Hilarious! And felt really close to home!
Tech Interview Torture Chamber
81–90 of 232 posts
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#82Surprised I don't see my main pet peeve - early reference check. Before I even talk to anyone I'm asked to provide three phone numbers of three former managers. So I have to call them up, make sure the number is still working, and ask for the favor that they can give me a reference in case anyone reads my application. All of these other things are on me. References I have to call two or three (or at one company, six)…
My resume states point blank that references will not be provided until after the prospective employer agrees in principle that I meet the technical job requirements. I send out a lot of resumes, and I am more protective of my references time than I am of my own. I don't want people wasting their time with useless phone calls because of me.
Strangely enough, whenever a company gets past that point in the interview process, most of them don't even bother asking.
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#83It is on everyone who is not in a desperate job seeking situation to push back on any practice you deem wrong. Expect a respectful and fair treatment throughout and when you're being manipulated, take the initiative.
If you can tell the interview isn't going well, why not leave on your terms? "My experience and expertise is in A and B, and it seems the job is more about C and D, maybe this isn't a good fit? Ok thanks, pleasure to meet you, let me know if something comes up related to A and B. Bye".
Only you can keep the other side honest. Do it for your own dignity and for all the others who really need a job and will put up with anything.
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#84I would say that the alternative to that crappy process is something like "gradual hiring" (sorry, I'm the guy whose accent can be spread on bread) - you just start working with a guy, giving him basic isolated tasks, and as he successfully progresses with his work, task are getting more and more complicated (salary, permissions as well). After few months of such freelance-ish work you can know for sure that this dud…
That's an unacceptable offer for a lot of higher-tier developers. Literally un-acceptable - I'd never get poached by a contract-to-hire, especially one with no benefits. And even if I was forced to accept such a situation, I'd continue to send out resumes and take interviews while on contract-to-hire.
Agreed, it'd be tough to leave a company where things are going well to become a contractor at a no-name company. I also think I'd be much less willing to make a jump unless I had met a number of the current employees and founders and felt it would be a culture fit.
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#85I would say that the alternative to that crappy process is something like "gradual hiring" (sorry, I'm the guy whose accent can be spread on bread) - you just start working with a guy, giving him basic isolated tasks, and as he successfully progresses with his work, task are getting more and more complicated (salary, permissions as well). After few months of such freelance-ish work you can know for sure that this dud…
'gradual hire' sounds great in theory, but it is going to be a pretty unattractive option for a lot of developers. One problem is the lack of certainty - why would I get 'gradually' hired somewhere if I have other options where I can get a permanent job right away? The bigger problem is the lack of benefits, which presumably includes health care. In the US, at least, this would make it pretty difficult - buying insur…
Well, there can be options, like "we're paying you a decent salary, and compensate insurance, but we can stop working with you within one day".
The most important difference here is that company don't risk much. And the candidate don't need to quit his current job: just do some tasks 1-2 hours a day, for example, so it's not just "gradual hiring", but "gradual quit" as well.
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#86I would say that the alternative to that crappy process is something like "gradual hiring" (sorry, I'm the guy whose accent can be spread on bread) - you just start working with a guy, giving him basic isolated tasks, and as he successfully progresses with his work, task are getting more and more complicated (salary, permissions as well). After few months of such freelance-ish work you can know for sure that this dud…
This sounds like a big waste of time for all parties. Just have a probation process with real gates. Fail probation if the people don't work.
I've been successful with this process all sorts of environments, even in unionized civil service gigs.
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#87I once had to do a take home project... the spec said I could write either a console application or a GUI.
Fast forward to the in person meeting, they go through my solution and nitpick random things like "why use NuGet packages" or "why no test cases" (I had written them but they got mysteriously removed from the solution).
Finally the CTO speaks up and asked why I didn't write a GUI, as many other candidates had (mind you this was an application that accepted inputs and ran a calculation). I responded, "it's less effort to write a console application and the assignment said it was acceptable". CTO then snarkily asks me "do you always do the minimum"? I should have snarkily responded "only when I'm asked to code for free".
Thankfully did not get an offer...
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#88My experience with initial stage of recruitment to Amazon, Google, and other "we can afford false negatives" jokers. Write O(n) algorithm for bus ticket allocation. Use yellow unbalanced binary tree, you have 40 minutes. Then we will run it against exhaustive tests our engineers have been working on for the last couple of weeks. Uhhhh... what's that?... your algorithm melted down... We wish you good luck in your job…
During the part where I get to ask them questions I always ask about their current project and whats it built in. Even at the big guys they always reply with the same frameworks everyone else uses etc. Then I say something like oh so your project is using framework x so you're not coding your own libraries from scratch using graphs etc. One interviewer took it personal and hung up on me haha.
Everyone cooks with water.
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you also making a joke here? I'm genuinely unsure.
No, I am dead serious.
Alright. The article feels like light-hearted satire to me, and is the funniest thing I've read in a while. I'm surprised to see you associate it with entitlement and toxicity. I guess we have different types of humor. :)
Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber
#90This is starting to be a bit annoying... I think we read enough about painful interviews. If anyone has a better way, please share... But it'd be nice to skip the ranting... I personally have been the evil interviewer for some time. I'm giving paper coding tests that make sense to me, and I'm generally very happy with my recruiting. I have never met anyone who slammed the door screaming "I'm too good to take your stu…
I'm giving paper coding tests that make sense to me, and I'm generally very happy with my recruiting. [...] I've passed people who completely screwed the test. I've failed people who nailed it in 5 minutes. When I read someone saying "I've taken countless interviews, and I don't get a job", I'm thinking: well, either he's been very unlucky (which happens), or there is something wrong with the guy's attitude. Yeah, mu…
Coming from the other side of the process, even if a question may be arbitrary (Although, I'd argue a lot aren't) it can still be helpful in evaluating a candidate's thought process. Additionally, using the same questions on multiple candidates is a good way to actually cut bias out of the system as you have a lot more data points to evaluate responses against.