09-28-2018, 10:44 AM
Well I wasn't sure if I wanted to post this in here or in "Grind my Gears".
I get an email from <technology company> recruiter about a Happy Hour they're having for potential job candidates. I applied with <TC> for a CONUS IA position hoping to use my shiney new Master's degree in the real world. I didn't get an interview (and didn't really expect one tbh, as I have no clearance) but I guess my email and shit were in their recruiting bank so I got this email for the happy hour. I thinks to myself, shit yeah, free drinks, talk to recruiter, done deal. I send email to recruiter, she sends me back a questionnaire so I can go to the happy hour. I fill out said little survey (basically my resume + salary requirements + no I don't mind working there) and email it to her. Important to note, one of the questions was:
"What position are you most interested in Software Engineer, Software Architect, Agile Release Train Engineer, or DevOps Engineer)? Feel free to provide a brief note why you might be a good match for this opportunity."
I'm really trying to get into Security (again, I applied for an IA position with <TC>) and I don't wanna be a programmer soooooooooooo, DevOps Engineer I guess?
This was on 20JULY. Just so everyone's clear on the timeline.
A week passes. Happy Hour has come and gone, no word. Another week passes, I get this email (8AUG):
"I hope this message finds you well. If you are still interested and available, we would like to get you scheduled for a phone interview with our team. Please let me know your availability for this week and early next week."
I reply, next day, "Yep just let me know when!"
crickets.
More Crickets.
I do some shit.
I'm cleaning out my email and realize Hey! Dis bitch never emailed me back.
I emailed her last Thursday. (28 September)
She goes, "My apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I have been at an offsite all-hands and training the last couple of weeks and just playing catch up. If you are still available and interested, I would like to schedule you next week for a technical phone interview." I give her my availability and she says "ok great how about thursday?" I say:
"Yes, that works for me! Sounds perfect. Is there anything in my resume that you'd like me to highlight in preparation? Or just a general technical knowledge."
Because at this point I'm thinking like, I'm gonna talk with like a hiring manager or something, they've seen my resume and think I could probably be an asset and they're going to assess whether I'm bullshitting or not.
She says, "Rex, The technical questions are more to see how you think, logic/reasoning, algorithms, data structures, etc."
Ok cool. So it's probably what I'm thinking then. I'm thinking encryption algorithms, best practices, etc etc.
No.
Nooooooooooooooope.
I get on the call. Jump right in. They want to know about my EC2 experience and would I consider myself a Jenkins expert? I do my best to answer their questions and show my ability to adapt and wrap my brain around a new idea. "I...um, I've used Docker a bit, I've used BMC's cloud automation toolkit and VMWare labs, ah, I'm afraid I only have a passing familiarity with Jenkins and continuous integration, ummm..." Second round of questions starts with "So what led you to apply for a Senior DevOps position with a DBA background?"
Whoa. Hold Up.
I... Never applied for a Senior DevOps engineer. FUUUUUUUCKKKKK There's 7 people on this call, plus myself. It's a hiring committee for a Senior DevOps Engineer, they're looking for someone to transform their dev team into a Full DevOps automation programming house. AKA: Not fucking ME, at all. Fuck. I explain that I got this interview as a result of inquiring about a Happy Hour with a <TC> recruiter, didn't realize I'd be interviewing for a position, Terribly sorry I'll still try to answer your questions as best I can but please keep in mind that all of my dev experience has been in environment deployment and maintenance, I am not, and have no wish to be, a programmer.
Final question is "Fizzbuzz", fuck me, I dance around it a bit, completely flustered at this point and then finally I'm like "hold on lemme write this out on paper" and he's like Oh yeah, i should have told you that! Taking it out of my head and onto paper. Four if/else loops, blah blah blah, i(mod(3/5) etc etc. This guy seems pleased enough I guess. Still don't wanna be a programmer.
I thank everyone and hang up and pour myself a glass of Jefferson's Reserve, utterly disheartened.
I'm composing a draft to the recruiter now in an attempt to get all the committee member's emails, try and send them a thank you but JFC, I could actually have done ok with this interview had I 24 hours to prepare for a DevOps engineer interview. Instead I prepped for "technical questions are more to see how you think, logic/reasoning, algorithms, data structures, etc." Spent a whole half hour going back over public key exchange so that I could demonstrate it in layman's terms...you know, instead of googling "what the fuck is DevOps." which would have been infinitely more helpful.
I know that recruiters aren't like, experts in the field in which they recruit or anything. But I think at the very least a little document of "Here's what your interview is about here is who you're talking to, and here's the position listing" would have been the very least courtesy to show, am I wrong here?
I get an email from <technology company> recruiter about a Happy Hour they're having for potential job candidates. I applied with <TC> for a CONUS IA position hoping to use my shiney new Master's degree in the real world. I didn't get an interview (and didn't really expect one tbh, as I have no clearance) but I guess my email and shit were in their recruiting bank so I got this email for the happy hour. I thinks to myself, shit yeah, free drinks, talk to recruiter, done deal. I send email to recruiter, she sends me back a questionnaire so I can go to the happy hour. I fill out said little survey (basically my resume + salary requirements + no I don't mind working there) and email it to her. Important to note, one of the questions was:
"What position are you most interested in Software Engineer, Software Architect, Agile Release Train Engineer, or DevOps Engineer)? Feel free to provide a brief note why you might be a good match for this opportunity."
I'm really trying to get into Security (again, I applied for an IA position with <TC>) and I don't wanna be a programmer soooooooooooo, DevOps Engineer I guess?
This was on 20JULY. Just so everyone's clear on the timeline.
A week passes. Happy Hour has come and gone, no word. Another week passes, I get this email (8AUG):
"I hope this message finds you well. If you are still interested and available, we would like to get you scheduled for a phone interview with our team. Please let me know your availability for this week and early next week."
I reply, next day, "Yep just let me know when!"
crickets.
More Crickets.
I do some shit.
I'm cleaning out my email and realize Hey! Dis bitch never emailed me back.
I emailed her last Thursday. (28 September)
She goes, "My apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I have been at an offsite all-hands and training the last couple of weeks and just playing catch up. If you are still available and interested, I would like to schedule you next week for a technical phone interview." I give her my availability and she says "ok great how about thursday?" I say:
"Yes, that works for me! Sounds perfect. Is there anything in my resume that you'd like me to highlight in preparation? Or just a general technical knowledge."
Because at this point I'm thinking like, I'm gonna talk with like a hiring manager or something, they've seen my resume and think I could probably be an asset and they're going to assess whether I'm bullshitting or not.
She says, "Rex, The technical questions are more to see how you think, logic/reasoning, algorithms, data structures, etc."
Ok cool. So it's probably what I'm thinking then. I'm thinking encryption algorithms, best practices, etc etc.
No.
Nooooooooooooooope.
I get on the call. Jump right in. They want to know about my EC2 experience and would I consider myself a Jenkins expert? I do my best to answer their questions and show my ability to adapt and wrap my brain around a new idea. "I...um, I've used Docker a bit, I've used BMC's cloud automation toolkit and VMWare labs, ah, I'm afraid I only have a passing familiarity with Jenkins and continuous integration, ummm..." Second round of questions starts with "So what led you to apply for a Senior DevOps position with a DBA background?"
Whoa. Hold Up.
I... Never applied for a Senior DevOps engineer. FUUUUUUUCKKKKK There's 7 people on this call, plus myself. It's a hiring committee for a Senior DevOps Engineer, they're looking for someone to transform their dev team into a Full DevOps automation programming house. AKA: Not fucking ME, at all. Fuck. I explain that I got this interview as a result of inquiring about a Happy Hour with a <TC> recruiter, didn't realize I'd be interviewing for a position, Terribly sorry I'll still try to answer your questions as best I can but please keep in mind that all of my dev experience has been in environment deployment and maintenance, I am not, and have no wish to be, a programmer.
Final question is "Fizzbuzz", fuck me, I dance around it a bit, completely flustered at this point and then finally I'm like "hold on lemme write this out on paper" and he's like Oh yeah, i should have told you that! Taking it out of my head and onto paper. Four if/else loops, blah blah blah, i(mod(3/5) etc etc. This guy seems pleased enough I guess. Still don't wanna be a programmer.
I thank everyone and hang up and pour myself a glass of Jefferson's Reserve, utterly disheartened.
I'm composing a draft to the recruiter now in an attempt to get all the committee member's emails, try and send them a thank you but JFC, I could actually have done ok with this interview had I 24 hours to prepare for a DevOps engineer interview. Instead I prepped for "technical questions are more to see how you think, logic/reasoning, algorithms, data structures, etc." Spent a whole half hour going back over public key exchange so that I could demonstrate it in layman's terms...you know, instead of googling "what the fuck is DevOps." which would have been infinitely more helpful.
I know that recruiters aren't like, experts in the field in which they recruit or anything. But I think at the very least a little document of "Here's what your interview is about here is who you're talking to, and here's the position listing" would have been the very least courtesy to show, am I wrong here?
1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442