I had a telephone interview earlier this week.
From my point of view, I thought it went really well. I had ample experience, answered his questions (in my opinion) correctly
Somewhat to my surprise, I was turned down after this interview.
Naturally, I pressed the agency for feedback.
Feedback from the recruiter was vague as expected – “Not technically correct on some of your responses”
(This is the same recruiter that sent me the wrong job spec for another job they sent me for!)
Anyway, I decided to text the guy that phone interviewed me.
He was very positive on the phone, so wanted to know what had changed.
He said I got the questions he asked me on BDD wrong
Nowhere on my CV is BDD – apparently it was, so the agency had kindly added this part for me.
He also said I’d got the definition of REST wrong, which I know I hadn’t – and besides, he asked for an example of REST, which I duly gave him.
Then came the usual play downs “If another suitable role comes up I’ll be in touch”
After our short text conversation, I thought I’d check the guy out – something I guess I should have done before the interview (I usually google people interviewing me beforehand)
And here’s what I found: Nothing.
Zilch.
No linked in, no twitter, no blog, no github profile, no contributions to the open source community.
He apparently was the technical lead for the well known company, albeit a contractor.
My thoughts are;
If you’re not willing to contribute to the community in any way shape or form, can you truly be a rounded developer?
I’m not saying every developer should have a LinkedIn profile, or a twitter account, or github profile, but it is unusual these days to find top calibre developers devoid of any of these… a ‘developer’ who is effectively an online ghost!
It’s pretty easy to trace people and who they’re working for:
google for
first name + last name + company”
Usually does the trick
or even
first name + last name + technology
So, on reflection, it seems I may have dodged a bullet here.
Whilst I don’t profess to be the worlds greatest developer, I do try to give back.
I contribute to various open source projects, blog whenever I can, have an active twitter profile etc…
I’m not actually sure I would want to work with someone so closed and un-contributing!