Want a free copy of my book? Sure you do. This month, I’m giving away a copy of my book right here on the blog (on this very post.)
The rules of this contest are simple, simply share an interesting/funny anecdote about your experience interviewing for a technology or agency position (no names or companies needed, blind items are fine.) At the end of October, I’ll pick the best one and you get a free copy of my book, Beginning HTML and CSS
And heck, even if you’re already an expert and don’t have need of a beginner book, you can certainly hand it off to someone looking to make their own site for the first time or to an engineer from another technology discipline looking to get introduced to the joys of web technology.
Mine has to be my current position. (My email address is personal, not my work addy). The want ad was looking for a CAD Admin with no prior experience. It was a bit odd, but my wife was pushing me to apply because the only qualification you needed was familiarity with .NET. During the interview, I was asked if I knew the difference between HTML and .NET code and to explain it. The first questions were simple things. I was encouraged to ask questions along the way and asked them what kind of drafting they did. Did they do render modelling of crime scenes, etc? They were as confused as I was at that stage. It turned out, my CAD (Computer Aided Drawing) and theirs (Computer Assisted Dispatching) were a little different, which explained why they were so interested in what I would be willing to come in and do if 911 stopped working…..
My story is for my current job. When I was being interviewed I was asked why I was passionate about the web.
Well, I started talking about how as a kid I was into creating stuff, I did knitting, woodwork, painting, cooking, anything I could. When our family got our first computer and I hopped on the Internet and started playing with HTML I had found the thing I really wanted to create, and it was websites, open for the world to see and experience.
I was told later that I had gone from definitely not getting the job talking about woodwork in a tech interview to definitely like this guy by the end of it.
I interviewed with a hot startup in the late 1990s. It was small, but like every startup in those days it had a lot of traction. The CEO came in to sell me on the role. This was the moment I knew we were in the middle of a bubble (or at least something weird) because he spent 30 minutes talking about how he was going to get eyeballs and users and never once did he actually talk about making money. It was just to get to the IPO. There was no thought to making money.
I’ve had a number of really terrible interview experiences. More than once people have interviewed me and it seemed like they were being interrupted from something much more important. They seemed distracted and didn’t seem to even know who I was. That’s the way to sell a job!
It’s not a great story, but that kind of thing always bothers me.