in light of some of the interesting discussions going on about the profession/employment, etc., i'm interested to hear from those of you who have been actively interviewing lately. have you found your interview experiences to be different in this 'employer's market' from those you had in past years?
my interviews have leaned towards the rude and unprofessional side, with a couple of exceptions. i've had a few interviews where the prospective employee is clearly held in very low esteem even before he/she is hired, or even identified. i'm sure this is in part tactical on the part of the employer, but i've found it quite off-putting.
another significant difference is the evolution of the work sample from a single-page teaser (sufficient a few years ago) to a full, 10-or-12-page portfolio. So by the time you show up for your interview, you may not have so much new work to show.
I just had an interview yesterday, and a few others these past 2 months, I'd say 2 out of 4 were positions where they clearly held a very low esteem of potential hires, most have been contract positions, I am still fairly young, but I'm not a 23 year old fresh face out of college anymore, and when they interview me they seem to know they can't bullshit a bullshitter, so in some ways having experience could intimidate the interviewers, and in other cases they are just plain impressed. To summarize, I think companies are going to have to hire back some of the very experienced people they let go, when they do win jobs. I get the feeling that companies are kind of feeling a little bit cautious about hiring experienced people that were let go due to lack of work, because they can't patronize us, we're too smart for that. We know too much, and we know what we are worth to a team, which makes us expensive, and potentially a threat to authority.
Recently, I've had an awesome interview and a miserable interview. The miserable one was like hall-of-fame terrible; when I walked into to the office, principal greeted me by chasing his dog around the office and he proceeded to focus on playing with the dog for the ENTIRE interview. The interview also started off with the interviewer accusing me of lying about my software skills. At one point, the interview also accused me of having weak body language and of being too much of a socialist. oOo. The goal of the interview was not to assess my fit with the company's culture, but was to pick a fight with me and see my reaction. {A bogus, counter-productive hiring litmus}.
I think this was indicative of the dick-ish nature of that particular firm, not the general job market.
The other interview was fantastic. I am a young employee with some experience and this firm was completely respectful of my time and really listened to what I had to say. It really is just a numbers game.
"I just had an interview yesterday, and a few others these past 2 months, I'd say 2 out of 4 were positions where they clearly held a very low esteem of potential hires, most have been contract positions, I am still fairly young, but I'm not a 23 year old fresh face out of college anymore, and when they interview me they seem to know they can't bullshit a bullshitter, so in some ways having experience could intimidate the interviewers, and in other cases they are just plain impressed. To summarize, I think companies are going to have to hire back some of the very experienced people they let go, when they do win jobs. I get the feeling that companies are kind of feeling a little bit cautious about hiring experienced people that were let go due to lack of work, because they can't patronize us, we're too smart for that. We know too much, and we know what we are worth to a team, which makes us expensive, and potentially a threat to authority. "
I wish Archinect had a "like" option,
Dec 18, 10 12:23 am ·
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what have your interviews been like?
in light of some of the interesting discussions going on about the profession/employment, etc., i'm interested to hear from those of you who have been actively interviewing lately. have you found your interview experiences to be different in this 'employer's market' from those you had in past years?
my interviews have leaned towards the rude and unprofessional side, with a couple of exceptions. i've had a few interviews where the prospective employee is clearly held in very low esteem even before he/she is hired, or even identified. i'm sure this is in part tactical on the part of the employer, but i've found it quite off-putting.
another significant difference is the evolution of the work sample from a single-page teaser (sufficient a few years ago) to a full, 10-or-12-page portfolio. So by the time you show up for your interview, you may not have so much new work to show.
any thoughts?
I just had an interview yesterday, and a few others these past 2 months, I'd say 2 out of 4 were positions where they clearly held a very low esteem of potential hires, most have been contract positions, I am still fairly young, but I'm not a 23 year old fresh face out of college anymore, and when they interview me they seem to know they can't bullshit a bullshitter, so in some ways having experience could intimidate the interviewers, and in other cases they are just plain impressed. To summarize, I think companies are going to have to hire back some of the very experienced people they let go, when they do win jobs. I get the feeling that companies are kind of feeling a little bit cautious about hiring experienced people that were let go due to lack of work, because they can't patronize us, we're too smart for that. We know too much, and we know what we are worth to a team, which makes us expensive, and potentially a threat to authority.
Recently, I've had an awesome interview and a miserable interview. The miserable one was like hall-of-fame terrible; when I walked into to the office, principal greeted me by chasing his dog around the office and he proceeded to focus on playing with the dog for the ENTIRE interview. The interview also started off with the interviewer accusing me of lying about my software skills. At one point, the interview also accused me of having weak body language and of being too much of a socialist. oOo. The goal of the interview was not to assess my fit with the company's culture, but was to pick a fight with me and see my reaction. {A bogus, counter-productive hiring litmus}.
I think this was indicative of the dick-ish nature of that particular firm, not the general job market.
The other interview was fantastic. I am a young employee with some experience and this firm was completely respectful of my time and really listened to what I had to say. It really is just a numbers game.
"I just had an interview yesterday, and a few others these past 2 months, I'd say 2 out of 4 were positions where they clearly held a very low esteem of potential hires, most have been contract positions, I am still fairly young, but I'm not a 23 year old fresh face out of college anymore, and when they interview me they seem to know they can't bullshit a bullshitter, so in some ways having experience could intimidate the interviewers, and in other cases they are just plain impressed. To summarize, I think companies are going to have to hire back some of the very experienced people they let go, when they do win jobs. I get the feeling that companies are kind of feeling a little bit cautious about hiring experienced people that were let go due to lack of work, because they can't patronize us, we're too smart for that. We know too much, and we know what we are worth to a team, which makes us expensive, and potentially a threat to authority. "
I wish Archinect had a "like" option,
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