This is a long story but I will try to make it short.
In the last months I was in search for a new role. A few things changed recently in better in my live and I decided that is the moment to evolve in career. I decided to get a better position changing the company.
You probably already know that many times, is harder to be promoted in the company where you worked for years than getting a new job. Why this? Because sometime your superiors doesn’t want to bring a new person to replace you once they know you, and you are doing your job well. Also it can be impossible to get the position of a superior because he is to well anchored into the role. Analyzing all of this you realize that a new beginning will better suit your situation.
In a career is a good thing to change the company after a few years if they are no chances to be promoted. Going somewhere else you will get new experiences knowing new people and opening new horizons. All of this making from you a better professional.
I have been to a lot of interviews. I would say probably 20 face to face in the last 3-4 months. And you probably know already that before to go to a face-to-face one you first have to talk with agents. A lot of agents. Things changed in the last year and now is almost impossible to get in contact directly with a company.
For a few months I was talking almost daily with something between 2 and 15 agents from different companies. I had incredible busy days sometimes. They all wanted to place me on a role and many times I had nothing in common with the role they were talking about.
I am a web developer and for people like me, to be well prepared on a lot of technologies is crucial. This criteria is more intensified here in London where the market is very well developed and is a lot of concurrence in both cases: companies and developers.
The technology range is also very big and because you will find companies doing all king of things, things you never imagine, you will also discover people and teams working with all the technologies from the world.
I was in competition with a lot of other developers. I am sure that many of them with more experience than me on certain technologies, but I also felt many time that I am very good and above other developers.
I meet all king of interviewers (lead projects in the most part, CTOs):
A lot of things can be said in this direction but I will go back to the agents, because is something that made me this morning to write this article.
Many times an agent can call just to introduce himself and to find a possible candidate, but he will start the conversation in a way that will give you the feeling of very important news. And you will spend in this way a lot of time with discussions about nothing.
Sometimes an agent can give a call to present a role with technologies that you will not even know. But you can’t refuse him very easy because you need to show interest in new things to. And is also indicated to accept working with new technologies if a company will allow you to learn them.
This process started to be very annoying after a while but I had to keep calm and to do my best to get a job. I had to be polite and to accept challenges.
In a career, you need to accept challenges.
Many of them, if you want them or not, will make you better, give more experience and prepare you for the next step.
All this process last for months with phone calls, doing test (and many times it was a queue of tests on my computer for different role), face to face meeting , waiting feedbacks for weeks in many cases and a lot of frustration.
I experienced going to face to face interview where the interviewer didn’t even had the part of the CV with my portfolio link. If was a very bad start.
Why this was happening? Because the agent who sent me to the company, removed contact data to do not lose me giving to the company the possibility to contact me directly. But in this way, completely aware about what it will happen, the agent reduced a lot my chances to get the role. In this way for the employer company was impossible to know what I done in the past and what I am capable of.
This thing must change!
Have you ever been in the process of searching for a new role? Of course you have been!
This is from my personal experience but I am sure is happening to a lot of people.
I was called in this morning by a job agent having nothing to tell me. He had a few yawns in the time of speaking, saying after each yawn that is still too early in the morning (it was 10:00AM). The most annoying thing is also that he was calling with a hidden number.
The agent called me just to ask how is the job search going.
He started with lies like “We worked really well together on a previous role at X (a company with a name that I didn’t recognized)” In the reality, we didn’t. But he wanted to make me believe that we had a close relationship and I can trust him now again. He didn’t know well what exactly I do and with what technologies I work (he was just saying a few general things hoping I will believe him). He was saying “I am working for companies who are looking for strong candidate like you” but he didn’t had any roles for me when I asked him.
In the end he asked me if I know any companies looking for candidates like me. What? (I said) This is your job! And he closed the call fast with a simple Cheers!
If you are in the process or searching for a role, be aware of this process. You will be invaded with phone calls of people who are employed and need to achieve some targets. Calling you, will not be always with a good reason. It can be just to show to his superiors that he is making calls. He is calling you to convince to go to an interview even if the role is not the one you want. All of this because he need to do something in his day to day job and he doesn’t want to look unprofessional in front of a company who engaged him to find candidates.
Jobs market is extending a lot, and we almost ended having more Jobs Hunting agents than people who can be placed on other roles.