Some quick news items then I want to share a story that may be helpful to some of my readers.
The Brass Door is doing Oyster Monday today on Tuesday, because they were closed yesterday. Dollar oysters, raw or their chargrilled recipe of the week, your choice. 3 PM until they run out and they have $4 Guinness while oysters are being sold.
If you have kids and you’re going to the Grizzlies game Saturday, you’ll want to get there early. Free lunchbox to the first 5000 fans to celebrate Grizz’s birthday.
The Redbirds will be celebrating the hiring of Penny Hardaway’s hiring as the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball coach by offering tickets to opening night on April 10 for a penny for a limited time.
Sunrise Memphis has 1 cent coffee today to celebrate Penny.
Memphis Made Brewing Co. will host a World Water Day celebration this Thursday from 5 to 8 with all proceeds benefiting the Wolf River Conservancy.
And now, the story…
Blindsided
Now that I’m gainfully employed again, I want to share an interview experience I had (not with the company that hired me). In my field of web development, it’s common to do a technical interview, in which the applicant is asked to solve problems or plan projects. I want to discuss a technical interview that went off the rails and a couple of things I learned from it. My experience may be helpful, especially to my IT-centric readers.
I interviewed first with the company’s CIO. I had visited the company website and downloaded their app, and was able to speak about how my past experiences related to the company’s mission. He complimented me, saying I asked him excellent questions that most IT people wouldn’t have thought to ask. I pointed out that the development platform the company was using was one I last worked with in 2008. I asked if he was OK with that. He said that no one can know every IT platform and the ability and motivation to learn is what’s important. I assured him I had that.
“Now I’m going to have you talk to our technical lead,” he said. “He’ll talk with you for a bit and then administer a skills test. Don’t worry, it’s not pass-fail, just do the best you can.” The technical lead started throwing around acronyms, but again, I had done my homework. The recruiter had sent a list of questions he had asked other candidates and I was able to keep up with him. I was beginning to think this job was in the bag.
Then he handed me the skills test. He wanted me to write a project plan using a framework I had never even heard of, much less worked with. He wanted me to use a design pattern I had never heard of, and there was an acronym I had never heard of and had to ask the meaning. “I don’t even know where to start,” I told the tech lead. “You saw my resume. You know I don’t have these things in my background. How can you expect me to build a project plan using things I have never worked with?”
“Just do the best you can,” he said, and reminded me it’s not pass-fail. After a few minutes of utter frustration, he said, “If you want, you can take it home with you, and email me the plan.” I elected to do that, although I still had no idea how I’d even get started.
I drove home, feeling like I had been blindsided, like I had been ambushed. I knew I could learn the technologies needed for the job. But how could he test me on them, when he knew I didn’t have them in my background at the time? This seems like a great job, I thought, and now I’m going to miss out on it because of this totally unfair test.
I didn’t get the job but I learned two things from this experience.
1) After I got home I posted on Facebook about what had happened. (Of course, I did not name the company.) A few of my IT friends had valuable feedback. They said they had actually seen skills tests like that before, where applicants were quizzed about technologies they couldn’t be expected to know. The idea is that in IT, you’re exposed to new technologies all the time, and they want to see how well you will adapt. (As a result of their advice, I researched the technologies I didn’t know, and emailed a project plan the next day.)
2) When a company interviews you, you’re interviewing them as well. They’re showing you what working there will be like. What was my first impression? One of being blindsided. One of being put on the spot. One of being made to feel like I don’t know enough. How do I know that’s not what the job itself is going to be like? Really, if I had received an offer I don’t know if I would have taken it. One of the lessons I learned at my former job is that everything a company does is marketing, and the skills test failed to market the company I interviewed with well to potential new hires.
Anyway, I don’t have to worry about technical interviews anymore. Enjoying my time working in Germantown so far. My co-workers took me out to lunch at Rock ‘n Dough Pizza yesterday and the calzone I had was so good that I’m going back for another one. Found a way to get home in only 27 minutes yesterday too. And in response to my reader who emailed, I have a feeling I will learn to love Bougie Kroger and will go there quite frequently. That’s it for now, back tomorrow with more news.