#3) You're not a unique or a beautiful little snowflake. You'll find out how we work when you get here. If you can't adapt, you'll leave - probably against your will.
This one is interesting. Now, I would never consider myself a "unique or beautiful little" anything, but I do strive for excellence and I think most good developers/DBAs/any other position that requires any creativity also do that. This does mean that the good ones are not cogs where you can easily substitute one of us for another. I would be reluctant to work for any company that wanted to treat me as a replaceable cog. While I have done it in the past and would do it again in the future if I had to, I think and hope I am long past the point where I would have to work for a company like that again.
As for the adaptation, I agree to a degree. Starting any new job involves adaptation. With that said, what kind of adaptation the company expect plays a large role in how interested I would be in the job. A company that expects me to adapt because they are on the bleeding edge of tech, or wants me to work with something that is both new to me and interesting will find me quite eager. One that expects me to adapt because they are using say SQL Server 6.5 on Windows NT will not find me so eager.
If a company is hiring commodity coders to create yet more basic CRUD apps, then the company holds all the cards and can be very picky. If a company is looking for truly good, experienced developers/DBAs/engineers that are capable of working independently and substantial new projects, then the company is no longer looking for a cog in the machine and they are more likely to find a good candidate by remembering that fact and acting accordingly.
This one is interesting. Now, I would never consider myself a "unique or beautiful little" anything, but I do strive for excellence and I think most good developers/DBAs/any other position that requires any creativity also do that. This does mean that the good ones are not cogs where you can easily substitute one of us for another. I would be reluctant to work for any company that wanted to treat me as a replaceable cog. While I have done it in the past and would do it again in the future if I had to, I think and hope I am long past the point where I would have to work for a company like that again.
As for the adaptation, I agree to a degree. Starting any new job involves adaptation. With that said, what kind of adaptation the company expect plays a large role in how interested I would be in the job. A company that expects me to adapt because they are on the bleeding edge of tech, or wants me to work with something that is both new to me and interesting will find me quite eager. One that expects me to adapt because they are using say SQL Server 6.5 on Windows NT will not find me so eager.
If a company is hiring commodity coders to create yet more basic CRUD apps, then the company holds all the cards and can be very picky. If a company is looking for truly good, experienced developers/DBAs/engineers that are capable of working independently and substantial new projects, then the company is no longer looking for a cog in the machine and they are more likely to find a good candidate by remembering that fact and acting accordingly.