Why do interviewers ask hard questions for entry level jobs?

[AGeese]

So, we were 100% a "butts in seats" company before. Like, managers and less had to punch the time clock daily. Ops teams were allowed to do "alternate time" (remote time clock) because of oncall duties and overtime, and MY leadership team up to the CTO basically turned a blind eye to us flagrantly abusing it as long as the CEO didn't complain. I was in the office 3 days a week and I wasn't forcing anyone to come in more than I did. We were always sure to meticulously manage time and make sure we were not being accused of just slacking at home, and it worked out fine.

Then just like lots of other places, we shut office down and went home March 2020 because covid. By August 2020 it was glaringly obvious our productivity was much higher and morale overall was significantly better. We're averaging 14% better productivity since then (compared to before covid) and 100% less sick people coming to the office to spread their germs. This year we decided to sell both our US and EU headquarters buildings to the tenants who were leasing them from us and just get them off the books. We aren't going back, our CEO is fully on board with it now (a major 180 for him), and none of us miss it.

We are seeing a lot of places mandating RTO and losing top staff because of it. Cutting off your nose to spite your face because you feel like you don't have enough control is a great way to run a business into the ground, if you want my honest opinion.

This is exactly my experience, and now the talk is rto. Where do I apply?

 

[azurbanclucker]

This is exactly my experience, and now the talk is rto. Where do I apply?

Are you any good with MySQL or PostGres on linux?

 

[Evadig]

I’m curious…for all you that have a say in the hiring, how do you look on college graduates without a lick of experience?

And wondering if my experience thus far is just me, or, is it common practice to tell an applicant that they will hear back from you in a week, and then never actually contact them?

Just wondering…

 

[AGeese]

Are you any good with MySQL or PostGres on linux?

I work with it as in minor sql editing on db's already written. Nothing on PostGres, Linux is more of a familiarity partially used in our environment. I'm in management now.

I’m curious…for all you that have a say in the hiring, how do you look on college graduates without a lick of experience?

And wondering if my experience thus far is just me, or, is it common practice to tell an applicant that they will hear back from you in a week, and then never actually contact them?

Just wondering…

Our HR recruiter will send a notice to the candidates for me informing them if they were not selected. Smaller companies may not have the time or process to do so.

Experience is important, but softskills are extremely important and something we often struggle with. We can get anyone with experience, but I'd rather not be in the business of having to train someone on essential skills like good comms, and documentation unless it's more along the lines of guidance.

So if a cadidate can't even proof read their resume, isn't personable in the interview, or I feel like I have to draw things out of them, or they're invested too highly into imressing me it's a turn off.

 

[azurbanclucker]

I’m curious…for all you that have a say in the hiring, how do you look on college graduates without a lick of experience?

My experience in the past 10 years or so is that colleges are flat-out lying to students about real-world expectations Fresh grads are expecting to walk in with a CS degree (for example) and land a 6 figure job as soon as they graduate. That is preposterous and unrealistic. A degree shows a potential hiring manager that you have been educated in the field. It is NOT real life experience and does not entitle someone to command the same kind of position or salary that only comes with real exposure to the job. Having a degree and no experience usually just means I'm going to have to un-learn your poorly taught skills for an entry-level position.

Now, A college degree AND practical work experience in the field? Totally different question. Those people usually are well worth the extra money they ask for. (to an extent. I'm still not going to offer someone stupid money outside the normal range for a role simply because they've got a degree.)

And wondering if my experience thus far is just me, or, is it common practice to tell an applicant that they will hear back from you in a week, and then never actually contact them?

Just wondering…

Sadly, that's the norm. I've been ghosted dozens of times over my career. We use an HR tool that sends a nice email if we reject a candidate at least, and I try to let folks know where they stand before we finish an interview. It's not that hard to let someone know, you know?

 

[azurbanclucker]

I work with it as in minor sql editing on db's already written. Nothing on PostGres, Linux is more of a familiarity partially used in our environment. I'm in management now.

Bummer. I need a senior-level DBA and they're thin on the ground.

Our HR recruiter will send a notice to the candidates for me informing them if they were not selected. Smaller companies may not have the time or process to do so.

Which is hilarious if you think about it. I can see a large corp HR department being so flooded they can't respond, but not a "100 people or less" company.

Experience is important, but softskills are extremely important and something we often struggle with. We can get anyone with experience, but I'd rather not be in the business of having to train someone on essential skills like good comms, and documentation unless it's more along the lines of guidance.

I presume every hire coming in will need 6 mos of training with our stack before they're effective. So soft skills and personality fit are critical for us. We're tech staff. People are expecting emails written like PHD dissertations anyway.

So if a cadidate can't even proof read their resume, isn't personable in the interview, or I feel like I have to draw things out of them, or they're invested too highly into imressing me it's a turn off.

I'm heartless with CV's. If there are spelling or grammar errors, they get circular filed. I don't care if it's Bill Gates. If you can't catch the nit-picky little things, how can I trust you with the big ones? A resume is your ONLY chance to sell yourself to someone and get a foot in the door. Make it as perfect as you can.

As far as impressing me? Show up on time. Appear relaxed. Answer questions truthfully, even if it's "I don't know" or "I'd have to google the specific syntax but in general it's (blahblah)". My crew's BS detectors are well-honed from dealing with our own internal teams' lame excuses. We can smell a con from a mile away. An interview is about you, but it's equally about how you interface with the people interviewing you. If you can't integrate then, you will never integrate later.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Why do interviewers ask hard questions for entry level easy jobs? For example, this entry level job is basically opening and sorting mail and entering data onto a computer. Why the heck do interviewers ask hard questions for a simple job? Why can't they ask, "How experienced are you with opening mail on a daily basis?" rather than "Name a time in which you experienced a problem and how did you solve it?" Also, the difficulty of their questions is more appropriate for someone who is applying for a job as a CEO, not a bottom ranking office clerk.

That question is pretty common. They want to know that if something difficult pops up that you will be able to either a) solve it or b) handle it until a solution comes. I've had that question for pretty much every job I've interviewed for, which were all entry jobs

 

[JacinLarkwell]

How do you deal with different kinds of advice on getting a job?

For example, someone says you should call the employer after an interview to follow up on the job.

Another person said employers don't like phone call follow ups because it puts pressure on them, and they will get the next person instead.

I give it a week and then either call or pop in depending on if the company is a mom and pop or not

 

[AGeese]

Bummer. I need a senior-level DBA and they're thin on the ground.


Which is hilarious if you think about it. I can see a large corp HR department being so flooded they can't respond, but not a "100 people or less" company.


I presume every hire coming in will need 6 mos of training with our stack before they're effective. So soft skills and personality fit are critical for us. We're tech staff. People are expecting emails written like PHD dissertations anyway.


I'm heartless with CV's. If there are spelling or grammar errors, they get circular filed. I don't care if it's Bill Gates. If you can't catch the nit-picky little things, how can I trust you with the big ones? A resume is your ONLY chance to sell yourself to someone and get a foot in the door. Make it as perfect as you can.

As far as impressing me? Show up on time. Appear relaxed. Answer questions truthfully, even if it's "I don't know" or "I'd have to google the specific syntax but in general it's (blahblah)". My crew's BS detectors are well-honed from dealing with our own internal teams' lame excuses. We can smell a con from a mile away. An interview is about you, but it's equally about how you interface with the people interviewing you. If you can't integrate then, you will never integrate later.

100% agree. ATD is everything. The rest can be taught, a lot of which is proprietary anyway, so even the best candidates will still have some learning curve regardless.

We're also tech and say 6 months if you're a quick learner to 2 years for others, but the learning never really stops so having a good set of soft skills is a great foundation for anyone.

Softskills and a nice resume will get you on my screening list, but just about anyone can make themselves look good on paper with AI, workforce development, or a friend so the face to face interview will be a pretty good indicator as to whether they had someone write that resume for them

 

[notabitail]

100% agree. ATD is everything. The rest can be taught, a lot of which is proprietary anyway, so even the best candidates will still have some learning curve regardless.

We're also tech and say 6 month if you're a quick learner to 2 years for others, but the learning never really stops so having a good set of soft skills is a great foundation for anyone.

And softskills and a nice resume will get you on my screening list, just about anyone can make themselves look good on paper with AI, workforce development, or a friend so the face to face interview will be a pretty good indicator as to whether they had someone write that resume for them

You do tech stuff?