10 ms·
I'm sorry I bit you during my job interview (2011)
- 29athrowaway 3y agoCannibal news?
- x86x87 3y agoMeatHacker News
- Ajay-p 3y agoSatire
- EGreg 3y agoI forgive you
- CoastalCoder 3y agoIt's funny, but I can't tell if it's making some larger point.
- miobrien 3y agoThe ridiculousness of having to send formulaic, bullshit "thank you" emails after interviews.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- itsoktocry 3y ago>The ridiculousness of having to send formulaic, bullshit "thank you" emails after interviews. Interesting. I get it, but I've never done this myself (or the had the reverse, someone send one to me). I think it's interesting just how quickly the power dynamics of "work" change. We can shift from companies throwing money at people to sit around, people working 3 or 4 remote jobs (eventually getting fired, but finding new ones), and ghosting interviews or their first-day-of-work, to people claiming it's a "rough job market" or having to write thank you notes for getting an interview...in a matter of years. The tech job market is a strange place.
- zdragnar 3y agoI don't think the thank you notes are a sign of the market shift. I started seeing them from people coming fresh out of code camps, and assumed it was just some jobs-hunting coaching recommendation. Since then I've seen a few more, but not many. I don't think I've ever waited long enough after an interview to meet with others on making a pass / offer decision for a thank you note to make a difference. Even when we had a group for a single position and there was time to pick between candidates, we at least had already passed on our feedback by the time one could be sent. At that point, I don't know that a thank you note would make a big enough difference for me to reach out and change my feedback that would put them above someone else in consideration.
- shapefrog 3y agoI need to dig out the article(s) ... I've been hiring people for 10 years, and I still swear by a simple rule: If someone doesn't send a thank-you email, don't hire them. Jessica Liebman Apr 5, 2019 https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-write-thank-you-email-after-job-interview-2019-4?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-write-thank-you-email... Its a follow up to previous 2012 work ... https://www.businessinsider.com/the-number-one-mistake-people-i-interview-are-making-these-days-2012-2?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/the-number-one-mistake-peopl... "They're all messing up on something that I think is very important when trying to get a job: the Thank You Email."
- varjag 3y agoThis must be highly cultural. After you done the interview, shook hands and thanked the interviewer there in person there is little point of follow up other than an opportunity of reminding of yourself in the consideration process.
- hotnfresh 3y agoEvery interviewer seems to have some set of these weird little expectations about behavior, that are basically arbitrary. Worse, some are mutually exclusive (maybe not so much in this case—though, see elsewhere in the thread where someone mentions this seems like a fresh-out-of-code-camp thing, so it might send a negative signal!) so lots of rejections end up having a reason behind them, but a very stupid reason that you can’t really defend against, to be blunt.
- lrpe 3y agoIs that really something people do? Really seems insincere and inappropriate to me. Is it a cultural thing?
- specproc 3y agoAmerican possibly. I've only seen them from American candidates.
- ghaff 3y agoMaybe? It just seems like good manners. Don't overdo it but as an interviewer I don't expect an email but I'd find it very normal to receive a short polite one.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Supermancho 3y agoOver 25 years as a programmer, I've only seen some very jr developers (no industry experience), do this. It's unlikely to help you in getting the position, which is why it's rare.
- iteria 3y agoSome nearly 15 years ago, one of my elders told me to do this. I was later told this was the reason they picked me over someone else. That's the story of how I got a job at a megacorp. In massive companies, HR people can feel really undervalued. In a sea of a dozen of equally qualified juniors, a hand written card can tip the scale. At least then. It wouldn't have moved me and I don't know when the last time an HR person got to be the final decision maker on a hire, but that's some context.
- BoxFour 3y agoMy take: It’s just classic satire employing exaggeration to highlight the absurdities of common experiences where people feel the need to justify the non-interview parts of their job interview. I often get profuse written apologies for minor mistakes, such as using the wrong name, which I never care to remember and never factors into decisions because I understand interviewee nerves. Here, the comedy arises from the stark contrast: while minor slip-ups are forgettable and need no apology, a bite surely isn't, making it humorously memorable.
- jaxomlotus 3y agoSome things are just funny for the sake of being funny.
- sdwr 3y agoWell, the "joke" part of it is that his explanation remains formal and polite while his behavior gets progressively more feral and then it's funny in a tension-relieving way. The common interview experience is having to remain professional while under stress.
- deepserket 3y agoTo me it looks like (sexual) harassment: 1: I’m sorry; 2: I was just hungry, your fingers passed near my mouth; 3: It was a joke; 4: It was your fault;
- jbajic 3y agoWas this an interview for a police dog position?
- theandrewbailey 3y agoI don't think a dog would mention or be asked about their experience with Excel macros.
- justusthane 3y ago> Thank you for taking the time to interview me for the junior analyst position at Rawles and Hilt.
- unsupp0rted 3y agoNot a junior analyst dog, no.
- justinclift 3y agoSenior police analyst dog here. Excel macros is a key skill, along with using the colour picker and pivot tables. ;)
- badcppdev 3y agoColour picker??? Something fishy about this dog.
- kuchenbecker 3y agoI thought it was political satire at first.
- droobles 3y agoI thoroughly enjoyed this and it made me laugh out loud stupidly at the coffee shop, thank you for sharing!
- yieldcrv 3y agoI can’t believe employers wont take time to explain why he was rejected
- x86x87 3y agoThis is because of all liabilities you open yourself to. Any feedback you give may turn into a lawsuit.
- hedora 3y agoThe ADA ruined everything! First came the wheelchair ramps, and now the mask dispensers in front of every lobby entrance. The covid mask dispensers are compact enough, but the Hannibal Lecter ones take up some serious square footage right at the entrance. Has anyone considered fire safety? It’s even worse when stores mandate both for employee safety! Which goes on first? It’s probably necessary on Market St in SF, tbh.
- hwbehrens 3y agoI used to give feedback regardless, and I found that at least 80% of the time candidates weren't able to accept it -- they wanted to argue that I came to the wrong conclusion, that my assessment was flawed, that they knew the topic and just didn't perform well and can they please have another chance, etc. I eventually had to stop after I received a death threat from one particularly upset individual. After I reverted to noncommittal HR-ese, I never had a single candidate push back on their rejections. I still strongly believe that companies have a responsibility to at least let candidates know when they've been rejected; the increasing prevalence of "ghosting" in hiring is unjustifiable.
- burnished 3y agoWritten by a chihuahua I take it? Half fear, half tremble
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoI'm going to start biting my keyboard if I get one more formulaic rejection without anyone telling me why they rejected me. It's infuriating. I've got years of experience and the right tech stack, but all the applications are going in the trash!
- stronglikedan 3y agoIn my case, HR tells me that I'm not allowed to tell applicants why they were rejected. Nothing personal, but my job is more important to me that someone's feelings.
- lfowles 3y agoIt's not feelings, it's the lack of feedback loop.
- tayo42 3y agoI'm starting to think hr is just filled with the dumbest people with no ability to think overall. Fwiw, Microsoft rejected me, annoying..., but, the recruiter actually spent like an entire 30 min call going over the feed back they gave. Somehow they can do it, but other companies can't?
- bombcar 3y agoA recruiter is a third party and has a monetary reason to work with you to get you placed elsewhere. Microsoft HR has no reason to expose themselves to anything that could possibly maybe someday involve a discrimination lawsuit. So why would they allow it?
- boomboomsubban 3y agoMike Edling? It's the kind of article I'd expect to have a joke name, but other than "Mike" possibly referring to Tyson I can't think of anything. Searching "Mike Edling," "mikedling," and "Edling bite" didn't help, unless it's a Twilight reference. I think anything with "ed bite" will get you Twilight results.
- tempaway43211 3y agoIts an anagram of Limed Eking which is a type of perennial herbaceous flowering plant that you can use the leaves of to treat small mammal bites.
- neolefty 3y agoMike? So did they follow up?
- csours 3y agoMike Edling LinkedIn Mike Edling - LinkedIn = Meg LinkedIn - Mike Edling = n Something something sets = Megn
- jeffrallen 3y agoJust starting a job search, and this really helps put things in perspective, thanks!
- tempaway43211 3y agoReminds me a bit of Faq: The “Snake Fight” Portion Of Your Thesis Defense https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-port...
- Galacta7 3y agoOne of my favorite McSweeney's articles. It only gets more hilarious towards the end. Very funny satirical take on some of the more bizarre (but very real) traditions in academia.
- op00to 3y agoQ: Are the snakes big? A: We have lots of different snakes. The quality of your work determines which snake you will fight. The better your thesis is, the smaller the snake will be. So many layers of hilarity. The undertone of academic smugness and superiority. A++++
- lxgr 3y ago> Although if you get a poisonous snake, it often means that there was a problem with the formatting of your bibliography. The Python reimplementation of BibTeX can’t be done soon enough.
- cb321 3y agoDid anyone else get a feeling the author had recently read (or is at least a big fan of) Jonathan Swift's _A Modest Proposal_?
- midasuni 3y agoSometimes it works out. This guy but someone in frustration and ended up running the BBC https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/mar/24/broadcasting.bbc https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/mar/24/broadcasting.b...
- brk 3y agoThis reminds me of a "preemptive interview thank you email" I saw years ago. It was intended to be sent from the interviewer to the interviewee and was along the lines of: "Thank you for interviewing with us. We are aware that you feel you are an excellent fit for the position and can see yourself having a long career with BigCo. Further, we understand that you thoroughly enjoyed meeting our team and were very impressed with the hiring manager. Lastly, we would like to acknowledge the time we took from our busy schedules in our management positions, and note that your addition to the team would surely help make us all more productive and ease some of our current demands in our daily roles."
- charles_f 3y agoI think this goes a step too far to be believable. Of course I can buy that you'd bite someone out of stress, and maybe a second time because you're hungry. At this point clearly the next step is building rapport through humour, and biting the interviewer is the logical step since that's what you have in common at this stage. And yeah I could get that the interviewer is agitated at this point, disregards your own character and preferences, and this triggers you. But clearly you'd call. Or go in person. Or even write a card. Not send an email.
- lxgr 3y ago> Or go in person. But only with a full stomach this time, please! In any case, common courtesy dictates giving the office a short heads-up so that HR has time to get everybody up to date on their tetanus and rabies shots.
- atum47 3y agoThat was a nice text. Very amusing. I've been thinking about start writing again, in English this time. You see, I've been writing since i was a teenager but always in my mother tongue. How do you distribute your content? RSS or people just go to your blog to read it? I was thinking nobody nowadays would go to a specific website just to read some text; they seem to want everything in a central place like a social network or even a RSS reader. Please don't bite me for asking all those questions.
- pteraspidomorph 3y agoThis guy comes up to me on the street and says he hasn't had a bite in three days. Well, I knew what he meant, but just to be funny, I took a big bite out of his jugular vein. And he's yellin' and screamin' and bleeding all over, and I'm like, "Hey, come on, don'tcha get it?" But he just keeps rolling around on the sidewalk, bleeding, and screaming, you know, just completely missing the irony of the whole situation. Man, some people just can't take a joke, you know?
- nlh 3y agoThis was brilliant and hilarious (thank you OP for sharing). I'm now going to do the thing that I think you're not supposed to do which is analyze the joke (rather than just appreciate it). My wife has been working hard at writing short stories and I've been observing the learning process and reading a lot of McSweeny's. Comedy writing is a true skill (like Comedy itself) -- and I think this piece really nails it. Comedy is about the unexpected -- leading a reader down a path and then changing directions in a way that provokes laughter, not confusion. The first brilliant line: "The second time I bit you, I think I was just hungry." The title and opening paragraph imply and lead the reader into thinking that this was a joke about a single bite (which itself is absurd). When that line hits, the absurdity is amped up. In fact that whole paragraph escalates and escalates the absurdity: "I hadn’t had any breakfast that morning" to "Okay. Full, full disclosure: I’d had a small breakfast" to "The sad irony is that my briefcase was full of leftover sausages from breakfast." Anyway, I won't droll on here. A great piece and worth digesting if you have any interest in comedy writing :)
- function_seven 3y ago> Comedy is about the unexpected -- leading a reader down a path and then changing directions in a way that provokes laughter, not confusion. Yup. My favorite line was "Frankly, I think this all goes back to my childhood, when I would constantly bite people for no reason." It just leaves the reader in midair. The started reading that sentence expecting an origin story of sorts, but the "origin" of this behavior is just some more history of unexplained biting.
- sdwr 3y agoAs far as I can tell, comedy is about transgression without consequences.
- karmakurtisaani 3y agoI tend to agree with your analysis, but would like to add that the rest of the biting kind of ruins the joke for me as it goes too far in that single direction. Ending after the second bite (or a very short third) with a few unrelated jokes like the lack of skills in Excel macros would have made the piece better in my opinion.
- firefoxd 3y agoThis made my day. Bursted out laughing while waiting in line in an immigration office. Many years ago, I interviewed somewhere where the HR manager gave me hell. It was a roller coaster emotions. She would say something funny, I would laugh and then she'd take note seriously. Out of the blue, she would ask about my childhood, then switch to why do I look stressed. I had 6 technical interviews before her that went well. I had just lost a family member, talking with her was a nail in my coffin. I was surprised when they called me back. Two years at the job, a deranged guy accosted us at lunch with my team. He made everyone feel uncomfortable before leaving. Turns out, this was the guy I had replaced. After he was hired he turned into a lunatic who would threaten anyone who questioned his code. The stress test HR made me go through was designed to filter these people out. I'd like to believe I'm not a psycho since I passed the test, but I don't think it did what it was designed to do. Two of my coworkers are now convicted murderers. One of them with a famous televised trial that just ended last month.
- peteradio 3y ago> Two of my coworkers are now convicted murderers. Wut. Does that include the guy you replaced? Any more details here?
- sjducb 3y agoWhat was the job and industry? Two murderers in one company is unusual
- HPsquared 3y agoAnd a specific test of mental stability at interview... yes, this is unusual.
- surfingdino 3y agoI thought those tests were not required until someone hired a sociopath who was clueless about coding, but immediately started fights with everyone. We got very selective after that one got in. But then someone hired a socipath manager who started fights, sex harassment baiting, demanded devs were fired on the whim without justification. I had to block that person on all comm channels.
- Zee38484 3y agoI am a dog attack survivor. I was 10 years old, I spend a few weeks in hospital. Some people do not find this funny, they may even loose control and go berserker. This little attack may escalate pretty fast!
- karaterobot 3y agoBut did he get the job?!
- al_be_back 3y agoa story in 4 bytes ... that's efficient :P Applicants for Junior roles should really get some feedback, short-but-sweet, it's a learning processes too.
- surfingdino 3y agoI interviewed a drunk alcoholic dev once. Kept falling off his chair during the interview. We rejected him so he doctored his CV and applied via a different recruitment agency again. Got rejected again. Didn't bite me, but was close to getting physically violent. Had to call security.
- qingcharles 3y agoYears ago me and my colleague got tired with all the people we were interviewing for a dev position and started interviewing the ones with the most insane CVs ("I follow Yeardly Smith everywhere she goes in the world", "Greatest achievement: I once drove 30 miles for KFC" etc). One guy said he was a "black belt Ninjitsu." We had him in. He started talking about his dev skills and I put a quick stop to that. "Tell me about the ninja shit." "Oh, yeah, I'm a black belt. I can even make myself invisible." Me and my colleague: O_O "Show me!" "Right now?" "Yes! Right now!" "Well, I can't right now as you know I'm here." "OK, go out of the room and then come back in invisible!" "Well, it don't work like that. Like, basically I can walk straight through a crowded party and nobody will even see me." Methinks there are other reasons nobody is looking at Comic Book Guy-looking man creeping through a party in a ninja outfit....
- lelima 3y agoOnce on a Data engineering interview I was explaining some diagrams and data flows when my nose decided to bleed, a lot. The blood started to run over my white shirt, while I was still trying to explain why we were moving data from one database to another on a whiteboard, with one hand trying to stop the bleeding. I got the job.
- jrootabega 3y agoThis is almost Jack Handey material.
- user_of_the_wek 3y agoThat's why we do interviews via Zoom.
- kaycey2022 3y agoSounds like he’s a cat. From his perspective he was only being polite. I’d hire him.
- MrAnalogy 3y agoWas interview for cordyceps fungus researcher?