Alarm Bell Phrases for IT Interviews

Many of my friends are currently exploring opportunities with other employers. Figured I would share a few alarm bell phrases that when heard should cause their spidey senses to tingle...



Be careful of when you post to a position that mentions new technologies but yet the interviewer is keenly interested in your background and spends a lot of time on legacy technologies. While it is important for a company to have legacy skills to transition from current state to future state, sometimes current state is future state.

If you hear phrases such as "we have a flat organizational structure" or "we don't have titles around here" it is probably a predictor of one of two things. The first, is that no one really knows who is responsible for anything or they will expect you to do things that aren't described in the job description. Be on the lookout for tasks that are below your job grade.

Job descriptions almost always seem to have phrases such as "This position requires a highly motivated self-starter who has an excellent track record of accomplishments". You can translate this into "you should have zero expectation of any training now or in the future" or "we need a loner cowboy who cuts corners and who doesn't have the wrong accomplishments on their track record".

Of course the best alarm bell phrase has to be "we have to move fast" which means that you aren't going to spend time sharpening the saw. This reminds me of Abraham Lincoln's famous quote: If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.

The absolute best alarm bell phrase has to be: "On this project, failure is not an option". You should say to yourself, it must be a certainty then...

Why do those with integrity fail in interviewing...

On several occasions, people have pinged me soliciting advice for an interview with "fill in the blank" consulting firm and have gotten overconfident in thinking that actual knowledge/experience/skills is what makes them perfect for the role. In order to emphasis the challenges faced by good people, I have written a skit...



Anyway, IT people are very specialized--it's hard to do another job, especially when you're a geek - so we're a temp work force: millionaires if you have lived between 1996 and 2008, unemployed afterwards! What about having a world strike and stopping all the systems to show who is the master of the world?! [It's a joke!!]

In Connecticut, if you want to find a job, you probably need to deal with recruitment agencies. The cliche about people who work in an agency is that they don't know anything about technology - they just think they do!

Here is an example of communication failure:

* Recruiter: You're not suitable for that role because you don't know X, Y, Z (Database X, Software Y, etc ...)

* Candidate: I have 12 years of exp with IT: 7 years of professional experience and 5 years in University. I have learned many tools in my career and it should not be a problem. I have a strong potential and I am a high motivated individual. I am a quick learner and you think too much short term, give me an interview and your client will judge.

* Recruiter: You are not suitable because you don't know X, Y, Z

* Candidate: I have 5 years with databases, including 6 months with B; I have also used B for 1 year at university. I am a quick learner. I know very well database theory (SQL, stored procedures, all the acronyms the recruiter don't understand). Ask me any technical question instead of telling me I don't know!

* Recruiter: You are not suitable because you don't know X, Y, Z

* Candidate: I have used 5 years with OS Z at university, therefore I should be able to use it. Skills on a CV are not the only things about a person. Two people with the same profile may be very different. Why don't you ask about my personality and my objectives ?

* Recruiter: Ah ah ah ah (laughter). You are not suitable because you don't know X, Y, Z. YOU ARE NOT SUITABLE (with a very nice voice which means : you're a piece of shit)

* Candidate: Screw you!

Many candidates believe that recruiters should focus on your potential and what you can do, not what you don't know! They don't care finding you a job and they don't care finding the best person for clients since even the client themselves may not know exactly what they need. The challenge for candidates is to simply be pleasant.

Sadly, the world of IT causes people who know their shit to act like they know their shit. Recruiters are looking forward to meeting a quota and tend to focus more on the human aspects of technology than anything related to competency. We all know that companies once they make a commitment tend to have a difficult time correcting mistakes they made and will simply stick with it. We also know that even when you make it past the recruiter, other interviewees are probably squeezed for time and have more interesting things to do than to figure out if you are competent or not.

Let's face it, when the status quo is that IT can't align with the business, the vast majority of projects are either over budget and/or late, this proves that competencies aren't that important in the grand scheme of things.

In terms of the skit above, the candidate made the fatal mistake of only focusing on skills and didn't think to mention process. After all, look at how methodologies are sold. Haven't you yet figured out that the vast majority of people still think that process can be a substitute for competence...

Connecticut Voters Guide 2010

In the Manchester Court House, inscribed in marble as you enter is the phrase: Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding. The funny thing is that the court is filled with lots of ordinary people who don't understand and are being rapedassisted by lawyers guiding them through the process...



The democrats made history this year with the passage of healthcare reform. Some believe that they ignored the values of the constitution, while others believe they did it to provide aid to those who otherwise couldn't afford decent healthcare. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, we can all acknowledge the simple fact that the bill contained thousands of pages in which no currently elected senator or congressman actually read in its entirety nor fully understood.

It is one thing for us ordinary citizens to not understand laws, but it is another for those who make the laws to not understand the laws. While intent of the law may be noble, it is really responsible to have so many laws on the books that no one understands?



With this thought in mind, I am encouraging the residents of Connecticut to consider the following when casting their vote:

• Do not vote for anyone who is a lawyer. Candidates with business backgrounds are less likely to wrecklessly execute in this manner. Business people are more inclined to keep things simple.
  
• Do not vote for anyone who is a career politician. In order to grow the economy, we need fresh ideas and new thinking. Doing more of the same, won't result in a different outcome.
• Don't vote along party lines. Being a democrat doesn't automatically make you a liberal. Being a Republican doesn't automatically make you a conservative. Vote for people who share your values.
• If you are Black, don't vote for a candidate solely because they are Black. The same goes for other ethnic groups. Politicians don't really take specific actions targeted at ethnic groups for their benefit as they are there to serve all people.
• We need candidates that are pro-American. Anyone know of friends, family and coworkers where their jobs were outsourced to another country? Ask which candidate will remedy the world trade imbalance which starts with local policy.
  
• Don't vote for candidates that have never had to make payroll. The subject of job creation shouldn't feel academic or conceptual. We need candidates who have real-world experience creating a payroll. We don't need candidates that wouldn't even be successful running a Hot-Dog stand.
  
• Vote for candidates who have demonstrated they will uphold constitutional rights. Regardless of whether you are pro-gun rights or anti-gun rights, it is vital that the candidate support the rights as outlined in the constitution, for without it, we will be a nation of lost people with no framework to guide us forward.

Exercise your right to vote and remember to wear your WWE shirt to the polls regardless of what our Secretary of State thinks about it. Malcolm X in his famous speech described the choices that people make: The Ballot or the Bullet. As a member of the NRA, I believe the latter is important, but the former is more important. Today, is the day where we get to vote for an Agile government...