Title: Reflections on Job Hunting

A letter from an anonymous member in November's C Vu about how they felt when they realised their (first) job was railroading them down a path they didn't necessarily want to follow got my attention. I started thinking about the events that had happened to me over the six months. Events which led to me change my job last November - I hope my experiences may be of help to any reader who may find themselves in a similar situation.

In August of 1998, my employer's investors decided (with no warning) to pull out of our second round financing effort, and to close the company down. After the initial panic had swept, and the VC's decided to try to sell the company, I took advantage of this time to look for alternative employment. After all, I had been there for two and a half years, and it was my first programming job. I felt quite positive about the job change. At the same time, I was terrified. I had 10 months experience of C++. I wanted 12 at least!

Initially I browsed through the pages of Computing and PC Week, and contacted the recruitment companies about certain adverts. This proved frustrating, because many of the vacancies appeared to be filled by the time of publication. Now I was on the agencies' books, and liable to have my answer-phone filled by bored people trying to sound excited about the post they had matched my CV to, which was more often than not outside of the geographical bounds I had specified in registration. An example:

It appears that recruiters in London have a terrible grasp of extra-Capital geography, and little sympathy for those who rely on public transport (frequent example, "Can't you borrow a car?"). I was being sent all over the place. Eventually, I was fully booked out for a week, and people were still trying to set me up with interviews in Woking etc. I was lucky that I was able to be honest with my employers about looking for another job. If I had had to take time off to attend interviews, and then been sent on wild goose chases I would surely have been in the depths of depression.

Already I had Two Rules of job hunting:

To limit the number of agencies is fairly easy. Stick with the ones you have the best feeling about, who are sending you the best prospects, and who deal a lot with the size of company you are looking for. One head-hunter I asked to stop calling me was particularly proud of the size of the companies he dealt with. I wasn't looking for a big company.

Like estate agents, recruitment agencies will try to push you that little bit further, but usually only with reasonable bait. If you say you want a job in Berkshire, you'll be offered Berkshire jobs, and a couple of gems your side of Bucks and Surrey.

The information I received about the companies I was being forwarded to was minimal despite my best efforts to train the recruiters to divulge the information I wanted. I was never given the URL of the prospective employer's web site without first asking.

With the Internet being so popular, gathering information about your potential employer has never been easier. Armed with their web address, you can fly through the site taking minor notes. Points worth noting include:

This last point may seem unnecessary, but there may be extra details here the Recruitment Consultant didn't tell you (like the salary range and benefits) and information they simply didn't think worth mentioning (like the fact that the job is actually 10% C and 90% Uniface)! Another point regarding looking at an employer's web site is that even in this day and age, employers are still flattered or impressed that you've found their web site. Those that are modern enough not to be flattered/impressed expect you to have seen it!

Other sources of information may involve news searches. Wired News (www.wired.com) is a good place to start, but similarly, searching for the company name on any search engine should bear fruit. News searches don't have to be online either. Scan through the last couple of weeks' Computing.

So we have two more rules of job hunting:

The first goal of the interview is for the employer to see whether you are suitable for the job. To succeed on this count, you must impress them without intimidating or annoying them. I quote an Oxford University graduate who replied to the question, "What do you think you'll be doing here in the first six months?" with the answer, "I'll observe how the company works to begin with, then start suggesting how processes could be improved…".

The second (often forgotten) goal of the interview, is to see if you would be happy working there. This should be an opportunity to find out everything you want to know about the working environment. Some questions may include:

If everyone behaved the same at interviews, then they wouldn't be necessary. Remember the first goal of the interview? Are you suitable for the job? If you have sound technical skills, are dressed smart, are able to communicate, and appear to care about the job, then the answer is probably yes. But if you didn't have the skills, you probably wouldn't have got as far as the interview. And if you have a suit and can speak, then you've got the rest out of the way - along with all the other interviewees. Now comes the hard bit - making the employer want to employ you.

A good employer will want someone who is well rounded, with interests outside of work. This shows the candidate is not a social outcast. Moreover, interests help develop the mind and the body and, if they involve frequent interchange with others, improve social skills, making for a happier workplace and better communication.

Bring a few extra CV's with you. The interviewer may suddenly decide to spring the visiting VP Architecture upon you, and is more likely to ask if you have another copy rather than making a photocopy. To be extra sure, keep a copy on the Internet. I have a copy of my CV in an email I sent to my Hotmail account. I can download it anywhere there is a web presence, and I did so for the VP of a large database company. He was very pleased!

Test the interviewer a bit! Show you have a brain that can be used for reasoning. Name-drop a book you recently read, and see if the interviewer has read it, knows of it, or has never heard of it at all. Don't try to show off though - choose a reasonable yet sublime title like 'Design Patterns' or 'Effective C++' which one would expect the majority of worthy employers to know.

I always made notes in my interviews. The interviewers make notes so they don't forget anything important, so why shouldn't I? I'm not going to pretend I've got a photographic memory, because I might pay for it later. That's another point - don't lie! You shouldn't have to lie to get a job. Lies always come back to haunt you, so prevention is better than cure!

Finally, be prepared for the questions they're bound to ask. No question in an interview should stump you. What region of pay are you looking for? You should know this! Another question I was frequently asked (which caused me initial embarrassment) was where was I having other interviews? I didn't feel particularly comfortable answering this until I realised that it would only help. If others are interviewing you, then it shows you are worth interviewing. If a high profile company is interviewing you, then even better. Being up-front about other interviews allows you to buy more time when it comes to making a decision, and may help when the interviewer comes to make you an offer.

Two more rules:

So how did it go? Did you forget to ask something you really wanted to know? If so, phone or email them (you did get an email address didn't you?). Review the interview. Did anything cause you concern? Was everything great? How does it rank against the other interviews you've had?

Even bad interviews are rarely a waste of time. You may realise how accessible/inaccessible a place is. You will increase your knowledge of places. At the very least, you will have increased your knowledge of the gestalt of the industry, and met a few more people.

I'd like to hear from other readers who have good interview tips, be they avoidance, how to "play" the interviewer, or even the bizarre yet important. For example:

To wrap up, interviews are not the big scary monster a lot of people pretend they are. I actually enjoyed going to interviews. They're an adventure, a chance to explore the great unknown!