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Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

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Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#11

Post by greyostrich »

rcymerys wrote: post #6

Are you angry about wasting 2 hours of your time or not getting the job? Keep in mind that a lot of companies use automated tests to filter candidates, not necessarily in the most fair way. They're simply not able to do a whole interview with everyone as it's extremely time consuming. I'd say don't worry about it too much. If you have the skills you'll find plenty of good companies that will want to work with you. Un…

I don't like the zero feedback loop. I passed the test, yet I failed it and don't know why.

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#12

Post by greyostrich »

danpalmer wrote: post #8

Was it definitely "auto rejection" or did a human read your code? I ask because we have a coding test that most people solve (that we invite to do it) but we reject most on code quality. The purpose might not have been to solve the task, but maybe to do it in a good way?

It reads like an "auto rejection" but the email says they read it. I wish I knew what kind of code quality they looked for. I already read Clean Code, so I'm aware of certain things.

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#13

Post by greyostrich »

rick_perez wrote: post #2

With big companies, it's pretty common. There is probably something about your contact info or education/experience that was auto-flagged as a rejection.

It was a small company you never heard of. But yeah, probably something else. The rejection said based on my experience, answers, and resume. If so, it's disturbing that I had to do this challenge in order to get them to read my resume.

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#14

Post by greyostrich »

icedchai wrote: post #7
bsvalley wrote: post #4

Right now, the job market is super over crowded. There are a lot of jobs out there but too many people applying... You get a rejection on a 99/100 score (one tiny mistake and you're out), actually, even a 100/100 score sometimes will lead you to a rejection because other candidates were stronger than you. Too many people are applying from everywhere at the moment.

This is the opposite of my experience, both as a candidate and a hiring manager over the past couple of years. There are many openings, not enough competent people to fill them. We are essentially at peak employment for tech.

Unfortunately, I've been trying to find my first job of university. I wish I knew how to be competent enough. What do you look for?

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#15

Post by kosma »

Have you actually asked them about the specific reasons for rejection? FWIW, there's a multitude of reasons why one could get rejected, ranging from automated systems to the position just getting filled to being too good for the job to bad references to human error. Until you ask and get an actual human response, you're completely in the dark.

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#16

Post by fenwick67 »

icedchai wrote: post #7
bsvalley wrote: post #4

Right now, the job market is super over crowded. There are a lot of jobs out there but too many people applying... You get a rejection on a 99/100 score (one tiny mistake and you're out), actually, even a 100/100 score sometimes will lead you to a rejection because other candidates were stronger than you. Too many people are applying from everywhere at the moment.

This is the opposite of my experience, both as a candidate and a hiring manager over the past couple of years. There are many openings, not enough competent people to fill them. We are essentially at peak employment for tech.

It's funny how companies / hiring managers always say they have trouble finding good candidates, and the people looking for jobs always say they are no jobs.

It's probably an axiom of some sort.

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#17

Post by greyostrich »

kosma wrote: post #15

Have you actually asked them about the specific reasons for rejection? FWIW, there's a multitude of reasons why one could get rejected, ranging from automated systems to the position just getting filled to being too good for the job to bad references to human error. Until you ask and get an actual human response, you're completely in the dark.

It's a no-reply email. Here's what the actual email said:

"Thank you for your interest in Company. We have reviewed your resume, experience, and responses to the Code Challenge. At this time, we have decided to move forward with other candidates in the process. We wish you success in your job search."

Sounds to me like they read my resume AFTER I passed the coding challenge. Seems to me like a waste of terrible time if I'm spending my time just to get rejected by my resume.

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#18

Post by bcbrown »

greyostrich wrote: post #14
icedchai wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the opposite of my experience, both as a candidate and a hiring manager over the past couple of years. There are many openings, not enough competent people to fill them. We are essentially at peak employment for tech.

Unfortunately, I've been trying to find my first job of university. I wish I knew how to be competent enough. What do you look for?

If you're looking for a job, where do you live, and why don't you have your email in your profile? If you're in Seattle, send me an email; my email's in my profile.

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#19

Post by BillBohan »

If a company wants me to write code, they need to pay me for it.

I came across a similar situation where a prospective employer sent me the requirements for a complex routine and gave me 7 days to return functioning and commented code. My estimate was that it would take me 2 days to do it, so it would probably have taken 6 days.

I can envision an unscrupulous business model whereby you do the top level design and break it into routines, advertise for a programing position, and send the specifications for a routine to each applicant. You reject each applicant after they have submitted their code, take the best implementation of each routine, pack it all together and now you have a product.

I don't know that that's what they were doing but nobody will do it to me. I hope that's not what happened to you.

You may call me cynical but I've been around enough that I come by it honestly.

Re: Ask HN: Am I right to be angry about the interview process?

#20

Post by kevin42 »

fenwick67 wrote: post #16
icedchai wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the opposite of my experience, both as a candidate and a hiring manager over the past couple of years. There are many openings, not enough competent people to fill them. We are essentially at peak employment for tech.

It's funny how companies / hiring managers always say they have trouble finding good candidates, and the people looking for jobs always say they are no jobs. It's probably an axiom of some sort.

I have talked to hiring managers who complain about the lack of candidates. Then I ask to see their positions and what they are willing to pay and it's way too low. No wonder they can't find an experienced C++ developer for $70k/year. The companies complaining about the lack of qualified people would have no problem if they paid more.

On the other hand I've talked to an unemployed Java developer who didn't seem to want to learn anything new beyond what he learned at college 15 years ago complaining about the job market.

In my 25+ years of experience, I think that demand for software engineers has always been high. But what's in demand keeps changing. I saw COBOL and RPG IV programmers in 1992 complaining about the lack of software jobs. It'll always be hard to keep up with the jobs that are in demand unless you look at what's in demand and work on the side to stay relevant.

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