7 ms·

I remember this one time as a dev, I went through this entire interview process and they offered me 30k a year. I was literally laughing so hard I fell on the f

I remember this one time as a dev, I went through this entire interview process and they offered me 30k a year. I was literally laughing so hard I fell on the floor -- I thought it was a joke. Turns out this was the first dev position the company ever had that wasn't contractors. I ended up working with them as a part-time consultant to actually find their first few devs. Everyone else they had interviewed had stormed out, pissed off that they had wasted their time; they didn't even realize what they did until I started asking questions after I got off the floor.

managingahhs 3y ago
You actually fell on the floor? Were you in their office?
- jumpkick 3y ago
  He may have been standing, and his knees gave out. It's worth considering alternative interpretations.
  - peteradio 3y ago
    Or maybe he was in a dunk tank and he was so bowled over that he swung his arm out triggering the latch but someone forgot to fill it with water.
    - jumpkick 3y ago
      Another likely scenario!
      - somewhat_drunk 3y ago
        Perhaps a bit less likely, but we'll allow it.
- withinboredom 3y ago
  Yes! I literally fell out of the chair, which made it even more hilarious.
  - managingahhs 3y ago
    Yep, must have been hilarious. Thanks.
yardie 3y ago
So, Google is free. They were hiring for a very expensive employee class and doing 0 research? I find that hard to believe. I think they knew what a dev would cost and were hoping to be hire from the left side of the salary curve. I've also been in a few interviews where the company was being evasive about the salary range. In every case it was below market and the hiring manager was just too embarrassed or too scammy to state it. Hoping they would hire someone desperate enough (ie "exposure").
- Invictus0 3y ago
  Have you ever met business owners? They're not all that smart
  - granshaw 3y ago
    In fact intelligence is negatively correlated with success in business. It’s all grit and a certain irrational headstrongness that’s needed
    - reducesuffering 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - chasontherobot 3y ago
        This, but not sarcastic.
        reducesuffering 3y ago
        You must be great at business
      - baq 3y ago
        I refrain from quoting pg nowadays but he used to be worth reading, here's an article from that period which is of some interest: http://paulgraham.com/founders.html http://paulgraham.com/founders.html No words on low IQ but absolutely nothing about being a genius. Also, a paragraph which may point at mild psychopathy as a good trait to have. Which is absolutely in line with top leadership.
gwbas1c 3y ago
When I was in a similar situation I declined. (I was going to offer to contract, but then an absurdly low offer came in via email.) It turned into a series of email flames from an "entrepreneur" that involved references to Frodo and the Ring. Needless to say, the company burned out super-fast. The guy running the company didn't realize that he has to pay market rate in order to attract talent; and if he can't pay market rate, he has to reset what he's trying to do in order to meet his budget.
soupfordummies 3y ago
I had a guy literally laugh me off the call in my last search. He kept pressing me for a salary number and I gave him one below market rate, well below what I ended up getting on another offer. To top it off, he went on some dumbass rant about government handouts, "no one wants to work anymore", etc. Dodged a bullet there I guess!
- happytiger 3y ago
  Ideology doesn’t trump salary, metaphor included.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
  > He kept pressing me for a salary number and I gave him one below market rate Were you trying to get hired? If so, why would you do that?
  - snypher 3y ago
    I think any response would be fine as the employer is responsible for the offer. There's really no point asking me how much I would like to be compensated (the answer is always $1b) when the real question is how much are you willing to offer in return for my services.
    - b112 3y ago
      Some employers ask this at the start. Then, you'll go through $x interview rounds. If you say 100 quatloos, then go through 3 rounds of interviews, discussions, and they offer your 100 quatloos, you'd be an asshat to complain about salary. And the employer would have every reason to think you're a dumbass. Note that refusing to answer is fine, but being entirely dishonest (a random number, eg "any response"), would make me believe you are utterly untrustworthy.
      - wildrhythms 3y ago
        >Note that refusing to answer is fine I was required to put a "desired salary" in an application form. It was a required field. I wonder if the employer sorts by lowest?
pengaru 3y ago
This reminds me of an interview I had @ Wikimedia (Wikipedia) a decade+ ago. They offered less than half what I was earning at a startup.
- lp0_on_fire 3y ago
  Is that surprising given that Wikimedia is ostensibly a non-profit and was in a much different financial position a decade+ ago? For what it’s worth I do believe that wikimedia could allocate more of the dollars they have to their “core competencies”
  - pengaru 3y ago
    Startups aren't exactly known for good salaries, I expected a comparable salary just without the option grants.
  - speedgoose 3y ago
    Non-profit doesn't mean bad salaries. I can say that because I work for a non-profit and I can compare my salary with many salaries in the industry through my union.
gitonup 3y ago
> Everyone else they had interviewed had stormed out, pissed off that they had wasted their time; they didn't even realize what they did until I started asking questions after I got off the floor. Uh, those that stormed out did it right after the salary piece, and they didn't put it together?
- ben_w 3y ago
  The typical mind fallacy: amongst other things, unless it was done deliberately, it's really really hard to guess why you've upset someone, especially when they're so upset they don't talk to you any more.
  - TulliusCicero 3y ago
    Nah, if they stormed out right after you told them the salary, it's pretty obvious. It sounds more like an example of 'cultural density' -- not wanting to realize or acknowledge something that's at odds with what your local culture desires (in this case, the desire to pay as little as possible).
    - withinboredom 3y ago
      This was the highest paid position in the company (30k a year) and a salary (which only their managers were paid in a salary). They thought they were offering a really good salary, not realizing it was FAR below market rate. They still hired engineers at below market rate (~60k) but I helped them find some really smart junior engineers who could maintain the existing code; and warned them that these engineers would likely leave in the next year or two, max. They were able to become fairly profitable with full-time engineers, eventually, and ended up paying above market rate, last I heard.
      - chongli 3y ago
        What? Was everyone else at the company living in their car and relying on the food bank to feed themselves? Or was this in some strange ultra-low-CoL environment?
highwaylights 3y ago
I had something very similar happen a lot of years ago when I was consulting and a client in a bank I'd worked with had asked me what it would take for me to consider joining them full-time. When I told them they stared dumb-founded at me and said "but that's more than I make". We didn't talk about it again, as I don't know where you'd start explaining how capitalism works to a manager in a bank.
chiph 3y ago
A former coworker got hired as a young company's DBA. They were more-or-less in the manufacturing space but with an internet sales channel. They had set up cubicles on the factory floor, with a "break room" on the floor consisting of a couple of vending machines with picnic tables. He wasn't getting anything done, what with the constant noise of pneumatic equipment and beeping of fork-lift trucks, plus the constant sweating from not having air conditioning. He gave notice after a week, and one of the founders took him aside and asked why. Turned out he was their third DBA in a couple of months and they didn't understand why they were all leaving on such short notice. He was pretty gentle in letting them know...
mrguyorama 3y ago
>Turns out this was the first dev position the company ever had that wasn't contractors. The most upsetting part of this is they were most certainly paying insane prices for that contractor, and probably weren't even offering you half of that. Businesses are so comfortable at padding another business's pockets with obscene mark up, but utterly refuse to let even a little of that money go to the "workers"

managingahhs 3y ago

You actually fell on the floor? Were you in their office?

jumpkick 3y ago
He may have been standing, and his knees gave out. It's worth considering alternative interpretations.
- peteradio 3y ago
  Or maybe he was in a dunk tank and he was so bowled over that he swung his arm out triggering the latch but someone forgot to fill it with water.
  - jumpkick 3y ago
    Another likely scenario!
    - somewhat_drunk 3y ago
      Perhaps a bit less likely, but we'll allow it.
withinboredom 3y ago
Yes! I literally fell out of the chair, which made it even more hilarious.
- managingahhs 3y ago
  Yep, must have been hilarious. Thanks.

yardie 3y ago

So, Google is free. They were hiring for a very expensive employee class and doing 0 research? I find that hard to believe. I think they knew what a dev would cost and were hoping to be hire from the left side of the salary curve. I've also been in a few interviews where the company was being evasive about the salary range. In every case it was below market and the hiring manager was just too embarrassed or too scammy to state it. Hoping they would hire someone desperate enough (ie "exposure").

Invictus0 3y ago
Have you ever met business owners? They're not all that smart
- granshaw 3y ago
  In fact intelligence is negatively correlated with success in business. It’s all grit and a certain irrational headstrongness that’s needed
  - reducesuffering 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - chasontherobot 3y ago
      This, but not sarcastic.
      - reducesuffering 3y ago
        You must be great at business
    - baq 3y ago
      I refrain from quoting pg nowadays but he used to be worth reading, here's an article from that period which is of some interest: http://paulgraham.com/founders.html http://paulgraham.com/founders.html No words on low IQ but absolutely nothing about being a genius. Also, a paragraph which may point at mild psychopathy as a good trait to have. Which is absolutely in line with top leadership.

gwbas1c 3y ago

When I was in a similar situation I declined. (I was going to offer to contract, but then an absurdly low offer came in via email.) It turned into a series of email flames from an "entrepreneur" that involved references to Frodo and the Ring. Needless to say, the company burned out super-fast. The guy running the company didn't realize that he has to pay market rate in order to attract talent; and if he can't pay market rate, he has to reset what he's trying to do in order to meet his budget.

soupfordummies 3y ago

I had a guy literally laugh me off the call in my last search. He kept pressing me for a salary number and I gave him one below market rate, well below what I ended up getting on another offer. To top it off, he went on some dumbass rant about government handouts, "no one wants to work anymore", etc. Dodged a bullet there I guess!

happytiger 3y ago
Ideology doesn’t trump salary, metaphor included.
SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
> He kept pressing me for a salary number and I gave him one below market rate Were you trying to get hired? If so, why would you do that?
- snypher 3y ago
  I think any response would be fine as the employer is responsible for the offer. There's really no point asking me how much I would like to be compensated (the answer is always $1b) when the real question is how much are you willing to offer in return for my services.
  - b112 3y ago
    Some employers ask this at the start. Then, you'll go through $x interview rounds. If you say 100 quatloos, then go through 3 rounds of interviews, discussions, and they offer your 100 quatloos, you'd be an asshat to complain about salary. And the employer would have every reason to think you're a dumbass. Note that refusing to answer is fine, but being entirely dishonest (a random number, eg "any response"), would make me believe you are utterly untrustworthy.
    - wildrhythms 3y ago
      >Note that refusing to answer is fine I was required to put a "desired salary" in an application form. It was a required field. I wonder if the employer sorts by lowest?

pengaru 3y ago

This reminds me of an interview I had @ Wikimedia (Wikipedia) a decade+ ago. They offered less than half what I was earning at a startup.

lp0_on_fire 3y ago
Is that surprising given that Wikimedia is ostensibly a non-profit and was in a much different financial position a decade+ ago? For what it’s worth I do believe that wikimedia could allocate more of the dollars they have to their “core competencies”
- pengaru 3y ago
  Startups aren't exactly known for good salaries, I expected a comparable salary just without the option grants.
- speedgoose 3y ago
  Non-profit doesn't mean bad salaries. I can say that because I work for a non-profit and I can compare my salary with many salaries in the industry through my union.

gitonup 3y ago

> Everyone else they had interviewed had stormed out, pissed off that they had wasted their time; they didn't even realize what they did until I started asking questions after I got off the floor. Uh, those that stormed out did it right after the salary piece, and they didn't put it together?

ben_w 3y ago
The typical mind fallacy: amongst other things, unless it was done deliberately, it's really really hard to guess why you've upset someone, especially when they're so upset they don't talk to you any more.
- TulliusCicero 3y ago
  Nah, if they stormed out right after you told them the salary, it's pretty obvious. It sounds more like an example of 'cultural density' -- not wanting to realize or acknowledge something that's at odds with what your local culture desires (in this case, the desire to pay as little as possible).
  - withinboredom 3y ago
    This was the highest paid position in the company (30k a year) and a salary (which only their managers were paid in a salary). They thought they were offering a really good salary, not realizing it was FAR below market rate. They still hired engineers at below market rate (~60k) but I helped them find some really smart junior engineers who could maintain the existing code; and warned them that these engineers would likely leave in the next year or two, max. They were able to become fairly profitable with full-time engineers, eventually, and ended up paying above market rate, last I heard.
    - chongli 3y ago
      What? Was everyone else at the company living in their car and relying on the food bank to feed themselves? Or was this in some strange ultra-low-CoL environment?

highwaylights 3y ago

I had something very similar happen a lot of years ago when I was consulting and a client in a bank I'd worked with had asked me what it would take for me to consider joining them full-time. When I told them they stared dumb-founded at me and said "but that's more than I make". We didn't talk about it again, as I don't know where you'd start explaining how capitalism works to a manager in a bank.

chiph 3y ago

A former coworker got hired as a young company's DBA. They were more-or-less in the manufacturing space but with an internet sales channel. They had set up cubicles on the factory floor, with a "break room" on the floor consisting of a couple of vending machines with picnic tables. He wasn't getting anything done, what with the constant noise of pneumatic equipment and beeping of fork-lift trucks, plus the constant sweating from not having air conditioning. He gave notice after a week, and one of the founders took him aside and asked why. Turned out he was their third DBA in a couple of months and they didn't understand why they were all leaving on such short notice. He was pretty gentle in letting them know...

mrguyorama 3y ago

>Turns out this was the first dev position the company ever had that wasn't contractors. The most upsetting part of this is they were most certainly paying insane prices for that contractor, and probably weren't even offering you half of that. Businesses are so comfortable at padding another business's pockets with obscene mark up, but utterly refuse to let even a little of that money go to the "workers"