After my last post, I attended the interview, and have remained on the edge of my seat waiting for a result.
Then, after a short week wait, a response. It’s not a disappointing reply, but it’s not successful just yet.
I made the short list for the second round of interviews, which being very soon now, to me looks like they have a tough decision, and they are looking to exclude candidates.
Knowledge is what allows us to strategically position ourselves to suit the requirements and acheieve the goal, in this case, to be successful for the application.
There is not a lot of knowledge available, we know the company, we know the current exploits on their website (well, maybe they don’t), we know of some of the bugs, we know of what the current users experience, and we know a little about the company structure.
What we don’t know is the other candidates – what do they have to choose between? That’s something I don’t know, which of course, makes selling yourself, a simpler process. They are doing the comparisons, I’ve simply got to demonstrate what they are looking for in a new employee, can be found with me.
The previous interview went for a good 45 minutes. I’ve set another hour aside for this interview, to allow plenty of time for a good solid discussion. I feel confident in my abilities to fulfill many of the tasks they are asking of the right candidate. I can administer servers and perform preventative maintenance, I can optimise code and ensure a positive user experience. I can contribute to discussions, and design to meet objectives. I can create new applications, and optimise what is already there.
But, I imagine so can a few others. The average pay rate for the position is around $55k per annum. I’ve gone for a figure lower than this, because it’s my ‘first’ employed position in the area, and at the moment, I’m keen to get away from the support scene.
I’ve put a fair bit of thought into it, sure, I can support users day in, day out. But the frustration comes when it is something so simple: Have you actually read the quick start guide?
Or, when someone calls, for something that can be resolved by email and thought out in detail, rather than over the phone.
Or, when someone has an unsupported setup, and calls in expecting immediate support for such a setup. I don’t have 1 hour to spend on the phone helping you do the job of a technician, it’s not fair to those who have genuine issues that WE do need to resolve.
I don’t like phones, despite my interests in VoIP, telephones annoy me. They ring, they get answered, and you just think: “Who the f@#k dare disturb me answering this email.”. This of course means the person on the other end of the phone may not be greeted by the most happy sales person (luckily I don’t answer Sales enquiries anymore). I like to get to the chase, find out what the problem is, give them some troubleshooting, and tell them to go away, so I can assist those who thought patience was ideal, and used email.
Many of those issues just won’t be present in the new job – it’s for an online website, and one which doesn’t actually have a phone number – bonus. There isn’t a strong support aspect in the job, much of it is simply creating applications to meet design specifications, maintaining services, and improving the code base (from what I’ve been told isn’t the greatest).
The site itself employs a fantastic array of AJAX, and therefore shouldn’t be a load nightmare to manage. There are many database optimisations I can put in place, and I’ve identified a few pages I’d like to view the code of, and see how they are currently doing that.
I’m aware of a few security related issues on the server, and part of me thinks – If I tell them, they may see it as a negative, that I would be using it to simply get the job, on the other, they may think it is a positive – I’ve researched the site thoroughly and already found a few exploits. I’m going with the safer route at the moment, I very much want this job, so I’m going to try and sell my abilities to them, and simply not advise of what I am aware of. I’ll just remember to fix them when I start in the position.
Hopefully, the interview can be easily cleared, and I make the number 1 spot on the shortlist, and blow the rest of the candidates out of the water.
Still on the edge of my seat.