"Besides a test assignment, there are many other ways to determine the proficiency level of an experienced specialist"

— After high school, I entered the Faculty of Information Security to a great extent because I was promised that I would work on the real things, like detection of cyberattacks, prevention and removing malware and so on. As a result, it turned out that this is not the case.

The department of "Information Security" is fundamentally different from the department of "Computer Security" and mostly involves paperwork.

At that time, computer security was just such a thing. I understood that in order to deal with computer security, I needed to have a solid background in the tech sphere. It's crucial to understand how programs work, how they are created, where vulnerabilities come from etc.

After studying this issue, I realized that the most in-demand sphere where everything is actively developing, including in terms of computer security, is the Internet. So I decided that Web Development would be a good start to eventually start doing a job I really like. This is how I became a Webmaster. I started to delve into how web programming works. At first, I learned the ropes: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP.

With knowledge that I could always change my profile if desired, I continued to get better at the field of Web Development. 7.5 years have passed since then, and the desire to get back to the original "scenario" hasn't appeared yet :) Regarding my professional growth, I continued to write code in PHP and related languages necessary for standard Web Development. For some time I worked in various web studios, was engaged in website development.

So I switched to a different technology stack, choosing the Node.js platform and the Golang programming language. Ultimately, I focused on Node.js and started using Go for some specific tasks. The switch to a different stack happened while I was working in a studio for mobile applications development.

After working at the startup for several years, I decided that I needed to move on, and ideally, find a place where I could take a managing position. Considering that at some point in the startup I got the position of Technical Leader, I decided that this is more than real.

A short period of "wandering" has led me to the place where I work now. It is a large international tech company that develops a large communication service. I take a management position, and at the moment I'm fine with everything :)

— These are fairly common reasons. For example, a toxic atmosphere within a company. It's very difficult to revel in development in a company if you constantly feel tension while communicating with colleagues.

— No, there weren't. I don't consider new offers until I feel like it's time for me to change jobs.

— This is probably a too absolutized statement.

— Due to the fact that my girlfriend is a Recruiter, I have a slightly subjective opinion about how this work should be carried out because I'm saturated with the atmosphere that exists around her. So I started to pay more attention to how the email is made, and I see that many of them are often non-perfect. Yet I was fostered to see these nuances: it's not something that I pay attention to from the very beginning.

— This is a factor that scares me off during primary communication. When communicating with a Recruiter, I become alert when I feel that they don't fully understand the position they are talking about.

— They don't scare me off. Considering that I'm young and I'm not a snob, it's okay for me to receive this kind of emails :)

— Negatively, because in such stories you always risk to be dealt a bad hand. For example, if a Recruiter calls in the middle of a working day and starts offering a job, the team may think that I'm secretly looking for another job, although this isn't the case at all. A tense atmosphere can be created, the cause of which is the unrefined manners of the Recruiter.

— In fact, I don't care where they write to me :)

— I believe that the number of selection stages is variable and directly depends on the company you are interviewing for. If you are interviewing for an "ordinary" company, it's strange a bit if there are many stages.

If you are applying for a job, for example, in a company like Amazon, then I think it's clear why there may be 4-5 selection stages. But still, the company must understand its balance.

— Probably, I didn't have any stories that fully fit your situation. If we talk about the story about the hotel aggregation service, then at that time the offer was seemed to be very attractive to me.

— Of course. It's difficult to test the waters when hiring an experienced specialist. It's necessary to check a sufficiently wide range of knowledge, to "dig" both in depth and in breadth in the question of how the specialist understands the subject area. In the case of Junior or Mid-level specialists, it's obvious that the "hole" that will be dug in the process of identifying skills won't require a significant time expenditure.

— This is all quite subjective. I quite often interviewed people who have worked on a large number of projects, but this doesn't guarantee a wide range of knowledge. They could work in a team where other people were the driving force of progress, and they were just lucky enough to take part in the process. How much they contributed to the projects remains to be seen.

— Of course, there were a lot of stories when I didn't receive feedback. I won't focus on them, since they are familiar to everyone, and there is nothing special about them. I would say, the story is unique when you receive feedback :) Regarding more specific situations, then I had one.

Once I was getting a job at a startup. I went through the first stage of the interview, where I had to talk to the founder. The interview went well and the founder arranged a technical interview with the CTO of the company.

However, when the Recruiter tried to coordinate an interview with the CTO, it became clear that the company's CTO was completely uninterested in communication. He hadn't replied to the Recruiter's messages in the general chat for a long time, but then he answered once that he could conduct an interview from 13:00 to 14:00 the next day.

There was no answer. I tried to solve the issue through a Recruiter, as I didn't consider it necessary to contact CTO directly. The Recruiter said she would try to reach out to the CTO. I don't know if she tried it or not, but after that, we didn't communicate anymore.

I still have a bad taste in the mouth. There was disrespect for me as an applicant, because I spent a certain amount of time to go through the first stage and agree on the second.

— The company won't write to me, because it's folded up :) But even if it didn't close its doors, my answer is no.

— Yes. I may take the time to talk briefly, but I'll have a biased attitude.

— In fact, when I was a Junior-level Developer, it was important for me to gain experience, become smarter, more qualified, become a better specialist than I was. The growth of my qualifications didn't change my primary goal in finding a new job.

This still remains the main motivation that makes me make certain decisions. If the question implied whether the money came to the fore at some point in time, my answer is no.

— Same to you. It was nice to talk to you too. Thanks for the invitation.