Contracting Part 6 : Turning down jobs



  • Background: Finishing Delphi Contract, they wanted to extend because ironically they realised I was quite good with JavaScript and web-dev in general after sitting with one of the bosses helping diagnose a front end performance problem and sitting with some of the Java programmers and teaching them how to JavaScript properly. I told them that while I appreciated that they liked me and wanted to keep me. I didn't like working their because the office was a shambles (not just physically) and I didn't feel like I could deliver the quality work considering the environment I had to work in.

    I had a phone interview last Wednesday for a 3 month contract at about ~£380 day that was near London (but not in it).

    They were desperate for a Sitecore Certified Developer. Sitecore Jobs in London can get upto £600-700 a day, once you are in the circuit. So I was quite keen on getting on the Sitecore Train again.

    So I arranged an telephone interview at Lunchtime and went to the cafe I usually take my lunch break in to take the interview. No call after 30 minutes past the arranged time. I phone the recruiter saying "no show on their part".

    They called me 1 hour and half later.

    So the recruiter phoned me and said "when you can do an interview again today" ... I said "I can't" .. he said they could phone me whenever.

    So I had an interview slot at 7.30pm. I took the interview and I was honestly starting to get pissed off with some of the questions because the interviewer worded them so badly. I actually said during the interview "What you said doesn't make sense when talking about ASP.NET" and was almost arguing with the guy.

    I had questions like:

    • Q: Where do you put JavaScript? A : Depends?

    They told me nothing about the project etc, didn't allow me to ask questions and the interview was over.

    I emailed the recruiter saying I wasn't interested no matter which way I got the job. After him doing the hard sell on me, I told the recruiter I would think about it as I wasn't impressed they couldn't be bothered to phone me on time and the interview itself pissed me off.

    Turned out I was the best candidate. FUCK.

    I turned them down. Even though I knew it was a contract before xmas, that was paying decently everything told me in my gut to stay away.

    Everything rational was like "take it, make money", and the other part of me was saying "it will be another shitshow".

    EDIT: Some clarity, I originally interviewed for a JavaScript contract role, but ended up doing Delphi (I got paid I don't care).


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