How many have you had?
I’m afraid — even if I try — that I can’t count all my job interviews. I was twice an entrepreneur with my own companies. Employed by third parties 6 times. I’ve hid one from my CV because I only stayed 3 months; and another was put into my bucket of customers.
I’m now on my interview n+1.
Yesterday I had the second round and it seems that the code I only had 40 mins to do was not good enough. They asked me to repeat, because they did like me, not my code. I started by saying, sure; but as the time crept in, I had a change of heart, I thought to myself: either they realise my problem-solving skills — and acknowledge that that’s my strength —, or not, but I’m not going to go and spend my precious time patching some code without actually knowing what they are looking for. No input. None at all. Just not good enough. I bet I spent the time solving the problem, rather than making it more self-descriptive.
I chose to respect my time more than putting the effort to achieve something that was still not clear if I’d get it.
My suggestion to other folks out there is that we shouldn’t have to spend hours licking someone else’s boots, and so, don’t let them take advantage of your time. Programming is still different, but I heard incredible stories from graphic designers that make a case, they don’t get hired, and their work is used by the recruiting company either on social media, the website, or whatever the case entailed.
That’s abusing.
Employers, you should hire people for their softskills, and find a simpler way of making sure that they have the hard skills without burning their time.
So, what about you? How many job interviews have you had? Did you spent too much time proving yourself too? When did you learn the power of saying No?
