Weather and Interviewing
I had to change the script that processes the page from The Weather Channel's site because they changed the format of the information. Not a big deal, but when you're scraping stuff off the pages, it's a constant battle to stay abreast with their changes. It would be much nicer if they simply offered a database link that I could connect to... 🙂 In any case, the change was pretty easy to make once I knew what the problem was.
Then I received a call back from one of the headhunters I'd been dealing with in my latest round of job searches. The company I had interviewed with a few days ago was still uncertain about me - and the only negative things they could think of were the fact that I didn't wear a suit, and what they considered to be my limited experience with C++.
Now I don't usually rant in this journal, but here's something I'm going to rant about... I've been doing C++ work for over 15 years - OK, not every day all 15 years, but I don't write Java every day, all day, and I'm still outstanding at it. Yes, I've taken a few years off from C++ - sticking primarily to C and Java and web tools, but I'm as good in C++ as I ever was. More importantly, the technical interviews I've had with this company have all seemed quite fine with my technical skills. So much so, that they've said to my face the C++ isn't an issue. But to the headhunter they say different.
So it's one of two things - they are looking for a reason to ding me, or they aren't honest to me or the headhunter. Either is bad. Both means I don't like them.
Then there's the dress code. Now I'm not a slob - I'm very neat in appearance, and take great pride in a clean cut appearance. I bathe regularly, brush my teeth twice a day, and make sure to wear clean, pressed, clothes.
But not a suit.
I don't mind if others want to wear one, and I'll admit that there may be deep-rooted emotional damage in my background that is the root cause for this aversion to suits, but I just won't wear them. I don't own one. I can't image buying one. I own three ties, and only wear them and a sports coat in times of death and marriage. I look very nice in a button-down collar Lands End shirt and slacks. I always have polished shoes, and never try to pass off "hiking boots" as business shoes.
But that wasn't good enough for this one person. No... he was surprised that I didn't wear a suit to meet with the President of the company. Now mind you, the President himself wasn't surprised, it's this other person... but that's beside the point. The person making this judgement upon me was unkempt, wore hiking boots, and for an IT Director had the most incredibly messy desk I've ever seen. While a certain amount of clutter is normal, once the clutter stands for more than a few weeks, it fails to have any value and just indicates sloppy organizational skills. This was the man passing judgement on my dress...
Thankfully, experiences like this make me all the more convinced that this is not a place I want to work. For if they make these judgements in light of their own incredibly poor showing, then it's a situation that's bound to be bad sooner or later. I'm a very neat and orderly person, and I couldn't care a whit about what someone wears - so long as it's neat and clean. But if this place, or even just this person, is making these kinds of judgements about me, and then not being honest to either me or the headhunter, then I'm glad they're only so-so about me. I'm certainly only so-so about them.
I'm willing to give everyone a second-chance. I think a lot of the problems we have these days is because people rush to judgement and don't give second-chances. So if this place were to call me and talk up-font about these issues, I'd probably be fine with it. After all, maybe he'd had a bad day and maybe he worshiped the ground the President walked on. I don't know. But I do know that one rush to judgement is fine - so long as it's talked out. Failing to talk it out, or making another is unacceptable for me.
And so the search continues...