Yes, it's absurd. I've my 20 able developer friends who weren't able to find job despite being very good developers. They were always messing up interviews.
Yes, they can solve whatever tricky questions you throw at them because they've lots of experience working on low level stuff.
People's eyes are so used to Instagram people that they think less attractive people are less healthy so they'll not be good at problem solving which takes great genes. This is what most have concluded from Instagram photos of bodybuilders/athletes/celebrities.
I am guilty of this myself, I've dated many beautiful ladies who i chased with passion. They all had invested lot of money into their looks. They always complained about not being well off like me but now you know why.This is what attracted me to them. Face is the first thing i notice, i was young and naive and got fooled by clever makeup. So why you can't do same as a man? Hack your way to success.
If you are a good programmer and still not getting paid well or getting promoted faster, then it's probably this.
Here comes the twist. We finally figured out it has to do with their appearance. No one gives this as reason to you, they simply reject you period.
So we got a writer and analyst, to figure out what the market truly wants then created a script and we gave it to the programmers to memorize.
Add some professional make-up artists, took some photographs at a studio with many others (pretending to be at some event of great importance). This went straight to their Instagram account.
And 16 out of 20 programmer friends showed up for interview and got a successful placement.
But still 4 of them didn't find job yet.
What is this? This is new normal and this is what people who are interviewing and recruiting want.
Of course those changes helped them. It has always been this way and will always be. There is little to no relation to social medias. A job interview is a date with an employer. You are supposed to look your best, your 110%. You can come dressed as a slob the next month, but by then people will know that you can and are able to dress correctly if the need rise (meeting with an important client).
Makeup hides your unhealthy lifestyles. Baggy eyes from working all night look the same as baggy eyes from staying out in bars or gaming all night. It can also hides defects such as acne and bad skin tone that make you look younger or make give out the perception that you are or sick. Remember that they are hiring someone to be part of a team, so you are expected to look the part.
As for the script you had them learn and read... I'm confused... Did those people improvise their last interview on the spot? You should always be ready during an interview. You should have been rehearsing your speech so that you are able to deliver it in an eloquent way. Every answers to the typical interview questions should be aced. Programming is a team effort and communication is the key. Nobody wants to hire that loner who is unable to talk about himself for 10 minutes because how would this person be able to vulgarize a problem to the client or other department?
This is something that really irks me with the programming community. People tend to think that because we are geeky and outcasts we should get hired without putting any social effort. Social skills are just like any regular skills. You need to read books, follow tutorials and train them. Otherwise you look like a skilless individual and nobody wants to hire that.
> People's eyes are so used to Instagram people that they think less attractive people are less healthy
Instagram has little to do with that; the two-way association between perceived health and attractiveness is deeply ingrained (the exact extent to which it is a very ancient feature of culture vs. an evolved biological trait independent of culture, I don't know, but it's one or both of those things.)
> This is a joke right? I would have thought development would be the one sector unaffected by look / image etc.
I know this guy who used to screen models at a Hollywood studio. Now he works as a recruiter in a tech company (he met a VP at stripclub who got him in), what do you think he does?
They are still same people! They look for same signals. They give it weird names like vibes / cultural fit or whatever.
Yes, they can solve whatever tricky questions you throw at them because they've lots of experience working on low level stuff.
People's eyes are so used to Instagram people that they think less attractive people are less healthy so they'll not be good at problem solving which takes great genes. This is what most have concluded from Instagram photos of bodybuilders/athletes/celebrities.
I am guilty of this myself, I've dated many beautiful ladies who i chased with passion. They all had invested lot of money into their looks. They always complained about not being well off like me but now you know why.This is what attracted me to them. Face is the first thing i notice, i was young and naive and got fooled by clever makeup. So why you can't do same as a man? Hack your way to success.
If you are a good programmer and still not getting paid well or getting promoted faster, then it's probably this.
Here comes the twist. We finally figured out it has to do with their appearance. No one gives this as reason to you, they simply reject you period.
So we got a writer and analyst, to figure out what the market truly wants then created a script and we gave it to the programmers to memorize.
Add some professional make-up artists, took some photographs at a studio with many others (pretending to be at some event of great importance). This went straight to their Instagram account.
And 16 out of 20 programmer friends showed up for interview and got a successful placement.
But still 4 of them didn't find job yet.
What is this? This is new normal and this is what people who are interviewing and recruiting want.