting bug you ever found”, and he looks around the room nervously, his hands start to shake, and he mumbles something like “uhh… I was only practicing, man”, and runs out of the building!
I’m pretty sure he would have failed a drug test, if we did that sort of thing. 
Worst: I was between tech jobs and had to start looking at the non-tech jobs since sitting at home didnt pay a dime. I got called in for a resume I submited to Kohls Dept Stores, lets just say a tech trying to answer questions about a clothing doesnt work.
Best: My current job working for a North-East Ohio ISP, I was pretty nervous at first but then my interviewer and I started talking about things completely unrelated to the job I was interviewing for including how ugly the company website was. One thing I have learned from this job, dont beleive the propiganda from Slashdot, users of Mac and Linux are just as stupid as Windows users, I’ve dealth with them all.
Worst: At the end of a 1.25 hr interview, the interviewer tells me they don’t have permission to hire for a permanent position. Would I be interested in a contract?
Best-Worst Combined: You get to interview with Hans Bjordahl, but, tragically, you don’t get the job.
Worst: After a number of phone interviews with a professional services company and assurances from a friend there and the recruiter that the job was mine to lose. Then they stopped calling and after a number of attempts to get int ouch with the recruiter I learned she had left the company and that someone else was slotted for the job. Incredibly rude and boy did I need the job…
Best: Interviewing with a small software company, being told I was over dressed by wearing a collared shirt and tie. Interviewed for 30 minutes, couple days later told I had the job. Have not looked back since.
A few years ago, I went to the local Geek Prom (www.geekprom.com) dressed as Laura Croft. I had a lot of costume elements and had the whole “Laura Croft” look down (albeit, the look of a fat, drunk Laura Croft who kept spilling her drinks, but Laura Croft nonetheless). It was a very fun evening.
Several weeks later, I had an interview for a web developer job. I had psyched myself up, and had my aura of “interview cool” on. When the interviewer came out to meet me, he cocked his head at an angle, looked at me, then asked “… Laura Croft?”.
My “interview cool” was gone. He caught me so off guard that I stammered the way through the interview (and desperately tried to remember if I had done anything obnoxious to him at Geek Prom).
Needless to say, I did not get the job as a fat, drunk web developer. 
Worst: Big Northwest Software Company flies me out whily I’m on sabbatical from Big Blue Northeast Hardware/Software/Consulting Company. BNSC spends 4 hours asking the most assinine “puzzle” questions obviously made up by the directors 3 year old son, asks two questions related to position that a Freshman Comp Sci student could answer, and not one of the interviewers could tell me the actual version of Big German ERP software they were using and told me it was “custom” to them. Hint: Not even Northeast Big Blue Hardware/Software/Consulting Company has a “custom” version of the software. Needless to say, my confidence in the intelligence level of employees at said company was diminished and my hypothesis on said company just having great marketing skills and little talen was confirmed.
Best: Big Northwest Software Company flies me out whily I’m on sabbatical from Big Blue Northeast Hardware/Software/Consulting Company for a week long vacation on BNSC and I interview for position at Large Northwest Retail Company. Offers twice the compensation of BNSC and every possible benefit I could ever ask for.
Added benefit: Stock in Big Blue Northeast Hardware/Software/Consulting Company is worth more than stock in Big Northwest Software Company and I was vested.
Note for Big Northwest Software Company….you get better people when you pay for them.
Bug Bash is a comic strip written and illustrated by Hans Bjordahl. Bug Bash is a comic strip about technology: managing technology, the business of technology. It's about project management and managing projects through the dull world of Rational Rose, use cases, and requirements. Functional requirements, user requirement, functional specifications, design specifications, call it what you want but it's still the bane of project managers. And when you're done with that, you can think about all the fun that comes with timelines, scheduling, estimates (PERT estimation anyone?) and resourcing until Gantt charts are coming out of your ears. Let's not forget the risk management in the software engineering life cycle. Maintaining the project is just as much fun, managing what was initially set out in requirements and trying to keep feature creep / scope creep in check with change management. If any of these words send nightmares to you, the project manager, then this site probably rings true with you. (Who Links Here?)