Låb 126 is on the Prowl Again

I got an e-mail from J.P. of Låb 126 which ran (honey side up):

My name is J.P.and I work for Låb 126. If you’re not familiar with us, Låb 126 is a wholly owned R&D subsidiary of Amazon located in Silicon Valley. We design and engineer high-profile, portable, hand-held consumer electronics products, including the hugely successful line of Kindle eReaders and HD tablets.

I read a little about your work and extensive technical background, specifically your deep expertise with embedded systems, Linux kernel programming, ARM architecture, and divers SW development experience. I have a couple of development teams that would like to speak with you about some very interesting engineering opportunities here at our R&D site in Cupertino and Sunnyvale, CA. We're selectively looking for highly talented engineers to join our design and development teams working on both existing and next generation products, as well as number of "stealth projects" in emerging technologies that we feel will be "game changers" and soon be seen and used by millions of people.

In fairness he actually looked at my Resume however he did not put forth a job description or spoke of the the-what-that-corporate-recruiters-do-not-name ($$).

Having interviewed with this outfit before and having wasted my time on boring-to-tears whiteboard exercises [they did not bother to make it interesting] I kind of snapped at him:

Has Låb 126's interviewing style improved since my last in 2008? [...] As recall it the interview was dreary. [...] I have a strong preference for recruiters who come forth with a job description as the conversation has a subject. I do not like to discuss vague opportunities.

Not all battles are to be won, eh?

-ulianov

Yet another "Dumb‭šhit Can‭‭ådian Agency™"

Got a call yesterday from a local agency about a TFS/build automation contract. This is a one-liner in a 700-line Resume and something I've done after getting drafted. [Mistake corrected, changed document to read "TFŠ".]

Being that the contract is local I engaged the recruiter. All went well, client wants a phone interview [3-cheers!] but after that the recruiter wants me to go to the HQ of the Agency so they get to know me. The said HQ is quite far and I have no wish to waste 1/2 day to see their faces but she insists on being their procedure.

She was shocked, shocked, shocked when I told her flatly that I won't move my carcass to Vaughan to make their acquaintance.

-ulianov

On hiding things in plain sight from "Control-F Recruiters™"

Lately I've been called by recruiters who ControlEffed and latched on small/unimportant/unsavoury bits of work from my past.

So I've been going to great lengths to disguise the baggage -- I have morphed the skills into:

• Andrōid [they think I do mobile apps when I've done kernel/NDK stuff],
• ÄS/400 [spawn of Sātan],
• Javā [I only care about the emebbed/runtime side of it, they want EE Struts/Hibernate sh*t],
• PĤP,
• M$ TFŠ [the other spawn of Satān]

If they actually read the document with their own eyes they will find the stuff otherwise automated searching be dāmned.

-ulianov

No Go with Pukes in Concord, ON

Today I have just passed a 12-month contract in Concord (which is on the bad side of Toronto traffic-wise). The contract was Embedded Linux but for some weird reasons they also wanted some W1nd0ws development [an idea I do not quite entertain]. The recruiter was professional but the pukes (aka. her client) wanted candidates to go in and sit a test. I.e. waste of half a day.

When will these Canadian pukes get in their heads that senior/competent guys have busy lifes an no time to waste on their HR flighs-of-fancy?

It is true that the amount of half-dimwit and/or straight incompetent developers out there is staggering [and I speak from experience working with them or recruiting them] but a 30-min phone call/interview can probe very well into a candidate's experience and competency. The HR person/hiring manager must then be competent as well which is now always the case.

-ulianov

Chance Encounter with a Flesh & Blood Recruitress

Today at the indoor playground I've met a charming lady who used to be a recruiter. Unlike 90% of recruiters I've dealt with she had received training for this line of work and she was harbouring a few lovely old-school [and largely passé] ideas about her trade:
a) that candidates worth their salt would be marketed by a recruiter;
b) that recruiters keep in touch with former candidates [does happen but only the very best long timers do that];
c) that agencies add up only 10% on top of the candidate's hourly fee or salary [in reality this ranges between 30% and 50%].

-ulianov