Onsite EM Manager accused me of being a jobhopper, advice?

Apr 30 33 Comments

Won't name the company but recently had onsite with a company, 2 coding rounds, 1 system design and 1 EM round (company does team match so this is not hiring manager per se).

Unexpectedly, he spent the *whole* interview accusing me of being a jobhopper repeatedly and didn't want to discuss about my projects/work/achievements. This was in stark contrast to pretty much every other interview I've given.

Here were the couple latest positions in question:

MSFT - 1.5 years

Place 2 - 2.5 years (Would have stayed but was leading the only web/mobile team at the company and due to the nature of the product and SLT ties with 3rd party vendor we relied on, they decided to invest heavily in the 3rd party's new whitelabel solution and reorg everyone back into the parent business which had no opportunities for me). I was offered another role in the legacy business but decided to move to MSFT

Place 3 - 4 months (Put in place oncall after 2 weeks of joining, rotations was 2 weeks on 2 weeks off only for the FE workers, also transitioning to microservices which meant all service errors flowed through UI and caused pages. On the order of 13 pages an hour, 24 hours a day each oncall week. This was mainly due to a single service that consumed Twilio and had unhandled errors. As the team wasn't getting paged and there wasn't significant revenue loss, they refused to address it. I tried to silence those alarms and push for the issue to be addressed and for broader rotation of oncall so teams develop empathy for each other but I had no power/agency to do so and was met everytime with rejection)

Place 4 - 1 year (Tech subsidiary started by major RE developer to build a system/app that complements all their other services and acts as an acquisition funnel. Owner was not respectful of personal late nights and such, but more importantly would come up with extremely large feature requests with unreasonable timelines on the team as they did not understand the development lifecycles. Myself, the founding PO, and manager had many many late night discussions with the founder to help develop that understanding and try to communicate the costs involved for randomization and erratic requests and timelines. Ultimately it fell on deaf ears and I felt like a pawn in charge of creating a sweatshop environment so I left.

Place 5 - 1 year (Acquired and dissolved by acquirer)

In every case I had great relationships with my team and manager. I've had many prior colleagues choose to work with me again elsewhere and that has been the highest praise. In every case (even in the 4 month position) I've delivered the product/charter I was hired on and set out to do and left amicably with great relationships.

This interviewer EM did bring up that MSFT is a massive corporation with teams working on everything and anything and I could always transfer, which was a valid point.

Overall, despite my best efforts and explanation (and some things being out of my control), the EM just kept saying jobhopper jobhopper and ended the interview 10 minutes early. For the record he joined this company just 1 year ago and his LinkedIn does not show him as less of a jobhopper if mine is considered as such.

TLDR: EM during onsite only focused on what he felt was me being a jobhopper and nothing else, I don't feel it was a good assessment of me for the role. Would love any advice from the Blind community on how to/how I could have handled this situation.

No TC as this info is already too identifiable, but have an offer around 400k and expect more come next week. YOE ~10 non-FAANG.

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TOP 33 Comments
  • Meta
    Kuph85

    Go to company page Meta

    Kuph85
    Tell your recruiter immediately what happened and let them handle it
    Apr 30 11
    • Roblox
      downbad

      Go to company page Roblox

      downbad
      if job hopping was the issue, you should never had made it that far into the interview loop. I'm sure the recruiting team would be annoyed as well if the bar raiser or rude interviewer vetoed the hire if everyone else was a yes

      if I was the recruiter for that job, I would avoid using that interviewer again for future interviews
      May 6
    • OP
      yea I agree, this is what I'm thinking too. Whether or not someone is a jobhopper and whether or not that's an issue should be resolved by initial recruiter call, not suddenly be an issue because of the bar raiser's personal opinion and unwillingness to discuss/speak with the interviewee.

      If this was the HM I'd just pass on the opportunity but since it's team match this EM wouldn't have been my manager anyway, upsetting.
      May 6
  • Google
    noogler999

    Go to company page Google

    noogler999
    Tell him that he sucks
    Apr 30 1
  • Quick question, in all the companies you joined, did you have options and you chose to join them after consideration or those were the only offers you had?
    And honestly, was money your motivation to move at any point? For example MSFT?
    Apr 30 10
    • Spotify
      2STgTK

      Go to company page Spotify

      2STgTK
      OP you are the one who knows what is best for your career. Some people prefer to stay at the same company their entire lives just because they are afraid of getting out of their comfort zone. They lack industry knowledge because they only know one reality, the one at their company. Others do it because they know they wouldn't be able to pass any interview.

      There are positive and negative aspects for both options.

      It is your life, your decisions. If the people interviewing you do not value your experience, it might be a red flag for you joining them, rather than the other way around.
      May 1
    • OP
      I agree, certain people might see it as a negative, certain might not.

      Overall I don't think this EM's opinion is representative of the whole company not valuing my experience so I don't want to brush with broad strokes, much like I hope they can afford som benefit of doubt vs painting me simply as a "jobhopper" and discounting what I can offer or circumstance.

      There's a team matching process as well so the way I see it, the only people who matter are the hiring managers who I speak with if I get there. Only caveat is this company (not AMZN) has a "bar raiser" and this EM might have been it, in which case if he feels that strongly about me being a jobhopper, the performance in my other interviews probably won't prevent a rejection.
      May 1
  • Meta
    metably

    Go to company page Meta

    metably
    I'd probably try to focus your energy on addressing his concerns rather than trying to defend yourself against an accusation/label.

    Maybe ask him what is the bigger concern to him? That there are things you haven't experienced because you haven't spent enough time in any one company to reach that level of depth? Or that if hired here, you wont stay?

    Then highlight the opportunity you're interviewing for and why it's a good match for you. "I'm not a bad person" isn't going to make them want to hire you. "Im actually going to stick around in my next role because x" might.
    Apr 30 2
    • OP
      yea I think these are the broader concerns, these are good points, definitely something to reflect on and refine more, thank you!

      I did touch on these points a bit but it definitely caught me off guard and I'm sure it could have been done better.
      Apr 30
    • Spotify
      2STgTK

      Go to company page Spotify

      2STgTK
      Never promise that you are going to stick around unconditionally. It is a two way street. People stay when they are valued, there is growth... The world and our lives change frequently too, it would be an empty promise even if you wanted to do it.

      If you join you should do your best, but the company also needs to do their part.
      May 1
  • Meta
    cmd-esc

    Go to company page Meta

    cmd-esc
    So the hiring manger is worried you will hop jobs again in few months. This is a serious concern especially in Microsoft where lots of people stay 10+ years.

    If this was your last interview that is mostly the person who is responsible for making yes/no hiring decision. They can see feedback from previous interviews and may be you passed everything else, but wants to make sure you have long term plans/ if the right team fit.

    You can try to address this concern, defending this is probably not very easy. Remember you are being interviewed, they are deciding if they want hire you.

    It is not illegal to ask why you worked so many jobs. One of the requirements for promos to principal level is ‘drive and deliver significant work over a period of time’ - like two years etc. your experience seems to suggest you are lacking this
    Apr 30 1
    • OP
      yea definitely can see that being a concern, appreciate the perspective. I'm not Principal level but that would be the next step for sure.

      I did pick up on this concern and did mention I would like to stay longer within the team and my interest in the company, though I'm sure I could have handled it better, was caught off guard a bit, didn't expect that topic to span the whole duration.

      This company does have a bar raiser (though not Amazon) so I do imagine this person was playing such a role as well.
      Apr 30