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A data analyst, who applied for a data engineer role at a company, got rejected in the second round over a comma.
A data engineer got rejected in the second round of a job interview over a minor grammatical error. (GettyImages)
A data analyst was taken aback after being rejected from a job interview not due to incompetence or lack of skills, but over a minor grammatical error. The individual had successfully cleared the first round for a data engineer role at a well-known company, whose name resembles the word “quantity”. However, in the second round, they were dismissed over a missing comma in a SQL query written in Notepad.
The frustrated individual took to Reddit to share their experience and seek advice on transitioning from a data analyst (DA) to a data engineer (DE).
“Had my second-round interview for a Data Engineer role at a well-known company (The name has a resemblance to ‘quantity’). I cleared the first round, and in the second, I answered everything correctly – except I forgot a comma between two column names while writing a SQL query in Notepad,” the Redditor wrote on the platform.
The interviewer, instead of acknowledging the simple oversight, reportedly launched into a 20-minute rant about the overreliance on AI tools. They added, “The interviewer went off on me for 20 minutes about relying on AI tools and IDEs, completely dismissing my experience working with complex analytical queries and building ETL pipelines at a leading CDP.”
“It was a simple oversight, not a lack of knowledge, but I still got rejected for it. Frustrating, to say the least. Any advice on navigating my first transition from DA to DE?” they further added.
The post, since being shared on Reddit, has accumulated over 700 upvotes and counting. Many even flocked to the comments section of the post to give their two cents.
A full-stack developer echoed what a company’s CEO’s would have said to investors: “We are actively looking to hire, but candidates have no skills and it would be a waste of funds to train these candidates, and we don’t want to burn investors’ money.”
“I was once asked the current PyTorch version as a question and got ghosted,” another shared a similar experience.
A third joked, “What company rhymes with quantity? I know that’s not remotely the point of the post, but I can’t think about anything else!”
Others felt the rejection was a blessing in disguise. “The interviewer did you a solid. I once got lectured because I used interchangeable words, the interviewer was expecting a textbook answer, and this was for a SDE2 role,” commented yet another full-stack developer.
An Internet user suggested that they should have walked out of the room the moment the interviewer started “whining”. To this, the original poster replied, “I’m kind of scared to have walked out of an interview like that. I’ve never done something like this before. I even thanked him for his time and wished him a good day.”
One even asked if the interview attended the skill builder role at EY?
A social media user doubted if the interviewer went off for 20 minutes just over a comma? Addressing this, the Redditor elaborated, “My interviewer had plenty of time. He went on and on about how, when he started his career, he didn’t have access to advanced IDEs and debugging tools. Then, he ranted about how AI tools are ruining this generation of developers. He also claimed to have never used a debugger and insisted that I should develop the same habit. I’ve never experienced anything like this. If I had already made my decision as an interviewer, I would have simply ended the interview.”
