5 Ways Nefarious Companies Hoodwink Software Engineers

Always read the label, do the research, and check the profiles of anyone you might feasibly work with…

Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash

The classic bait and switch is very much alive and well in the grand game of software engineering and, unfortunately, still forms the basis of a common modus operandi in numerous software companies.

It’s often the case that as you progress through the grand game that you’ll pick and choose carefully which languages, technologies, and operating systems you prefer to work with. After all, it’s very well known that we do our best work when we’re doing what we like.

To that end you’ll also be avoiding situations where you’d be working with something that you actively dislike, will never use again, or is produced by a company that hates its users¹.

Changing jobs, therefore, can be something of a minefield when you’re faced with:

• The vast majority of recruiters who don’t know their Java from their JavaScript², their CSS from their OSS, or frankly their arse from their elbow as the saying goes.
• Hapless hiring managers who use the ‘Scrabble Method’ of trying to make up job requirements using any fragments of knowledge they may have overhead during lunchtime or from someone else’s Teams call.