Red Flags In The Hiring Process

When you are looking for a new job, it’s easy to take the first job that comes along. And it might even turn out ok. However, it’s also possible that you’ll end up in a job that is absolutely miserable, burning you out and making you hate software development. Worse still, when you finally get to the point where you are exhausted enough with your job that you end up quitting (or worse, getting fired), the damage has been done. A bad enough job can completely ruin software development for you, to the point where you dread working on code at all. This has happened several times to Will over the course of his career and it’s really hard to recover from. A new job can make huge changes in your career, for good or ill. You want to make sure that any new job you take is going to help you improve your career, without burning you out. While not every bad job gives obvious warning signs before you start, most of the worst ones will at least give you some warning of what to expect. Episode Breakdown Job Posting Verbiage that indicates that the company over-estimates themselves, and you’ve never heard of them. “We only hire the top 5% of developers”. Is your payscale in the top 5%, are you deliberately ripping off the top 5% of devs and hoping they won’t catch you, or are you full of crap? This tends to mean that they have a byzantine, awful interview process of which they are very proud, that probably is designed to help them hire yes men who feel lucky to be there. We are looking for a very specific type of developer and have a thorough set of interviews to find them. Sometimes this is true. Sometimes they need a developer with a very specific set of skills. However, most of the time, what they are looking for is a “yes man” or someone who is compliant. If you can’t tell why your specific set of skills are exactly what they need, then one of you will be disappointed. Lack of clarity about what you’ll be doing. Some companies hire before they have a clue what they are doing. This can often mean that you have to pivot repeatedly during your tenure at an organization. If you don’t know what you want out of your career, this can be a wonderful opportunity to try new things. If you do know what you want, this can be an unbelievable waste of time. If they are being especially vague, it can indicate something even worse. For instance, they may be doing something that is borderline illegal, immoral, or just sketchy in general. Companies running low-budget pornographic operations, or quasi-legal investment schemes may approach you in this way. You would be surprised how many people are involved in extremely sketchy ventures who will approach you if you know the right people. Asking for too much experience for what they are willing to pay. If they are paying a junior developer salary, but expecting five years of experience, there is a reason for it. This could be anything from not having a clue about the market value of a developer, to simply making the job posting so that they are free to outsource. Sometimes companies will post an oddly specific set of criteria for a developer position not because they are looking for someone, but because they’ve found someone they want to hire and are otherwise constrained. This is a common trick some sketchy companies used to hire H1Bs at a lower price, whom they usually later mistreat. Initial Contact Can’t pin them down on a time for initial contact, or the time changes repeatedly. Some companies have really messed up, slow, or confusing hiring processes.