Red flags, or optimizing the recruiter's time? A developer shared a list of questions he received in response to his CV. Do IT professionals consider them acceptable?
Senior Frontend Developer Kyrylo Lutsenko shared in a post the recruiter’s answer and question, which was sent to his friend in response to the CV she sent. He asked the community how many personal red flags specialists counted for themselves after reviewing the list of these questions. Did IT specialists find anything scary for themselves there?
Senior Frontend Developer Kyrylo Lutsenko shared in a post the recruiter’s answer and question, which was sent to his friend in response to the CV she sent. He asked the community how many personal red flags specialists counted for themselves after reviewing the list of these questions. Did IT specialists find anything scary for themselves there?
About context
«Thank you for your interest in our vacancy. We need some time to consider your candidacy. Could you please answer the following questions that are important for this stage,» the developer shared the recruiter’s response and provided the list sent.
Did you have the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the job description and requirements?
Do you have enough experience to be an independent front-end developer on this project?
How many projects did you participate in in total?
What is your rating?
Do you have an open Ukrainian sole proprietorship to make payments?
The project is tentatively scheduled to start on May 5. Will this period be comfortable for you and will it be possible to work a standard working day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (8 hours per day)?
Would a short-term involvement in the project suit you? We are tentatively targeting 2 months.
What red flags did the author of the post see?
Kyrylo Lutsenko noted that he raises questions about red flags without being negative, but here is what he personally sees in what was written:
It’s hard for me to imagine a cool product, with well-tuned processes, written in 2 months with one developer on the front end.
The start is on the 5th, and the team is still understaffed.
I would really like it if, in the conditions of air alarms, the employer understood that at least +/- 1 hour could be added to the 9-18 schedule, respectively. I have had many great experiences in companies where mandatory hours were defined for being on call, other schedules are flexible and it works.
«Personally, I wouldn’t really want to participate in such a project,» the developer added.
«Norm»
Some IT professionals didn’t see a problem with the above questions. Here’s what they see in this approach to interviews:
Dmytro Voytovych, Frontend developer
I answered something like this: «I read the requirements in the vacancy and everything suits me.»
Georgy Cherenkov, CIO/CTO at a mid-size company
Standard, normal questions. Sometimes they indicate a «keyword» in the description to check if they really read the vacancy (but it is somewhere in the descriptions, not in the essence of the responsibilities).
My letter:
Do you have a postponement/reservation?
Can you leave the country BEFORE starting work/immediately after/1-3 months/after the probationary period?
Therefore, the questions stated by the Author are simply questions.
Volodymyr Dren, Senior SEO & SERM, Team Lead
And why is there a red flag? The recruiter saves his and your time for an interview, where these issues are discussed anyway.
Serhiy Shynkarenko, Expert Game Producer
What’s wrong? Normal response to understand the details.
You can ask about the time and say that you need a more specific date because you need to plan your other things.
That is, they ask you directly for details and you can ask directly.
PS In my opinion, it’s better than what will happen later.
Svyatoslav Bordovsky, QA Automation Engineer
None. Quite the opposite of the norm. Everyone would immediately ask all the questions about the case before the first call.
Paul Savchuk, Senior Backend Software Engineer at Mindojo
Sorry, where are the red flags? Like they didn’t read the resume and determine for themselves whether the candidate is suitable?
Because, well, I see a standard list of questions, quite logical from a business point of view.
It’s like when QA sends you a bug, and you ask them to fix the endpoints and payloads to save a couple of hours on a big project.
Olena Kuznetsova, Data Warehouse Lead
Half of the questions are probably related to the fact that the recruiter has already reread the job posting a hundred times because they haven’t read it. Not a very professional presentation, and may indicate that they will pressure you and pay a penny, or maybe not. There are risks, so the rate should be higher than usual.
Maria Kalkatina, QA Engineer
I wouldn’t have liked such a schedule and short-term involvement either, but it’s good that these points were voiced right away. I had to get to the technical interview to find out that the team has mandatory times at 9-10 am. For a number of reasons, this is critical for me, and in principle it’s not that difficult to find a job where this isn’t the case.
«Stream»
Who and what did you dislike about the recruiter’s approach?
Gennady Opryshko, CEO — GR Agro, Co-Founder — MovaTex
Red flag bingo: 7 out of 7. And most importantly, all this under the guise of «we’ll think about whether you’re a good fit for us.»
Arthur, Flutter Mobile Developer
I just didn’t like that there was no time for lunch, I can’t work for 8 hours without eating.
Considerations and conclusions
«Standard questions — I don’t see any red flags here right away,» Vika Kovalchuk noted in a comment to IT Sourcer and explained why:
These questions can be answered in 2 minutes because they do not require a lengthy answer.
You can immediately understand for yourself whether the terms of cooperation are suitable or not, because I noticed several points that may not be okay for everyone.
These questions make it possible not to waste 30 minutes on an interview with a recruiter.
They didn’t ask about age, marital status, or whether they had children.
Product Designer Anna Maria Rubtsova, after analyzing the above list of questions from the recruiter, suggested who exactly the company is looking for, and also added how she would behave during such a communication:
They want the freelancer to be an independent unit.
But they want a quick turnaround.
I would position myself for this vacancy as an expensive but reliable performer. Well, you remember that «time is money, quality is — choose two.»
But since there is a question about the rating, they will select the person with the lowest rating from those who agreed.
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