Jorg,
I know how you feel. In fact I often see a bigger farce at many recruitment drives here in India (or maybe only in some states), especially for jobs at Government insitutions. It is common knowledge that you cannot get such a post unless you have a "contact" on the inside. Without that, people haven't got a chance, and everbody knows it. In fact often the candidate is already finalized before the interviews begin. Yet the interviewers go through all the scheduled interviews, wasting people's time and efforts.

I have seen the same occur a number of times. Once when my friend applied for a temporary research enigneer post, in fact there was close contention between two candidates to see whose Contact was higher-ranked in the organization :-)) The surprise winner was a guy who was related to the interviewer :-)) :-))

The candidate's skills and abilities are never really a consideration. My contact-less friend of course didn't get the job, despite being more than qualified.

All I can say to people with "contacts" is, try to find how far you can go on your own in the real world before resorting to that.

But still, you must realize... if you want to get ANYwhere in the world, you MUST be able to market yourself. See, the interviewer has only a limited time to judge your skills, and he can't tell by looking at you that you are a better 8051 programmer. The better you can convince them that you are perfect, the more your chances.

Secondly, if the company wants hard-working, all-nighter workers, that's what you should offer them. If they want a trained monkey, thats what you should be, at least until you are in a position to do without them. They are not going to take someone who won't fit their criteria. If you can go BEYOND that basic requirement, and prove that you are a better programmer, you have a much better chance.

Once you have the requisite experience and get fed up with being treated like a trained monkey, and are confident in your future chances elsewhere, you can follow Jon's lead and walk out on the interviewers :-))

kundi