Displacing Your Family to Start a New Career
So, you decided to abandon your old career and start anew in software development? Why, exactly, are you and your family moving across the country in an unfamiliar place with no support group to try it out as a job for the first time? What if it doesn’t work out? There’s a HUGE difference between hobby and academic development and doing development as a full-time job. Further, there is a wide variance on the kind of development jobs you can take. You may hate web development. You may hate sitting behind a desk typing and working around problems for 40 hours a week. You might even hate the company that you moved for. Even worse, you might be terrible at it. Where are you now? ACROSS THE COUNTRY WITH YOUR DISPLACED FAMILY! And if you quit or get fired? Your spouse and kids starve. I might not be willing to let you take that risk at my expense. You had better be worth the risk.
Ranking Something Trivial Above Something Not Trivial
When we ask questions about, say, what would be the determining factor if you received competing offers from other companies, we’re trying to figure out something about you and understand you better. In fact, the entire interview/application process should be geared around exactly that. When you’re making an early impression with your future employer, you want to project certain traits that help them believe you will be a good asset.
So, answering the prior question with something like “proximity to a gaming conference” tells me that you aren’t really taking this very seriously and that you will probably do whatever you have to do to ditch work to go play video games. You might even play video games in the office rather than get your work done. (I know there are development shops where this happens and I frankly just don’t get it. I get playing after work with coworkers using work machines, but I don’t get middle of the day, every-day, zero-productivity gamers that pretend to actually do development work.)
Looking Up Answers During a Phone Interview
So I asked you a touch technical question you couldn’t quite remember. It happens, particularly with entry-level folks. Don’t look it up while we’re on the phone and pretend like you knew the answer all along. Not only did I hear you typing, you gave me an immensely technical answer while faking that you were remembering it. This leads me to…
Lying About What You Know
Don’t do this. Ever. If I figure it out in the interview, you just got labeled a liar. That calls the rest of the interview into question and I don’t like the idea that I’m hiring a liar. If I figure it out after you’ve gotten the job, you might get fired. The reason isn’t going to be because I found out you lied during the interview. Most likely, it’ll be because you couldn’t do the work I hired you to do. Which is why I asked you those questions that you lied about during, you know, that interview that would’ve weeded you out. Now you have to explain to your next interviewer why my company shows up as a blip on your employment history. More lying will likely ensue.
Not Understanding the Qualifications of the Job
Say you really like the idea of the .NET Framework, but have only hardly used it. Moreover, you haven’t really overseen any large projects or worked on large framework libraries. You really shouldn’t apply for a job at Microsoft as their .NET Framework product manager. You know, the one where they decide the future of the product and everything about it. “Team lead” is overshooting as well. You shouldn’t be surprised that they would ask you questions about the .NET Framework and your experience with it during the interview. Just like the above, even if you somehow make it through the interview process and get the job, you’re just going to be in over your head and ultimately fired. Find something you’re qualified for or get qualified in what you want to do.