Project Manager Artur Derda was very close to an offer at a Ukrainian IT company: he had gone through several interviews and completed a test. He was already imagining himself as part of the team when he was rejected, the reason for which shocked him.
Project Manager Artur Derda was very close to an offer at a Ukrainian IT company: he had gone through several interviews and completed a test. He was already imagining himself as part of the team when he was rejected, the reason for which shocked him.
The recruiter’s rejection didn’t include the standard phrase “we found a better candidate.” Instead, Arthur saw in the message: “Thank you for your time, but your posts on LinkedIn have made us wary.”
"At first I thought it was because I often write about my own experience and it could be reflected on the company or in some negative way. But no. The problem was that I was publicly asking questions and asking for advice from experienced specialists," the Project Manager said in his LinkedIn post.
Some of Arthur's posts were with questions like "What methods did you use to learn English?", "What tools do you use?", "If you were faced with such a situation, how would you solve it?", etc.
But the company perceived this as an insufficient level of competence.
“It seemed to me that this showed a willingness to learn and develop. What better way to ask real experts than to rely only on ChatGPT with its basic answers. But for this company, this was a red flag,” the specialist explained.
Before this situation, Arthur believed that companies valued people who were not afraid to ask questions, were willing to learn, and didn’t pretend to know everything. But now he had a “real cognitive dissonance.”
Arthur turned to the LinkedIn community to ask whether such a refusal was justified and whether it could be a red flag for the company when a candidate publicly seeks advice.
As it turned out, Artur's experience is not unique. Category Manager Iryna Staryk said in a comment to the post that she also had a similar rejection, but because of "provocative" posts.
In general, most people noted that such a company is a red flag for employees, and it's probably for the best that this was revealed during the hiring process, not while working there.
“Maybe this company doesn’t need a living person, but a biorobot with success in everything,” joked web developer Oleksandr Rosyk.
UX/UI designer Yulia Dvornychenko believes: “If this company was looking for a candidate who already knows EVERYTHING, then I have bad news for them. It doesn’t matter if you’re a senior with 10+ years of experience or a lead with 15+, if you don’t continue
"If you don't want to learn or think it's embarrassing to ask colleagues about their experience in certain issues, then who needs such a specialist?"
However, developer Konstantin Khomko added that “some companies value people who can make decisions themselves, and not ask for advice from someone. Although, of course, not all of them are like that. It depends on the management. But for some, it is critically important. And it depends on what position. Therefore, it probably wasn’t your company. There will be another and better one,” developer Konstantin Khomko noted.
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