Though this guy is an idiot on sooooo many different levels, at least hes honest. This is much unlike the many companies Ive done as many as 4 phones screens with then after a Skype, Face to Face or Google lookup, I am not as qualified or in many of their emails, BEFORE they saw me, a perfect candidate. I guess when looking at my credentials on paper, hearing the great things high level executives and colleagues have had to say, former military and not sounding like Lil Wayne over the phone, they all created an image of what they thought Id look like before actually seeing pictures of me or meeting me in person. You should see the look on their faces when they walked past me in the reception area seeking Rodney Lester, when I walked in room behind recruiter or walked in a room where I was waiting and realized I was a 511, 280 pound black man who spends a lot of time in the gym. Busted up that image of Erkle coming to interview. I wont say company or peoples name but will say that there should not ever be one person making decisions on hiring. Based off my experiences, the decision to hire or not should be based off a diverse panel of 5 and the majority wins. Sit down because what I am about to share with you is going to seem unreal BUT I have concrete proof and a few closest to me have seen the emails and are stunned at the reality of racism being on an institutional level like this. 2 of my caucasian friends were almost brought to tears when they read the direct email trail. Another, after walking this with me for months says that The spirit of Affirmative Action was designed for this but failed in reality because it morphed into a quota system of sorts. Here are a few, just a few examples of whats happened over the last 10 months, heck just last 3 months to keep it simple, with MAJOR companies and / or consulting firms: 1. 2 phones screens with recruiter and 3 with 2 executives in a consulting firm where we covered my strengths, weakness, haves and have nots. I arrive early for face to face, opened door to boiler room where all consultants were keying away then silence as I ask for reception area which was behind another door. The President was running late so, I spent the time chatting with his Executive Assistant who told me Id be meeting with the team after the final interview. President walks in 20 minutes late and with that shocked look on his face and looking up at me says, Good Lord Muscle Man, Dont crush my hand, LOL. as I shook his hand with a little less pressure than he was giving mine. I dont have everything on my resume just whats needed according to the job description. He immediately acknowledged all that was discussed in previous interviews and started questioning my abilities in other areas within reporting and some BA work which was not on resume or in job description. I gave him solid answers and examples of where Ive implemented that knowledge. He showed his frustration with not being able to stomp me by crossing his arm, leaning back in chair then doing the unthinkable. He completely changed the job description of what he was looking for. Both his Executive Assistant and I sat even straighter up. She looked perplexed while I stated, In 5 communications surrounding this position and leading up to my meeting with you, XYZ has never come up or I would have disqualified myself. Why now? He responds, Well all of our consultants are flexible and can do XYZ if on a site and the client needs it. I counter with, So, you allow Gold Plating (he looked surprised that I knew that term) outside of the SOW? Considering you are a consulting firm in the business of making money, thats interesting. He ends with, No, we are flexible to a degree to best serve clients.. Then he thanks me for coming in and says, Its not a no for you, its a not just yet. Well, there could be some valid opinions on how I handled it but what happened the next evening confirmed what I suspected. The Executive Assistant confidentiality called me to say she lost sleep over what happened AFTER I left and carried over the next day. Shes sat on every interview for that position and I was the most qualified in almost 2 months of searching. She was alarmed that he changed the job description because hes never done that before. The worse things were the clear racists remarks he and consultants made: Dead man walking, LOL, Aint gonna be no Green Mile in here...LOL. She said she left early then cried all the way home. She just wanted to apologize but needs her job so, asked that I not do anything further. End of story. 2. 3 pre-screens then face to face. I felt pretty good this time because I didnt get the look. Went south soon afterwards. 3 separate panels come in to interview me but all asked similar questions. Last person comes in and ask what I like to do when not writing reports. I think to myself, Huh? Then I see him kinda looking me over then realize hes asking a question he probably knows the answer to already so I answer, I sing and spend a lot of time in the gym. Then comes the unthinkable and reason I didnt get the look. He says, Ahhh, so that is you with those arms that look like thighs I said huh. He googled a saw pictures of me in gym before calling me in. Then he asked me to take off my jacket, called a couple of the others back in and said, Pay up, that aint no Photoshop shirt.. The others do the ahhhh man thing and ask what I do to build such massive arms. I was so dumbfounded that I answered the question without processing that I wasnt really brought in to settle a bet until the recruiter let me know they passed on me because I didnt have enough experience in an area that was required. They knew my level of experience before calling me in. 3. Company has 2 phone screens with 2 different people who both ask different questions. They both express excitement that someone like me was still on the market and to move things on along quicker wanted to do face to face on Skype versus having me travel to Savannah which is where we would have to relocate to. I Skype the very next morning with same 2 who interviewed me earlier. No new questions really just a few extra technical questions for benefit or HR person and situational questions for benefit of technical person. In the same day that afternoon, recruiter tells me I was being passed over because I didnt have a technology degree. I didnt have a technology degree when they received my resume and interviewed me on 3 occassions. Only difference between first 2 interviews and last is the got to see me on the last then realized that I am not Erkle. 4. HUGE national company with 4 ladies running the department have me come in AFTER clearly knowing my credentials. I walk into the office area and all the lights are INTENTIONALLY off and they have lamps on desk. They escort me to a different dark area then flip on the lights and sit me across from them. The manager tries to make it seem that reporting from one Lawson module is much different from reporting from another and I let it ride. I recognize one of the ladies from church and she recognizes me. We sidebar chat for a second then conclude interview on what I thought was a good note. Manager promises to make decision by end of next day, recruiter chases her for the next week and I inboxed message to familiar face. Familiar face assures me that I am the leading candidate. Finally, after a week and half, recruiter informs me that there was never an approval to add a person to the team. In other words, there wasnt a job to interview for. #OneForTheBooks 5. I do phone screen then 1st of what should be 4 interviews. Greeted by beautiful smile of black lady who would be my peers in a new area for me. QA. She and another peer interview me for 2.5 hrs and feel good about my ability to catch it quickly. Their feelings were validated by each of my high ranking references who boasted of my learning and mastering new technology in less than a week hands on then teaching others within a month. I got an immediate positive response from the recruiter and the person who interviewed me as well as her boss, sent me a challenge to learn quality testing in a week. Recruiter said theyd be fast forwarding past next 2 weeks and they would make offer after my next interview of which the Director changed her plans to attend because the 2 Quality Analyst who interviewed me for 2.5 hrs the week before were, in their words, Passionate and certain that Rodney is the perfect candidate. I was so certain about this one that I withdrew from a bootcamp to focus on quality. Quality friends in my network helped me beef up early and affirmed that I sounded like an old pro in Quality Testing just before walking into interview. Oddly enough the same lady met me in the lobby to walk me in and alerted me that the Director was called away and she would be sitting in her place with one other person. She assured me on the way up that I had nothing to worry about then we entered the room. BAM!!! I got the look then immediate crossing of arms. After an entire week learning Quality best practices and getting familiar with the tool they use for testing, in the less than 30 minutes for this interview, she never asked one quality question but instead situational questions based off my past experience as a developer and owner of my company. She barely looked up from what she was preoccupied with on her laptop. I thought to myself, well, there goes that then while walking back to elevator, the peer I would have, assured me that all was well and she and the other QA Analyst already had a plan to bring me quickly up to speed. This was on a Friday afternoon at the end of the day. By the following Monday morning BEFORE 7:30am, my recruiter had forwarded an email stating that they were passing on me because I seemed to be passionate about development and not as interested in Quality. Also, they said they felt I wouldnt do well in a team atmosphere where I am not the leader. How was that assessed? They asked a developer questions based off past experiences and owner of company how hed handle multiple projects at same time while NEVER ONCE asking a question regarding Quality. The only difference between my being the perfect fit and not was the biased opinion of a fearful blonde who wasnt in the department I was interviewing with. My problem is that the 2 others who wouldve been my peers didnt stand their ground and neither did the most important African American, the Director / hiring manager. #WeakLeadersDisgustMe, #SlaveToMasterMentalityDisgustMe, #Ignorance2ObviousDigustMe 6. Last one. Just last week I interviewed for role requiring skills of a Jr Developer at best. Pay was less than half my normal rate but after 10 months of this, I just need to work. The interview was short and sweet. Only 2 simple SQL questions and a couple reporting questions. I thought, Not a lot of money but enough to catch up on a mountain of bills. Sit down for this. Recruiter notifies me the next day that they were passing on me because unwashed too light in SQL. I gasped then replied via email with the 2 questions he asked which were 2 separate queries, my answers to those 2 questions and I went the extra mile and put the code in a sample database then pasted the results in the same email. The recruiter was perplexed and sent my response to the account manager who asked the client to give clarity. Clients answer was basically, Yeah, but he didnt answer fast enough. Now, I am on outs with recruiter for trying to see it for anything other than what it is. This guy, like others looked me up on LinkedIn or googled me then made decision based off who he saw. She made the classic statement that many closet racist make when they say, Im not racist. I have an African-American friend, one of my best friends is black or something of the sort.. She said, This cant be them, they are very open and diverse. I ended it with a statement from the 80s. Its A BLACK Thang. You Wouldnt Understand. So, finally end this like I started it. The guy in the video IS an idiot but at least hes not smoke screening. Hes upfront, transparent, honest and probably like me, cant find a job but for a different reason.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:32:47 +0000
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