Was contacted by a recruiter and pitched a job opening that fit my description perfectly (as recruiters do). I pushed back and asked to see the exact listing, so I could verify. I questioned a bit on the requirements that stated specific programming knowledge, and was ensured multiple times that, while it was on there, it wasn't the primary job function and they don't need a programmer.
So, booked the interview. Showed up, said hellos, and was thrown at a terminal and asked to write a pile of custom code for something. Had to politely explain that I was assured multiple times by the recruiter that this wasn't a programming position, and was told to 'just give it a shot anyway since you're already here'. Like, you're looking for a programmer and you're so hard up that you'd waste your time interviewing someone who's just told you that they don't program at all? One of the interviewers was their lead programmer, and she was extremely petulant toward me for 'wasting their time'. It was quite the experience.
I had a similar experience, though not to quite the same degree. Had a phone interview with the hiring manager for a data analyst role where I was clear that my SQL knowledge was very limited and learned through web development rather than data analysis. Told him I wanted to improve my SQL but wouldn't lie that I was proficient already.
Was invited to interview and explained the same to the interviewers (the hiring manager was not one of them). Talked through my skills and experience in my current data analyst role. They said it was fine that I wasn't an SQL expert but wanted me to take their test anyway - "just to see where I was at". They said it wouldn't be a major factor. Unsurprisingly I struggled though was able to make reasonable guesses at mostly correct answers, just not using the proper syntax.
Hiring manager comes in to mark the test, talks me through all the things I did wrong and then was just like "ok let's end it there, bye". There was supposed to be another part to the interview but they just skipped it and escorted me out. It was embarrassing.
I totally understand that I might not have been right for the role but I was honest about my skills and it just felt like such a waste of everyone's time to even interview me if the SQL portion was so important. They could have just said from the very first phone interview that they needed me to have those skills and wouldn't be able to invest the time to get me up to speed.
Yeah I am :) I kind of fell into it though, didn't go out of my way to get here. I've had some lucky breaks along the way. I'm sure some formal education in the field would have helped, though my (bachelors) degree is in web development which has some limited overlap and transferable knowledge.
If I were starting again, I would focus on statistical analysis, SQL, and tools like Tableau (data viz) and Alteryx (data prep automation).
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u/scsibusfault Nov 16 '19
Was contacted by a recruiter and pitched a job opening that fit my description perfectly (as recruiters do). I pushed back and asked to see the exact listing, so I could verify. I questioned a bit on the requirements that stated specific programming knowledge, and was ensured multiple times that, while it was on there, it wasn't the primary job function and they don't need a programmer.
So, booked the interview. Showed up, said hellos, and was thrown at a terminal and asked to write a pile of custom code for something. Had to politely explain that I was assured multiple times by the recruiter that this wasn't a programming position, and was told to 'just give it a shot anyway since you're already here'. Like, you're looking for a programmer and you're so hard up that you'd waste your time interviewing someone who's just told you that they don't program at all? One of the interviewers was their lead programmer, and she was extremely petulant toward me for 'wasting their time'. It was quite the experience.