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I came into this thread to comment about a similar experience. Had a call set up with the company founder for a consulting role, for me generally this means an

by mpeg 4y ago

I came into this thread to comment about a similar experience. Had a call set up with the company founder for a consulting role, for me generally this means an informal chat where they share the pains they're experiencing, I share my background and thoughts related to fixing those kind of pains and, if we both determine we can see it working, I put together a proposal. However, instead of the founder, an engineer ambushes me in the zoom call and starts a full on technical interview. In retrospect I should have ended the call there and then but I had already committed the time and it was only 30 minutes so I did my worst technical interview ever. I'm still annoyed at their behavior, the company ended up folding so that's the silver lining.

emehex 4y ago
I’m sorry that happened to you. Do you think that the engineer that ambushed you felt threatened by your candidacy? I’ve been around a bunch of engineers who hate hiring to “raise the bar”…
- mpeg 4y ago
  It's possible, I have also seen that, especially in small companies where everyone is very protective of their turf. I also had a terrible interview experience years after that where I was being interviewed for a CTO position by the company COO and the CTO that was leaving. The CTO was really harsh in the interview, he gave me a bunch of brain teaser questions, followed by some algorithms questions where he was expecting one correct answer and would interrupt me if I was going a different way. We barely had any of what I would expect would be proper questions for a CTO interview (eg stakeholder management, people management, technical architecture) It was so bad that the COO sent me a personal note apologising after the interview, but said that they had to go with the CTOs judgement on who was better qualified to succeed him. That was a pretty surreal experience and I think it was because the CTO already had someone in mind to replace him.
poulsbohemian 4y ago
I had a small consulting firm for a few years, and spent a few years as a solo consultant as well... what you describe is probably above all else what drove me away from that business model. Often I would walk in as "the sales guy" and they would want to turn it into a full blown technical interview. Disrespectful and a waste of everyone's time.
- mpeg 4y ago
  Isn't it just great? In my experience it's often the in-house technical team that ends up being overprotective about their turf. And I kinda get it, I've been in-house tech leadership for companies where consultants have been pushed on me because they're someone's cousin or because they're a big company and therefore immediately trusted. But it can be frustrating...

by mpeg 4y ago

emehex 4y ago

I’m sorry that happened to you. Do you think that the engineer that ambushed you felt threatened by your candidacy? I’ve been around a bunch of engineers who hate hiring to “raise the bar”…

mpeg 4y ago
It's possible, I have also seen that, especially in small companies where everyone is very protective of their turf. I also had a terrible interview experience years after that where I was being interviewed for a CTO position by the company COO and the CTO that was leaving. The CTO was really harsh in the interview, he gave me a bunch of brain teaser questions, followed by some algorithms questions where he was expecting one correct answer and would interrupt me if I was going a different way. We barely had any of what I would expect would be proper questions for a CTO interview (eg stakeholder management, people management, technical architecture) It was so bad that the COO sent me a personal note apologising after the interview, but said that they had to go with the CTOs judgement on who was better qualified to succeed him. That was a pretty surreal experience and I think it was because the CTO already had someone in mind to replace him.

poulsbohemian 4y ago

I had a small consulting firm for a few years, and spent a few years as a solo consultant as well... what you describe is probably above all else what drove me away from that business model. Often I would walk in as "the sales guy" and they would want to turn it into a full blown technical interview. Disrespectful and a waste of everyone's time.

mpeg 4y ago
Isn't it just great? In my experience it's often the in-house technical team that ends up being overprotective about their turf. And I kinda get it, I've been in-house tech leadership for companies where consultants have been pushed on me because they're someone's cousin or because they're a big company and therefore immediately trusted. But it can be frustrating...