How I looked for employees or How not to have an interview

I’ll make a reservation right away that the post of the habrovchanin voff brought me to this post . How I looked 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 express.

A small background - I'm not a developer, although I used to be in frontend. I worked and work in the field of marketing in development companies, plus I have my own small business in the same field. It turns out that at work I often encounter the search for employees for projects and sometimes I take part in interviews myself, if we are talking about UI / UX and front-end.

I have to agree with my colleague - programmers are so much in demand today that it makes no sense for many to go to work in a civilized abroad - the same money can be earned at home, doing interesting projects. The labor market is a candidate.



Now rise a little over your worries and problems and try to look a little wider what this leads to within the industry:

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

Finding a suitable specialist within the budget often becomes an impossible task - you have to buy ready-made and pay him higher than the market, or find a junior, teach and pray that he will not leave six months later for a salary twice as high as he is paid (without exaggeration).

I will give you an example without specifying names / surnames and company names. So, one sunny St. Petersburg morning, my company needed to hire three developers, because three weeks later they finished working for three, who were lured to other companies with great compensation and bonuses. I must say right away that this is not about “Yandex” and “mail”, but about second-tier companies.

IT Manager

So, our CTO, a person involved in the technical component, supervision and communications (often involved in scrum) in eight projects, described those people who are needed to replace dropouts, discussed with project managers and handed them over to HR.

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

Here, let's immediately make a reservation about the resume - oh, which we have not seen. It happens that some parts of some resumes differ on the company in the newsletters, because without tears it is impossible to read them. Porridge from concepts, terms, tools, methodologies and names of projects on which the person worked. It’s impossible to understand from a resume whether a person understands what TFS is and whether he saw Greenhopper in the eyes or simply heard these words. Therefore, the rule is to ask at the interview not by resume, but by requirements.

How to make life easier: Bring for an interview a printed resume (preferably two or three copies), rewritten after reading the requirements for the applicant. This will not only increase your chances of getting a job, but also save time for you and your interviewee. Directly ask in advance about the interview flowchart - ask for a separate technical interview if it is not provided, because you are unlikely to 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 philological faculty in 1956 year.

HR managers

All HR that I saw could distinguish Java from Javascript, but of course, it is very difficult for them to understand the wilds of incomprehensible words. This is a given. Well, if the eye is outlined with experience and in a couple of years such HR will be worth its weight in gold. But should he change his job and move from an MS-oriented company to an opensource-oriented one - all in vain. Yes, it is, nothing can be done about it.

How to make life easier : be indulgent towards HR, remember that its main task is to test you for “general adequacy”. To understand that you are a cheerful and intelligent person, it will be easy to communicate with you, and you can be recommended. It’s useful to highlight in the resume 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: there is a company budget, there is a project budget, there is a department budget. It is necessary not to crumple and be as open as possible in this discussion. Directly indicate lows and forget about excessive modesty. Nobody wants to hire you and lose in a month and a half, because you were not honest enough in your salary expectations.

How to make life easier : in different companies, the situations are different - if you do not want to waste your time and time of the interviewers - open Linkedin or My Circle, find company employees, ask a couple of questions about the financial climate inside the company, understand everything in advance, maybe save yourself some time and colleagues.

Terms of Reference (meaning, probably, test task)

A test task on a piece of paper issued during an interview is an unobvious, but very objective way to understand real knowledge and experience. You can google anything, but if you have not written sortings for the last 3 years, then it will be difficult for you to include in the project on the go and utilize it 100%.

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

Organization of interview

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

Keep in mind that several people, each hour of which is slightly more expensive than your hour, are reshaping their schedule in order to meet with you. Often some of these people are inaccessible, their plans change, other priorities appear. Therefore, you will have to come to the company not once, but two or three. Think of a few interviews as a chance for you, including. You could come to the first interview for a good night's sleep, after a bachelor party or with a terrible allergy to cats. The second and third - give you a chance to fix everything. Group interviews are a way to save you time in the first place. Afraid of a group interview? And how will you behave during a stand-up meeting?

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

Conclusion

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

If you want to find the job of your dreams - take the time and effort to prepare for an interview - you may not want to go to it, or perhaps thanks to this you will be able to find that very job.