We have an opening in the X team. This job is ideally for someone rolling off the graduate program into a permanent role, or someone looking into an entry-level position in X area.I thought, great, this is perfect for me. This is the area I'm interested in, and I knew I was going to have to take a few steps back career-wise in order to change tracks, so the fact that it's an entry level job is fine. Then I started reading the rest of the description.
Ideally, the candidate should have the following skills:
- Advanced knowledge of commercial tool A
- Advanced knowledge of other commercial tool B
- Advanced knowledge of C
- Advanced knowledge of D
I actually happen to have all of those skills due to my current role, but upon reading it, I just couldn't help thinking it is highly unlikely that someone fresh out of university would have these skills. The licenses for the first two tools are thousands of dollars a year, and not something you'd just buy on a whim one weekend and pick up while also studying all the other stuff you're supposed to be studying. And even if you did, you'd be far more qualified than the entry level position they're advertising for, and surely you'd also be expecting far more money.
I was reading about the type of worker DeadTech calls the Expert Beginner. Someone who believes that they are an expert in their field when they are not, but because of this belief, their development is stiffled due to the fact that they do not believe they need to improve. This doesn't always arise due to arrogance, it could just be that someone has nobody more skilled to compare themselves to, and due to lack of contradiction, come to believe they are the best.
I'd like to introduce the term Beginning Expert to describe someone who is an expert in their field, despite only just entering it. Sounds ridiculous, right? How can someone be an expert in something they've never worked with? Well, there are just some people out there who are incredibly passionate about what they do that they'll do it in their spare time, and eventually, they will venture into the working world and put their skills to use. I've met some people in my classes at uni who were incredibly enthusiastic about what they were doing, and they'd go above and beyond the class requirements just because they thought it was cool and interesting.
Obviously, anybody would want to hire an expert beginner. You are getting someone with the skills and passion of an expert, but with the pay expectations of a beginner. You hope to get as much as you can out of them before they realise that they actually deserve a six-figure income and move on to greener pastures, in which case you'll just move on to the next expert beginner. Because they just grow on trees, right?
Unfortunately, they don't. When you work for a company that does not specialise in technology, as I do, I don't think you should expect the brightest minds in technology to be thinking, "Hey, NonTechCompany is at the top of my list to work for." I was reading about how the CIA has a very unique case in that the type of people who would be willing to work for them must be highly intelligent, but also very charismatic, physically fit, have strong emotional resilience, and ideally speak multiple langauges. However, being a government organisation, they can't afford to pay them like the corporate sector does. So why do people work there? It's the CIA. Not very many companies have that kind of clout. Well, and the people who would work there are probably somewhat patriotic.
I think the team who advertised that job are looking for an expert beginner. I don't think they're going to get it, I think they're going to get someone who can lie out of their ass about having those skills, and in the best case, that person can pick up the skills on the job, but in the realistic case, that person is going to slowly plod along doing the best they can with what they have. It's a bit sad, but you get what you paid for.
That being said, I am entirely grateful to my team for taking a chance on me. I came in with some fancy pieces of paper, but very little actual working knowledge, and I have learnt so much over the 3 years that I've been here. However, I was hired as a beginner, and I think that should be the expectations of one. I had enough of a foundation in programming to pick things up fairly quickly, I just wasn't familiar with the particular libraries and frameworks being used by the team. It was difficult at first, and I felt like I was drowning most days, but then my boss made me sit next to the strongest developer on the team, and through asking him questions, I picked up a lot. Plus, he is the passionate kind who does stuff just because he thinks it's cool, and some days, he would come in and say, "Check out this thing I did last night!" and I think a lot of his enthusiasm and passion for good quality code has rubbed off on me.
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As for the job ad, I am not going to apply, but not because of the money. After reading the job, I thought it sounded familiar, and it turns out that it's A2's job. Which is soon-to-be vacant as he is leaving. He told me that the culture of that particular team is terrible. When a senior person left, rather than promoting from within, the boss hired one of his friends straight into the management position. So the team (some of whom were quite senior by now) were left training this new guy on how to do his job - which he still does not know how to do. Another senior vacancy appeared, and the same thing happened. So the skilled "junior" people are getting fed up, and have started leaving. A2 is one of the last ones left, and he's off soon.
He actually didn't want to leave for a very long time because he knew that the senior managers have no clue how things work, and the kind of people they want to hire would never work for the amount of money they're willing to pay. So the system is probably going to break soon as there will be nobody left with the skills to maintain it. But after constantly being pushed to do the work of 5 people (because surprise, surprise, no qualified people are answering their job ads), he is now fed up, and according to him, has found a job that pays a significant amount more, to do a significant amount less. Though he hasn't started yet, so it's hard to say about the second part.
Also, he told me the job has about as much relation to my desired field as working at a supermarket occasionally restocking the socks on shelves has to do with working in the fashion industry.
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