40
Brolls
7y

Story time:

At a precious employer.
Hire shit-hot contractor.
No technical test at interview stage because he’s so shit-hot.
Is a uni lecturer.
PhD in mathematics.

Me: Shit, this guy must be good!

6 months later and a tragedy of errors and clearly misspent company funds later:

Manager: can you look at what x did and merge it into the product?

Me: Sure. *looks* *yells fuck very loudly*

*walks over to manager*

“Soooo... you know those 6 months and thousands and thousands you spent? It’s all for nought. There’s barely anything there, and none of it works.”

Manager: “Shit. What are we going to do? Can you fix it?”

Me: “To be honest, it would be quicker to just do it from scratch than try to work out what he’s done and failed to do.”

Manager: “Fuck. Ok. Go for it.”

I then had to build this entire new lot of systems, a workflow system, a user management and permissions system.

I got it done inside a month or so.

For context, we (the devs) knew something was afoot when the contractor couldn’t work out why his keyboard wasn’t working (it wasn’t plugged in), and he also *really* struggled to find his way around visual studio and git.

The moral of this tale? *always always* screen your candidates. Even if they seem amazing on paper.

Comments
  • 10
    did you check the institution where he got his PhD, and called the uni where he lectures?

    this makes we want to try and fake a CV just to see where it gets me...
    although, being "shit-hot" is not currently on my CV🙈
  • 1
    @balte no clue. I wasn’t involved in the hiring process.

    I did check his LinkedIn and the uni website and it seemed to check out.
  • 3
    I guess the manager is going to value experience more than qualifications this point forward. Glad you got it all sorted.
  • 0
    They eventually fired me for poor attendance owing to mental health. So yeah. I can only hope.
  • 0
    @Brolls I'm sorry to hear that, I hate it when employers are apathetic/inconsiderate. Hope you've found another opportunity?
  • 3
    @ymas aye. It was ages ago. Sadly it happened at most every company eventually. As I inevitably ended up having to dive back into a new role before I was ready.

    I now work from home as a consultant, so it’s pretty good 👍
  • 0
    @Brolls that's awesome! I started working for myself just over a year ago and boy do I not miss office politics. All the best mate!
  • 4
    What bother me most is that your manager had to wait 6 month before thinking about checking what this contractor produced.
  • 1
    @Etnath yep. So solid was their faith. So strong were the demands from the higher ups.

    I think they basically had signed a contract and couldn’t get rid of him without tremendous effort until it expired. Because as soon as it did he was out. Like same day out.
  • 1
    @Brolls but were you paid extra for working on his stuff.?
  • 0
    @ymas Hey, you're me with black hair! 8)
  • 1
    @prajankya what do you think? 😂
  • 0
    @Brolls I guess not ! Employers are shitty as F#!!
  • 1
    @prajankya I happen to love F#. Employers not so much 😂
  • 2
    @prajankya @Brolls I read "F sharp" for a second xD
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