After a trying weekend, my job search blues hit a new low today. In a addition to waiting all day for a phone call the didn’t come, I had to deal with no less than 5 bad recruiter calls. Bad recruiters are the ones with an inscrutable accent in a call center with lots of noise in the background but still for some reason they insist on being on speaker phone so you’re also distracted by the echo of your own voice in the background. Every one of them had no idea what they were talking about. Waste of time – I’m thinking of just asking them all to take me off their list – they seem to only recruit for jobs that want 10 years experience anyway.
But that wasn’t what put me over the edge. No, it was a video interview. Not with a person, with an app. I love that someone woke up and said to themselves, “You know, this process isn’t dehumanizing enough. We used to have them dance like trained monkeys in person, but now we do that by phone and skype. What if you have an app and they can dance like monkeys in front of that, recording the video for our amusement later.” Unfortunately it was a terrible UX and I ended up thinking it was recording when I was supposed to be thinking about my answer and sitting there like an idiot when I was supposed to be recording. And there’s no way to go back and rerecord. I sent the lady an email, “Hey, if you want to talk with me like two human beings, give me a call.” I’ll never hear from them again. I was torn about the job – on one hand they were offering about half the market value, on the other hand that probably increased my chances of getting hired.
Some more whining. Really, why do they have all the power? It’s a super in demand field. Unemployment just hit 3.9%. Visas are being cracked down on. Employers are screaming that they can’t find enough people. And yet, it is still a buyers market. The laws of economics say that the power should shift over to employees. And yet…
And again, my common rant … if there are not enough employees, you either need to pay more or hire less experienced to increase the pool. It’s simple economics. Where do they think mid-level devs come from? The cabbage patch?
It’s tough. It used to be that you hired someone and they stayed with the company for 40 years so investing the time in an entry level employee was worth it. But with devs changing jobs every few years, there is no incentive. So everyone wants already experienced people.
The shame is that I see jobs that I could do pretty well and be nailing within a month, jobs that have gone unfilled for six months and more. It amazes me that these people are willing to let these job go unfilled, hamstringing their businesses, rather than give someone else a shot.
OK, I’m better now. Damn, this is good Scotch.