Today we had a second candidate in for the generic IT Tech position. He didn't seem as keen as the original candidate was about learning more in the post. He also said he "had varying degrees of success" when working on computers in his spare time which didn't sound too good when you're meant to sell yourself at a job interview. Myself and The Other Tech decided to go for the original candidate as he had more informal experience of IT (neither candidate had much), and seemed keener to learn more on the job. The Big Boss seemed to have reservations about this decision - particularly that he would not be reliable as he had to catch the bus to work. I pointed out that The New Guy manages to do this each day. He then went on to say that his employment history was short. I said that this could be down to temping on many fixed term contracts rather than not being able to settle at a job. As the guy was keen and interested I put that possibility aside and went out on a limb to offer him a chance. The next thing he said was that he'd received an email from the agency saying that today's candidate was better, except it didn't say that as you had to read between the lines. I asked for a copy of the message to take in to consideration while mulling over both CVs, but I was never sent it. After lunch, he reluctantly agreed to contact the original candidate to offer the post.
Later that day he caught me on my own and wanted to make certain that we were sure we wanted the original candidate. He said he still had reservations, but didn't know what they were. So I said "you don't like the first candidate, but you can't say why?". In my mind you can't dismiss someone because someone else has a mystery reason they can't put their finger on against employing them. He then started saying, again, how "reading between the lines" the agency we use were "steering" us towards today's candidate. I went through the pros and cons again, then another member of staff came in so The Big Boss left. Seeing as I'd met both candidates and been with them for around an hour each I was very confused how The Big Boss had a different impression of the first candidate from the agency, so, I rang the agency to seek clarification. The agency said that both candidates were suitable, and that the original one was more forthcoming, today's one was more shy to start off with etc.
The Big Boss returned saying he'd received a strange email from the agency stating that they were not promoting one candidate over the other and apologised if it came across that way. I came clean that I had contacted them to see what this "reading between the lines" business was about. The Big Boss did not like this and said that "if you do that your fingers will get bitten off". Finally, after reading a 3rd CV which we dismissed, The Big Boss said that I must not contact the agency and that "I will make life difficult" if I do. He made out that doing such a think means I may not trust him, but I insisted that I only called them to seek clarification as I had not had any of the apprehensions he had, and that he would not explain what the "reading between the lines" comments meant.
Oh well. I bet after all this the guy will have found another job! If not, I think he's due to start Weds / Thursday this week on a 4 week trial.
If someone has a reason not to give someone a shot, then you SAY, not say "I have a reason but I don't know what it is". Ok, if I'm wrong, and this guy is terrible, then you learn by your mistakes. After all, this is my first appointment decision. The guy could be great! We shall see. Secondly, I don't appreciate being told that my fingers will be bitten off, or that I will make life difficult, as these could be construed as bullying. Especially when said without eye contact (he was reading the CV we'd dismissed) in a very bassy tone, when standing up as I was sitting down.
Oh, and Terastation boxes don't support serving files over HTTP. Lacie boxes don't support serving unauthenticated over HTTP......so I think we're looking at a random server machine with big disks and Apache installed.
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