Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

blog.hackerrank.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 306 posts

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#61

Post by NTDF9 »

true_religion wrote: post #53
NTDF9 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is: If the candidate asks a relevant question that the interviewer cannot solve in time, the company failed at its own game because the candidate proved that he/she is better qualified than the company's representative, given the rules of the game. What excuse does the company have for not hiring the candidate now?

The 'excuse' that there are better or equally qualified candidates out there. Many companies hire to fill in expertise, so the person who you are interviewed by may be less experienced than you in a particular technology.

> The 'excuse' that there are better or equally qualified candidates out there.

In that case, these companies should be ok with registering their names in an online registry saying they rejected a candidate for someone who is better qualified. For the following 6 months, they cannot complain that that cannot find qualified candidates.

> Many companies hire to fill in expertise, so the person who you are interviewed by may be less experienced than you in a particular technology.

So the interviewer should be asked a question by the candidate in that particular technology and if they can't answer, the candidate should be hired.

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#63

Post by dsmithatx »

dominotw wrote: post #49
dsmithatx wrote: post #32

One very important thing strikes me about this. Getting 38 job interviews is very much a sign of the times. In 2002 I was a highly skilled senior linux/aix/hp-ux/Solaris admin and PHP programmer and I got laid off. I submitted my resume more than 1000+ times in the first year and ZERO interviews. I hate to sound alarmist but, I fear many younger tech people may not realize how lucky they are currently. If the economy…

>Getting 38 job interviews is very much a sign of the times. I've noticed that many employers have copied google and have stated to interview with as many people as possible. Lots of them take pride in their acceptance ratio, some even advertising that on their careers page. Def a sign of times but might not in a way that you are suggesting. Getting an interview is not all that hard these days, you can get an intervi…

Many companies are swimming in cash and can afford to have 5 high paid Engineers sitting in interviews for hours each week. When stock prices go down that luxury fades. We saw this in the late 90s.

Yep getting an interview isn't hard at all these days. The economy is great and jobs are dime a dozen. My point exactly, it's 1997-1998 all over again. I've practically stopped using my phone and had to get a new email address. The recruiters have literally been driving me insane.

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#64

Post by pklausler »

13of40 wrote: post #54
pklausler wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your interviewer really dings you for the appearance of your scrawled code on the wall, they're being self-defeatingly stupid and you'd probably be happier working with other people. I do lots of tech interviews, and I always make it clear that I don't care how pretty the ink looks. I stick with the whiteboard because it's the best way for candidates to explain their analyses and algorithms before they write the c…

First of all, the interviewer might not be doing it consciously. Code just looks better in an IDE, the same way a guy in a suit makes a better first impression than a guy with sneakers and ripped jeans who smells like pee. But that said, if you were interviewing someone and they did all of their algorithmic boxes and lines on the whiteboard but switched to the laptop to write the code, would you ding them for that?

Beats me. I've never worked at a company that would allow a candidate to fire up a laptop during an interview.

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#65

Post by spinlock »

bgribble wrote: post #23
fapjacks wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep! I have been interviewing for fun for the last few years (averaging maybe one or two interviews every few months), and I've seen all kinds of stuff. Way too many whiteboards. In fact, even after all these years, whiteboards still make me nervous, and basically makes it impossible to get into flow, or have a reasonably nice mindset for solving problems. And if I do this for fun, you can bet that people who depend…

While I appreciate that this process has been great for you, I would think that it probably sucks for all the engineers and managers whose time you took up interviewing "for fun". Have you ever tried to hire engineers? It is a pain in the ass, and giving serious consideration to every candidate takes up a huge amount of time even before the interview, much less taking a significant chunk of a day for a significant ch…

Do you pay the people you interview their hourly rate?

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#66

Post by timbofoo »

kafkaesq wrote: post #5

So, how did you get to where you are today? I’ve always been passionate about coding, starting from my early days at Olympiad teams in high school and ACM teams in college. Anyone who's made it onto an Olympiad team[1] of any significant geographical scale, in any category, shouldn't have to deal with this whiteboard nonsense. Maybe a few lightweight-to-medium rounds to verify that they are what they say they are. Bu…

I see the whiteboard coding test as an attitude-test. If you have too much attitude to sit down and write some code for an hour, then you aren't someone I want in my company. It shouldn't be hard if you're skilled. Sorry to be that way, but that's the way I (and we) see it.

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#67

Post by vonmoltke »

dsmithatx wrote: post #60
vlasev wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you send it out 1000+ times without making any changes?

I didn't really make any changes and I'm still using the same resume 14 years later. At the time it had 10 years of job history. Obviously now it has 24 years but, my experience level is the same and I'm still basically working with the same technologies. I haven't looked for a job in one year and my resume/profile is posted no where online. I get about 30-40 emails per week and 5-10 phone calls because I put out the…

This is highly location-dependent. I get a fraction of your volume even when posting mine on careers sites and constantly tweaking my LinkedIn profile. Of course, I'm in Dallas and wee seem to be invisible to most of the tech world.

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#68

Post by berdario »

dominotw wrote: post #49
dsmithatx wrote: post #32

One very important thing strikes me about this. Getting 38 job interviews is very much a sign of the times. In 2002 I was a highly skilled senior linux/aix/hp-ux/Solaris admin and PHP programmer and I got laid off. I submitted my resume more than 1000+ times in the first year and ZERO interviews. I hate to sound alarmist but, I fear many younger tech people may not realize how lucky they are currently. If the economy…

>Getting 38 job interviews is very much a sign of the times. I've noticed that many employers have copied google and have stated to interview with as many people as possible. Lots of them take pride in their acceptance ratio, some even advertising that on their careers page. Def a sign of times but might not in a way that you are suggesting. Getting an interview is not all that hard these days, you can get an intervi…

> Getting an interview is not all that hard these days, you can get an interview with google/facebook ect pretty easily.

Maybe... I got contacted by 2 google recruiters in 2 separate instances. I replied to them, but I never heard back.

I would've probably failed at the whiteboard, but I never even got a chance to attempt the interview.

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#69

Post by mahyarm »

NTDF9 wrote: post #52
edabobojr wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have done this and have done interviews I did most of the questioning as the interviewee. In my experience, this approach turns off a lot of people.

The point is: If the candidate asks a relevant question that the interviewer cannot solve in time, the company failed at its own game because the candidate proved that he/she is better qualified than the company's representative, given the rules of the game. What excuse does the company have for not hiring the candidate now?

The company is paying you money. The company is the customer of your services. This is why.

Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies

#70

Post by theworstshill »

bgribble wrote: post #23
fapjacks wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep! I have been interviewing for fun for the last few years (averaging maybe one or two interviews every few months), and I've seen all kinds of stuff. Way too many whiteboards. In fact, even after all these years, whiteboards still make me nervous, and basically makes it impossible to get into flow, or have a reasonably nice mindset for solving problems. And if I do this for fun, you can bet that people who depend…

While I appreciate that this process has been great for you, I would think that it probably sucks for all the engineers and managers whose time you took up interviewing "for fun". Have you ever tried to hire engineers? It is a pain in the ass, and giving serious consideration to every candidate takes up a huge amount of time even before the interview, much less taking a significant chunk of a day for a significant ch…

Hilarius response.
Post reply on HN