Paying the price for being honest

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Had a job interview some time ago with a video game company that was looking for game testers. Since i have a degree in Computer Engineering i got this year, it was not quite related to my experience but I was willing to take an interesting new career road. Plus, i did it as a summer job in the past so the job was not too foreign for me. Interview goes well till the interviewer told me about working overtime since it is quite essential in order to finish projects, my response was i was willing to do over time as long as i had time to rest up from time to time. The interview went on alright and that i would her from them an a few weeks.

Few weeks pass by and i got a call from HR that i did not get the job due to my unwillingness to do overtime (that was their interpretation of my response), I felt devastated that i did not get a job that i could have easily gotten and get me out of the unemployed group. i have reflected on what has happened sine and here is my take.

In a way i am glad i did not get this job since i have already done it as a summer job in-between semesters at college and i want to focus in getting something related to my to my field of study. I considered this job (if i had gotten it) more of a "pit stop" for me to gain experience for me to move onto more something related to my field. On the downside, i lost this opportunity for being honest with myself, letting people know about my stance of certain aspects and it made me think as to how i have give the right answer to people who are interviewing me. I don't know if my condition kicked in or something when i said that but i do have a tenancy of being indecisive and i fell as if that also attributed for me turned down.

I still have one company who has taken much interest in me and my skills. they deal in electronics (my specialty) and they have called my references and asked me more questions after my interview with them. The process is going at snails pace but i would give up everything i have just to get a chance to work for that company. This could be my break from graduating 7 months ago!

IMO, if an employer interpreted your extremely reasonable response to the overtime question in the way they did, it sounds like they are looking for someone to exploit. It's extremely common in the programming world for employers to have unreasonable expectations of their employee's time, but that doesn't make it right.

Regrettably, QA jobs in general and video entertainment software QA in particular relies on all kinds of hurry-up-and-wait last-minute *BS*. So yeah, if you expressed the slightest reservation about overtime, you're out the door. As likely as not, there are probably anywhere from 10-300 other candidates with your qualifications who won't bat an eye over overtime.

Hint for the AS crowd....

If you want to be considered for an opportunity, you must be open to ANYTHING. Long hours, rotating shifts, weekends and holidays.

Get the interview, get the specifics of the job and work environment. If you don't like it or know you won't work well, you can always decline the offer if they bother to extend it.

They might not believe you when you say you are okay with something, but at least you got to an interview when you found out.

A lot of NTs get burned the same way. Heck, if you're on unemployment benefits and need to do your mandatory job search minimums for a week and can't find anything good, there are plenty of places you can fill out a one-page application, limit your availability to something that's reasonable to most people (9-5 M-F) and know they will never call you because they want 24/7 availability.

Maybe your choice of words put them off?

Instead of saying "rest up" maybe say something along the lines of that you have no problem pitching in overtime as the needs of the business requires, however a good work-life balance is essential to keep you motivated as you believe fresh brains have the best ideas. Or something.

I (and I'm sure others here) understand what you mean by "rest up" but an interviewer may interpret that as "I like to spend my weekends in my pants with some beer playing xbox and I am not willing to pitch in extra work if the company is busy".
Interviewers work in mysterious ways.

P.S. I agree with momsparky, in this particular instance, it DOES sound like they were wanting a dogsbody to work every hour god sends and not getting the job may have been a blessing in disguise

Its has been a few days since the whole episode and i have come down to a few conclusions. I know where i want to go in terms of my career but given what i have seen, what i have been offered and the types of interviews i have been going to, I do not have that many options and therefore, i may have to make some concessions. I know what i want and i am so suborn enough to get it that ignore what i can due on the side before i can go out and get what i want.

The thing is, i do not want to give an answer at an interview or phone interview that will satisfy the interviewer's needs at the cost of lying to myself and becoming a turncoat to my own beliefs just for the sake of finding work. But seeing how my rejections keep piling up, i think its time i started to listen to the man than rather than listening to myself. I hoped that i would not sell myself out but i guess i have no choice but to.

My job hunting has been dragging on for months since i graduated and in that time it has been both a learning experience about how the process goes, about the realities of life and how you must keep on going. This has not been easy for me but i am grateful to have a vast support structure that encourages me to move forward. I am grateful for this.

Just tell them you are willing to do the overtime but don't tell them how much overtime you are willing to do. Nobody expects you to work 168 hours a week.

Apply again, or else where. As a veteran of the game industry, I know they require long hours of playing to find a bug, finding out what causes it (Button Z and A, while standing here shooting at that causes X weirdness, etc.), the reporting it. But they also supply all the soda and snacks you need usually, and a nice chair and monitor. Sega even had twice weekly chair massages.

Autistic people are too honest.

And too open. Also, have any of you noticed that some people can get away with things you can't?

*nods*
I am learning that there's a big difference between lying by omission and sharing too much information to my own detriment.

Autistic people can't get away with anything. I was fired for something even though everyone else was doing it.