"IT nomads": why companies still recruit saboteurs
While experienced professionals confidently plow the expanses of the IT market, beginners move in rushes. And if at first they move from one interview to another, then in the future some of them continue to run - only from one company to another. It is no secret that large IT companies are constantly expanding and contracting. In this regard, they recruit juniors, often by inertia. So, the last one can only catch the wave.
This category of young “IT nomads” explains their behavior in different ways: “looking for myself”, “looking for interesting tasks”, “looking for prospects”, “looking for an interesting team”, “looking for decent mentors” and so on. However, with a deeper look at their situation, we can assume something in common - a consumer attitude towards the company, the lack of completed projects or a prolonged trial period.
In addition, personalities such as self-proclaimed freelance programmers or designers who managed to wrap their modest and not entirely successful experience into a beautifully wrapped portfolio adhere to this category. In this case, freelancers may not bother to look for loyal customers and obligations to them. Moreover, explaining the leap between customer companies is no longer necessary.
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But experienced customers and employers, after reading a couple of paragraphs in a cursory description, may be suspicious of disguised saboteurs at these IT nomads. To bring them to clean water, you need to learn more about their habits.
This will mainly be about software developers, but much is true for other positions.
It is interesting that at the interview stage these people try to make a positive impression by hook or by crook. Some even agree to work "for food" as an intern - if only the prospect was. However, immediately after taking office, they, under any pretext, evade independent work (even on learning tasks): too difficult, not enough time, a new team, an unusual situation. Thus, they manage not only to overload the curator with this measure, but also to distract other employees from their work.
When these employees' own tasks begin to subside, and the curator's patience ends, the junior remains alone, alone with the training project.
What options does the "junior saboteur" have in this situation:
The Great Combinator chooses a combination of the last two options and simultaneously begins to look for another job. After all, it is possible that the relationship between the leadership and the curator will deteriorate, and the unfortunate, abandoned junior will be to blame for this.
Probably, these tasks are not particularly interesting for him, the team is not friendly, and in general there are better companies in the market. Therefore, it is necessary to leave, the hero concludes, forgetting that in the end the company did not bring benefits, but harm (lost profits and sagging tasks of colleagues). He does not despair and continues to search, and the company has to look for a new junior from all the cases.
Of course, a milder scenario is also possible: an intern can sit on the company's neck, prevent colleagues from working and feed the leadership with breakfast until he is expelled. Sometimes, for some reason, the curator and other commanding persons are not eager to admit that they took the saboteur to work and nursed him for six months. Maybe they consider themselves too advanced leaders to make such mistakes. And in some large companies very few people pay attention to such incidents. After all, the junior's salary is a penny, compared with the amount the company earns.
Self-proclaimed freelancers saboteurs act differently: first, they ask the customer a bunch of weird questions about the TK. Sometimes, contrary to a good portfolio, it may even get the impression that this is their first project (often it turns out in reality). Such negotiations may take several days. Then they take a prepayment (if agreed) and are immersed in the work.
“I was at first afraid to turn to freelancers, I didn’t know where to start. I went to a seminar where a person told how to work with freelance exchanges. He made the whole system, which allowed to distinguish the fake freelancer from the present. There are distinctive features: the term of the account, reviews, contacts, distribution of work on time, adequate portfolio and so on. There, for example, there was a case when the freelancer had 20 reviews, that is, 20 jobs in the last month, and serious works. But it is unlikely that he [the programmer] could really do so much, ”says Dmitry, project manager.
Any attempts by the customer to control the stages of work are usually found hostile. Such freelancers answer the questions in a monosyllabic manner or with a delay of several days, explaining that "you are not alone with me."
The customer may think that he is lucky if the freelancer violates all imaginable terms, but gives the finished (albeit, how it is done) work. Indeed, such performers often do not bring the matter to an end, causing financial damage to the customer and forcing him to look for a new performer.
Of course, in Russia now there are more services with secure transactions ... But, as already noted, this kind of freelancers are actively “looking for themselves” and often agree to work even without prepayment.
Unfortunately, such customers (or rather, sabotage) are still accepted by many customers as a given, and sometimes they themselves are not averse to “throwing” a freelancer. Another problem follows from this: customers have to work with familiar and proven freelancers who are not always the best specialists in their field.
Saboteurs (if this concept is interpreted in our context) easily bypass psychological tests, if suddenly HR offers them at an interview. No, they are not special agents and not actors. Perhaps they give some answers to questions because they themselves at the moment believe in what they say. This can be compared with the so-called "loving" people: today - one object of adoration, and tomorrow - another.
That is, consciously making a decision on employment, they are ready to rush into battle, but after a while the ardor has passed. And besides him, there is no other strong motivation. Therefore, the person inside is trying to negotiate with himself, to justify certain changes. Often in the process of such self-justification of wine and auto-aggression is shifted to others. In this case, the IT company and its employees.
How long such a person will last in the company depends on his efforts to fight with himself. It happens that he is somewhat aware that he is doing something wrong. Especially if he similar situations around him repeatedly repeated. Therefore, he decides to spend some time in the company, in parallel trying to understand himself. But just to sit without following the instructions of the management is impossible, and in the background it creates the appearance of vigorous activity. However, his professional side does not develop.
In this connection, I recall the case that a familiar programmer told me:
Well and do not forget that sometimes they still pay money for the time spent in the company.
Freelancers in this regard are even more difficult: if they are not motivated by money, there is hardly any outside who can motivate them to work righteously. After the interest in the order fades away, the person is left alone with his doubts. And they, in turn, eat up the energy that could be spent on the execution of the order.
Therefore, a conscious desire to harm these people in most cases is absent. This may be more connected with incompetence, lack of experience, misunderstanding of TK.
Dmitry shared his story on this topic:
It may be worthwhile for saboteurs to remember that “finding yourself” cannot be reduced only to finding employers. This search is explicitly or indirectly present in every area of ​​life. And therefore every sphere of our life needs us to spend our attention, time, energy on it. Hobbies, love, friendship, spiritual and physical development, image formation and much more - all this cannot be projected onto the plane of professional self-realization without a perceptible loss of the quality of life in general. For most, such a decline in the quality of life is a problem.
One solution to this problem may be the choice of work, in relation to which a person does not experience illusions, strong emotions. You can look for a job to which a person is neutral, and tune in to get not pleasure and pleasure from the “coolness” of a job, but to get satisfaction from the process of professional growth. As skills develop, this will grow into satisfaction from the fact that a person benefits the company with his work.
Another solution could be to convert the issue of employment into another format: you can do the work not with a goal, but with a tool for maintaining the constantly changing hobbies of a person. Of course, this conversion is a temporary measure. Gradually, energy consumption in various spheres of life will be balanced, and the person will cease to “burn out”.
*********
While employers in the IT industry with varying success, weed out unwanted candidates, including “saboteurs”, at the start. It is not always possible to check the integrity of the test tasks. Often, candidates do not have the right to provide source code for projects (and sometimes even links to them) from their previous place of work.
But the most difficult thing is to reveal a double deception, when a candidate deceives not only the employer, but also himself. Therefore, while such candidates are subject to the presumption of innocence, and "IT nomads" move freely from one company to another.
This category of young “IT nomads” explains their behavior in different ways: “looking for myself”, “looking for interesting tasks”, “looking for prospects”, “looking for an interesting team”, “looking for decent mentors” and so on. However, with a deeper look at their situation, we can assume something in common - a consumer attitude towards the company, the lack of completed projects or a prolonged trial period.
In addition, personalities such as self-proclaimed freelance programmers or designers who managed to wrap their modest and not entirely successful experience into a beautifully wrapped portfolio adhere to this category. In this case, freelancers may not bother to look for loyal customers and obligations to them. Moreover, explaining the leap between customer companies is no longer necessary.
')
But experienced customers and employers, after reading a couple of paragraphs in a cursory description, may be suspicious of disguised saboteurs at these IT nomads. To bring them to clean water, you need to learn more about their habits.
This will mainly be about software developers, but much is true for other positions.
Junior Consumer Attitudes
It is interesting that at the interview stage these people try to make a positive impression by hook or by crook. Some even agree to work "for food" as an intern - if only the prospect was. However, immediately after taking office, they, under any pretext, evade independent work (even on learning tasks): too difficult, not enough time, a new team, an unusual situation. Thus, they manage not only to overload the curator with this measure, but also to distract other employees from their work.
When these employees' own tasks begin to subside, and the curator's patience ends, the junior remains alone, alone with the training project.
What options does the "junior saboteur" have in this situation:
- Continue to work, developing what the curator and good colleagues started? - Hardly.
- Ask the management to extend the trial period, since you now have to work alone? - Option.
- Are you offended and complaining to your senior management? - A good idea.
The Great Combinator chooses a combination of the last two options and simultaneously begins to look for another job. After all, it is possible that the relationship between the leadership and the curator will deteriorate, and the unfortunate, abandoned junior will be to blame for this.
Probably, these tasks are not particularly interesting for him, the team is not friendly, and in general there are better companies in the market. Therefore, it is necessary to leave, the hero concludes, forgetting that in the end the company did not bring benefits, but harm (lost profits and sagging tasks of colleagues). He does not despair and continues to search, and the company has to look for a new junior from all the cases.
Of course, a milder scenario is also possible: an intern can sit on the company's neck, prevent colleagues from working and feed the leadership with breakfast until he is expelled. Sometimes, for some reason, the curator and other commanding persons are not eager to admit that they took the saboteur to work and nursed him for six months. Maybe they consider themselves too advanced leaders to make such mistakes. And in some large companies very few people pay attention to such incidents. After all, the junior's salary is a penny, compared with the amount the company earns.
Spite deadline
Self-proclaimed freelancers saboteurs act differently: first, they ask the customer a bunch of weird questions about the TK. Sometimes, contrary to a good portfolio, it may even get the impression that this is their first project (often it turns out in reality). Such negotiations may take several days. Then they take a prepayment (if agreed) and are immersed in the work.
“I was at first afraid to turn to freelancers, I didn’t know where to start. I went to a seminar where a person told how to work with freelance exchanges. He made the whole system, which allowed to distinguish the fake freelancer from the present. There are distinctive features: the term of the account, reviews, contacts, distribution of work on time, adequate portfolio and so on. There, for example, there was a case when the freelancer had 20 reviews, that is, 20 jobs in the last month, and serious works. But it is unlikely that he [the programmer] could really do so much, ”says Dmitry, project manager.
Any attempts by the customer to control the stages of work are usually found hostile. Such freelancers answer the questions in a monosyllabic manner or with a delay of several days, explaining that "you are not alone with me."
The customer may think that he is lucky if the freelancer violates all imaginable terms, but gives the finished (albeit, how it is done) work. Indeed, such performers often do not bring the matter to an end, causing financial damage to the customer and forcing him to look for a new performer.
Of course, in Russia now there are more services with secure transactions ... But, as already noted, this kind of freelancers are actively “looking for themselves” and often agree to work even without prepayment.
Unfortunately, such customers (or rather, sabotage) are still accepted by many customers as a given, and sometimes they themselves are not averse to “throwing” a freelancer. Another problem follows from this: customers have to work with familiar and proven freelancers who are not always the best specialists in their field.
How conscious are the actions of the “saboteurs”?
Saboteurs (if this concept is interpreted in our context) easily bypass psychological tests, if suddenly HR offers them at an interview. No, they are not special agents and not actors. Perhaps they give some answers to questions because they themselves at the moment believe in what they say. This can be compared with the so-called "loving" people: today - one object of adoration, and tomorrow - another.
That is, consciously making a decision on employment, they are ready to rush into battle, but after a while the ardor has passed. And besides him, there is no other strong motivation. Therefore, the person inside is trying to negotiate with himself, to justify certain changes. Often in the process of such self-justification of wine and auto-aggression is shifted to others. In this case, the IT company and its employees.
How long such a person will last in the company depends on his efforts to fight with himself. It happens that he is somewhat aware that he is doing something wrong. Especially if he similar situations around him repeatedly repeated. Therefore, he decides to spend some time in the company, in parallel trying to understand himself. But just to sit without following the instructions of the management is impossible, and in the background it creates the appearance of vigorous activity. However, his professional side does not develop.
In this connection, I recall the case that a familiar programmer told me:
We had one friend - generally zero. I don’t know if he studied programming at all ... He got a job on a PHP programmer. He asked me a lot of questions. This ended in that I had to fully explain to him what to write and how. But since he himself could never give birth to anything, he disappeared a week later.
I’m actually surprised where he came from. After all, before taking it, some programmer had to talk to him, not just HR. After all, a test task, of course, could be done by someone for it.
Well and do not forget that sometimes they still pay money for the time spent in the company.
Freelancers in this regard are even more difficult: if they are not motivated by money, there is hardly any outside who can motivate them to work righteously. After the interest in the order fades away, the person is left alone with his doubts. And they, in turn, eat up the energy that could be spent on the execution of the order.
Therefore, a conscious desire to harm these people in most cases is absent. This may be more connected with incompetence, lack of experience, misunderstanding of TK.
Dmitry shared his story on this topic:
The most interesting thing is when you meet a really adequate person, with an adequate price tag and a portfolio that adequately answers questions. You can even work with him on a secure transaction. And then I had the idea to save money, and I gave him the usual deal with a prepayment of 50% - before, 50% - after. He began to work. A week has passed…
He shows me something - there are mistakes there. And I told him to do it on my hosting, because I was too lazy to deploy myself. So in general, I became dependent on him. He began to tell me that something was not working out for him, that it was unrealistic to do this, he did not fit within the time limits, and so on. I say to him: "Let's say goodbye." He: "No, I almost did everything." Then I found 30 errors with him again.
He apparently has other ideas about quality. He thought that "tyap-bloop" will go. I told him: “It is written in the TZ, it means that it should be done this way”. He replied, “Okay,” and nothing happened.
As a result, we made a new, secure transaction. For this, I did not pay him the other half. And even on a safe deal, he stupid and braked. Then I again say to him: “It’s time to round out.” He unloaded my project with errors. People who then watched what he did said: “Why, there’s a need to rewrite the whole project.”
Here deliberately not considered cases of overt sabotage and fraud - they are obvious.
Not a single work
It may be worthwhile for saboteurs to remember that “finding yourself” cannot be reduced only to finding employers. This search is explicitly or indirectly present in every area of ​​life. And therefore every sphere of our life needs us to spend our attention, time, energy on it. Hobbies, love, friendship, spiritual and physical development, image formation and much more - all this cannot be projected onto the plane of professional self-realization without a perceptible loss of the quality of life in general. For most, such a decline in the quality of life is a problem.
One solution to this problem may be the choice of work, in relation to which a person does not experience illusions, strong emotions. You can look for a job to which a person is neutral, and tune in to get not pleasure and pleasure from the “coolness” of a job, but to get satisfaction from the process of professional growth. As skills develop, this will grow into satisfaction from the fact that a person benefits the company with his work.
Another solution could be to convert the issue of employment into another format: you can do the work not with a goal, but with a tool for maintaining the constantly changing hobbies of a person. Of course, this conversion is a temporary measure. Gradually, energy consumption in various spheres of life will be balanced, and the person will cease to “burn out”.
*********
While employers in the IT industry with varying success, weed out unwanted candidates, including “saboteurs”, at the start. It is not always possible to check the integrity of the test tasks. Often, candidates do not have the right to provide source code for projects (and sometimes even links to them) from their previous place of work.
But the most difficult thing is to reveal a double deception, when a candidate deceives not only the employer, but also himself. Therefore, while such candidates are subject to the presumption of innocence, and "IT nomads" move freely from one company to another.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/302498/
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