I am recalling an interview I had. A programmer was looking for a job with my company, and I was one of the people assigned to conduct a 30 minute interview with this programmer. To prepare for the interview, I read the programmer’s resume and did a couple of Google searches on their name; pretty standard stuff. What I found in the resume was a lot of experience programming, but almost no experience using any of the specific technologies we are using in-house.

Once I sat down with this individual, it became very clear what was going on here. I have seen this scenario before.

1. A smart developer (candidate) is looking for a job, finds a company they like and a job that looks nice, but for which they are unqualified.
2. The candidate convinces the recruiters of such things as “Java is just like C#”, or “Sure I can do AJAX, I have a lot of web other development experience.”
3. The recruiter sends the candidate in.
4. The candidate acts borderline arrogant trying to make up for the fact that they do not have the domain skills or knowledge needed.
5. The candidate does not get the job through sheer will.
   1. The candidate wasted their time and effort.
   2. The candidate waster my time and effort.

I hope you will not find it surprising that the candidate at my interview did not get the job. I found it a real waste of time. I could tell that this person had not clue one about the specific technologies in question, especially when they tried to BS their way through several technology questions. Arrogance and ignorance are not a good pairing for a job interview, but unfortunately they often go hand in hand.

This exact scenario has happened more than a few times to me over the years, enough to not just discount it as an anomaly. I have usually run into this attitude when dealing with consultants. Big name consulting firms make their bread and butter money bringing in bright (and sometimes not-so-bright) but unqualified people and ramping them up on the relevant technology, on the customer’s dime. This is nothing new and if that statement sounds profound and/or outlandish to you, then you have just not had the misfortune of dealing with a big name consulting firm. Consultants get used to not having the relevant technology, but ramping up on the tech during the job.

A few years ago I found a job opportunity that I wanted. However, I found myself in a situation where I did not have all of the qualifications for the job, but I thought I still had what they were looking for. The employer wanted a very strange mix of technology skills that I would imagine is very uncommon to find in a developer. Lets just say I was more than proficient in 3 of the 5 things they wanted.

I set out to take a chance with this job. I purchased a book on one of the technologies (1 out of 5), and started reading and programming with this techology. Meantime, the interview process proceeded, but I tried to be as open and honest as possible about my skill set. The skills I did have eventually got me in the door for a real interview. A couple of weeks had passed during this time.

At my interview, I was able to demonstrate my proficiencies with the 3 of 5 skills needed, and some proficiency with one of the technologies that I had been missing. I was also honest about this, explaining that I had been reading up on the technology for the interview. I explained that my intention was not to bluff my way into the job, but instead to demonstrate how fast I could ramp up on the technology before being hired, and that to meet the job requirements, I was willing to do so on my own time.

I ended up getting the job. The first day at work, I already had a month of playing around with the some of the missing technologies in my resume, and I believe I did a pretty good job from day one. When there is a will, there is a way.

Instead of just arrogantly stating that you have a skill or that you can ramp up on it, prove it. If you want a job bad enough, you will go for it in a thoughtful and willful way.