Show HN: Recordings of phone screenings for employment
I have not gone through and beeped out any names or personal details. I maybe should have, but it was bad enough I had to live through these moments once, I didn't want to have to relive them by listening through them again to add in the beeps. Some people may get mad at me for giving away their company's interview details, but it is what it is.
The main reason why I'm posting them is because there's this myth that is commonly spoken about on the internet that the unemployment rate is at an all time low, and that companies are dying to hire developers, and if you're a developer with basic skills and a few years of experience, they you'll be flooded with job offers. Hopefully these recordings will put an end to those myths. No one is throwing jobs at me, as these recordings make very clear. It is also very clear that the burden is on me to prove to the company that I'm the person they should hire, not on the company to convince me to work for their company.
By the way, not s single one of these phone screens have lead to a job offer. Most of these screens are with startup companies, but some of them are established companies as well.
About half way through these recordings, I began the habit of asking how many people the company has interviewed before me. In very few cases do they say that they've interviewed less than 10 people. If programming jobs are easy to get, then companies shouldn't get to interview 10 or 15 people before finding a person to hire.
Anyways, here's the link: https://soundcloud.com/freework/sets/phone-interviews
27 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 62.4 ms ] thread2. Even if it's legal, publicly sharing a recording of a private conversation would be frowned upon by most people. (Would you want it to be done to you by someone else?) So you may be damaging your career by making these recordings public.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws#...
[2] https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-632.html
They'll never be easy to get, even if there are a severe shortage of developers, because companies need more than just someone who can code, they need to make sure you are professional, can work with a team etc. So they need to screen people for this.
The only way for programming jobs to be easy to get (for a "person off the street") is if they are not interviewing properly. I.e. they are so deseperate to hire someone that they will hire someone who is not effective.
Your profile on soundcloud states you're from Miami Beach area and many of the companies you spoke with, or at least a few of them, are based in California. Both Florida and California are two party consent states, opening you up to a large degree of legal liability. That liability includes criminal charges as well as a potential cause of action in civil court (which could be initiated by each company against you individually). Personally, I wouldn't be sure a potential of 26 civil lawsuits and criminal charges are worth the point you're trying to get across here. Similarly, not knowing about the law or not realizing this was illegal, likely won't get you far as a legal defense.
Not to be harsh or negative towards you, everyone's opinion is always welcome here, just be careful on how you achieve/articulate it. I just hope you're aware of the law and I wish you luck.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws#...
Yes, the burden IS on you to prove that you are worth hiring. I understand that job hunting can be daunting and almost 95% of the effort you put into it leads to nothing, however if you aren't willing to put that effort in, then no one is going to give you a chance.
1) You sound very anxious and/or nervous. Which is normal, interviewing isn't fun and can be stressful, but it does not come across great. See if you can relax a bit?
2) "Why do you want to work here?" is one of the most softball questions you can get in a phone screen... they want to know that you've done 5 minutes of research about the company, their tech stack, their values, basically anything. It doesn't have to be your dream job but you have to sound like you're somewhat familiar with what they do and at least partially interested in being a part of it.
"I don't actually know what your company does, sorry, I just sent my resume out to a bunch of places" is about the worst answer you can give here. Why would a company want to hire someone who doesn't know anything about the company and doesn't even pretend to care?
Knowing a bit about the founders and the corporate structure can help too.
Why wouldn't you do just a little bit of research?
Sorry (to OP) if I'm jumping into conclusions, but the "I didn't want to have to relive them by listening through them again to add in the beeps." part makes me think that it might be more serious than "have you tried not being anxious?". Speaking from personal experience, a therapy for social anxiety can help a lot in such cases.
Listening to the audio (again, I appreciate you sharing), it sounds like you're not wanting to play along with the conversation game and that makes it a hard sell to put you on a team. Now, this is just a perception. So, if you don't feel like you could change that, then what I'm suggesting, is that as soon as you can, while on a call, ask them to open your custom website that fires off python back-end code when they click on a cool button and so on.
Then I would just clarify, "I'm kinda socially awkward, I love to code, and would be happy to help your company make great software experiences for your customers".
If a candidate isn't fun or interesting to talk to, it comes across to the interviewer as though they are annoyed, bitter, or apathetic about the position.
Are you kidding me lol? This guy is borderline autistic. Look at the google interview. He has zero ability to mirror emotions, is unaware of his long silences, and generally sounds super tense and whiny. He lets the recruiter talk for like 5 minutes without making a single sound. Then when he finally does, he gives dry, monosyllabic answers to everything. Then the only meaningful exchange he had with the recruiter was a bunch of whining about a prior Google interview. You could sense that the recruiter felt tense and Chris made him feel awkward.
One thing I found strange is you saying like you want to get salary the same as everyone else and ready to move to any city without any preferences. Also, you want to work with any language and you don't care about the project.
For my concern you are really excellent fit for outsource companies :) but in general I would recommend you to try name your preferences and try to apply to the companies you most care about. For now it looks like you are not interested in working relationships with that particular company.
I understand you're tired of interviews but it doesn't work that way. You are native speaker, citizen, have 10 years of experience. All you need to do is just apply to companies you care about and show you are not desperate to work in general with anyone but that company.
I have listen all the interviews and basically I found some mistakes, which you made.
1) On every recording you sound very shy (desperate). For recruiter is that sign, that you are not interested in the position or something is wrong. If you would really be interested in the position, you should sound enthusiastic! Really exited for that position. You should ask more question, be more prepared and don't let speak only the recruiter - also is good to say, that you have more offers not only this one.
2) Don't ask about how many people has been already interviewed, you sounds more like desperate and they can feel, you have been rejected many times.
3) Don't say, that you looking for job, because you are bored. That sounds just unprofessional.
4) When you retired at 2007 can you make some list of projects which you were working on? Did you learn something new? Did you get some course? Some certification?
5) You are asking for 150k or 130k as salary, if you were off the market for some time, probably you can lower your salary and work for one year just to get again some professional experience in team.
6) Don't talk about your rejections - layoffs, quits, talk about the success that you had.
7) Don't mention that you don't do anything now, say you are looking for job or you work on your own projects. Play it like you have offers and the company should want you, not that you need the company.
8) Mention your hobbies, try to play that you have also another life instead of coding and programming.
There is probably more mistakes, that you made but this is what I noticed. You should really work on your communication skills, be more enthusiastic, optimistic and don't sound so desperate, specially in job interview.
So good luck with the next offers :)
Learn to understand people from diverse cultures and their accents. And when you don't understand them, don't be so rude about it. Of all the people I've met in my career, you are probably bottom 5 in terms of fit for a leadership position.
You don't even have a thing that you're interested in. "Anything that's programming" is a horrible thing to say when someone is trying to get a picture of you as a developer.