Oh boy, that was awkward …
I was on Linkedin when I saw this post about a an engineering job for this big company, it clearly says 5 years of experience, which I do have but not in the role needed.
I said to myself F** it I will I apply what’s the worst gonna happen? I used LATEX to write a custom CV, just before I applied to the job I said to myself every time I apply for a job 99% I don’t get the chance to do an interview, I will trick the ATS system, so I put so many keywords in the resume as white font that will only be read by the ATS and I applied for the job.
Few days later, I received a call about the interview date and time (oh boy it’s happening). I started to prepare like hell and went to the interview, it was a very intense and detailed engineering interview, purely technical, a question after another for 45 minutes, I was doing ok for most parts until I broke down and couldn’t answer. “Do you know X ?” “Given Y how would Z be affected? “ “Write the code to reduce the computing complexity of ABC given that DEF ”.
After those questions I said to myself they know everything and they are trolling me, so I was just honest and replied I don’t know … Surprisingly when the interview ended they cheered me up and said we did not find a candidate with this level of knowledge so far , I was stunned and holding my laughter. They said they will reply to me if I got accepted, honestly I don’t mind even if I don’t.
TLDR: I applied for an interview with no experience and I guess I passed the interview
Comments
This TIFU should be from hiring side actually. After they hire you and practically assign you coding task. Their title should be
“TIFU hiring a great engineer with zero coding sense”
This story somehow reminds me about those annoying class mates that always said “omg i didnt learn and completly fucked up the exam” just to get a A- at the end..
A win is a win
“today i fucked up by doing well in an interview” ok
for some reasons it seems like a lot of jobs put a lot of requirements in their descriptions, but once they interview people, they just give you a 1+1 test
TIFU not really..? Sounds like you want a victory lap on Reddit for doing good on an interview. Good job though! Just keep on studying as there may be 2nd round interview.
Beeing honest about what you don’t know is also a skill.
They always search for 25 year old people with 40 years of experience in at least three different jobs.
And then they settle down on the person that fits the real checklist the best.
No-one who actually uses LaTeX to write their CV would write it in all caps.
Actually, it doesn’t sound like you did anything wrong, companies generally overstate the requirements on their job listings.
Your only problem is that you don’t have experience in interviewig, which you can only get by doing interviews. I read it somewhere that go to a few interviews even if you will turn off their offer when it gets to that before applying for the job you actually want.
The ATS is controversial, but hey it got you the interview. Most people don’t even get that far.
I’ve gotten jobs that I lacked the skills/experience for because they felt I was good fit & showed I had enough of a grasp of what the job entailed and the soft skills they were looking for.
I’ve learned that when a company needs someone with both soft skills & technical skills and is having trouble finding a candidate who has both, it’s way easier to teach someone the technical skills than teach soft skills to a technically adept person.
You may totally end up getting that job based on the way you handled your interview ☺️
After reading that random people were getting high security jobs with CVs made by a chinese spy, this doesn’t surprise me.
How is any of this tifu or even a story, this is an average job search
Don’t worry if you get hired with lacking experience, programming companies know they’ll need to trait the candidate to some degree, you held your own for 45 minutes that’s good enough and you probably exceeded their expectations
Just appear reliable and don’t eat the pencils in the office now and the job is yours
Still waiting for the FU-part
I’d take what they tell you with a grain of salt, rarely do people honestly tell you how you did, it’s mostly about making you feel ok with the interaction. I’ve given, taken, and sat in lots of technical interviews and lots of times people forget that the interviewer is a person too and they want to get to their actual work rather than argue or deal with someone upset about something so just say good things to get off the phone.
I do cad work, so it’s like engineering but I only have an associates degree. I had a job interview about ten years ago, and I hadn’t used the software that they used since school, so I was pretty rusty. The boss lady who did my interview asked me to recreate a drawing that she had just opened and deleted, and left the same file open on another screen.
I just sat there, freaking out because I had no idea what to do, until I just undid her delete and then just did some random stuff and deleted it, so if she checked, then it wouldn’t just show that I undeleted, and I got the job!
/madlads
Pretty much everything has been done before. Knowing how to find the answer quickly and efficiently should be the priority.
Then again, 1 year 3 months unemployed.
As an interviewer, it’s so rare to get someone who can answer all the questions fully and correctly so I wouldn’t worry about that. It’s also very frustrating the number of people who sound perfect on paper (i.e. their CV) but when they turn up they obviously know very little.
I did this and got the job. Luckily it was a phone interview. I was being asked questions and was googling answers at the same time. I rattled off some responses that were good enough to make it to the next stage.
That was in 2005, I am still in the industry and I am a subject matter expert in my field.
This post made me think i should also apply for jobs considering that i don’t have experience and lacking confidence since i feel like i’m not qualified to the specific job since i don’t have that “skill” yet / I haven’t learned it yet
Years ago, I was going into the police academy. The academy is a much easier experience if you have a job lined up after and you get paid to be in the academy, vs paying out of pocket. My grandfather pulled some strings and got me an interview with the SO. I knew nothing. I didn’t get any interview prep. I didn’t even know where to start. Apparently there is a brochure you are supposed to study up on before the interview that I knew nothing about. They asked me about it and I apologized and said I was completely unaware of anything they were asking me from it. It was a complete disaster from start to finish, and needless to say I was not picked up by the SO and had to pay my way through the academy. I never became a police officer.
You did much better than me!
In these interviews, the goal is to push the applicant. Often to see how they perform under pressure, and almost always to see how far your knowledge goes. That’s normal.
Sometimes, and that will be apparent very quickly, it’s because they’re bored.
How is this a fuck up?
Lmao, that bold move might actually land you the job!
This is the most George Costanza thing I’ve read today
One thing I learned from 2 years post-college unemployment is real interviewers are happy to hear you say “I don’t know!” Being honest and forthright instead of playing ball with their HR department’s useless keywords tends to get you further
OMG you used an old SEO trick from the late 1990’s! LOL
I think they may be giving you the Star Trek fail scenario, just to see your overall reaction to a problem they know you may not be able to solve.
This seems like an undisclosed ad for LATEX
“I forgot to study for the test and made a 95 which was the highest score in the class waaa”
Man this is gonna pan out like the office maintenance guy story that floats around and fixed everything by turning it off and on again.
Do you understand what TIFU means?
Always shoot for the moon and you’ll always land amongst the stars.
Story time!
About four years ago now I was working a shitty job at a dispensary that did not value it’s employees the way it said it did. I was miserable and underpaid for my level of knowledge.
Then one day my wife fell at home and broke both her feet. Emergency surgeries, 14 screws and a bolt, and extensive recovery time.
Her at home business also paid almost all the major household bills at the time and we knew my shitty cash paid job was not gonna cut it, so I left to take care of her and her business.
We made it through and after a few months she was good to return to work while doing physical therapy and follow-up surgeries. So I started looking, with very little luck.
So I reworked my CV to no longer include the marijuana business and replaced it with an entry that made it look like my wife ran an empire from our house and I was her VP.
Ended up in an amazing job that perfectly fits my skills, pays me what I’m worth (twice what I was making before and on track to be $30 or more an hour by end of this year), and has a regular schedule that doesn’t change weekly.
So I absolutely advocate lying to get the job because most of the time you’re still qualified even if you think you aren’t!
I’m no engineer but answering “I dont know but can learn quickly” and answering with confidence has gone a long way for me in the past.
You did the trick ATS with white text in LaTeX and it worked? I’ve been nervous to try because I’ve heard of people getting black listed if caught.
Then again, if you’re yolo applying what’s the harm?
I’m drunk but imo proficienct enough i could actually trouble you. how about talking to a troubled, drunken person to help u out?
do you remember the *exact* questions and coding questions and everything so we can get an idea ourselves?