Cyprus-Forum.com

[Crivens]

Is this common

Yes. For starters are you sure he was the sidekick? My first job had my boss drawing doodles in my interview while 2 other blokes asked all the questions. Later I found out that my boss thought I was ok before the interview but was contemplating not giving me the job because I wore tight trousers and white socks And he was doodling...

Also when I first started doing interviews I was the sidekick to my manager, who did most of the talking. Most of the time we were in complete agreement over interviewees, but a few times if we disagreed he would equally go with my thoughts rather than his. Got to delegate a lot, especially if your sidekick is younger and more in tune with uni grads.

And my first successful interview had one funny bloke and two miserable ones. Turns out the miserable ones were the ones with the real power. And you can't read anything from it.

Cheers

[Sotos]

As someone who has sat on both ends of an interview here are my tips:

a. Dress for Success. Suit and tie for men, conservative dress for women. I had an interviewee come in with a tight skirt and low cut top..nice to see but totally inappropriate.

b. Research the company, who's in charge, profits/loss, products, have they been in the news lately.

c. Tailor your answers to what the company wants to hear, not what you really think.

d. Never, Never say anything negative about a past employer or boss.

e. Never talk money at the first interview...only talk money when they offer you the job...you'll have more leverage.

f. Don't be late for the interview.

g. Sit up straight and don't fidget...everyone is Mr. or Mrs. look them in the eye when answering.

h. If you don't know an answer, don't bullshit.

I interviewed people too and the above points are very good. Just the first point in our case was only for sales people. The rest didn't need to wear suit, just to look decent.

[Sega]

"you sure he was the sidekick?" - Crivens

Ya, but it seems the boss person gave ultimate control to the side-kick. The way it worked is I needed to please the boss first in order to be hired, once I please the boss I later needed to please the side-kick. This did not help since the side-kick did not ask me any questions.

[Crivens]

but it seems the boss person gave ultimate control to the side-kick

Well, yeah, at the end of the day the boss doesn't care about you until you are good enough not to cost us money doing your job. With us that normally meant three months or you were out (with no input from the boss). So it is upto the sidekick (normally delegating to trainers and QA people) to keep an eye on them, and pretty much decide to keep them or not.

My record is 2 days, and he was on shaky ground after the first hour (boss said well lets sack him now then, but we gave him a chance). Didn't come back on the 3rd day. Of course it didn't help he couldn't find the "O" key on the keyboard and used the caps lock key like a n00b. One and only time we ever phoned a university to double check a CS degree. He had one amazingly. Must have been off his head more than I was at Uni. After him we introduced the IQ test. No more complete idiots.

Cheers

[Sega]

Thanks Crivens. it's nice to know that at times the side-kick has ultimate control. If I knew this then I would have been more inclined to impress him. But he did not really help, I mean he did not even give me eye-contact or ask me questions. What are you suppose to do in those circumstaces?

[IcyNoAngel]

Create your own company.

[Sega]

I wish I could start my own company, and I hope that one day I will. But the question I asked still stands.

"What are you suppose to do in those circumstaces?"

I know the job interview has passed and I will never have that job (nor do I want it anymore), but I am using this forum to get the answers so just-in-case it did so happen I would know how to respond. I understand it's a difficult question, its nice to know what others would do in those circumstances (apart from starting their own company sorry).

[Crivens]

I mean he did not even give me eye-contact or ask me questions

Still means nothing. In the beginning I only had one question to ask (Do you actually "like" programming?) while the manager pretty much had a load of questions. All I'm saying is the sidekick will probably have a lot of clout with the manager. And most of the time we just went with who we liked considering most applicants were pretty similar (we always went for newish CS grads and didn't care about grades, so everyone is pretty similar). Essentially if someone had the appropriate qualifications, didn't sound like a tard, and you wouldn't mind being a mate with down the pub, then we gave them a chance. Didn't always work, but it worked pretty well for us at the time.

Cheers