Join devRant
Do all the things like
++ or -- rants, post your own rants, comment on others' rants and build your customized dev avatar
Sign Up
Pipeless API
From the creators of devRant, Pipeless lets you power real-time personalized recommendations and activity feeds using a simple API
Learn More
-
Any Ergonomic accomodations? , chairs, mice, keyboards and wrist rests
Am I expected to be on an on-call basis any period of time? If so, what is the pay for those out of work hours, and does it include compensations if I have to come to the workplace?
Do employees have a say on management decisions that affect all workers?
How often are company resources updated/ reviewed? (Laptops, PC's)
What is the turnaround time if my company assets malfunction and I need them fixed?
How many people comprise a team that works on a project? Will the team have all permissions needed to carry out all tasks, or will we depend on other teams for access, etc?
Will there be periodic meetings with the PM and Client together so developers can give personal feedback on the scope of what the client is asking? -
@N00bPancakes at least it would make them think, wouldn't it?
-
@Fast-Nop oh, they can try. and then they will get sued for discrimination. lol. they'll have to silently sit through my questions and think of all the shortcoming of their workplaces.
-
@Lyym Very good points!
-
@NoMad they won't get sued because they won't tell you why you will have been rejected. They will just tell you that you didn't make it.
I mean, come on!
Item 8: that question only comes from people with mental health issues. You could as well ask how they take months long leaves due to serious back problems.
Item 12: as adult, your personal hygiene is your personal responsibility. Being a woman doesn't imply being retarded, at least not with employable women. -
@NoMad I guess the person answering has to think about it. I'm not sure there is value there just asking a rando person there, but they are your questions to ask. I suspect smaller orgs just aren't going to have a policy about a lot of that / they're not going to answer if they have a bad one ;)
Like issues with employees from minority groups. They're not going to tell you "oh gawd yes, all the time, so we don't hire them anymore"... -
@Fast-Nop Cool. don't employ me then. I'm not your all-around cleaning lady. I'm a professional and if you want me there, you better give me perks.
-
@N00bPancakes you bet I would already check the reviews on the company. That's basically to see how much they lie / how aware are HR from issues.
-
@Fast-Nop uuuuuuh what?
1. Most companies now do have on site experts that help workers deal with extreme stress situations, so it is a valid question
2. What the fuck does being a woman and being retarded have to do with a practice that is becoming more and more common in the private industry? True sometimes the free products are of horrific quality, but they still provide you some in case you have an emergency. -
@NoMad I think you're a lot more confidant in how accurate the information is that you can get from asking an HR / crooting drone / manager questions and looking for online reviews than I am.
-
@NoMad Well if you can't even think of having some reserve tampons or whatever in your hand bag and/or desk, that doesn't compliment your planning skills even on trivial matters.
@Lyym Stress situations isn't what was being asked. Since mental health issues are difficult to treat and no timeline can be given, employers will not willingly hire empoyees with such prospects.
And I call it retarded when a grown-up woman can't even take care of her personal hygiene as if she were a toddler. That's literally retarded.
Employable women aren't retarded. -
Man a lot more thought went into those compared to mine, mine are basically just
“can I automate tasks I do with python”,
“what version of X am I going to work with”,
“what os am I expected to use, or can I pick”
And the classic “can I work from home on occasion” which would be on the list if Covid wasn’t a thing -
@Fast-Nop ahahahaha. you seem to think periods wear a bell or give notice before arriving. and you also seem to assume the volume of blood is predictable.
Anyways, you're also wrong about mental health. -
@NoMad That's why you have the stuff you need in your desk. Planning ahead on a very, very basic level. Also, women aren't mainboards and thus don't have standardised slots, and even preferences, that's why shops have a whole shelf battery with such products.
Also no, I'm not wrong about mental health. Since you can't operate or shit, you can't give a timeline when the issue is fixed. Or whether it's fixable. Or what fixing even is supposed to mean.
Anyway, if you don't want to be hired, these are good questions, but then why do you plan to waste your time on interviews? -
@NoMad as an ethnic minority,.I really want to know, what kind of answer would you wanna hear from number 2? Or what kind of answer would you not? Or what kind of things you think they'd say that would reveal anything.
Surely they would just say no. I'm assuming you're a minority group otherwise they could consider it racist -
Btw., one of the rights of the candidate, at least in Germany, is to lie about existing health issues, and that right is there for good reason.
That is, unless the issues are directly work related, like e.g. suffering from epilepsy when the job includes handling dangerous machinery. Or being pregnant when the job includes any sort of e.g. toxins or radiation that might be dangerous to the unborn. -
@CodeBane my own race is not the issue. The issue is that I get invested. I can't stand injustice and discrimination, even if it's not about me.
I could sue for being lied to in interview, if that was to happen tho. An interview is a formal proceeding, whether people like it or not. -
@Fast-Nop lol. Half the IT workers are either autistic or social anxious. I don't know where you're going with that. But, what you're referring to, is clinical mental health problem and not a mental health issue. Burn outs are a mental health issue as well.
Also, I'm not targeting Germany. The paychecks are very low compared to elsewhere. (I guess the prices are low, so that should even out. But still) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -
@CodeBane oh, btw, that's one way to get their inner racist out. If they are racist company-wide, that will come out. Last thing I want is to get stuck in a contract with a completely racist company.
-
@Fast-Nop
> that's why you have stuff you need in your desk
Soooo... I get more storage space? Also, can I get a pad or tampon in my hand and walk without concealing it to the bathroom? Like, you're being ridiculous here. A vending machine in the toilet would do the job. That's just a company thinking of providing comfort for employees. -
If not for tampons and discrimination, what good is the HR anyways? Like, they're there to provide for the human resources, not to just eat out the company money and brag about being employed while interviewing people!
I swear, I have barely seen the HR being useful to people. Even the accounting guys are of more use, and I interact with them exactly twice: once during on-boarding, and once during off-boarding. -
13. Do you have a policy forcing employees to post crap about the company in social media?
14. Have you ever fired anyone for posting things on social media? What was the circumstance?
15. Is this a woke company?
16. Do you treat people equally in regards to belief systems and political preferences?
17. Do you hate your country?
18. Do you support political groups that are in favor of dismantling your country? -
@Demolishun ahahahaha. I feel the American.
Tho, to be honest, what do you call a group dismantling the country? Boogaloo? Yeah I'm on board. BLM? Nah man. Let them protest to their heart's content and win their lives back. Like, you don't have to join, but you might as well not stop a good cause. -
@NoMad Providing comfort to people who already fail at immediate planning skills that far down the Maslow pyramid, that is. Which are the people you don't want in any job above unskilled labour.
The upside: if you really claim that this is normal for young people these days, then I don't need to worry about age discrimination at all, LOL.
Also, I wouldn't label shyness as mental health issue unless it goes so far that people can't even leave their home, which being at an interview obviously refutes.
And yeah, the pay in Germany isn't as high as in the US, but you get more holidays, less work, social insurance, and an affordable health system also when you get older. If you want the same in the US, you'll have to adjust for these costs which you'll have to bear yourself. -
@Fast-Nop nah. Australia is a good enough alternative. 😜 Or Canada. Or UK/Norway/Switzerland/Finland.
The age discrimination so far has not been an issue for me, but maybe I should add that to the list too. I mean, work-wise, they're a minority.
The sanitary products are still a benefit. You never know, between two similar companies that may become the winning factor. -
@NoMad Australia is too hot for me, UK isn't better than Germany, Switzerland is so pricey that the pay gets eaten up, same in Norway, and Finland isn't doing too well.
Austria could be nice, actually. -
@Fast-Nop awooo! Oz is too hot? At least they have aircon everywhere 😂😂😂
-
@NoMad I hate A/C even more than heat because it's usually not being maintained nor cleaned. Also, don't forget that Australia was created as prison continent for a reason, full of nasty animals. Even the kangaroos are more aggressive than chimpanzees on speed.
Hence, there are no kangaroos in Austria. -
@Fast-Nop I see nothing wrong with 8 - burnouts are quite a common "illness" in this profession. But I agree with you about 12 -- it does sound odd... It never occurred to me to ask in an interview whether they provide free shaving foam and blades 🤔 . Maybe I should...? Is that a common thing to ask nowadays?
-
@Fast-Nop lol. Old man, you have to travel there. You'll be surprised.
-
@netikras let's make that a norm 😜 why not? A vending machine in men's bathroom for shaving cream and razor, and one in women's for sanitary products.
-
@netikras The problem is that asking that question gives the hint that you consider yourself at risk - which squarely translates into "don't hire".
-
@NoMad I was there and didn't see any kangaroos, so it's true.
-
@NoMad aircon? Shit I didn't ask about that 😅
*adds aircon to the list*
Australia's only hot 3 months of the year, although I wouldn't call it "hot" when it's 40•c - 50•c, and cold the other 9 months. -
@Fast-Nop not necessarily. I have referred people who were actually at this risk and I have informed explicitly HR in advance. Multiple times. And yet they reached out to the referees and hired them.
-
@NoMad I mean, if you are a white person asking "have you had any problems with minorities?"...that is very suspicious, regardless of what your intentions are.
Secondly, I highly doubt that any one would be openly racist, people in my work life haven't been directly racist but is obvious from my perspective that there's a rule for some and a rule for others. Some places are awesome, other places, you just gotta be prepared for the discrepancies and persevere.
Thirdly, if you're white and you ask that, and they think "hey their one of us" and they're racist you won't work there. If they're not racist they'll think "why is this person asking that...sus" they won't hire you. -
I read the thread and half the comments:
And most of it isn't realistic.... (they just want to see if they should give you a chance to be a slave and move to the next candidate)
Either the company is small and doesn't have answers or it's big and doesn't care.
You can't fix all injustices. The world is not fair and we can't do much about it. -
@NoMad
It sounds like Fasty just wants them to treat everyone equally.
Just put a smaller wicker basket of tampons in the men's room as well. Problem solved. -
@NoMad "I swear, I have barely seen the HR being useful to people"
I've yet to ever meet anyone online or IRL who says "Hey, our HR department is incredible! They're totally invaluable to the company!" At least not while maintaining a serious face 😂
In my experience it's a department for putting on mandatory, useless training that no-one wants to go to, brushing as much under the carpet as possible and responding to the reset weeks late. I'm sure whenever I've walked past a HR office it's just been a bunch of folk checking facebook or having a natter. -
@Fast-Nop not even the good one. My set of skills are rare, so they either hire me or the job will bet left open for six months. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also, the questions don't mean that they will have to provide everything and anything. It's just to determine who got the best working env. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ How can you determine from all the good offers, which will you choose? Otherwise any ass hat with a new company can give you a desk, a computer, and a manager. -
@SortOfTested you know what's funny? Every time we give girls something that boys don't have or need, you'll hear the boys cry out "what about meeeeeee?" like babies. Like the whole world revolves around them and everyone and everything must serve them and only them. As if a basket of tampons and pads is gonna rub them off of any money or put them in a huge disadvantage. It's not even jealousy, it's pure childishness.
-
@NoMad If you create the impression to be a shit stirrer, then your skills are irrelevant because if the impression were correct, the damage you'd do would outweigh any benefit your skills could bring to the table.
That's pretty close to the old question whether to hire brilliant jerks - and the answer is "no". -
@CodeBane do I care about them hiring me if they can't even be transparent? They can also ask me why I'm asking that. And I'll kindly explain that I care about minorities and I enjoy diversity and its a bonus point for me if they can provide a diverse but non-discriminating workspace.
-
@Fast-Nop and yet, all the brilliant jerk I've known in my life are still hired.
-
@NoMad Well, I'm looking forward to your rants how this interview strategy will work out in practice. ^^
-
@NoMad
Yep. There's not a man alive who understands the mechanics or variability in that equation either. Never opened the package to find a broken applicator, or run out on a heavy flow day when you had the gall to only have 3 on hand. They will bitch if you point that out though, because it's "gross."
Last two clients I was at I didn't even have a desk, so stashing a supply wasn't exactly an option. The first did standard issue the shitty 9lb Dell laptop with the 5lb brick though. Because there's nothing inconvenient about lugging 25% of your bodyweight to and from work. Same place had a lovely message in the bathroom one day about cups not being ALLOWED, due to "sanitary reasons." I'm not a fan, but my internal monologue was raging the day I saw that. I can only imagine what type of fictitious situation they cooked up to justify that one; no idea how they intended to enforce it. There's almost no thought given to women's QOL in the workplace here. /kvetch
At a certain point providing sanitary basics is just a hedge on lost time of me running to the pharmacy during the work day.
How the hell did that one bullet point dominate this entire thread? -
@NoMad I don't know what world you live in where you believe that this would go how you think.
I care about minorities? We're not fucking endangered species, we don't need you to protect us, the fuck...why can't you just care about discrimination in the office? Why is it only minorities?
They should be transparent with you? About what? You're asking the most flaky questions and expecting a solid response? Seriously what answer is someone going to say to you "no we don't have problems". Or you looking to hear "Oh no, we love minorities, we even have minority day, you know, to give them something special and make them feel wanted".
Seriously, get off your high horse. Are you even a minority group? Most likely not cos you wouldn't ask this. I have to question the whole mentality on you to champion a situation you don't even understand smh
I don't know what magical job you believe exists out there but yeah...I'll be waiting for your rants on life....... -
@SortOfTested agreed, specially in male dominated workplaces
-
@Fast-Nop sure. I'm already hired and we have tampon packs in our bathroom.
You lost.
We even have a small women's lounge where there is tea and hot packs and a couch. I'm prepared to see you lose your mind. Hahahahahahahahahaha. -
@SortOfTested that's... Because most men can't and don't care about another human being around them. Lel.
-
@CodeBane you've made way too many assumptions there. But clearly, you don't give a rats ass about any minority but yours. However, I have worked in multicultural companies before, and it's a thing that we care about their culture, their traditions, things that make them unique, and generally speaking, to see them being discriminated against, is hurtful. I know, you don't get it. But that's ok.
-
@CodeBane Wait what? You don't want to be seen as minority victim guy who needs his ass pampered 24/7? You just want to be that hacker from the 3rd floor? That's revolutionary.
-
@Fast-Nop wow, you care about what he wants? That's revolutionary!
-
@NoMad I don't understand being discriminated against....please tell me more about my life 🙄.
And no I don't give a fuck if you're a minority. EVERYONE IS FUCKING UNIQUE. I care for all, everyone's culture, traditions, everyone has stuff, regardless if you're a minority. Why you so focused on minority traditions?
You will obviously never understand how offensive your stance like you have ANY understanding of the struggle.
Anyone can be discriminated against, why the fuck you focused on minorities. I think you're trying so hard to not be racist you don't realise the the parallels to a racist in your actions. -
@CodeBane clearly, you've never witnessed anyone being discriminated against. Otherwise you'd appreciate an ally in voicing that issue.
Yeah, you'd like a get by. Whatever minority you belong to, you have long abandoned them because you don't even try to make things easier for the next kid from your block.
Also, your tone of text delivers that you have been in places where you've been a part of majority. It must be nice to be a part of majority in some places at least. 😛 -
@NoMad lol....I can't even explain the ignorance. I'm done...this is ridiculous. You're really telling me I've been a majority, that is insaaaaannnnneee. You have no idea what discrimination is, you don't even knooooo how much discrimination happens that someone like you can't see.
When I used to go out clubbing with work, that would be their revelation, you ain't never been told you can't go in because it's not your type of music, or you ain't wearing shirt shoes and trousers, WHEN YOU ARE! Nah you're insane. You ain't never been jumped by bouncers in the toilet. Nah piss off, care about minorities? No, you only care about yourself and being about to go to sleep at night.
I only pray that you'll be enlightened in the future cos the discrimination you think you're fighting against is much more complex than you boil it down to.
Imagine, you say you care about minorities, then tell me, a minority, that I'm a majority cos I don't fit in your little fictional mould. DPMO -
@Fast-Nop psychological projection is a defense mechanism and it's strong with you. Lol.
-
@Fast-Nop Could you like... Not use that word to describe things? As a caretaker for family members that have had/ developed a certain degree of retardation due to multiple causes, seeing a person just throw the word like that at meaningless discussions on the internet BOILS MY FUCKING BLOOD. Or even better, if you have nothing of value to say kindly FUCK OFF.
-
@CodeBane wow. Your example of discrimination really stands out. Club issues. Really, significant.
Come back when you actually face discrimination AT WORK. -
@NoMad How about you use your superb psychological skills to sort out your own mental health issues before you try your skills on others?
-
@Fast-Nop my mental health issues are under control. Yours however, denial had made them very deeply rooted and hard to combat. I'm sorry that you have to live so unhappy all your life.
-
@NoMad Yeah, they're so much under control that you have to ask companies about their stance of them. Under whatever control they are, it's not yours. ^^
-
Like, y'all, I ain't even woke. I go racist every time I get very angry and I objectify men and women left and right for the sake of jokes.
Why the fuck are you forcing me into a woke role? Why is it so hard to say "I don't want to be part of asshole culture"? Why is it so controversial? Jeez, you two are the reason why we can't have nice things. -
@Fast-Nop Boo Hoo. Somebody is pissed because he can't take two days off because of burnout. Anxiety is a mental health situation, whether Your Lowness recognizes it or not. (Your Highness pun, anyone?)
Let it to, Elsa. You can try to make me unhappy and spread your unhappiness, but it ain't working.
I have nothing more to say to you. Go be miserable somewhere else. -
@NoMad so being the best person in the team and getting paid the least isn't discrimination? Working for two years just for them to hire new people on more money than me? You ever been told, you can only get a small pay increase even tho we brought you in for support but now you're handling our entire migration project for all our clients, fuck without you, they'd still be taking a day per migration, instead of doing 10 a day, but we won't pay you and you got 24 hours to decide if you wanna stay.
How about, being a contractor and being told "we don't want to pay you the market rate or what you're worth or the fact you've reduced the amount, how about we pay you less than any other job and if you do a good job we'll give you a bonus"?
How about helping anyone who asks, sacrificing time out my day to make others jobs easier just for your manager and CEO to say that you're arrogant AFTER you've left the company.
I mean, you want more? Cos I can keep going, oh the way I can keep going -
@CodeBane a lot of these things happen to everyone in the private sector. Everything you mentioned I went through. Specially having the company charge $189.00/hr for my professional services while paying me only $16/hr after I was managing a full team, plus having a 3 project a week turnaround.
-
@CodeBane That's actually a frequent pattern: you grow, your tasks also, but your pay doesn't. In many companies, the only way to get a considerable pay adjustment is changing employers. That's why job hopping is common for people especially in their 20s.
-
@CodeBane I don't know man. You literally just told me above to not care about minority discrimination issues and "get off of my high horse" so from here on, I'll apply that to you.
But if I see that in my own workplace, and if the person being discriminated against is not you, (and if he or she also feels discriminated against) I will definitely get worked up because it ain't fair. And that is why I will ask in the interview how they handle discrimination issues. (I'm still working on the wording for that question)
But now, your problems are yours since you specifically told me "you don't need me to protect you". Go fight your battle alone. You lost a soldier. -
@Fast-Nop @Lyym yeah I don't disagree with that but this stuff happened in comparison to other people who started the same time, done less, got paid more.
I'm building your entire GDPR database, processing, reports providing it for a mobile app but the guy merging two databases of 6 tables each, can take 8 months and get a raise. When he broke the entire payroll system, who fixed it?
The CEO at one of those places asked me what I done at the company like they're not still using all my shit that I built to this day.
Its so hard to describe discrimination because on paper it can look like anything but I can guarantee you, discrimination is not my first point of call for problems in my life but when you're constantly being treated a certain way at certain places, it's hard to ignore.
These lot used to just find things randomly to shout at me about. "No you can't listen to music" but what about those lot..in the team...with big headphones. No, YOU can't listen to music 🙄 ok -
@NoMad lol no one asked you for protection, I don't see why you have so much power that you can protect me more than I can protect myself.
You can't even seeeee discrimination at work these days unless someone tells you. Like the others have said, it looks normal, until you're in the situation and have lived through it, it's just different. Most people don't even realise they're discriminating, it's just who they are, it's not intentional, is just natural for them.
I still don't understand why you're only focused on discrimination against ethnic groups when people get discriminated against for all kinds of things. Things they eat, the weight they have, the clothes they wear, the sound of their voice.
Either your aim is for equality across the board or you're just trying to make yourself feel good -
@CodeBane you're wrong about my race, my ethnicity, my gender, my size, and everything that does actually put me right in more than than one minority spot in the IT industry. I've been discriminated against all around. Wait, lol, no, I actually haven't because I know how to pick better workplaces. I don't work for or with assholes, and as this rant shows, I can stand my ground. Doesn't mean that I wouldn't appreciate it if someone else helped when I'm feeling down tho.
Also, you may appreciate this poem from Martin Niemöller :
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me -
@NoMad I never said anything about your ethnicity or anything, I asked you, and you just ignored it.
I don't see myself as a minority, other people do. I don't need pity. I'm not a charity.
My life has grown me different from you, if I'm down I pick myself up. I know full well when the shit hits the fan, there's only one person who's guaranteed to get hit with the spray.
When police jump out on me, it's only me that is there, at that moment, to deal with it.
And that poem just comes across as "if I don't help people, then maybe people won't help me".
It's all good you wanna help people, my issue is your fixation with "minority groups" rather than just injustice against people. Doesn't matter who you are, discrimination is discrimination and can happen to anyone, being everyone's hero, not a hero for a specific group of people you feel sorry for -
@CodeBane um, you do need to look up the meaning of "discrimination". In simple terms, it is to restrict and suppress a group of people, and in order to suppress a group , you have to define which element is the trigger for this discrimination. 😛 Sometimes, it's race, sometimes it's gender, sometimes it's size, sometimes it's accent, sometimes it's even the social class.
-
@NoMad Affirmative action is discrimination against a majority. Creating protected classes of any kind with associated benefits is the definition of discrimination for those that do not benefit.
-
@NoMad yeah but you're only focusing on ethnic discrimination 🤷🏾
-
@Demolishun first point: affirmative action was brought to battle covert discrimination. I think more studies need to be done to determine if it is now turning into a form of discrimination by itself. So, I'll avoid making a comment on that until I read such studies. (is it really discrimination, if the minority person never had a chance for the role?)
Your second point, it's really circumstantial.
In either case, I'm not out to battle all discrimination. I just don't want to enter such a culture. It's annoying, and it stope me from focusing on work that I really want to do and instead turns me into a social justice warrior. If a company doesn't have shit figured out on this level, I DON'T WANT TO WORK FOR THEM. -
@CodeBane race and ethnicity are different things, fyi. Homosexuals, differently-abled, Women, transsexuals, cross-dressers, etc. are also minorities.
-
You must live a unhappy life @Fast-Nop, and I feel sorry for you.
-
I rewrote my resume. It is getting shorter and shorter. Scary.
But I was thinking, that during interviews, I never get to ask the important questions. Like, I do need to ask a few things that are important for me. Those that are not written in their websites, and they will do their best to hide.
So I came up with a list of questions:
1. Do you pay for overtime work? what is the basis of pay? hours or work-module? how realistic are the work-modules?
2. Have you ever had issues with employees from minority groups?
3. How do you address employee's professional concerns? for example, about technological debt.
4. what's the policy for meeting and daily interruptions during brain-work? Are people ever forced to participate in meetings that could be summed up in emails? what's the company policy for initiating a meeting?
5. Who designs the software? Are the requirements always non-negotiable? do the direct developers have a say in design matters?
6. How close are job requirements (as advertised) to actual tasks I need to perform?
7. What's the company policy for motivating the employees?
8. How does the company deal with mental health issues? is it acceptable for people to take leaves due to mental health issues? Has anyone ever done it?
9. How does the company deal with individual needs for working methods and space? Specifically, how does that apply to meetings? Do you have company-wide meetings? How often are they? What's the impact on productivity? Can employees not participate? Do they have to have an excuse to not participate?
10. Do developers get to develop their skills during worktime often? Or is it a "do it in your own free time" kind of thing? Are there any resources available to those who want to develop their skills further? Is it included in the career planning and employee performance review?
11. Assume I work for your company for a year. What are the benefits I can potentially gain in a year from working here, aside from adding a line of work experience to my resume?
12. Does the company provide any form of free feminine hygiene products in the bathroom?
Any questions I should add?
rant
getting ready for interviews
interview the interviewer
interview questions