Life Musings

This is old news, but I feel like relating it anyway. I once had a job interview with an outfit that seemed very suspicious. Very screwy indeed. (Let's call them "Company A".)

As it turned out, Company A was looking to hire someone that could farm out to another firm (which we'll call "Company B") as a temporary consultant. Apparently, they had no current employees available, so he needed someone FAST. In fact, he wanted that person to start within three days(!!!), which is hardly reasonable if that person is still employed elsewhere.

During my interview, the manager explained that I would also be interviewed by Company B. He said that if I passed, I would serve for a 3-6 month contract, after which they'd find something else for me to do. I felt uneasy about that, as it seemed like a very vague promise. He didn't even bother to tell me what other kind of work they do, or how he sees me fitting in. It sounded like he was just desperate to find someone for this short-term contract work, and that he hadn't given much thought much to what I would do for them afterwards.

Interestingly enough, this manager was the only one who interviewed me, and he only asked one technical question -- how to reverse a linked list. (Apparently, this was a standard interview question at Company B.) He didn't seem too interested in how deep my skills were. This told me that was thinking of me as a short-term worker, rather than a long-term employee. This told me that he might not be serious about keeping me employed after this 3-6 month contract.
What's more, he wanted me to lie and claim that I was already his employee. I said to myself, "Heck, if he wants me to blatantly lie about this -- without even feeling me out first -- then why should I believe his promise to have additional work for me after 3-6 months?" Besides, if I'm being farmed out to another outfit, instead of working on internal projects, then I probably wouldn't have opportunities to develop domain expertise that would motivate them to keep me on the payroll.

I decided not to risk it. The whole situation left a foul taste in my mouth. Eww. I'm glad that I decided not to take that offer, either. After all, if a manager is willing to blatantly ask a prospective employee to lie through his teeth -- with no hemming or hawing, I might add -- then why should this prospective employee trust any of his claims, or trust him to make good on any of his promises?

For example, this fella assured me that his company was always profitable, and that he would find additional work for me once this short-term project was done. I think he was probably lying -- and even if he wasn't, I think I had good reason to be mistrustful.