He has worked in a niche corner of IT development for twenty years. When he started, he wrote, there were perhaps a thousand people in all of Europe who did what he does. He has contracted as a self-employed specialist for around thirteen years.
His current contract was coming to an end, so he decided to look at permanent roles — why not, it might lead somewhere different.
He got a video interview. The interviewer joined with his eyes wide open — “cocaine-fuelled” open, the candidate wrote. He described the team and the project in a harsh tone for about a minute. Then: “Right, first question. How much do you want?”
The candidate said that as a contractor he valued many things beyond straight salary, so it was hard to throw out a figure before knowing what the job was. The interviewer began a five-minute, rage-fuelled tirade: it was not a difficult question; he was — his words — an expert at interviewing; the candidate was not a match. Then the call ended.
The candidate never got to ask anything, or say anything. He has sat on both sides of the table, he wrote, and had been interviewed countless times. In a first interview, he noted, you do not usually even talk about money.