I have been thinking of writing about this topic for a while, I work in technology, literally all over the world getting my clients (or employers) to sponsor work permits for me whichever country I happen to be in and have worked in Ireland, England, Switzerland, UAE and ofcourse the United States. Over time I have accumulated a slight preference for UK (strong currency, very tax friendly if you are not a citizen/resident and have some control over accounting your revenue), a higher concentration of smart open minded people.
The thing I have found though, time and again, is that the way businesses hire people in UK is considerably different than US. In US, they look at your resume, they interview you (on phone, no less) and send you an offer letter - this process, between the initial expression of your interest in a job and conclusion of the phone interview and confirmation of an offer in the mail/email takes 2 business days at most and 30 minutes in the phone interview you already know you got it.
In UK however, the first thing they want to know is why do you want that job. WTF!!? Because I am a good fit for it and I expect you will pay through the nose for my services and you will like it. Well, actually, the right answer is because ever since you were born, you have had this dream about working for the said organization, I am not shitting you, the only times I succeeded in getting through the interview process was when I used that line (the brand recognition, my parent would be proud that I work here and stuff like that). Clearly a waste of time. The next question they ask in UK, usually is what are your weaknesses? I mean what the heck mate? This is a cliche! everyone knows the answer to this question, you express your frustration with how obsessed you are with a highly desirable quality (software quality, clean processes, consistent delivery, you name it) and bongo, you are done. They then need to know why you are leaving your current employer? Umm, do you want me to lie about my ambitions? Really silly stuff. What really gets my goat however is the time they waste in giving any positive or negative feedback (yes, negative feedback, something unheard of in States, because you would not have gone past the screening process to the point where they owe you a negative feedback), this is all because of the HR droids with degrees in liberal arts deciding who they think is a good cultural fit for the projects without having a clue about the critical skills needed for successful delivery in majority of the case.
Anyway, rant over. I was just looking for my next move and came across this strange person who triggered this outburst (the HR droid claimed I didn't have experience leading large teams or projects, I guess he didn't read my resume at all (quarter billion dollar technology projects, experience managing teams with 60 plus members from several countries and track record of on time, under budget delivery). Granted that we are talking about very high paying jobs so all caution merits attention but what really pissed me off was that this idiot was able to override the hiring manager who I had really impressed over the phone (to the point that the hiring manager wrote me an email apologizing for the way recruitment is handled in that particular investment bank). Just amazing, how this works so differently in US and UK.
I am just kidding pal, feel free to make fun of my late night delusional rantings - no plants were harmed in the course of these posts however.
See you all at the:
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