WHAT TO DO, IF YOU GET 2 AND MORE OFFERS. (which one, I should choose?)

WELL DONE! You got many offers to choose from.

There are 3 important points.

1. Most important. YOU and only YOU should make your decision.
2. Give yourself 24-72 hours to make a decision.
3. If you apply through external recruiters. Say to them that you need 24-72 hours and nothing else. DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM! They want you to chose their company because they earn money from that, not because a specific company is better for you. They will use psychological tricks to make your mind. YOU MUST MAKE THIS DECISION. Don’t allow them to mess with your brain!

If You are lucky, just follow your ‘sixth sense’, otherwise… there are many ways to make a decision. You should google it and find one that it will support your decision-making process. My way is :

1. Write down your requirements (Must have, Should have. all other minor requirements).
2. I write down all advantages/disadvantages of each company.
3. Give them priority (how this advantage/disadvantage is important to you) and trade-offs.
4. Create score system and compare.
5. Go to sleep.
6. Make a decision in the morning. 

There are many many things to consider (not only): The team, location, commute, annual leave, the flexibility of holidays and so on.

Reminder! This is my way of making a decision. Your way to make a decision can and should be different.

Conclusion:

• YOU and only YOU should make your decision.
• Give yourself some time to make a decision.
• DO NOT LISTEN TO RECRUITERS!
• If You are lucky, just follow your ‘sixth sense’, otherwise… try to write down all advantages/disadvantages compare and make decisions. 
• Give yourself 24-72 hours.

One more thing. When you make your decision let’s other company know about it and say thank you very much and stay in touch with them.It can come handy if you discover that company you chose wasn’t perfect. It shows respect to other company as recruiters do not like to pass this information.

CONGRATULATIONS!

It happens.However, before giving up, try:

• If you don’t understand the question, clarify! Ask for the hint, if you are not sure.
• Think out loud and try to get a tip, asking questions, repeating a certain statement, engaging the interviewer(s) in a thoughtful conversation. They would certainly understand the situation and share some tipping points which you should be ready to catch and relate to the ongoing reasoning.

If it is problem-solving question.Give yourself 10-30 second to think and then answer.If you have some ideas but you are not sure.. say them anyway and explain what you trying to achieve.Always fight to the end.If you don’t know, you can admit that, BUT again. If you had any thoughts mention them..interviewer can help you if can believe that your thoughts can be correct. The correct answer is one thing.Shows how you dealing in difficult situation is very important too.

• Questions by the developer are technical and your answer should be .. technical as well. Some developers like to ask a tricky question, so make sure that you read articles about common tricky questions. If you struggle with question try to have fun, ask for clarification and be creative. If you don’t know because you never did multi-threading then .. just say it and trying to do an educated guess.
• Questions by a business analyst, product owner or in general a non-technical people will ask about your skills to deliver a solution and explain them in an understandable way for a normal human. If you never had contact with this kind of person, I suggest practising a little bit. ( I failed badly in one interview with the business analyst as I wasn’t aware of ‘slang’ required to explain some stuff (for example what are trade-offs between specific template engines. I talk using technical terms but he was more interested about how this will speed up the process and so on). 

Click:  How looks process of finding a job as software developer: Introduction

1. The company has a very limited amount of time to read your CV, so don’t feel offended, if they ask a question about things that you wrote in your CV. Actually, it is a good thing as you can add useful information about your experience that is relevant to a position that You are applying for, but you omitted in your CV.
2. If an interview is not in your native language then I suggest … a bit of practice with answering typical questions and practice name of common technologies.
3. Practice pronunciation (I still remember my embarrassment during the interview with the developer, who didn’t disconnect after my few attempts to pronounce “Atlassian” :).
4. FIND a very QUIET place to talk. I actually have done one interview in noisy Costa coffee and my interview ended in 2 minutes! I guess you must be shocked to read that I haven’t been invited to next stage.
5. FIND s place, where is a good range coverage.
6. Don’t do a few phone interview one after another.  Ensure you have at least 45 minutes break between interviews. It is very stressful when during the phone interview to get a call from another company. It will increase the chance to messed up both phone interviews.

WARNINGS:

In last 4 years, I had a privilege to chat with more than 200 recruiters and my conclusion is one. The overwhelming majority of recruiters are useless and they nightmare to deal with in and make finding the right job for you much harder.

• 5% of them are useful.
• 10% OK’ish.
• Rest of them ( just 85% ) is a pain in the ass.

MY EXPECTATION ABOUT RECRUITERS:

• I told them, what I want and what I don’t want. They will contact me when an opportunity appears.
• They will guide me through the process.
• Helps me improve my CV and other forms.
• Gives me useful tips and resources about the company before the interview.
• Be friendly and professional.
• Always respond in a timely manner.
• Let me know the result as soon as possible with honest feedback.
• Be personal. don’t use the shitty template we ‘crap recruiter’ keywords.

Why? In most cases talking to them, It is like talking about colours with a blind person. They helpfulness to find job looks like finding a needle in the haystack at night without light when you are completely drunk.In reality :

• I told them, what I want and what I don’t want and they will contact me when an opportunity appears.
  • Most of them just spam you with the job opportunity that matches a few keywords. For example,  if you are Java Developer in London but you mentioned that you got experience with Angular. They will send you to offer for Senior Front-End Developer in Glasgow.
  • They are using e shitty template we ‘crap recruiter’ keywords and marketing bullshit a lot.
• They will guide me through the process.
  • Some of them actually are quite helpful.
• Helps me improve my CV and other forms.
  • They modify CV but results can be catastrophic.
• Gives me useful tips and resources about the company before the interview.
  • Some of them give and some of them do not give an xxx about it.
• Be friendly and professional.
  • They sound ‘ fake friendly’. They talking using recruiter dialect that does not say anything useful.
• Always respond in a timely manner and let me know the result as soon as possible with honest feedback
  • If you get rejected then the majority will not tell you about it until you call them and some of them like about reason why you failed. Ask the company for feedback.
  • If you get an offer, they will ask you accept ASAP and they will call you all the time say that you need give an answer NOW NOW NOW. 
• Be personal. don’t use the shitty template we ‘crap recruiter’ keywords.
  • It looks like people who want be recruiter need be great in copy and paste templates and great at lying to sell the product.
• They will manipulate you using mind tricks and they will lie a lot.
  • Always give yourself up 72 hours to make a decision. If they push you, then warn them that this behaviour will be not tolerated and you will say to company and recruiter’s manager that you will withdraw (they will stop 🙂 )

HOW TO DEALT WITH RECRUITERS:

Shithead is “A complete dumbass; a genuine moron. Someone who has committed an act in which causes harm or temporary discomfort to another.”  .  Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shithead).

3.  Always asked them to send a ‘role opportunity’ to your e-mail, where you can scan job’s specification.

4.  While you are dealing various stages of the interview.

Recruiters should help you with preparations providing resources for the company or how looks each stage and provide tips and hints. If not then you dealing with crap recruiter.

However! It is not always recruiter fault. It may indicate a crap company.

I must ‘honestly’ admit, I had one case, where I suspect that recruiter is a crap but troubles were caused by company (the company didn’t want phone screening that I requested to avoid unnecessary travelling if role is not what I want or I am not  right. They just wanted to go to directly an interview). It turns out that interview date matches time when I suppose to do other interviews so I use this opportunity to check company. 

I went for an interview and it was the first time when I wanted to run away. It was a most gloomy interview in my life. I felt in this place like I was in a Psychiatric hospital where they conduct some odd experiments on me. 

I spoke to few people about my results and we agreed that weird problems before the interview like lack of interest in pre-interview communication usually indicate a bad place to work but sometimes some company are very strict about interview methodology.

5.  When you about making a decision, do not allow the recruiter to mess up with your brain.

MY APPROACH TO UNKNOWN/PRIVATE CALLS

In the past, I usually avoid pick-up calls from unknown/private calls. It does not rule, but many rude/annoying recruiters. Another problem is No numbers mean I cannot call back (i cannot add to useful contact or banned), so I prefer to ignore it. I had quite a few rude conversation and all of them were from the unknown call. This is one of the examples (worst one):

Recruiter: I saw your CV on (website)  and I have an exciting new role in the company who uses agile and cutting-edge technologies to develop software based in Manchester.Are you interested?

Me: I am sorry, but  I wrote that I looked for a job in London ONLY.

recruiter (with irritated and angry voice:  Why London? Manchester is a fantastic city. FUCK YOU. (And he disconnected).

It is not a rule! It is just my preferences. You will find good recruiters use unknown numbers too (landline in office).

If you are happy with job’s spec and recruiter then you can agree to be represented by

 SUMMARY

• Remember, recruiters, do not care about your career as they don’t provide service to help you find the best job. They want you to get a job so they will earn money from commissions. As result IF YOU CAN AVOID FINDING JOB THROUGH RECRUITERS .. DON’T USE THEM.  With exception of internal recruiters or if the company using specific recruitment agency exclusively for recruitment).
• DO NOT ALLOW RECRUITERS MAKE ANY DECISION. ALWAYS TAKE SOME TIME TO MAKE IMPORTANT AND  DECISION.
• Do NOT add recruiters to LinkedIn. Many of them are just lazy spammers will flood you with jobs that in most cases are not relevant to your target.
• Don’t forget to be nice and friendly to them in the first contact as they are human! The first impression is also important to create a good bond with a recruiter.
• Many recruiters will use lots of psychological tricks against you. Most of them based on build pressure around you into force you to make a decision. Always gives yourself up to 72 hours to makes decision.
• If they give any material about company or tips. Check it out!
• Verify what recruiter said. ALWAYS. Especially about of location/public transport.
• Do not give any information about other jobs. NEVER.
• If you are happy with job’s spec and recruiter then you can agree to be represented by them.
• If you are unhappy with a recruiter to remember to write an email that you withdraw from being represented by specific. Be assertive.
• If you find recruiter understand your needs then keep contact with him/her.

WARNINGS:

Click:  How looks process of finding a job as software developer: Introduction

• Due lack of alternatives. LinkedIn is an only option for a social network for professional (although Google+  can be offer better user experience, it is not designed for the professional social network ).
• It is a good source to gain intelligence about company and people, who will interview you.
• It is a good extension of your CV.
• It is a useful replacement for your personal website and blog.

• As I mentioned in last previous post, you need start from write down what you looking for. Motivate yourself (do a brainstorm about yourself and what you want to do to make sure, that you believe, that you can find a new job.
• Do NOT use your primary e-mail! Create a new e-mail or use your current spam account*.
• Do NOT use your primary mobile! Buy prepaid Sim. The reason is the same as above*.
• Think about what you want to do. If it is your first job. I suggest look for graduate job**.
• Remember you are like a brand. In order to be the recognizable brand, you need to apply various ‘marketing’ techniques. It is quite easy in IT because you can write some blog posts, articles, podcasts, contribute to open source*** project, open account on Github, Gitlab or BitBucket (and put your source code there)  and attend to some meetups.
• Use Get Things Done or to-do list as an approach to handle all process and make sure that you limit the number of cases.
• Do research about typical questions about languages and technologies that you believe you are expert at. Remember Hard preparation makes for an easy interview!
• Prepare questions that you want ask on the interview and don’t be afraid of asking questions! Check how looks a working life, how the company is organised and everything that is important for you to be happy at work.

This is a NOT a professional advice. It based on my personal experience only and resources that I read on the internet. It will contain many grammar mistakes. Please drink double espresso and energy drink as an article is long and boring.

WHERE TO LOOK?

There are  few ways to look for a job these days:

1. Friends (best option)
2. Companies website (especially, your dream companies)
3. LinkedIn is a great source for gathering information about company and possibility to find which company recruiting at the moment.
4. Job hunting Website ( only if the job is advertised by the company but not the recruitment agency.
5. Jobcentre Plus in theory (in the UK) are quite useless for professional jobs but It can be a good place free advice.
6. Recruiters