Contrasting 2 Job Rejections

Job interviews have 2 purposes: the 1^st being the need for a company to evaluate a job candidate and the 2^nd being for the candidate to evaluate the company. Far too many interviewers forget the importance of the latter.

In my experience, I have several interesting stories regarding interviews from both sides of the table (candidate versus interviewer), but 2 personal stories stand out from my job search. Both of them involve the same outcome, rejection. However, the 2 companies could not have been less similar in the process that got us to that outcome.

(Photo by bpsusf)

Job Search 1.0

After graduating college years ago, I did not have a job lined up for me. To overcome this, I admittedly began applying to jobs with brute force. My resume got fired off to any ad in the newspaper, whether I was qualified or not. Being inexperienced with the job search process, I was also fairly unorganized. I commonly received follow up phone calls from companies that I didn’t recognize. One such company was headquartered in Westlake, OH. Despite my confusion about how I applied, my lack of knowledge of the company, and general stumbling behavior, I was invited to a job interview for a technical support position.

At the time I was naïve. I had prepared for behavioral interview questions such as, “what was an example of a conflict you have resolved?” but I had not prepared for a technical interview. I did not realize that this type of interview would be a comprehensive test of everything I learned during school. As a result, the interview did not go well.

I failed to answer 70 to 90 percent of the questions delivered to me. I was in way over my head and so were the interviewers. There were 2 men on the other side of the table, firing basic undergraduate level computer science questions at me. With each of my failed attempts, they reacted with impatience. I could see them trying to hold back the disgust and frustration from such a miserable process. Near the end, I asked a canned question: “what are the next steps?” While 1 of the men tried to be professional, starting with “we’ll get back you if…” he was immediately cut off by the more senior employee with the statement “I don’t think so.” I suppose that was his idea of a rejection letter.

Clearly, I did not make a good impression with this company. Had I realized that I could not simply go into a technical interview and wing it or had I done some review of the syntax, definitions, and algorithms from my previous terms I would have passed the test. I just hope I didn’t end up on The Daily WTF. The result was demoralizing, in a good way. Just as clear as my incompatibility with the position was the unprofessionalism of the company. My embarrassment motivated me to get my act together. After I did, I knew better than to send this particular company another job application.

Job Search 2.0

Much more recently, I applied to Fog Creek Software with an excellent cover letter and resume. In case you have not heard of Fog Creek, it is an exclusive company in New York, known for hiring elite programmers. The CEO is Joel Spolsky, about whom I have referred multiple times on this blog. Perhaps I should not have been surprised, but I received a cleverly written response in the form of an email inviting me to have a technical phone interview with a Fog Creek developer. I became extremely excited and began to prepare for the interview immediately. Because Joel is so open about his interviewing techniques, I knew that I had to re-learn the C programming language, so I spent the few days I had reading as much as I could and writing some sample programs.

Despite my preparation, I struggled mightily during the interview. I fielded difficult questions designed to eliminate a high percentage of applicants that were qualified based on their resumes. The questions were not completely foreign to me, but I wasn’t able to internalize C programming to the degree I needed to in order to answer these abstract questions quickly. Consequently, I received a pleasant rejection letter about a week later.

In contrast to the 1^st story, the interview with Fog Creek was a much more enjoyable experience. Throughout my struggles answering questions, the interviewer remained patient and calm. He seemed to grasp the importance of being a professional vector for the company to the outside world. When I struggled, he rephrased the question. I am pretty sure he even ended the interview early, but I have no problem with that. Why should he continue to waste either of our time? Despite ending the technical part of the interview early, he thoroughly answered all my questions about the company and sent me off with a cheerful blessing. As a result, I still speak highly of Fog Creek Software and would recommend other software developers to apply there.

Lessons Learned – Job Interview Tips

When performing job interviews, I urge you to place importance on making a good impression for your company to all job candidates. Being professional and courteous leads to positive word of mouth, which in turn leads to a better array of candidates. To remind my readers and myself of this goal, here are some tips to remaining professional during a candidate’s train wreck:

• Be patient with failing interviewees. Let them answer questions at their own pace. At a certain point, try rephrasing the question before moving on.
• Smile and be friendly. Think of the interview as an opportunity to have an intellectual conversation. There will likely be something you can learn from it.
• Finish short if necessary, but do not do it abruptly. Find a good breaking point after a fair minimum amount of time (for me this is usually 15 to 20 minutes). Politely mention that your questions are finished but that you are open to fielding questions from the candidate. Field those questions as you would to any candidate.
• Send a rejection letter to rejected candidates. Do not just remove them from candidacy without informing them.