[TRENCHES] Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - As Crazy as It Looks

Geth

As Crazy as It Looks
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/as-crazy-as-it-looks

...Finding bugs in a game on Interview didn’t get me the job….

Anonymous

Many years ago I applied and received an Interview for a testing position for a very prestigious games company based in Portsmouth. FANTASTIC!

With my CV and a Thermos of tea I drove down that morning to attend the interview. I chatted to the receptionist and was politely asked to find a seat and wait for the interviewer.

She arrived, introduced herself and gave me the tour of the office (which was very nice). We went to her office and the interview commenced. Everything seemed to be going well, my CV went down a treat, I was articulate and I felt I gave a good account of myself.

The next part of the interview was to test a driving game yet to be released. I sat down with my pad (a paper one - it was 2003) and spent the allotted time finding frame rate drops and I even managed to crash the game completely (considering I was only given 5 minutes I thought that was pretty good going). The test ended and I handed over my notes. “Well” she said reading my notes “You appear to have found about 15 bugs that our testers haven’t even found yet” I replied modestly “Oh? Really, well I’m sure they would have found them eventually.”

I left the building feeling very pleased with myself, Good Interview - check, Games Test - check…

I drove home….

The next day I received a phone call from the developer. “Unfortunately we will not be able to offer you the job. This is in part due to your experience. We feel we cannot offer you suitable wages.” The job went to a snotty nosed kid who was probably being paid in peanut M&M’s….

In the last year I have started my own games company and hope that if I reach the heady heights of being able to employ staff I will employ them on ability and experience and not that they are cheap… well unless they are really good and really cheap as well of course.

Scarab83

Umm.. did the art style drastically change yet again?

Shakes999

Nope, same as before.

Also, I don't want this season to end.

twesterm

Oh, to be as naive as the person who wrote today's story.

I'm going to guess he's right around 20.

Commander Zoom

"You see, this position is for a disposable peon that we can underpay, exploit, and then discard at our whim."

zepherin

Commander Zoom wrote: »

"You see, this position is for a disposable peon that we can underpay, exploit, and then discard at our whim."

This is a fallacy I see with modern HR. If someone extremely competent who can do the work of 2 people comes along, hire them and have them do the work of two people for a 25-30 percent pay premium. It's win-win. But hr tends to view positions as fixed spots with a dollar value, instead of a fluid situation where you staff more or less depending on talent.