I’m primarily a contractor but I do keep an eye on the permanent scene. My ideal job is a senior role, with or migrating to a modern infrastructure, lots of hands on and a position with an influence on strategy. I’ve worked a job like this before and it is completely intoxicating.
Last month I interviewed with a company who offered such a role. On the face of it, the companies and the role seemed perfect for me. But I never count chickens before they are hatched or judge a book by it’s covers. Put simply, I am interviewing the interviewer. They have to sell that company and that job for me to consider leaving contracting.
Company A was an American company that was moving lock, stock and barrel to Ireland, including a growing server farm that includes 400+ Windows servers. The role was for a "principle engineer/architect". Interviews 1,2 and 3 went well. The job was described to me in interview #1. The interviewers in the following two interviews went over the jobs again. After interview #2 it was clear they wanted me. Then they brought in their "senior" technical person for interview #4. It went downhill from there.
This guy never bothered to shake my hand and had a serious attitude problem. His attitude stank … it was clear he didn’t want to be talking to me. He was a Penguin Lover (A Linux person who hates all things Microsoft). He knocked everything I had ever worked with and clearly displayed a lack of understanding of how those products worked … that might have explained why they didn’t work for him in the past 🙂 He then asked me to describe the job being offered. I did. His eyes opened up wide. This was the first time it appeared he was paying attention to me. Uh uh … he described the job for me … a intermediate level break/fix engineer … which is not what I am. I told him that if this was the case then we might as well save his and my time and end things right there. We did … he muttered something under his breath and went off to his office, leaving me standing outside the meeting room. He didn’t bother to shake my hand or walk me to the elevator or door.
My feedback to the recruitment agency was not exactly positive. The "principle engineer/architect" role turned out to be a mid level engineer role. I had wasted two trips to their office, both at very short notice. Word is, the guy from interview #4 might have a history of screwing interviews up. Oh … his strategy for managing and monitoring the 400+ Windows servers? Scripts. I’m a fan of scripts but there is a time and a place. This is not one of those … this is 100% a situation where an enterprise management solution is the solution.
Lessons to be learned?
- Don’t let people with no personality out from under the stairs to interview people.
- If you are interviewing someone who has more knowledge than your staff, you might want to listen to their ideas.
- Advertise the job that is actually open.
- There is a shortage of high end technical people in Ireland at the moment. Those that are on the market are in the contracting game like myself. It takes a lot for us to be convinced to go permanent. This is a sales job. Don’t send in someone whose attitude stinks worse than 12 month old French cheese.
- If your company is developing a reputation in the jobs market, it takes a lot to change that. It’s even worse if your company is relatively new.