Pre-Interview (Job Interviews)

Blog Summary: (AI Summaries by Summarizes)
  • HR and Engineering often have a disconnect when it comes to job listings and descriptions.
  • Job listings are often written to be as generic as possible, which can lead to incorrect or impossible requirements.
  • HR may have limited technical knowledge and wants to cast a wide net for applicants.
  • Some companies feel that specifying their technologies and requirements tips their hand to their competition.
  • A 10-minute phone call from a technical staff member to the applicant can prevent wasted time on both sides and give the applicant a better idea of the position and its requirements.
Because there is such a disconnect between HR and Engineering, you need to call set to some things straight about the job.

Job listings are usually written to be as generic as possible.  The job descriptions often contain incorrect or impossible requirements.  It seems there are several reasons for this.  The HR person usually has a cursory knowledge of all things technical.  HR wants to cast a wide net and get as many applicants as possible.  Some companies feel that specifying their technologies and requirements tips their hand to their competition.  In many ways, it delays the inevitable.  The interviewee must find out the requirements at some point.

Imagine this scenario.  A company wants to hire for a new postion.  The job requirements and details are given to HR.  The requirements get watered down and lost in translation.  The final job posting ends up saying “Calling all Software Engineers” even though the position is very specific.  The posting is very nebulous on details despite the details being well known.  Is the job a junior level position and the applicant is looking for a senior level position?  Is the position a Senior Level C++ position and the job posting says nothing about C++?  Did the previous phone interviews and interaction with the company mislead the applicant on the nature of the position?  The resulting interviews would be wasted time on both sides.  Worse yet, the company starts to get a reputation about bungling job interviews and wasting people’s time.

I propose a simple 10 minute phone call from a technical staff member.  The phone call’s purpose is to give the applicant an idea about the position.  It gives the applicant an opportunity to learn about the requirements and the job itself.  The phone call would be developer to developer.. It would be conducted by a person as close as possible to the team or team member where the person would work.

This call would prevent the all too often scenario talked about above.  Wasted time on job interviews hurts both sides.  The development team and HR waste on interviews.  The applicant wastes their time instead of looking for another position that is a better fit.

Related Posts

The Difference Between Learning and Doing

Blog Summary: (AI Summaries by Summarizes)Learning options trading involves data and programming but is not as technical as data engineering or software engineering.Different types of

The Data Discovery Team

Blog Summary: (AI Summaries by Summarizes)Data discovery team plays a crucial role in searching for data in the IT landscape.Data discovery team must make data