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Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#51

Post by sosodev »

tptacek wrote: post #45
sosodev wrote: post #44

I recently did the hiring challenge for the platform role. My solution worked really well and I thought the code was clean but they told me that I didn't score well enough to move on to the next round. I asked about leveling since the fly.io hiring page claimed to be hiring levels 1-3 and I didn't see how I could be screened out of consideration for level 1. They did not reply.

If you didn't clear the platform code challenge, leveling didn't come into it. We do respond to responses we get after rejecting people, but it can take us a few days; we tend to do batches of them all at once. My take is: while people are still in consideration, we have an obligation (we don't always meet) to be responsive, because people are pending their career decisions on our own decisions. Once we've communicat…

"If you didn't clear the platform code challenge, leveling didn't come into it."

How does that make sense? I was told that you got a ton of applications and that I didn't meet the cutoff for the pool. Surely you can't just keep the top X (open positions + margin) and try to place them into appropriate levels if they make it through the remaining rounds? You very likely won't have an appropriate mapping of skills to your open roles and candidates will be left dissatisfied, right?

Isn't a hiring challenge supposed to be a more objective assessment of engineering skill? If there's less "there's less surface area for us to derive signal from" then maybe it's not better than the traditional model. To be told that I didn't do well enough to be considered for a junior position sucks because I'm a mid level engineer.

I'm certain that my proxy worked well. I was able to push ~7 GB/s through it spread across 1000 connections on my local machine. It can do that with reasonable resource utilization, good latency, no race conditions, and no errors. I also wouldn't say my notes were skimpy. I could have written more but I wanted to be respectful of the reviewers time.

In fact I would rather you openly shame my submission here because at least then I would have the oppourtinity to reflect and improve. I hope this level of criticism isn't too much. I just wish that software engineering interviews could be more rational.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#52

Post by tptacek »

sosodev wrote: post #51
tptacek wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you didn't clear the platform code challenge, leveling didn't come into it. We do respond to responses we get after rejecting people, but it can take us a few days; we tend to do batches of them all at once. My take is: while people are still in consideration, we have an obligation (we don't always meet) to be responsive, because people are pending their career decisions on our own decisions. Once we've communicat…

"If you didn't clear the platform code challenge, leveling didn't come into it." How does that make sense? I was told that you got a ton of applications and that I didn't meet the cutoff for the pool. Surely you can't just keep the top X (open positions + margin) and try to place them into appropriate levels if they make it through the remaining rounds? You very likely won't have an appropriate mapping of skills to y…

That coding challenge just isn't where we make leveling decisions. The difference between an L1 and an L3 at Fly.io is mostly not about how you write proxy code, but rather how you manage scope, how you think about what customers need, and how you design systems.

We didn't tell you you weren't good enough for a junior position. That's not what our actual email response was to you, and it's not what I said in my previous comment. The single exercise you did with us doesn't currently have a leveling component, so there's nothing I can tell you about what level you'd have wound up at had you passed it.

I understand that you're giving me permission to relate more about how we scored your submission, but, again, I'm unwilling to do that, for all the reasons I gave upthread.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#53

Post by sosodev »

tptacek wrote: post #52
sosodev wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you didn't clear the platform code challenge, leveling didn't come into it." How does that make sense? I was told that you got a ton of applications and that I didn't meet the cutoff for the pool. Surely you can't just keep the top X (open positions + margin) and try to place them into appropriate levels if they make it through the remaining rounds? You very likely won't have an appropriate mapping of skills to y…

That coding challenge just isn't where we make leveling decisions. The difference between an L1 and an L3 at Fly.io is mostly not about how you write proxy code, but rather how you manage scope, how you think about what customers need, and how you design systems. We didn't tell you you weren't good enough for a junior position. That's not what our actual email response was to you, and it's not what I said in my previ…

"We didn't tell you you weren't good enough for a junior position."

Not explicitly but isn't that the implication if I applied to a position open to levels 1-3?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#54

Post by tptacek »

sosodev wrote: post #53
tptacek wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That coding challenge just isn't where we make leveling decisions. The difference between an L1 and an L3 at Fly.io is mostly not about how you write proxy code, but rather how you manage scope, how you think about what customers need, and how you design systems. We didn't tell you you weren't good enough for a junior position. That's not what our actual email response was to you, and it's not what I said in my previ…

"We didn't tell you you weren't good enough for a junior position." Not explicitly but isn't that the implication if I applied to a position open to levels 1-3?

Our whole hiring process does level people, but the one challenge you did does not. It's pass/fail.

So: no, there is no such implication in being rejected at that point. I'm saying that explicitly right now, so there needn't be any uncertainty going forward.

I think it's also pretty important to understand that different companies have different leveling functions. Not being L3 at Fly.io in 2023 doesn't say much about what level you'd be anywhere else.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#55

Post by Cheezewheel »

tptacek wrote: post #26
mbrain wrote: post #2

I've also had a not so cool experience with them, the interviewer canceled 30 mins before the call and mentioned they will send an email to reschedule tomorrow. That was in September 2021, haven't heard back again :)

I see the hiring conversation you had back in September '21; I don't see us canceling a meeting, but I'm sure that happened. That sucks! Getting an inscrutable Russian Nesting Doll response from the erstwhile retail sales manager of a company asking you to set up Nomad on top of Nomad and ELK on top ELK is an off-putting experience, but it's the kind of off-putting experience we're comfortable giving people: what we'…

Apologies are pretty damn cheap. The excuse of being a 'small team' is bizarre. Shouldn't a 'small team', of all places at least have the courtesy of not unceremoniously jettisoning candidates? It seems to be poorly indicative of a culture to both have the callous disregard for candidate experience like a large corporation while also lacking having the resources of one.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#56

Post by onekorg »

tptacek wrote: post #45
sosodev wrote: post #44

I recently did the hiring challenge for the platform role. My solution worked really well and I thought the code was clean but they told me that I didn't score well enough to move on to the next round. I asked about leveling since the fly.io hiring page claimed to be hiring levels 1-3 and I didn't see how I could be screened out of consideration for level 1. They did not reply.

If you didn't clear the platform code challenge, leveling didn't come into it. We do respond to responses we get after rejecting people, but it can take us a few days; we tend to do batches of them all at once. My take is: while people are still in consideration, we have an obligation (we don't always meet) to be responsive, because people are pending their career decisions on our own decisions. Once we've communicat…

> while people are still in consideration, we have an obligation (we don't always meet) to be responsive, because people are pending their career decisions on our own decisions.

I had been receiving very quick responses but haven't heard back in a bit over a week.

Last email said I was moving to the final round for the platform position. It said you'd follow with a couple more emails with further instructions but haven't received them. Sent a couple of pings over email.

Reaching out over HN in case this is a bug on your hiring tools or my email setup. I understand that sometimes things get busy behind the scenes. Just need an ACK to know if I'm still under consideration and make better informed career decisions.

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