I recently had to get a new job. My wife got a residency in another state, and my previous job is going back to in-person.
I have two years’ experience working for a startup on enterprise-scale software. My day job is on the frontend with some backend from open source work.
Here are some things I was asked to do while job hunting:
- Work as a contractor because the company forgot I said I’d be moving and didn’t want to file the paperwork in two states. That seemed reasonable, so I agreed. At the time, I did not know the school or state of my wife’s residency.1 The company waffled, then pulled the offer with no explanation. They did at least pay me for time spent on the technical screen.
- Fill out a recruiter’s profile of me for him (Word doc and internal assessment and all).
- Pass a cognitive test asking me to do basic arithmetic and convert fractions as fast as I could.
- Take a personality test where I had to select adjectives I felt applied to me.
- Enter my years of experience with “Problem Solving.” I am 28 years old, so I put 28.
- Listen to a recruiter tell me I could move to South Florida for a job after a year because “who knows if you and your girlfriend will still be together.” I had referred to her as my wife on the same call.
The cognitive test actually made me laugh. Imagine a workplace where someone yells, “Nazario! Get over here, we need someone add some fractions! No calculators!!!”
Anyway, hiring is broken, we all know it. I accepted a position with a company that had a sane, speedy hiring process.
- Veterinarians can do a residency if they want to specialize, like to be a neurologist or cardiologist. You get most residencies through “the match.” Prospective residents rank programs they’re most interested in, and the programs rank applicants. On a given date in the spring, you find out if or where you matched.
This is why for several weeks, I knew we would be in Tennessee, Florida, Indiana or California, but not the specific state.↩