> Don’t suck at something you say you’re an expert at
This one. If you say you are expert/advanced at X, we will check for some level of competence. It's amazing how many candidates with CVs claiming 'advanced SQL skills' don't know about the existence of the HAVING clause. An exaggerated CV is a very easy filter.
I agree that people shouldn't exaggerate their skills but you need to be cautious about how you go about proving that they do not. It's easy to prove that someone is clueless by quizzing them about specific technical details or syntax. You will of course find something they do not know, but are you really trying to prove your own cleverness by catching them out? "You say you're an expert eh? We'll let me prove you're wrong and I'm smarter cause I'll ask arcane technical facts till I find something that shows you're not an expert!"
It's not a matter of it's a culture fit or not, it's a matter of showing that you care about the job.
We wear whatever the hell we want to at the office, but if I conduct an interview and the interviewee comes wearing jeans and a T-Shirt with holes, I problem will end the interview short and thank him for his time. If he doesn't care about this job enough to even make an attempt at dressing up then why waste our time.
Same with swearing. If you can't show to us that you care about this job enough to use professional language for an hour then I probably won't consider you past the first round. It's not whether we care about swearing, it's about proving to us you really want this job.
I agree. I was once interviewed by a company who asked me to look at a snippet of code and tell them what’s wrong with it. It was supposed to to be testing for a handle leak; open db connection without a corresponding close. But right smack dab in the middle was a SQL injection bug. As soon as they handed me the paper I let out a whispered “FUCK”. Everyone laughed, and the rest of the interview went well, up to the compensation package ;-)
"no one in her right mind will penalize you for not being immediately available"
Not deliberately, but depending on how bad they need to fill the hole, they may find someone good enough that they don't bother holding out to see if you're better...
[+] [-] EdwardDiego|11 years ago|reply
This one. If you say you are expert/advanced at X, we will check for some level of competence. It's amazing how many candidates with CVs claiming 'advanced SQL skills' don't know about the existence of the HAVING clause. An exaggerated CV is a very easy filter.
[+] [-] andrewstuart|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tzakrajs|11 years ago|reply
If it doesn't work out because I swear in the interview, it wasn't going to be a good culture fit in the first place. This goes both ways.
[+] [-] drewying|11 years ago|reply
We wear whatever the hell we want to at the office, but if I conduct an interview and the interviewee comes wearing jeans and a T-Shirt with holes, I problem will end the interview short and thank him for his time. If he doesn't care about this job enough to even make an attempt at dressing up then why waste our time.
Same with swearing. If you can't show to us that you care about this job enough to use professional language for an hour then I probably won't consider you past the first round. It's not whether we care about swearing, it's about proving to us you really want this job.
[+] [-] magal|11 years ago|reply
Good tips.
[+] [-] mahmud|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dllthomas|11 years ago|reply
Not deliberately, but depending on how bad they need to fill the hole, they may find someone good enough that they don't bother holding out to see if you're better...
[+] [-] totoroisalive|11 years ago|reply
Interviews are hard for some people.