A new chapter

[dias]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/09/trump-fbi-raid-republican-reactions-2024-election

 

I mean if FBI raids the house of a president I shouldn't complain for getting suspended for no reason.....

What the heck is happening in the world....

 

Nazi tactics re-emerged. 

[dias]

Sh*t, and I had high hopes for this. I thought this interview went really well... That's their reply:

He was a really pleasant candidate unfortunately he did not pass the white boarding or Value Behaviour part of the interview.

Valued Behaviors:

He was a warm and friendly candidate who presented himself as polite and a good communicator. Some of his value behavior answers were short and lacking in detail. He was unable to demonstrate the behaviors required to be successful in this C4 Position.  He would benefit from focusing on providing detailed scenario-based answers rather than short answers.

Technical Knowledge:

· Technical whiteboarding – focus on your individual contribution and how it displays data engineer best practices. Think about DevOps, performance, and security. The solution presented was more of a prototype, so didn’t display a lot of deployment and security best practices.

· Technical coding test – think about how your solution will scale when applied to a significantly larger dataset, is it still viable or is another framework required.

· He was confident coding and coming to a solution on his own, and working through a set of tests despite not being very familiar with testing Pandas.

 

I honestly have no idea about the valued behaviors, that was something to do with the HR questions. I might need to change the script, I am not sure in which question they are referring to though. 

About the whiteboarding thing, again they didn't specify what they wanted. I provided an example of a difficult problem and how I solved it. That was the requirement.  I need to re-evaluate what people want to hear. 

[dias]

I will have a call with the HR and the independent manager who would lead the process on Friday. They sent me all the documents of the investigation so far (how it started and all the information they gathered). I knew my line manager was involved, that f*cking bastard. Aside from this jerk, the HR has pushed it too far. There are far too many things to mention here, but to give you an idea, they even suggested the screws on my laptop are loose which might indicate I dissected the laptop and did something ??????????????????????????????????????? I think I will have a stroke if I continue thinking about it. 

Jake's apology is not enough for me to stay. I might quit. This has gone too far. It's not easy to walk away from 50K without having anything else but this has gone too far. Even if they keep me I can't and don't want to work for these people. 

This has been the most offensive behavior I have experienced in my whole life. I should have done what my brother said from the beginning. F*ck them. 

These people are sick. Sickeningly nasty. 

 

 

[Jibralta]

17 hours ago, dias said:

I honestly have no idea about the valued behaviors, that was something to do with the HR questions. I might need to change the script, I am not sure in which question they are referring to though. 

About the whiteboarding thing, again they didn't specify what they wanted. I provided an example of a difficult problem and how I solved it. That was the requirement.  I need to re-evaluate what people want to hear. 

More and more, I hear about tests like this being used for interviews. I actually started to watch a documentary about it on Netflix. The documentary focused on many of the negative aspects. However, I never finished it and it's been a while since I saw it, so I don't remember much. I'm just left (unsurprisingly) with a negative impression about the whole thing.

It's cool that they give feedback, though. 

[Jibralta]

10 hours ago, dias said:

There are far too many things to mention here, but to give you an idea, they even suggested the screws on my laptop are loose which might indicate I dissected the laptop and did something ???????????????????????????????????????

Wow, very paranoid! 

Do you work for an insurance company?

[dias]

7 minutes ago, Jibralta said:

Wow, very paranoid! 

Do you work for an insurance company?

It's a financial company but this does not extenuate the audacity and treatment. They inspected everything, there was nothing apparently, however, in the report they mention some crazy things.  As crazy as it gets. 

The HR had the chance to stop the whole charade when they got back the results from the investigation. This part is pure nastiness to "teach" me a lesson.

I don't think I can't continue working with them even if they keep me. They crossed the line by far. 

[Jibralta]

12 minutes ago, dias said:

It's a financial company

I really should have asked "Do you work for a banking or insurance company?" They're basically the same industry, which is paranoid beyond belief. They're paranoid because they capitalize on information control.

I'm not excusing their behavior. I'm just saying that it's not personal; it's the industry (which is greed). Everything is a number to them. You're either a positive dollar sign or a negative dollar sign. When they see the tiniest indication that a negative dollar sign could be on the horizon, it's full-on war. Whatever you did triggered that red flag for them and they pounced.

You're not a human to them. You're a debit or a credit. It's not personal.

[reinventmyself]

23 hours ago, dias said:

Sh*t, and I had high hopes for this. I thought this interview went really well... That's their reply:

He was a really pleasant candidate unfortunately he did not pass the white boarding or Value Behaviour part of the interview.

Valued Behaviors:

He was a warm and friendly candidate who presented himself as polite and a good communicator. Some of his value behavior answers were short and lacking in detail. He was unable to demonstrate the behaviors required to be successful in this C4 Position.  He would benefit from focusing on providing detailed scenario-based answers rather than short answers.

Technical Knowledge:

· Technical whiteboarding – focus on your individual contribution and how it displays data engineer best practices. Think about DevOps, performance, and security. The solution presented was more of a prototype, so didn’t display a lot of deployment and security best practices.

· Technical coding test – think about how your solution will scale when applied to a significantly larger dataset, is it still viable or is another framework required.

· He was confident coding and coming to a solution on his own, and working through a set of tests despite not being very familiar with testing Pandas.

 

I honestly have no idea about the valued behaviors, that was something to do with the HR questions. I might need to change the script, I am not sure in which question they are referring to though. 

About the whiteboarding thing, again they didn't specify what they wanted. I provided an example of a difficult problem and how I solved it. That was the requirement.  I need to re-evaluate what people want to hear. 

I was glad to read at the end, though this being your field you didn't understand what they meant.

Reading it myself. . .I am thinking "word salad?"

Nevertheless. . .it's never a good feeling to be turned down.  Head high. . one foot in front of the other!   

[reinventmyself]

15 hours ago, dias said:

I will have a call with the HR and the independent manager who would lead the process on Friday. They sent me all the documents of the investigation so far (how it started and all the information they gathered). I knew my line manager was involved, that f*cking bastard. Aside from this jerk, the HR has pushed it too far. There are far too many things to mention here, but to give you an idea, they even suggested the screws on my laptop are loose which might indicate I dissected the laptop and did something ??????????????????????????????????????? I think I will have a stroke if I continue thinking about it. 

Jake's apology is not enough for me to stay. I might quit. This has gone too far. It's not easy to walk away from 50K without having anything else but this has gone too far. Even if they keep me I can't and don't want to work for these people. 

This has been the most offensive behavior I have experienced in my whole life. I should have done what my brother said from the beginning. F*ck them. 

These people are sick. Sickeningly nasty. 

 

 

Is it possible they are just trying to make you quit, rather than letting you go?

I've seen it happen at my old job.  More than once.

[dias]

4 hours ago, reinventmyself said:

Is it possible they are just trying to make you quit, rather than letting you go?

I've seen it happen at my old job.  More than once.

I believe the same. They have been keeping me under suspension one month now and we haven't finished yet. I assume they want me to quit first. I haven't decided if I will do them the favor yet. 

[Jibralta]

Personally, I'd hold on until I had another job lined up. You have a steady income stream, and being employed makes you a stronger candidate during your job hunt. 

Last February, I didn't think I could survive another week at the job I had. It was just plain painful. I was absolutely miserable. But I managed to stick it out for three months until I found a good fit. 

Why give them the satisfaction of quitting when it is to your benefit to stay? Let them bankroll your job hunt.

[dias]

These were the worst people I have encountered. I got dismissed and more. I told them the Nazi behaviour is not appreciated and they have a lot of audacity among other things. I am going back to Greece. I need to contact a lawyer now. I don't think I will ever come back to the UK after this behaviour.

Today I developed severe trust issues.

[Jibralta]

Oh no! Did you expect this? I thought it was just going to be a reprimand.

[dias]

4 hours ago, Jibralta said:

Oh no! Did you expect this? I thought it was just going to be a reprimand.

Yes and no. My gut feeling was there is something wrong despite I did what they wanted but they kept telling it's nothing and it does not mean anything. Jake told me yesterday there is no chance of getting dismissed, this is not their goal and it's just the standard language the HR uses. 

I even apologized for not informing my manager upfront. They said there was a breach of the company's policies and then they said there might be a breach of the FCA policies and that could lead to jail sentence. This is when I went berserk.  I hadn't experienced such audacity in my entire life. 

I will contact an attorney next week because they made the absolute nothing to something completely preposterous and sick. 

 

[Jibralta]

Wow, what an ugly situation. It's sounds really awful. I'm so sorry that this has happened to you.

What do you mean, you went "berserk?" Do you think a lawyer will be helpful at this point?

[dias]

36 minutes ago, Jibralta said:

Wow, what an ugly situation. It's sounds really awful. I'm so sorry that this has happened to you.

What do you mean, you went "berserk?" Do you think a lawyer will be helpful at this point?

I told them they have a lot of audacity to make a decision like this when I have contributed so much to the company and that the values the CEO repeats every time are a big hypocrisy and there are no values in reality, I just see nasty people and that I am returning the monitor on Monday and that concludes our collaboration and everything. 

Yes a lawyer will be helpful because they keep pushing it. They came up with stuff I didn't do, it's crazy. I should have quit from the beginning, I played their game unfortunately. I don't think they will stop now, they are sick and twisted people. 

 

[reinventmyself]

If you are serious about leaving, consider going to your Dr and going out on a stress leave - now.  It will buy you some time, they can't fire you, gives you a break and it screws with them a bit.  In the meantime, get some advice from an employment practices attorney.

The company I worked for I witnessed this a few times.  Eye opening how people knew their right and how to work the system.  Not sure if its applicable in your country, but I would look into it.  I witnessed staff going out on a temporary stress leave, manage to extend it, sue the company and never return. 

I considered it at the end of my career, but I was pretty spent already and not up to a fight.

[Jibralta]

42 minutes ago, reinventmyself said:

If you are serious about leaving, consider going to your Dr and going out on a stress leave

If I read his post from yesterday correctly, I think he has already departed the company.

[dias]

This is the most sick, perplexed, nasty and perverted experience I have ever had. And it's not done yet. When it started I thought I have seen this only in the movies but now I think things are more crazy than any movie.

 

[reinventmyself]

Hope you're ok D.  Keep us posted when you can.

[itsallgrand]

I'm so sorry dias. I hope you're OK. 

[dias]

It is finally over. These people destroyed my career and life in the UK. Not only they fired me they made sure I won't be able to find a job again in big companies in the UK. 

And all of this because I worked one week from Greece without telling them.

All this time I felt like a prisoner. All these years of investment, hard work, effort, sweat and tears to integrate there and make something of myself they took it away in a moment.

Half of the attorneys in London work for them, I can't do anything.

It really affected my health. That was the nastiest blow ever.

[Jibralta]

Wow.

How is it possible for one company, no matter how large, to bar you from an entire industry?

If they only have half the lawyers, can't you contact the other half?

[dias]

1 hour ago, Jibralta said:

Wow.

How is it possible for one company, no matter how large, to bar you from an entire industry?

If they only have half the lawyers, can't you contact the other half?

It is. They report to the FCA and they deemed that not informing my manager when I arrived to Greece is lack of integrity which is the first rule of FCA. I didn't know they could do this. Now most of the big companies have to report to the FCA and in pre employment checks they check with FCA. 

Until yesterday I thought the FCA is for money laundering, market manipulation etc etc. I found the unfortunate way a company can report whatever likes for a person. What happened is so crazy I can't really comprehend it.

I can't afford most lawyers. They charge you before you or them even talk. I already got charged by one as soon as I sent him the documents and we haven't even talked.

I could find a job in smaller companies that do not report to the FCA. But I am not sure I want to go back after this. What if I encountered a racist head of HR like now (and I can't prove that, I broke the rule so they could really do whatever they wanted literally , believe me it's terrifying)again and I have bought a house etc etc?  

It was the worst experience of my life.

 

[dias]

I paid the lawyer for the nothing he did. Finally everything is over. I don't want to think about it anymore. It was a torment.

In October I would have been 5 years in the UK. I wish nothing of this had happened but it's good it happened now that I didn't  have any property there. 

Almost 5 years, one year for my Master's and almost 4 years working. It's unfortunate things turned this way but I am still proud of what I achieved these years. It's not easy to start from nothing in a foreign country and succeed. No connections, no support, no help, no friends, no anything. Everything I achieved was by myself and because I was always working and always chasing. I did what I wanted to do, I learned many things and experienced many many things. It wasn't holidays though that's for sure.

This chapter of my life is over. It's time for a new chapter.