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A friend suggested a position at Github for an Elasticsearch Manager. A couple weeks go by and I'm in the interview. It's all MySQL questions. And really spec

A friend suggested a position at Github for an Elasticsearch Manager. A couple weeks go by and I'm in the interview. It's all MySQL questions. And really specific questions too. I ask them flat out what the position was for and they said "MySQL Engineer" ... I replied with "I'm actually more of an Elasticsearch guy" and was told that they're ditching Elasticsearch. So not only did they decide it was a good idea to slot me into a position from ES to MySQL but they also decided to bring me down from Engineering Manager to individual contributor...

lstamour 8y ago
This seems to happen quite a bit. Though not often. Over the summer I interviewed for a large bank and was told they were modernizing their apps from HTML5 PhoneGap/Cordova to native code, maybe React Native. I was told point-blank by the recruiting company exclusively contracted to fill roles for this project that my profile would be a perfect fit, and I agreed. Then I get into the interview, and it turns out I would be working on middleware to connect one set of APIs to another, entirely backend, and in a completely siloed department structure.. The interviewers were not sure how any of my front-end skills would be applicable. It was a waste of time on both sides. I have to wonder why more places, when scheduling interviews, don't email prospective candidates directly before the interview and repeat again, verbatim, what job positions they're looking for and the titles of those positions and descriptions/expectations. I mean, I might be unusual, but if I were to see a job posting before such an interview which very clearly doesn't match what I thought I was applying for, I'd reply and either cancel the interview or see if there were other positions available. After all, not only am I wasting their time, but I could have been more productively interviewing at other companies during that time! :)
LoSboccacc 8y ago
> bring me down from Engineering Manager to individual contributor That happens all the time. Chances are if they aren't reaching out to you it's a bait and switch opening. Easy way to discriminate is whether you'll have your budget or not.
- reaperducer 8y ago
  Easy way to discriminate is whether you'll have your budget or not. Yep. Though it's usually easier for them to just go with the bullshit line, "We can't afford to pay someone with your level of experience." Translation: We don't hire people over 30, but we don't want to get hit with a federal lawsuit.
  - tyingq 8y ago
    On the other hand, I've certainly interviewed people that wanted a leadership position, but didn't do well with leadership questions. But, they did do well technically. Offering a position lower than the one advertised, in that situation, seems okay to me, provided it's not a step down from where they are now.
    - LoSboccacc 8y ago
      That's a better situation, a leader is not a manager and there's more overlap between a lead and a dev position.
philliphaydon 8y ago
I went for an interview for Senior .NET Developer role at NineMSN in Australia once. Had full on 2 hour technical interview of .NET and SQL Server. Thought I didn pretty well cos the interview lasted so Long and they were happy with me. Towards the end I asked some questions. The last question was “so what would I be working on?” Basically they said: “oh well our api is already written so you should be doing all the website integration work with the api” I asked on top of that meant I’ll be doing the .net work of the apis? “No just the HTML/css/JavaScript”... I didn’t accept the offer.
jiveturkey 8y ago
excuse me? down from?

lstamour 8y ago

This seems to happen quite a bit. Though not often. Over the summer I interviewed for a large bank and was told they were modernizing their apps from HTML5 PhoneGap/Cordova to native code, maybe React Native. I was told point-blank by the recruiting company exclusively contracted to fill roles for this project that my profile would be a perfect fit, and I agreed. Then I get into the interview, and it turns out I would be working on middleware to connect one set of APIs to another, entirely backend, and in a completely siloed department structure.. The interviewers were not sure how any of my front-end skills would be applicable. It was a waste of time on both sides. I have to wonder why more places, when scheduling interviews, don't email prospective candidates directly before the interview and repeat again, verbatim, what job positions they're looking for and the titles of those positions and descriptions/expectations. I mean, I might be unusual, but if I were to see a job posting before such an interview which very clearly doesn't match what I thought I was applying for, I'd reply and either cancel the interview or see if there were other positions available. After all, not only am I wasting their time, but I could have been more productively interviewing at other companies during that time! :)

LoSboccacc 8y ago

> bring me down from Engineering Manager to individual contributor That happens all the time. Chances are if they aren't reaching out to you it's a bait and switch opening. Easy way to discriminate is whether you'll have your budget or not.

reaperducer 8y ago
Easy way to discriminate is whether you'll have your budget or not. Yep. Though it's usually easier for them to just go with the bullshit line, "We can't afford to pay someone with your level of experience." Translation: We don't hire people over 30, but we don't want to get hit with a federal lawsuit.
- tyingq 8y ago
  On the other hand, I've certainly interviewed people that wanted a leadership position, but didn't do well with leadership questions. But, they did do well technically. Offering a position lower than the one advertised, in that situation, seems okay to me, provided it's not a step down from where they are now.
  - LoSboccacc 8y ago
    That's a better situation, a leader is not a manager and there's more overlap between a lead and a dev position.

philliphaydon 8y ago

I went for an interview for Senior .NET Developer role at NineMSN in Australia once. Had full on 2 hour technical interview of .NET and SQL Server. Thought I didn pretty well cos the interview lasted so Long and they were happy with me. Towards the end I asked some questions. The last question was “so what would I be working on?” Basically they said: “oh well our api is already written so you should be doing all the website integration work with the api” I asked on top of that meant I’ll be doing the .net work of the apis? “No just the HTML/css/JavaScript”... I didn’t accept the offer.

jiveturkey 8y ago

excuse me? down from?