Conducting an interview made a tech professional experience an epiphany. Taking to the subreddit Developers India, a techie shared how interviewing five job candidates opened his eyes to the sordid state of the IT job market and pathetic plight of tech graduates today and how fortunate he was that the job market in his day was no so overflooded.
Out of the five candidates he interviewed, he had to reject three. Of those rejected, two were very confident at the beginning and nailed all theoretical questions. However, they struggled badly when they were asked to write a simple programme. It took him back to his own interview.
“Seeing them get stuck like that felt like looking in a mirror. I’ve been in that exact same spot before, freezing up on code and getting rejected…” he wrote.
Then he reflected how in his time, interviews were relatively easier, as recruiters mostly tested candidates on their theoretical knowledge.
“The interviewers mostly stuck to oral, theoretical questions. Because of that, I was able to answer smoothly, got selected, and that’s how I have this job today. If they had asked me to do a live programming task like the one I gave out today, I definitely wouldn’t have been selected…” he reminisced.
The techie then concluded that the experience left him more grateful than ever for his job and how fortunate he was. “Walking away from this, I just feel incredibly blessed. It made me realize how carefully I need to treat the job I have right now, and how much I need to appreciate it. Seeing how many people are out there struggling to clear interviews really puts things into perspective and makes you value what you have…”
Redditors React
Responding to the post, one Reddit user pointed how interviews are not only about knowledge but also a bit about luck and being at the right place at the right time.
“Experiences like this remind you that clearing interviews isn’t just about knowledge, there’s a bit of timing and fortune involved too…” he wrote.
Another quipped: “I agree with you, I am taking interviews for big company rn and I am seeing a lot of people with good theoretical knowledge but couldn’t do a simple onclick function code to change a bg color of box. Had to reject 90% of them on the basis of just this, point to be noted is that everyone is 4 to 13 years of experience. People have become so obsessed with AI doing code for them that they are forgetting the basics.
I even had people cry on screen because they got the self realisation they are going to be rejected…”