They reject me because I didn’t have 18 years of Kafka experience…

I was talking with a developer early today…

And he told me something that really bothers me…

"During the interviews" he told me…
"they reject me for things that were not listed in the job posting…"

"Like what?" I asked.

"Things like requiring that I'm fluent in a language, even though the posting only required English. Or sometimes a technology, like experience with AI or Cloud."

Yeah.

Here is the reality…

If they want to hire you…
Because they know you…
They worked with you…
They read your book….

They don't mind if anything is missing.

I've helped developers that didn't even have the basics…
Devs that didn't speak English…
when the team was international and required English.

Devs that didn't know the base technology that was required by the job…
Devs that didn't have the experience required…

I talked with a CEO that hired for his VP of Sales a person he trusted, who specifically told him "I have no sales experience."

My investor wanted me to become the President of the company, even when I told him I had no idea what I would do…

Many developers are promoted to Managers, even though they have no management experience, and they don't even want to do it…

I have a mentee that changed how much he wanted, AFTER he had accepted the offer. And got 30% increase…

They got the job, even though they didn't have a required item.

Now…

If they don't want to hire you…
It is usually not because they don't like you.
It is usually not because you are not good enough.

Usually, they don't want to hire you because they want to hire SOMEONE ELSE.

Someone they trust.

Then… they will come up with whatever excuse they can come up with, to not hire you…

You don't have English…
Oh, you do have?
Sorry, you also need to speak either German or Portuguese.
Oh, you do speak German? We need both actually…

You don't have at least 18 years of experience in Kafka…
*What? Kafka was released in 2011?
Sorry, we need someone that worked on it before it was released…*

You don't know AI or Cloud…
Oh, it is great that you have 18 years of AWS, and that makes you one of the first AWS users in the world…
But…. we are looking for someone that has experience with AWS Ground Station and AWS Snowmobile.

Ignore my hyperbole there…

I've seen companies coming up with the most stupid reasons not to hire you…

I was in a recruiting process and the reason they gave to not hire me was that I went to the interview with t-shirt and jeans…

Even though all the people I talked with in the company, including their VP and the hiring manager that interviewed me were wearing t-shirt and jeans…

They don't hire you because you are not good enough…
Or because you are wearing t-shirt and jeans…

They don't hire you because… they want to hire someone else!

Or worse…
Because they already hired someone else…
and are just going through the motions to justify the position…

Yeah.
That happens too.
In most hiring processes by the way…

In the t-shirt and jeans case, the hiring manager hired someone that came from the same company he came a few months before. I can't prove that, yet, I'm pretty sure they knew each other.

This bothers me so much that I wrote a book about it…

No….
What bothers me is not that companies do that.

This is the game…
I think you even SHOULD hire someone you trust, instead someone that just applied for your job post!

What really bothers me… is when you, or devs like the developer I talked with today, still don't understand the game you are playing…

You have to know the job rejection game…

They tell you it's about missing skills. But the real issue is missing trust…

The hiring manager already has someone in mind. Maybe a former colleague. Maybe someone recommended by their network. Maybe someone who contributed to their open source project.

You're not competing against the job requirements. You're competing against existing relationships.

And when they reject you, they can't say "we hired my friend instead"…
So they find something technical to blame…

This is why networking beats coding skills.
This is why contributing to projects beats polishing your resume.
This is why building relationships beats studying algorithms.

The best developers understand this game…
They don't just apply for jobs. They create opportunities…

When a position opens up, companies think of them first.

That is the game…

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Cheers,
Bruno.
The "Getting You the Best Job Ever" Man