How I was looking for employees or How not to have an interview

At once I will make a reservation that I was inspired to write this post by a habrovchanin voff How I was looking for work or How not to conduct interviews . I am writing not for the purpose of breeding holivars, but simply because the comments do not fit all that I want to say.

A small background - I am not a developer, although I was once engaged in front-end. I worked and I work in the field of marketing in development companies, plus I have my own small business in the same field. So it turns out that at work I often come across a search for employees for projects and sometimes I myself take part in interviews when it comes to UI / UX and the frontend.

I have to agree with my colleague - programmers are now so much in demand that for many there is no point in going to work in a civilized abroad - the same money can be earned at home by doing interesting projects. Labor market - candidate.

')





And now raise a little above your worries and problems and try to look a little wider, what it means in the industry:

• wage growth (good)
• growth of feathers and bonuses (good)
• improving the quality of jobs (good)
• employer competition (good)
• highest attrition rate - or, in Russian, turnover (bad)
• high salaries of low-skilled specialists (bad)
• reducing the benefits for businesses to place the development in Russia (bad).

Finding the right specialist within the budget often becomes an impossible task - you have to buy the prepared person and pay him higher than the market, or find a junior, teach and pray that he will not leave after half a year to pay twice as much as he gets paid (without exaggeration).



I will give you an example, without specifying the names / names of companies. So, one sunny St. Petersburg morning in my company matured the need to hire three developers, because after three weeks, three of them ended up working, who were lured to other companies by a lot of compensation and bonuses. I’ll say right away that this is not about Yandex and Mailra, but about second-tier companies.

IT manager

So, our CTO, the person involved in the technical component, supervision and communications (often taking part in scars) in eight projects, described the people who are needed to replace the outgoing ones, discussed with the project managers and handed them over to HR.



The girls went through the database, climbed on hh, collected about 50 resumes and forwarded them to the CTO. He selected those who were roughly fit by experience and offered time slots for interviews. It is not always the case, sometimes technical leads from projects are assigned to the technical part of interviews, but the amount of unpaid time has to be reduced, so often CTO takes part in interviews - he and so pay money.



Here we will immediately make a reservation on the summary - oh, but we have not seen. It happens that some parts of some resumes diverge around the company in mailings, because it is impossible to read them without tears. Porridge of concepts, terms, tools, methodologies and names of projects on which the person worked. It is impossible to understand from the summary whether a person understands what TFS is and whether he saw Greenhopper in the eye or just heard these words. Therefore, the rule is to ask at the interview not for the summary, but for the requirements.



How to make life easier : bring to the interview a printed resume (preferably two copies or three), rewritten after reading the requirements for the applicant. This will not only increase your chances of getting a job, but will also save time for you and your interviewees. Directly ask in advance about the interview flow chart - ask for a separate technical interview if it is not provided, because you hardly want to know after agreeing to work that you will need to write macros for Excel on VB, and the most important technical boss graduated from the faculty of philology 1956

HR managers

All the HRs I saw could distinguish Java from Javascript, but of course it’s very difficult for them to understand the wilds of incomprehensible words. This is a given. It is good if the eye is marked out with experience and in a couple of years such HR will be worth its weight in gold. But if he changes his job and moves from an MS-oriented company to an open source-oriented company, it’s all for nothing. Yes, it is, nothing can be done about it.



How to make life easier : be condescending to HR, remember that its main task is to test you for “overall adequacy”. To understand that you are a cheerful and sensible person, you will simply communicate with you, and you can be recommended. It is useful to highlight in the resume bold what you are interested in and what you would like to do, so that HR can quickly understand whether you are suitable or not.

Salary

Salary is the most painful place for everyone. It is very important to remember a few things here - there is a company's budget, there is a project budget, there is a department budget. It is necessary not to be confused and to be as open as possible in this discussion. Directly indicate the minimum and forget about excessive modesty. No one wants to hire you and lose in a month and a half, because you were not frank enough in your payroll expectations.



How to make life easier : different companies have different situations - if you don’t want to waste your time and interviewers time - open Linkedin or My Circle, find company employees, ask a couple of questions about the financial climate within the company, understand everything in advance, can save time for yourself and colleagues.

Technical assignment (probably, a test assignment is meant)

The test task on a piece of paper issued during the interview is an unobvious, but very objective way to understand real knowledge and experience. You can google anything, but if you haven’t written sortings for the last 3 years, it will be hard to include you on the go and recycle 100%.



How to make life easier : it is not necessary to write defect-free code on paper. It is enough to demonstrate an understanding of the algorithms and the ability to find a way out of the situation. If you want this work - do not give a blank sheet - write something!

Organization of the interview

This is a separate song. How many people do you think are late for interviews? According to my observations - more than 50%. More than 10% do not come at all without warning of cancellation. I understand that you are in demand, but keep in mind that this is also the attitude towards you.



Keep in mind that several people, each hour of which is somewhat more expensive than your hour, reshape their schedule in order to meet with you. Often, some of these people are unavailable, their plans change, other priorities appear. Therefore, you will have to come to the company not once, but two or three. Think about the fact that several interviews - this is a chance for you, including. You could have come to the first interview with a sleepless person, after a bachelor brother's bachelor party or with a terrible allergy to cats. The second and third - give you a chance to fix it. Group interviews are a way to save time for you, first of all. Are you afraid of a group interview? And how will you behave during the stand-up meeting?



How to make life easier : Do not be late! If you are late - call in advance, at least an hour - be respectful of the time of others. Think about the difference in your perception of HR, technical interviewer and supervisor. You can communicate with everyone adequately - your work.

Conclusion

The established candidate market is not a reason not to prepare for interviews. Before interview re-read the requirements for the applicant. Go to the company website, find the company in Linkedin, Facebook, VK, My site, do minimal due diligence. Do not be late and warn in advance if you can not come. Bring with you a printed resume, rewritten in accordance with the requirements of the applicant. Highlight your resume in bold important for you and, as you think, for the company. Be open and firm in payroll expectations. Do not extinguish, and most importantly - ask questions at the interview so as not to remain dissatisfied with the results. Remember that the lack of information is worse than the worst information.



If you want to find your dream job - take the time and energy to prepare for an interview - you may not want to go for it, and perhaps thanks to this you will be able to find the same job.