from a shameful failure to a 24-fold increase in salary
“Hello, hello, la-la-la” is a good start.
“Tell me about your experience?” -…
Taken aback, I began to crumple up the story: “Now I’m writing a thesis, I programmed nonlinear differential equations, together with a more simplified linear model, they both describe the passage of an impulse in neurons… There is also a graph with parameters, they can be changed and it will be drawn in real time .”
…
I still remember the misunderstanding, the silence on the phone and suffocating silence in space.
“Okay,” they answered on the phone, clearly not understanding what they were talking about, after which HR asked something else for show and promised to contact me later. I hung up the phone, my ears burned with shame, I wish I could sink into the ground right now so as not to experience all this. Added to the fear of talking on the phone is the fear of any interaction with HR, especially over the phone. Just great.
It took me about a few years to realize what actually happened. It was so unpleasant that I remembered this experience only 7 years later, when I was telling a friend “how lucky I was to get my first job on the first try.” It turned out that everything was a little sadder than what I had imagined in my fantasies.
(Un)rainbow world
Do you remember your first interview experience? Was it positive, where everything went smoothly and you were hired right away? Or did you also encounter difficulties and had to work hard to get your first job?
The first such experience lays in us the picture of “How interviews work, what I need to do in them and how I need to be.” And this picture is unlikely to be true; after all, we are at the beginning of our journey and have not seen much yet. Therefore, the easiest way is to determine for yourself that it will always be the same as the first time. It doesn’t matter whether the experience is positive or negative – both have their drawbacks: excessive confidence, invincibility or absolute disappointment in one’s abilities, two extremes that prevent you from seeing “Could it be different?”
So my first experience, subconsciously, left an imprint on me: to be talked to:
you need to be extremely understandable
need to understand the requirements And predict what the other person wants to hear
to me won't give a chance explain or clarify something
better don't make mistakes And don't talk nonsense
need to preparelike never before, so that they won’t find fault with me
It’s funny how these requirements for someone even now may seem adequate, or they may sound too harsh and rigid. So what to do with all this? I had to find out.
hope dies last
A few months have passed and I see ads again, this time for programming courses with a “100% guaranteed internship”. As you can guess, this was 100% true to my pain; I didn’t want to participate in interviews anymore that I was ready to “buy” myself a place there – through courses.
I approached this very seriously: I prepared a presentation for my father entitled “How important these courses are for me, how this will help me find my first job and ultimately earn money. And how will I return everything to you?”
My father happily agreed to pay for my 4-month education for 23,000 rubles! It’s funny now to see how little the courses that promised a salary of 110k from the start used to cost.
Everything went well, I improved my theory and practice, I asked the teacher for incomprehensible moments, in the end there were almost personal lessons, when there were about five of us left. Rubbing my palms, I opened the list of internships.
And he was stunned.
For my specialty, Java, there were some incomprehensible companies (where is Google? Okay, at least Sber…). Moreover, there was a list of 3 items, one of which required a year of experience.
Realizing that there was nothing going for me here, I discovered a headhunter website. “It's time to play like grown-ups.” I compiled my resume, wrote down the current courses and additional ones that I took on Coursera, attached my thesis on Github, and it seemed quite significant to me. Now I had something to show at the entrance.
I can’t boast of a ton of responses – 3 completed test tasks, 2 ignored and 1 social security via Skype and invitation to the office for a personal meeting. Is all my work really not in vain and the business will finally work out?
Finally, Peace
This time everything was somehow different. The chief developer and manager met me at the office, shook hands, and he sat down on a nearby table. We had a pleasant conversation, he told me about the conditions, that they were recruiting interns, what projects were currently in the works and asked when I was ready to leave. That's all. He sits, smiles, and I have no choice but to smile back, going through all the scenarios in my head, how suspicious all this is, probably overwork, staff turnover, meager salaries.
Despite my suspicions, I had no choice. I was lucky that they called me into the office, that they offered me a position, and it would be stupid to refuse it, considering that these are the only people from whom the response came. I didn’t want to miss this chance, and I still need to gain experience. Without thinking for a long time, fearing that they would change their mind now, I agreed.
You know, the funny thing is that my suspicions turned out to be correct: there is a terrible turnover among the same students, the salary is ridiculous. However, I was lucky in another way, lucky to be in an environment where I could truly learn something. The manager, the chief developer, always sat in front of me, who spent time planning tasks, discussing difficulties, and in the end I learned to ask for help.
At this job I realized that there are no “stupid” questionsthey helped me understand them and my ignorance is no longer equal to rejection aka dismissal. And I learned to ask for a raise: everyone also seeing that we are playing a game where both sides want to stay in winning – I receive responsibilities, resources and compensation, and with this the company achieves its goals.
In almost 3 years, I managed to increase my salary 6 times, but it’s time to move on.
I would like to tell you how I was prepared for interviews, because now I have experience! But I set my sights on a job in a large company, and at that moment all my knowledge and experience, in my fantasies, became unimportant and unsuitable.
Imagine a very attractive person you don't know. And you really want to meet him. Oh. You start to mumble, your achievements no longer seem so important, oh, some kind of nonsense. Even if they talked to me, that would be enough for me. They talked to me, although with experience, but without experience in the most modern technologies, like theirs… It’s better not to make unnecessary movements…
Back To Square One / All over again
Social Security Day. I put on smart casual, take time off from work and go to the office. They greet me and offer me drinks. I am pleasantly surprised, but my heart has its own plan, it slowly begins to speed up, as if it senses something is wrong.
The first developer comes and invites me to go into the meeting room while we wait for his colleague. I giggle nervously and smile. Smiling makes your cheeks ache.
We sit down and have a little small talk, which calms me down a little. And then his colleague comes in, whose conference report I watched on YouTube yesterday.
The man from TV.
Where am I? I'm finished. Now they will understand that I don’t know anything, I’m wasting their time. What am I doing? How could I have thought that I could apply for this place.
All this passes quickly, the visitor just sits down in his place.
Inhale-exhale.
Let's get acquainted. I’m talking about my experience, and this time I have something to tell, because the projects we did were really cool and there was a lot of my contribution. It turns out I had so many responsibilities! Let’s move on to technical issues, some I know, some I don’t, on some points we have different views and terminology. But in the end we sit and try to understand each other.
Let's wrap it up. Of course, I didn’t answer 100% of the questions, but I covered the basic ones, explained complex concepts in simple language, and it was clear that I understood and didn’t just memorize something. I wrote down the incomprehensible moments to myself, and they advised me on resources where I could read more about it.
“No more questions, what about you?”
As per the interview guide, I asked about projects, processes, technologies. Although, in truth, I was already interested in finding out, looking into this still incomprehensible world of Development with a capital D.
The next day a call from HR. They give me an offer…
There are no limits to my happiness and I agree, immediately doubling my salary. Today, thanks to this social security, it turns out that my initial salary has increased 24 times!
Then I asked my team, how did it happen that they hired me? And it turned out that they saw in me understanding of fundamental thingsI knew some, although not all, of the technologies they use and have a hand in it the necessary base. What is pleasant about communicating with me, I ask, I don't close, I'm clarifying, I cooperatetrying find a common language and “I’ll quickly catch up and join the team.”
Really, to pass an interview, an interview, or even conduct any meeting or make a presentation – don't need to know everything? Don't need to have an answer to every question? No need to hide ignorance? Don't you need to stay up at night and cram the material? Shouldn't you go into a meeting feeling like they want to beat you? No need to defend yourself anymore?
This interview turned my world upside down once again. I felt that this meant communicating on equal terms with the interviewees, sharing opinions, clarifying unclear points that may arise. My idea of “you need to know every definition” from the days of university exams is outdated and it is much more important to understand the essence and be able to admit, first of all for yourself, that you won’t know everything in the world.
Instead of conclusions
I won’t say that now I’m not afraid of interviews, I don’t step on the same rake with excessive preparation, anxiety, that I don’t get upset when I’m rejected. All this is unlikely to go anywhere, these are the feelings that we all experience before something important to us and, oddly enough, they not only hinder us, but also help us.
As soon as you begin to notice your behavior in such exciting moments, there is room for maneuver. Now the desire to completely memorize the material is a defense against the need to admit that we don’t know something. And devaluing your experience, the “lack” of achievements, gives you a feeling of security so that you never face interviews, because anything can await you there. It's scary there, and I don't even know why.
Would you like to share your experience? How do you approach interviews or reviews at your job? If you are no longer afraid, what helped you? And if every time is like the first time, then what are you afraid of and what do you think can help you?
