I’m unemployed again. There’s one bizarre thing I noticed. Most hiring managers have parasitic/psychopathic tendencies.
When I first started working 10 years ago, there were occasional intelligent hiring managers.
Now, it seems like almost everyone has an abusive personality type. It isn’t just that I have greater awareness. It’s a noticeable shift.
Most of the leaders are criminally insane. This “trickles down” and most of the middle managers have evil tendencies.
Paradoxically, it’s a handicap to be honest and intelligent. It’s a “mistake” to hire someone who’s a better worker than you, because then you start worrying about your own job.
People say “We want to hire the best and brightest”. Nobody writes a job ad that says “We want someone mediocre and barely competent.” However, that isn’t what people actually do.
I know that I’m a good programmer and a good worker. I’m surprised that I’m not doing better career-wise. The solution is to start your own business, but that isn’t as easy. In a free market, some intelligent business would realize that I’m a good bargain. However, nobody seems to notice that.
Most of the hiring managers have evil tendencies. It’s a symptom of a collapsing economy. It probably affects all areas of the economy, but I’m only noticing the software area. With computer programming, a good liar will have a more successful career than a good programmer.
I have wondered exactly the same things myself.
During the first 5 or so years of my “career” in software, I could easily get hired.
Now it is so difficult I have given up. All that happens is between 1 – 4 days of my time are wasted in test after test. I do well in the tests. Then I hear nothing back.
Recruiters are stupid scumbags as well that just get in the way.
I work for myself now. Lots of people purchase my software. In fact several companies that won’t even hire me, use my software!!!!!
In one classic case, a big famous company put me through about 2 days of tests and interviews. I got all the questions the manager asked me correct. The manager got impatient when I didn’t get one answer out fast enough, but that was all. After the manager’s interview I had two more interviews, one of which was very difficult.
I didn’t get the job. The manager lied about a question I had got correct. On my way back to the airport, 10 new copies of my software had sold.
So it the space of the time it took Microsoft to reject me, 10 other companies had purchased my software.
My advice is to listen to Ennio Morricone’s The Platinum Collection Compact Disk #3. It won’t change the bad hiring manager sitution, but it will make you feel temporarily better while you listen to it.
That’s too bad. It would be interesting to know the details. Did you make any good contacts to move forward?
Maybe you should move to the west coast? A change of scenery, different people, different businesses. Plus, you’d live close to me!!
>That’s too bad. It would be interesting to know the details. Did you make any good
>contacts to move forward?
I’m not sure if you are commenting on my comment or about the original post by FSK.
I had several interviews that day. One was with the manager of the group. Throughout the interview I got every question asked of me correct. Then at the very end of the interview I was asked another question. After a while of working out on their whiteboard I got the correct answer. I said it out loud.
The manager then said he was in a hurry as he had to interview someone else. He then said the answer to the question out loud, which was just a re-phrased version of what I had just said.
That was it. Nothing more was said of that question.
Then after two more interviews, the recruiter said the manager had called a meeting and that he hadn’t been invited, which he seemed annoyed about. He said I hadn’t got the job because I failed on the very last question with the manager. I queried this at the time.
Maybe the manager didn’t lie. Maybe his concentration lapsed. Maybe he was looking for an answer matching exactly the words for the official answer to the question. Maybe he didn’t follow my working.
If I was disqualified for the very last question the manager asked me, then why did I have to have two more interviews and why was my performance in them irrelevant?
This whole thing was dumb, as I had multiple interviews and not getting one question right (in fact I did get it right!) in amongst a large number of interviews is silly.
It seems wrong that the manager should pack the interview jammed packed with questions, then say at the end of it he has to leave quickly and then ignore my correct answer.
But how annoying. Because I had to travel to a foreign country, this episode would have taken up 4 days of my time in total (with preparations etc). Even if you get the questions correct, there is no job at the end of it.
It is wrong to place so much emphasis on technical questioning, when at the end of the day it doesn’t matter one damn!
FSK, I hope you will eventually get serious and at least try to become independent – work as a free lancer etc.
You are afraid of trying but – what do you have to lose? I know several IT people who became independent – and none who failed. They may not be rich but they are free to choose how and how much they work.
You are lucky that you are a programmer as it would be much harder for e.g. a scientist..
My prediction is that your chances to keep any job (where you are owned by a company and most likely not happy anyway) are slim in the current paradigm. There are websites that post jobs for free lancers – go ahead!
You may also find that that way your talent of independent thinking has better chances to become an asset rather than a liability or time bomb.
Right now, getting another wage slave job is my only option.
Longer-term, I’m thinking about starting my own business.
There is a simple test to tell if a HM is intelligent. Did they not hire you? If yes, they are smart.