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So I was contacted by a recruiter agency out of Buffalo regarding a possible position for a major health care company right next to the Albany airport (no names mentioned, but I'm sure you can figure it out.) I thought, what the heck, it's a commute, but maybe it would be a nice change to actually be working with professionals up close and personal, as it were.
After going through the screening hoops with the recruiter, I get set up for an on site interview in Albany. I think, cool, I'll be able to meet people in person, see what they're doing, ask some questions about their challenges, vision, tools, etc. The usual "my interviewing the interviewer" questions.
Nope. I drive all the way up to Albany to discover it's a teleconference interview. WTF? I could have done this in my pajamas, cat on lap, from my home!
Then, the HR person was cold, escorted me into the conference room, escorted me out when it was done. There was no tour of the facility, no other managers / team leads met me, no one else spent any time with me, it was very unprofessional.
The team lead who interviewed me asked a bunch of junior level programming questions. I sort of threw him for a bit when I replied "please don't ask me questions that I can google the answer for." hahaha.
And the clincher was that the rest of the team is Buffalo, so they want me to drive 45 miles every day so I can telecommute from their location. Riiiight. The whole point of working on site for me is to have in-person peer contact!
And then the most amusing thing is, the recruiter gave me the email address of the person who interviewed me so that I could send them a thank you note. No problem, standard practice. I get back a "Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently." I asked the recruiter for a correct email address. No response, after "we" decided I didn't want the job (correct, but zero room for negotiation.)
Morons.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: the recruiter gave me the email address of the person who interviewed me so that I could send them a thank you note
For what? For simply doing his work?
If you went to the loo there, thank the cleaning-team too.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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It's merely to thank them for their time, not a comment on the validity or usefulness of the interview.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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He gets paid for his time. The person going is also putting in time, but unpaid.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: For what? For simply doing his work?
It's just courteous. 
Besides, it's an opportunity to address some questions that didn't come up in the interview, etc.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: It's just courteous.
It's hypocrit. An employer is someone who wants to trade money for my time. One does not owe the other anything. Instead of thanking the employer for his time, I expect to be thanked to take the effort to look at yet another "great opportunity".
Courteous is when they do not thank me but compensate my time, as one has to invest to hear the "opportunity".
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: An employer is someone who wants to trade money for my time.
Well yes, when you put it like that. But there's still a human being doing the interview.
Eddy Vluggen wrote: I expect to be thanked to take the effort to look at yet another "great opportunity".
I was.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: But there's still a human being doing the interview.
So, the correct phrase is "thank you for being (mostly) homo sapiens sapiens"?
It is nonsense to thank the salesman for taking time for the sale, as much as it is nonsense for the salesman to thank the customer. It is a false courtesy, aka sucking up.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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They probably didn't even want you, but company policy dictates they should at least interview x people a month/year.
In this case it's their loss, really.
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Marc's problem is that he's not a gay black female handicapped veteran on welfare. And he has cats.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: And he has cats.
And even worse, no guns! 
Marc
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Believe it or not, I don't really like guns, but I like being a potential victim even less.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: Marc's problem is that he's not a gay black female handicapped veteran on welfare.
How do you know that??? 
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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I was wondering the same, just about the cat-part
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Marc Clifton wrote: "please don't ask me questions that I can google the answer for."
"..and get my own articles." I guess you (it seems wisely) omitted to mention your authorship of 200 articles on CP alone.
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
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pwasser wrote: I guess you (it seems wisely) omitted to mention your authorship of 200 articles on CP alone.
Actually I didn't (omit that). It's on my resume, and it came up with regards to how I document code -- I love writing!
Marc
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I was giving the interviewer the benefit of the doubt. You have removed the doubt.
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
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One should always be happy to make such experiences: Seeing how dumb the world is can be sad - but can also make one happy to realize one isn't as stupid as one might feel from time to time.
Still frustrating. Be glad they did not make a better impression and you took it - you would have ended up in hell!
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Florian Rappl wrote: Be glad they did not make a better impression and you took it
Indeed. It's always a good thing when a company's incompetence and/or asshattery is on full display during the interview.
That's what the thank you note is for.
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Florian Rappl wrote: you would have ended up in hell
Over my 30 years doing this, about 1/2 the clients/employees I've worked for fit in the hell category. This one had many of the signs, the biggest one being that the purpose of this team is to rewrite ancient apps that are monolithic, buggy, no code sharing, etc., and even worse, older programmers (and users!) that don't want to change to newer languages and systems.
Marc
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"Can you tell me the difference between an interface and an abstract class?"
*click*
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F-ES Sitecore wrote: "Can you tell me the difference between an interface and an abstract class?"
 That was his first question "What's the difference between a struct, class, and interface" !!!
Which is what prompted the "please don't ask me junior dev questions that anyone can google the answer for."
I actually should have walked out right then. But I'm a nice guy. I was told by the recruiter that the team lead is rather green when it comes to interviewing.
Marc
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Structs are used to jack up[^] car tires with correct? 
That should've been your answer.
Jeremy Falcon
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Bummer, dude. Commiseration is ![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
If I had an experience like that, I think I would assume it was the head-hunter's fault for not giving me the information that it was a teleconference interview. And, given my experience ... long ago ... with headhunters' headhunger, I would suspect a deliberate omission.
If (ye godz forbid) I ever enter the job market again, your experience is a good cautionary tale I will keep in mind.
cheers, Bill
«There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you don’t want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.» Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008
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I see a Windows 10 logo [^].
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