Reject My Software Development Job Application, Please!
Photo by rivage @sigmund on Unsplash
Woe is me. Actually, woe are my recent interview performances?
I had an interview yesterday.
I flunked out.
I performed badly.
They asked me a ream of coding trivia, and I sat for a minute trying to remember and eventually was unable to recall it.
Now I’m wondering a single thing. Why haven’t they simply given me an email saying that I’m not experienced enough?
Interview Outcomes
Essentially, I want recruiters to give a little respect. To me.
My interview was scheduled to be a full two hours, but after 1 hour 40 they told me “It’s time for you to ask questions, if you have any.”
I instantly understood two things:
They scheduled a 2-hour interview, but it was a 1 hour 45 session for the candidate, with 15 minutes for them to chat about the outcome. They don’t respect my time.
I didn’t get the job “questions,…if you have any.” being a rather cutting way to communicate this
Even though I understood that I wouldn’t walk away with an offer from this particular outcome I still gamely asked some questions about home working and the culture. I do this because there is a chance that I’d misinterpreted the signs and that they would give me an offer.
They told me they’d get back to me in a couple of days, so I held onto my hope despite my best judgment.
The Rejection
On a Friday, 18:30 before a holiday weekend, I got the call.
Sure, they were sorry to call so late because they have “compressed hours”, and work till 19:00 on a Friday.
I’m still confused as to why I should care. Anyway, I “Didn’t know enough about good software engineering practices for the level I should be at” and with that low-quality feedback, we ended my journey for this particular job.
At least I wasn’t rejected like the last time through emoji.
So, my question is…
My Suggestion
If I’d have been asked for feedback on the interview process, my initial question would have been why didn’t you email me with this?
My second question would have been why this couldn’t have been sent right after the interview.
I’ve interviewed enough candidates in my time to know decisions are made pretty much immediately after the interview. That means the outcome was known before I’d finished making a coffee in preparation for my next meeting.
Why can’t we speed up the rejection process with an automatic email saying that unfortunately, we have decided not to proceed, and feedback will follow shortly?
Conclusion
The Secret Developer fluffed a few questions in an interview, got rightly rejected and now is salty about it.
Worse, they now think that companies should change their interview process to suit the candidate. Entitled, much?