Kaleb's Grey Matter

I recently read an article, Fifteen ways to kill your job interview, which included an interviewer’s top list of annoyances that ruin the candidates chances in an interview.  Things like “Speak ill of anyone, especially past employers” make sense and are a red flag in an interview.

Reading through the full list, I was struck by how self-centered the post was to employers. Employers and hiring managers seem to think programmers are just desperate for a job.  We have to jump through numerous hoops that are pointless and have nothing to do with doing a good job AND smile while doing it.

Here are a few ways to “kill” your job interview that had me rolling my eyes: “Be unprepared”, “Shake hands like a fish”, “wear a suit”, “Appear desperate”. Keep in mind that each of these was not just “things to avoid”, but is considered something that would “kill” the candidates chances of the job entirely.

Do you have so many brilliant programmers walking through your door that you can’t deal with a weak handshake? Or wearing slacks and a shirt instead of a suit? Anyone who eliminates candidates for every single one of these (irrelevant of technical skill, mind you) will end up with a team of fake, sales-ey, over-groomed and under-talented people who can’t code their way out of a paper bag.

Meanwhile, the employers don’t have to do anything but ask questions and nod sternly.  Interviewers are often not ready right at the interview time.  They often do not prepare by reading the resume or learning anything about the candidate online.  The interviewer rarely wears a suit or any special clothing.  And many many times interviewers leave their phones on, act uninterested, complain, cut the interview short and every single thing on the list.  So candidates are expected to jump through hoops most of which have nothing to do with the ability to do a good job but employers don’t have to do any of them?

The winning line was “Your interview is all about what you can do for the company, not what they can do for you.”

That is NOT what an interview is about.  An interview is the time for both sides to figure out if this is a good fit. Very few employers are willing to setup another hour-long meeting with the manager and team AFTER they’ve made an offer for the candidate to determine if it’s the right fit.  Even if they are candidates don’t have time to re-visit every employer who made an offer.  And why should they?  An interview goes both ways.

Of course, it’s not just him.  This employer-centric attitude is common in the job industry at large.  Just read any major job board blog to find loads of “helpful” advice about putting aside your individuality and personality, how to dress, hire someone to write your resume and cover letter, fake it till you make it.

On the surface it makes sense.  After all, they have the job and programmers want the job, so they have all the power, right?  Here’s an employer-focused argument that is easy to understand: if you treat candidates like they don’t matter, only the desperate ones will want to work for you.

I’ve spoken a lot on the blog about the difficulty in recruiting and hiring great programmers, but that’s all based on the assumption that you’re interested in that sort of thing.  A self-centered approach to interviewing won’t ever attract the really talented programmers. Even if they easily get past these lists, any self-respecting programmer would be turned off by such a myopic approach to hiring.

And the “me me ME” employers won’t mind (and most likely won’t notice) if their approach turns off all the good programmers who will mysteriously disappear or accept other offers.  The lucky programmers may even notice the demeanor in the job post or early correspondence and bail earlier than that.

The programmers that get hired will be the ones who couldn’t get a job anywhere else. If any good ones slip through, the management style probably matches the self-centered hiring style and they’ll leave soon enough too.

Being a self-centered employer is a great way to laser-focus your hiring to the bottom of the barrel.