Hiring is an extremely complicated problem. It is extremely difficult to judge a candidate's success in a given setting given it is a function of infinite things, a lot of which are things that the candidate doesn't control like the work environment, co-workers etc.
I have often thought about how majority of people would hire or not hire people in software companies. Some of the common reasons for people in technology industry would look like [they might not admit it ;-) ]
1. This is not a reflection on my past, present and future employers, is written as a non serious comment.
2. Using only he in the post is not because of any gender prejudice but just for the ease of writing.
I have often thought about how majority of people would hire or not hire people in software companies. Some of the common reasons for people in technology industry would look like [they might not admit it ;-) ]
- He wasn't non technical enough to be a software engineer
- He didn't use words "scalable" and "business value" enough in the interview
- He knows about Data Structures and algorithms
- In cases where he didn't know the answer he just said "I don't know" instead of trying to justify that knowing those things is not required and isn't helping deliver business value. I would have loved if someone had gone one step further and claimed that not knowing them would bring valuable "layman's perspective" in the system which no other person in the team would have.
- He didn't think our company was the greatest place on earth to work for and we were just an option.
- Instead of agreeing to something wrong that I said, he tried to correct me. Didn't help that he did it politely.
- Didn't know enough American politics and sitcoms.
- He was smarter than me.
1. This is not a reflection on my past, present and future employers, is written as a non serious comment.
2. Using only he in the post is not because of any gender prejudice but just for the ease of writing.
Good reasons..these are just a few among a wide range of reasons people come up with...BTW in one of my first jobs (I've only had two so far ;-)) I was told that by the employer "We look for a reason two hire and not for a reason to reject!.." Great thought..isn't it? Well not sure of everyone, but the gentlemen who hired me did seem to stick to it in my case..I am sure they had 100 reasons NOT TO HIRE.. :-)
good point about the reason to hire rather than to reject. A lot of times it is a function of the circumstances more so when it comes to promotion. I have seen both ways for promotions depending on the good old demand and supply (boom vs bust)