4 ms·

I did some interviewing last year. I've been in my current position for about 5 years; I enjoy it, but was looking to see what else was out there. After going t

by ssully 6y ago

I did some interviewing last year. I've been in my current position for about 5 years; I enjoy it, but was looking to see what else was out there. After going through about 5 interviews I decided to call it quits. The entire process of tweaking resumes, writing cover letters, and applying eats up your post-work hours. Once you get a call back, preparing for the different interview stages will take up the rest of your nights, or weekends if you are assigned a work project. Working from home makes it easy to schedule calls during lunch hours, but that just makes your regular work day more stressful. After my fifth interview I decided to take a break. It was a good experience for me; I was incredibly rusty during my first few interviews, but gained a lot of confidence by my last one. Overall though it was incredibly stressful. This authors experience sounded terrible, but not at all surprising. I think job hunting while out of work would be stressful for other reasons, but being able to commit your full attention to searching and preparing would be advantageous in my opinion.

itronitron 6y ago
I feel like the main blind spot for companies in the hiring process is that they expect candidates to already be caring about and deeply invested in what the company works on, and the more specialized the sub-field or tech the more the company expects candidates to have familiarity or expertise.
- ssully 6y ago
  That is certainly a problem. I intentionally applied to companies I had some knowledge or interest in, but I definitely had to bullshit more when I knew less about the company. I tried to take the approach of putting my cards on the table; ex: I have a strong interest in security, automation, and devsecops, hopefully there is some intersection! Sometimes that worked, but I still ran into cases where I felt like I checked 9 out of 12 boxes, and by missing those 3 boxes they weren't interested, or they had someone who checked more then 9. Either way, I have major respect for anyone looking for a new job right now. I wish you the best of luck, and I empathize with how exhausting it can be.
  - throaweyprimy 6y ago
    Hah, thanks. I was interviewing for 9 months straight, but still didn’t manage to land a gig. Took a two month hiatus, and now back into it. It’s pretty brutal!
- nomel 6y ago
  In my experience, it's caused by a reactive, rather than proactive, response to being short staffed. Interviews happen at least a year after those in the trenches have realized, and signaled, that staffing is short. By the time of the interview, something negative has already happened (dates slipped, etc), with that being the trigger that caused management to approve a hire. Add some delay to actually finding the candidates and you're well into fire fighting, and hiring someone with direct experience, with a minimal ramp up time, is a huge plus.

by ssully 6y ago

itronitron 6y ago

I feel like the main blind spot for companies in the hiring process is that they expect candidates to already be caring about and deeply invested in what the company works on, and the more specialized the sub-field or tech the more the company expects candidates to have familiarity or expertise.

ssully 6y ago
That is certainly a problem. I intentionally applied to companies I had some knowledge or interest in, but I definitely had to bullshit more when I knew less about the company. I tried to take the approach of putting my cards on the table; ex: I have a strong interest in security, automation, and devsecops, hopefully there is some intersection! Sometimes that worked, but I still ran into cases where I felt like I checked 9 out of 12 boxes, and by missing those 3 boxes they weren't interested, or they had someone who checked more then 9. Either way, I have major respect for anyone looking for a new job right now. I wish you the best of luck, and I empathize with how exhausting it can be.
- throaweyprimy 6y ago
  Hah, thanks. I was interviewing for 9 months straight, but still didn’t manage to land a gig. Took a two month hiatus, and now back into it. It’s pretty brutal!
nomel 6y ago
In my experience, it's caused by a reactive, rather than proactive, response to being short staffed. Interviews happen at least a year after those in the trenches have realized, and signaled, that staffing is short. By the time of the interview, something negative has already happened (dates slipped, etc), with that being the trigger that caused management to approve a hire. Add some delay to actually finding the candidates and you're well into fire fighting, and hiring someone with direct experience, with a minimal ramp up time, is a huge plus.