Ask HN: What do your job interviews look like?

So this company wanted to replace MuleSoft with a home grown solution using TypeScript and Node.js. The primary reasons were the high costs of MuleSoft and the inability to pivot from MuleSofts most basic approach to REST. A home grown solution would quickly pay for itself in operating costs and could be relicensed as a future product that solves problems MuleSoft can’t. This new initiative has 0 lines written and the position called for a Node.js expert to start this off.

There were three rounds of interviews each for 30 minutes with different leaders. One of these interviewers was aware of TypeScript and how Node works but none knew what to ask from a technical perspective.

The final interview was with the person assigned as the architect of this effort who was greatly opposed to training people and opposed this initiative generally.

After leaving the interview it was clear that the person hired would be on their own and scapegoated by insecure personalities with conflicting agendas not related to product or the underlying financial motive.

In a way this experience felt like a game of a pending marriage divorce with ambitious personalities versus highly neurotic people focused on their own things. The more I thought on it the more it reminded me so much of several past employment experiences.