4 ms·

Everyone say they want to only hire A players, then crappy people interview, and they get an offer anyway because "they had so much potential!", "we can train t

by shados 10y ago

Everyone say they want to only hire A players, then crappy people interview, and they get an offer anyway because "they had so much potential!", "we can train them where other companies didn't", and "I didn't think he sounded THAT much of an asshole". Oh, and the ever popular "I think we have enough easy shit to do for this guy to be useful!". And then it goes to hell.

amyjess 10y ago
> Oh, and the ever popular "I think we have enough easy shit to do for this guy to be useful!". I knew a guy who was hired for similar reasons: the company needed a warm body to do some really basic scripting, so their sole criteria was "does this guy have a beating heart and working hands?". They ended up hiring the 17-year-old high-school dropout who was working in the coffee shop (owned by his father) at our office building, because the head of software is a coffee fiend and he makes good coffee. Since they just needed a warm body, why not hire him? Over the next year or so, I accumulated so many stories about his antics. The one that tends to shock people the most involved him playfully threatening a co-worker with a knife in the elevator because his co-worker snarked at him for pushing all the buttons. No, he didn't get in trouble for it, but when the co-founder found out (well after the fact), he told him not to ever bring the knife to work again (he said he would've just fired his ass if he actually witnessed it, but he didn't even find out about it until a couple of weeks after it happened). And I have plenty more stories where that came from. He was finally let go when, a year and a half later, he took a second job as a waiter (his dad had long since fired him from the coffee shop), and he focused so much on his new job that he simply stopped showing up at this one or even so much as calling in to tell us he can't make it. After a month of that, he removed himself from the company's Skype groups (yes, we used Skype instead of Slack) because "they were making [his] phone blow up" with stuff he found useless, so the company removed him from the payroll. Even before he stopped showing up, everyone agreed he was a useless do-nothing. It took him three months to return his company laptop after that, and the co-founder was on the verge of filing a police report over it. He only returned it because I walked down to the coffee shop and told his dad the co-founder was so pissed he'd set a deadline on when he'll go to the police, and his dad promptly called him and made him return it that day. His biggest contribution to the company was providing me with enough material to shock and entertain anyone I meet.
- antisthenes 10y ago
  Do you have any more positions for roles like that? I'd like to apply.

by shados 10y ago

amyjess 10y ago

> Oh, and the ever popular "I think we have enough easy shit to do for this guy to be useful!". I knew a guy who was hired for similar reasons: the company needed a warm body to do some really basic scripting, so their sole criteria was "does this guy have a beating heart and working hands?". They ended up hiring the 17-year-old high-school dropout who was working in the coffee shop (owned by his father) at our office building, because the head of software is a coffee fiend and he makes good coffee. Since they just needed a warm body, why not hire him? Over the next year or so, I accumulated so many stories about his antics. The one that tends to shock people the most involved him playfully threatening a co-worker with a knife in the elevator because his co-worker snarked at him for pushing all the buttons. No, he didn't get in trouble for it, but when the co-founder found out (well after the fact), he told him not to ever bring the knife to work again (he said he would've just fired his ass if he actually witnessed it, but he didn't even find out about it until a couple of weeks after it happened). And I have plenty more stories where that came from. He was finally let go when, a year and a half later, he took a second job as a waiter (his dad had long since fired him from the coffee shop), and he focused so much on his new job that he simply stopped showing up at this one or even so much as calling in to tell us he can't make it. After a month of that, he removed himself from the company's Skype groups (yes, we used Skype instead of Slack) because "they were making [his] phone blow up" with stuff he found useless, so the company removed him from the payroll. Even before he stopped showing up, everyone agreed he was a useless do-nothing. It took him three months to return his company laptop after that, and the co-founder was on the verge of filing a police report over it. He only returned it because I walked down to the coffee shop and told his dad the co-founder was so pissed he'd set a deadline on when he'll go to the police, and his dad promptly called him and made him return it that day. His biggest contribution to the company was providing me with enough material to shock and entertain anyone I meet.

antisthenes 10y ago
Do you have any more positions for roles like that? I'd like to apply.