Category: Job Search

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I got to thinking about the whole Video Interview Thing…

Something about the “One-Way” interview has been bugging me. I tried to sort it out in the blog post here. I failed to clearly analyze what it was that concerned me.

I was denying my suspicious nature. A couple of good night’s sleep later and my concern clarified when I started down this path.

Have I become too suspicious? It that suspicion justified? Have there been simply too many bullshit recruiters and promises?

As I was thinking about it, I found myself asking this question.

“Why the one way video interview?”

The hiring manager still has to make time to review the video. Then they have to arrange to call the candidate back for another interview. This whole one way video interview paradigm saves no-one any time.

Why not just Zoom meeting or FaceTime, or whatever in the first place? Why add a layer of complexity?

Then it hit me.

The one way interview does allow for isolation, racism, and sexism.

The candidates are speaking blind to a dispassionate recording system. But the managers can review the video and easily allow racial, gender, or age bias to guide their candidate selection for second interviews. Since the hiring manager reviewing the videos doesn’t have to actually connect with the candidate, they can forget them without guilt.

It’s all done in the privacy of their office with no oversight or questioning of their choices or motives. It’s unlikely that anyone will take the time to review the reject pile.

If the manager said candidate X, Y, or Z isn’t appropriate, who’s going to go look at a video? Who will have the time to notice that the hiring manager is only interviewing candidates of a particular color or gender…

I’ll grant you, this can happen in any interview situation. But since most interviews are done with a minimum of an HR representative and the Hiring Manager present there is some oversight.

The old, “sort through resumes,” pick out those that have the skills you need and call those people for an interview tended to prevent racial stuff because you couldn’t justify hiring a less qualified candidate over someone more qualified, if you were hiring only on the merits of experience.

Looking at a resume you only had the name of the individual. I’ll grant that in more recent years, it became possible for racist bias to rear its ugly head because of the names some parents gave their children. “John or Julie Green” was pretty generic. (I’ve worked with two John Greens. One was white, the other black. Both were great guys and excellent programmers.)

With “Jose or Julia Verde” you could infer that they were of Spanish/Latin origin, but from where was the question. Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador? You might be able to narrow things down if they’d attended college or trade school in another country. If all their education was in country, you’d be fairly certain that they were at least first generation, so communication wouldn’t be an issue.

When you get to “DeKanye and Shaquanda Green” well, the parents of these children set their kids up to be victims of racism. It’s not right, but it is sadly true.

This name thing also works the other way. My surname screams white, and possibly NAZI to boot. So in this period of time I’m as susceptible to racial bias as poor Shaquanda. The only way we truly escape bias is if everyone changed our names to numbers. Perhaps our phone number or our social security number would eliminate all name based bias.

But we’d still have the physicality bias to contend with. The only way to eliminate that is to have everyone work from home and no video conferencing at all.

Which brings me back to the things that had been bugging me about the whole “One-Way” interview process.

1 It doesn’t save anyone time.

2 The candidate has little or no control over how the interview is used.

3 The “One-Way” interview can promote racism or sexism with no oversight.

4 This interview format imposes technological barriers such as compatibility and internet speed.

5 Technological barriers may indicate the economic level of the candidate, and be used in an exclusionary way or result in lower offered wages for the same work.

Now that I’ve worked through it I can tell my brain to work on something else. I hate it when my brain is chewing on something but can’t figure out what caught my attention.

If you’re looking for a job, consider the “One-Way” interview carefully. It may not be as much of an advantage as it’s purported to be.

I’d welcome an interactive video conference interview. That would in fact save everyone a lot of time and prevent un-necessary driving around.

Now I’m off to figure out why something Apple related isn’t working after their latest software update. I think it’s a bug but need to check out my settings before contacting Apple.

Talk about a company that needs good old fashioned manual testing and human eyes looking at their products…

Oh well, that’s never going to happen!

Have a good day.

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I hate these sort of things.

I’ve started applying for jobs again. I feel like I’m banging my heard against the wall but like the lottery, you’ll never win unless you play.

So I’m looking for jobs and applying only for positions that I’m qualified. I strongly suspect if everyone did that and the hiring / recruiting / HR departments actually read the resume and application materials then the whole process would be easier.

I too have considered writing a bit of automation that simply applied for every job on every job board that was remotely similar to my actual career.

After all that’s what the people at Indotronics do when they solicit my application. Hey Indotronics people, I’m a software tester, not a welder!

Not that it matters to them. I’m absolutely convinced many so called recruiter organizations are just scam operations. I’ve been convinced of that for literally two decades.

Anyhow, I sent an application to a company on Thursday. They responded asking me to do a one way video interview. Basically they want me to log onto some service, then do a monologue for their amusement about why I should be permitted to work for them.

I’m sure I’m being too cynical, but this feels like the whole “Who’s the most popular?” “Who’s going to be class president or Prom King?”

We all know the people who typically received the nominations for these positions weren’t actually the best and brightest, typically they weren’t even the kindest.

They were the prettiest, the only other requirement was that they have the capacity to fog a mirror. In the case of the Prom Queen it was often about being pretty and easy Although I think easy was the top requirement, pretty was secondary.

Then again the Prom King who was usually the top school jock, and often top bully, would make do with doggy style if the Prom Queen wasn’t to his taste.

“Uh, Carl… Just so you know I was there a month before you were, and also about a 1/2 hour before you on prom night. Yeah dude, she wasn’t wet because you were exciting. She said you were dumb as a post, a terrible lay, and had a little dick. (I know that last bit is true, I saw you in the gym showers.) Oh, BTW You’re welcome! I always did shoot big! ”

Probably TMI… I digress.

This company says they want to get to know me… Then why not call me or set up a video link with the hiring manager? The company says, the hiring manager will see my monologue, well if the hiring manager is making time to watch videos, then why not just cut to the chase?

They’ve also asked repeatedly about the salary level being acceptable. Uh I wouldn’t have applied it the salary wasn’t acceptable. In fact, the salary would be great especially if I don’t have to drive anywhere.

I find myself wondering if this is some new scam. Or if this is yet another immature harebrained substitute for actual physical contact.

On the other hand, the position is a remote position and that presumes that there might be some video conferencing, perhaps they’re wanting to get an idea of my set up and if video conferencing would be viable.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to do this. I have decided that if I do, I’ll be using a VPN.

I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons of this whole video thing while not exposing myself to another bullshit circle jerk where there’s no money shot.

I guess I’ll do some more digging around about the company and also about this video interview hosting site.

It really does feel a lot like some video dating site, and somehow slimy to boot. I just can’t put my finger on why it feels that way.

 I decided to give it a whirl then discovered I had used this service once previously in 2019, for a single interview. 

At the time I found that the service was incompatible with the Safari browser running on a Mac. This incompatibility is still extant today, four full Mac OS iterations further down the road.

I believe that I also tried using a VMWare Windows installation but in that case the service wanted to use Chrome, (a security nightmare,) but easily loaded in a disposable windows partition. However Chrome wouldn’t connect to either the internal or an external camera and to the service’s, servers. Since I wasn’t being paid to investigate the defect(s) I went to plan “C”.

Back in 2019 I loaded their IOS application on my iPad, completed the interview, then found that my iPad operating system was compromised by their client.

At the time it appeared their client also caused significant data loss upon its removal. A factory reset and restore of IOS was required to restore my iPad to full functionality.

I didn’t wish to repeat the experience, especially not for one video interview every 4 years.

I am troubled that the video interview from 2019 was still stored on the service and that apparently there is no way for me as a candidate to delete my account directly.

I have deleted the video but I’d like to delete the account too. If I were a citizen of the EU there does appear to be a process in place that requires multiple email exchanges between the candidate and the service’s support team. 

Again, overly complicated.

I just cancelled the interview…

I offered the following observation;

It seems that we’re adding layers of technology that complicate communications, rather than using technology to overcome communication hurdles. 

Then thanked the recruiting coordinator for the opportunity.

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It’s one of those days

It started yesterday. I was just suddenly inexplicably sad. I know that grieving is a process, but I’d really like to hurry it along a bit.

I’ve been trying to write but the words just don’t want to come. So I thought, “Just look for a job.”

That might have been a mistake, but then again it’s also something that must get done. Technically I shouldn’t have done that until Thursday when it’s supposed to be snowing again. Really more snow? I’m so over it, I was enjoying the nice 70°F temps and sunshine.

Oh well…

As I was looking for a job, It occured to me that all I need is a part time position paying minimum wage. So I started looking for simple things. I noticed a position at a Gym less than 20 miles away. I thought, “Hey, I could do that.” I started looking through the position then I saw this ESG thing. 

Normally I don’t think about ESG but they were making it kind of a big deal and it seemed really important to them. The more I read, the more the ESG subject seemed to matter. 

It led me to wonder if my having little to no opinion or concern about ESG would be a problem. I mean would I be expected to praise or worship at the alter of ESG when I don’t necessarily believe in it?

I applied anyway. I know there’s a lot to be said for social justice and all of that, but I’m not radical about it and honestly I don’t think it’s one of the things that should be first and foremost when it comes to employment. I’ve always agreed that we hire the best person for the job regardless of their racial origin or whatever.

There was something about ESG being so prominant in the company web site that made me uncomfortable. We’ll see if my weird feeling about it was justified, if I get called for an interview. 

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You know, I don’t think it’s that that people don’t want to work

I think it’s that people are sick and tired of the endless bullshit that comes from trying to get a job.

I’ve talked to people who’ve had five interviews and hadn’t met the hiring manager yet. There are others that say they’ve had to explain their technical chops to recruiters, and then to the company HR, and then got to a video interview composed of people from every department except the one that they were going to be working in. In that interview they got to re-explain their technical abilities to people who had no clue what the job title was.

I read of one programmer who asked, “Will I be interacting with the accounting department on this project?” When he was told, “No,” he followed up with, “Then why are two of the 5 interviewers in this room from accounting?

It’s not just about having to fill out a 50 page job application where your’e cutting a pasting everything from your resume into the prescribed little boxes. And then having to submit your resume with the 50 page application. It’s about the complete disrespect that’s shown during a phone interview or zoom interview by people not having read either of the documents.

Technical people tend to cut straight line to a solution and don’t waste a lot of time getting from point A to point B.

There are also a lot of HR and recruiters who play the whole bait and switch game. No I don’t want to accept a 6 month (onSite) contract on a technical support desk, when I applied for a programming position.

No I’m not interested in a salary that is half of what I stated that I needed, with the possibility of overtime.

I love that the recruiter told me, “You’ll be making your requested salary when you consider the OT.”  Uh no that’s not how it works. If the company decides to cut the OT then I’m not making enough to pay my bills. The recruiter said, “Oh you don’t have to worry about that! Most people complain that there’s too much OT and they have no time to do anything.”

The poor girl just didn’t understand that the company sounded like a shit show right from the start. Of course, the Corporate web site said, “We have a commitment to work life balance.” Uh Yeah! I can see that ever so clearly.

A buddy told me about an interviewer that couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to take a management slot instead of the position he’d applied for.

His answer was pretty straight forward. “I’ve done management, I want to spend time with my kids right now. I just want a job that pays the bills, is low stress, only has occasional overtime, and that I can go home at quitting time without worrying about people, resources, and budgets.”

The interviewer just couldn’t get it through her head. She literally kept talking in circles trying to get him to agree to take the management position. The kicker was that the management position only paid 2K per year more than the slot he applied for.

Eventually my buddy terminated the interview telling the interviewer that he was no longer interested in working for her company. She literally started screeching at him for wasting her time.

He told me it was one of those times when he missed the satisfaction of slamming the phone receiver down, especially since it was a zoom call. He substituted closing his laptop while she was berating him red-faced on the screen. He said it was strangely satisfying hearing her muffled screams from the closed laptop. He said he could have simply hit disconnect, but he really wanted to make the point, by closing the laptop screen she could see what was happening.

I’ll have to remember that for the future. I think my buddy may have come up with the phone slam equivalent for Zoom calls!

I’m still annoyed and amused by the hiring manager that pushed for a phone interview even though I told her I had a conflict because I was participating in an online collaboration meeting with my current employer. My participation was text chat only. She simply wouldn’t take “No” for an answer and I let her badger me into doing the interview. So during the call that she forced, She heard me typing a reply to one of my coworkers and immediately started yelling about how I wasn’t prepared for the interview and was obviously looking up information about the questions she was asking. I explained yet AGAIN that I was participating in a meeting and that I was answering a coworker’s question.

Nope! She went off on me and I thought, “I wouldn’t work for this person or her company! I’d rather stay right where I was. Better to drive daily 90 miles one way through LA traffic than to work for someone like her.”

I told her as politely as I could, “Goodbye,” and disconnected. She called me back telling me that it was unprofessional to hang up on her!  I was well past my boiling point, “I asked what part of goodbye didn’t you understand? What part of I’m not going to be screamed at by someone that I don’t know, don’t work for and have no desire to ever meet in person, don’t you get?” I repeated, “Good Bye” and disconnected a second time. She called back to continue berating me.

I remember sitting there wondering what the hell? I hung up, blocked the number and went back to my meeting.

Later in the day I wrote a letter to the HR department of her company. I called out her harassment and offered to send them my phone log as evidence of her repeated calls. I further requested that they flush my application, and resume from their system. I have not applied to that company in the 10 years since.

They’re 25 miles from my home. At the time I knew 2 of their VPs and one of them had walked my resume into the company. I told them both about my experience with this particular manager. As of now, I know absolutely no-one who works for this company. The VP who’d walked my resume in, had been promoted to Director, but left the company a year or two later saying the place had become a shit show of egos and political bullshit.

He’s at Microsoft now.

I’ve had a couple of interviews where a hiring manager was grilling me for proprietary information about a previous employer throughout the interview. They’ve both been Chinese and refused to give up on the subject. The employer they zero in on is a defense contractor I worked for 8 years ago. Any information I might have is long since irrelevant and none of their business in any case. I’m not going to divulge anything about that time in my life except the employment verification number for them to call.

What these people don’t seem to get is that when they get all demanding and particularly if they seem to posses information about the project or projects I worked on, I’m going to call the security number and report that they’re asking inappropriate questions and have details they shouldn’t have. I’ll let the security people deal with these Foreign Nationals asking about confidential projects.It’s no skin off my nose to drop a dime on them.

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Hey Apple, here’s a thought…

I saw that you were having some trouble getting people to come into the office.

It’s in The Wall Street Journal today.

You know what? I’d come into the office. I’d work for a reasonable salary, and not demand much of anything.

Give me some reasonable medical coverage, and enough cash after taxes to pay my bills and I’d be a happy camper. Put me in a cubicle and give me software to test. I’d keep my head down, do my job, and leave at the end of the day.

I’ve got 40 years of experience in technology. I’m not particularly political, (at least not at work,) I don’t give two shits about catching COVID, been there, done that.

I’m not interested in social justice, or trans rights, all I want is a job. In my view none of the politically charged stuff has a place in the workplace. That’s stuff that each employee can pursue in their personal time.

Oh I’ll be polite, I’ll be Politically Correct, I’ll listen to people decrying the injustices they’ve endured but I’m not going to comment or engage with it.

I’d come into work, do my job, and that’s it. I’m not interested in office politics or becoming management. I’ve done both, and am old enough now to recognize that neither is my cup of tea.

I’d like to just work in the trenches.

You’d know that if you’d ever bothered to respond to the multiple applications I’ve filled out seeking employment in my field with your company.

Honestly, my offer seems like a reasonable one. A trouble free employee who shows up on time, does their job, and collects their paycheck.

I have zero social media profiles except for this blog and LinkedIn. I’d not be Twittering, Facebooking, Instagramming, or posting on Tic Toc, during working hours.

Seems like that would be an employer’s dream.

Given that you’ve ignored my applications for years, I can only assume you’ve become far more interested in Social Justice Work than making reliable products and software.

Nonetheless, if you change your mind, fire off a comment to this post. I’m sure we could talk.

I’m even willing to relocate. Bear in mind, if you’d want me to move to Cupertino or Northern California it would affect my base pay requirement calculation. The rents up there are wicked high. One thing though, I’m white. Hiring me could negatively affect your diversity quota.

Just a thought Apple…