> Please retire to do something that doesn't hurt my soul this badly and that you might actually have an aptitude for, like burning down orphanages or kicking puppies.
Yea, this guy sounds pleasant. Would love to work with him.
But seriously, I don't understand how people can appreciate this level of toxicity.
Work for a terrible engineering organization (public, private, doesn’t matter) and you’ll understand. Especially where technical leadership can’t rely on engineers to do anything but code with very strict guardrails.
One of my favorite people I ever worked with was like this. We could disagree on an approach, I’d call him a moron, he’d tell me to go fuck myself, then we’d laugh and go back to our work.
It’s a very different style of work where politeness, ego, and professionalism weren’t factors. The only focus was the tech and ensuring it was moving as efficiently as possible. You could really push things in whatever direction you needed as long as you had the metrics to show it was better.
I think it’s funny, and I see it more as a stylistic choice to vent the author‘s frustration with the process than an actual reflection of their character. It is just their personal blog overall.
I don't think it's about being honest. Organizations are difficult to manage. Join a shitty org and try to make it better. You're not entitled to some role doing something you love in a perfectly run organization. Such things don't exist and if you think you're smarter than everyone else, manifest this organization somewhere
I know you’re just joking, but clearly you’re never met a real-life narcissist. It’s incredible trying to explain to them that they’re wrong about something and seeing the expressions on their face as they literally struggle to understand how they could possibly have failed
Eh, if that’s the worst you’ve seen it probably wasn’t NPD (more garden variety or inexperienced narcissism).
The really ‘fun’ folks are when you never see any confusion, because they ‘know’ they couldn’t fail - they ‘know’ you’re conspiring to destroy them using whatever tricks they tend to use, and have no doubts about it. Regardless of how absurd or illogical that would be.
And then the sabotage, manipulation, gaslighting, triangulation, false accusations, outright attacks, etc. start. With no remorse, because in their eyes they’re the victim and are just being ‘fair’.
That’s when document, document, document, and better hope you’ve got real power and a way to back it up, or you’re going to have a hard time. Probably even then. Because yes, they’re exhausting.
On the one hand the idiocy and incompetence in these interviews is not unusual for corporate hiring of all kinds. So it's reasonable to be infuriated.
But there's more than a hint of narcissism in the writing. Which is incredibly toxic to work with, because every interaction becomes less about solving problems and more about aggressive assertions of dominance and superiority.
On the upside, if he's as smart as he wants to be, he'll be able to solve his problem.
A few narcissists I've met in tech have potential but never get past first base because they are incapable of admitting they're wrong, and therefore incapable of improving. They are perpetually junior devs that are good at self promotion.
I'm not saying the author is like that, but he might be.
They don’t really pump themselves. Their network is full of people they appreciate.
They would like to work in a better context with such people.
They are discouraged by the quagmire of the low quality cold interview swamp.
I don’t see narcissistic flags here, and I have had significant experiences with that category of person. Unfortunately.
The irreverent gallows humor seems to be throwing some people off. But that is often a creative person’s tactic for maintaining a light mood in casual (not professional) contexts, despite rough circumstances.
(Narcissism isn’t being off putting, difficult, unpleasant, objectionable, etc. It is as important to not overapply that concept as it is to recognize it. It is usually not immediately obvious, as they are often image conscious and exude charm. Unless they have a secure power imbalance, or you are socially irrelevant to what they care about.)
Letting off steam is good; doing it publicly is not good, unless it’s your job (writer, comedian, etc.)
It’s offputting that someone can’t control well what they say in public. It’s okay to talk shit in private, it’s natural —but making it public in such a voice is offputting.
There are many hilarious stories from the tech support trenches that are well written, captivating, without descending into the badmouthing trap.
One that I recall is a kid who worked like a house call Genius Bar in the Chicago loop neighborhood or thereabouts, it was funny, witty storytelling about the mias entires he suffered, but never shat on people.
No one even bothers reading a one-page resume past skimming for a few keywords. You really think potential employers are going to sit down and read a 5,000-word essay??
I like it very much. I would probably hire this person.