[Novalug] Job interview "stuff"

[Jay Hart]

> On 12/07/2009 09:39 PM, Jay Hart wrote:
>> American Dave, please read.
>
> Really? You want me to judge something you wrote?
>

Not at all, everything I wrote was true, except for the post-eval submission. 
My verbal report to my boss was quote "don't hire this guy".  It was ignored
and then the fun (for me) started.

This really happened.

Jay

> Come on. What was the question?
>
> I am sure everyone can write something similar.
>
> You are interviewing for a job. You were granted a privilege to
> interview. You are there to explain why you will be an asset to the team
> and you can do the work and bring more than any other candidate.
>
> Oh, chances are you will be googled/facebooked/etc and what you wrote on
> a mailing list will come back to haunt you.
>
>
>> I'm not bragging or anything, but in the last 3 years people that I've
>> interviewed for positions and I've recommended for hire have been great
>> assets. Those that I've interviewed and given a thumbs down, but got hired
>> anyway, have proved an embarrassment to the company.
>>
>> I had a guy show up for a Technical Writer position.  First off, his clothes
>> smelled like mothballs.  Second, he shows up without a resume (he figured
>> I'd
>> have one, which I didn't).  Third, his answers to any questions were always
>> very vague and off target.  And lastly, he did not bring any substantive
>> writing examples for review during the interview.
>>
>> I almost threw him out based on lack of copies of his resume, but, I wanted
>> to
>> be fair to him so I took a full hour to determine if he could be a good fit
>> so
>> I gave him a full range of topics to expand his vast knowledge about.
>>
>> Alas, at the end of the hour I thanked him for his time and told him we
>> would
>> be making a decision shortly and let him know.
>>
>> On my post-eval submission I gave him a score of 13 (he got 5 points for
>> being
>> on time) out of 100.  I most decidedly DID NOT recommend we hire him.
>>
>> But, my boss (who did not sit in on the interview) had other ideas and so he
>> came onboard with us and we sent this person to work at the US Secret
>> Service.
>>   It wasn't too long before our customer kicked him off the work-site and
>> railed at my company for hoisting this guy on them.  Our company tried to
>> salvage the hire by having him work for several internal company groups but
>> it
>> wasn't too long before they told management to get rid of him.
>>
>> Meanwhile, I'm sitting on the sidelines watching all this and laughing my
>> butt
>> off since this could have been averted if people had bothered to read my
>> interview submission.
>>
>> Finally, after four months, someone within the company had the "balls" to
>> fire
>> this guy (with severance pay of course).
>>
>> Dave, which part did I make up, and which is true???
>>
>> Jay
>>
>>
>>> On Mon, 7 Dec 2009 19:37:03 -0500
>>> American Dave<novalug at soupy.org>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> For behavior specifically, it's trivial to see if someone's lying or
>>>> "doesn't get it".  I might ask you: "Can you tell me a time when you
>>>> wanted to put a process in place?"
>>>
>>> God how I hate those questions. "Tell me about a time you disagreed
>>> with your boss." Just shoot me now. There have been times where I have
>>> been tempted just to get up and walk out of an interview because
>>> really, these questions mean almost nothing. The interviewer wasn't
>>> there. Even if they were to call my boss for a reference they aren't
>>> going to say "tell me about that time you did that thing that pissed
>>> candidate X off so badly", so they will have no idea if I made the
>>> entire story up or not. I've actually made a few tall tales up during
>>> interviews just for amusement value, maybe embellished a little on the
>>> details for color and flow, or chopped a detail here or there.I believe
>>> this is what Jay meant when he said "lie". Not something technical like
>>> "I have a CCISP, a GNE, a C-7 Green Belt and a PMPIP and once I
>>> climbed Mount Everest!" But whose to say you didn't once work with a
>>> guy that had turrets and used to call you "ASSHOLE" during every
>>> meeting? (Damn, now I can't use that story anymore....)
>>>
>>> Nick
>>>
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>>
>>
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