5 ms·

I spent nearly a year interviewing at various companies and never landing a job despite decades of practical, relevant experience. It was extremely demoralizin

I spent nearly a year interviewing at various companies and never landing a job despite decades of practical, relevant experience. It was extremely demoralizing and worrisome, and I believe the majority of the issue was extremely difficult interview processes. The size of the company didn't matter - in fact, the smaller the company, the more difficult and onerous the process was. One place with six employees asked for a full day's work (offering $150 compensation). One place turned me down because I didn't have enough Scrum experience and the Scrum Master - a real job title apparently - didn't think I'd be a good fit. So, "false negative" is right.

d12345m 5y ago
No offense meant, but if you are surprised about the existence of Scrum Masters, then that interviewer is not at all wrong for wondering if you have enough Scrum experience.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  Unless you are being hired as a Scrum Master, “not enough scrum experience” should not be a hiring consideration. On the other hand, it being a hiring consideration is such a negative signal that mossing out on a job because of it is almost certainly dodging a bullet.
- splithalf 5y ago
  It’s true too that 4 out of 5 scrum masters will lament the bothersome dearth of experienced scrumee programmers. Never a shortage of scrum masters, or ceos or vc or debt. But labor you can arbitrage for 10x profits are always hard to find domestically.
- sizzle 5y ago
  Maybe it was not enough experience working in Agile if you don’t know scrum ceremonies and stuff
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > Maybe it was not enough experience working in Agile if you don’t know scrum ceremonies and stuff You don't get experience with Scrum ceremonies, or other any kind of “ceremonies” unless they happen to be in the application domain rather than the dev process, working in a place that values “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”.
- imtringued 5y ago
  Scrum is something management does and the developer has to "bow" down to. It's not something you can learn before the job because every place implements it differently.
flippinburgers 5y ago
Sometimes I wonder if small companies are just full of bitter google rejects who have decided to make the interview process miserable to boost their own egos. I went through a year of being unemployed not too long ago and it was very painful. Receiving no feedback is the worst part by far. A recent project required some work in jquery. All of the other developers stated that it would be difficult and take them too long because they were not familiar with it - being react devs themselves - so it was left to me. I was shocked. The idea that jquery could possibly be described as being more difficult than react is amusing at best. Sure, it was largely an excuse on their part, but I was left speechless nonetheless. I guess my point is that nearly 20 years of dev experience leaves me with the ability to do the old and the new. I wish this was more respected by companies in general.

d12345m 5y ago

No offense meant, but if you are surprised about the existence of Scrum Masters, then that interviewer is not at all wrong for wondering if you have enough Scrum experience.

dragonwriter 5y ago
Unless you are being hired as a Scrum Master, “not enough scrum experience” should not be a hiring consideration. On the other hand, it being a hiring consideration is such a negative signal that mossing out on a job because of it is almost certainly dodging a bullet.
splithalf 5y ago
It’s true too that 4 out of 5 scrum masters will lament the bothersome dearth of experienced scrumee programmers. Never a shortage of scrum masters, or ceos or vc or debt. But labor you can arbitrage for 10x profits are always hard to find domestically.
sizzle 5y ago
Maybe it was not enough experience working in Agile if you don’t know scrum ceremonies and stuff
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > Maybe it was not enough experience working in Agile if you don’t know scrum ceremonies and stuff You don't get experience with Scrum ceremonies, or other any kind of “ceremonies” unless they happen to be in the application domain rather than the dev process, working in a place that values “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”.
imtringued 5y ago
Scrum is something management does and the developer has to "bow" down to. It's not something you can learn before the job because every place implements it differently.

flippinburgers 5y ago

Sometimes I wonder if small companies are just full of bitter google rejects who have decided to make the interview process miserable to boost their own egos. I went through a year of being unemployed not too long ago and it was very painful. Receiving no feedback is the worst part by far. A recent project required some work in jquery. All of the other developers stated that it would be difficult and take them too long because they were not familiar with it - being react devs themselves - so it was left to me. I was shocked. The idea that jquery could possibly be described as being more difficult than react is amusing at best. Sure, it was largely an excuse on their part, but I was left speechless nonetheless. I guess my point is that nearly 20 years of dev experience leaves me with the ability to do the old and the new. I wish this was more respected by companies in general.