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Tech Interview Torture Chamber

mattfriz.com

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Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#101

Post by retbull »

komali2 wrote: post #63
amorphid wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're working with a recruiter, those pre-interview references are also business leads for that recruiter. Source: I'm a former recruiter

I got mad props when I wrote a simple scraper for one of the resume sites we were using that pulled reference info off resumes (oil and gas engineers like to put who they know on their resume) and stuck it into a spreadsheet. Happily, solving problems in that manner made me realize I love programming and led to me switching careers from that nightmare :)

You switch careers right after you leave a nuclear rocket launcher and infinite ammunition laying around.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#102

Post by krzrak »

ryandrake wrote: post #19
CriticalSection wrote: post #11

Surprised 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)…

> That is, scheduling the in-person interview. If a company is flexible, I could take an extended lunch and have an interview (or better yet, go after normal business hours). Good point. Having to always blow a vacation day on an interview seriously limits the number you can do per month/year. Want to do 10 interviews a month? You've blown half the month right there.

> Want to do 10 interviews a month? You've blown half the month right there.

Probably I wouldn't want to hire someone who does 10 interviews per month.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#103

Post by SFJulie »

I learned to hang up dryly after 1 notification the interviewers were going to far, or leave a room after reading the technical tests and seeing it was crap. Now I feel better.

99% of the interviews I done so far were wtf.

The 2 that were respectful and seeming to correctly check for my abilities to do the job were when applying as a mover and a car mechanic. Lol.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#105

Post by sverige »

flukus wrote: post #98
sverige wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually gotten to the point where I just skip applying to jobs when I'm redirected to one of those portals. Fuck 'em. The only exception is when I think it's a company I really, really want to work for, and there aren't many of those any more.

And most of those companies tend to not have shitty portals like this.

Exactly my theory, especially after having worked for two companies where their process included the shitty portals.

I figured out later that they use these portals because turnover is so high their recruiters can't keep up with demand for fresh meat. One of them couldn't even retain their internal recruiters, so they outsourced the entire recruiting and vetting process.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#107

Post by AnimalMuppet »

harryh wrote: post #29
georgemcbay wrote: post #23

Don't forget to treat everyone the same on the technical questions, whether they are a new grad with no professional experience or a 20 year veteran with a proven (and easily verifiable via references) track record of success. Make sure they all run the gauntlet! Bonus points for grilling open source developers who wrote some critically important tool your company depends upon, and/or are the person who literally "wr…

I am, almost, a 20 year industry veteran. I have no problem being asked to run the gauntlet. I'm happy for a chance to demonstrate my skills. Candidates that expect some sort of preferential treatment due to the number of years they have been working arouse my suspicions.

But don't expect a senior dev to have red-black trees memorized. A senior dev's answer will be "Use the library implementation. If there isn't one, look for one online I can use. If there isn't even one of those, look it up in Knuth." With no apology whatsoever for not knowing how to do it off the top of their head, because they know they don't need to do that.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#108

Post by flukus »

Apocryphon wrote: post #12
spcelzrd wrote: post #5

We all agree the tech interviews are broken. I suspect that the next trend in tech interviews will be worse in just a slightly different way. We got rid of the "Why are manholes round?" questions, now we have live coding tests.

For an industry that's all about disrupting others, tech isn't very good at disrupting itself.

It's brilliant at creating churn under the guise of disruption though.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#109

Post by aphextron »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #74
palakchokshi wrote: post #26

The one I love is when they ask questions that are completely unrelated to what the position is for. e.g. I applied to a startup company that sold used cars online for a senior web dev position. Their junior dev asked me about a maze solving algorithm. I knew the VP of engineering through one of my contacts and sent him an email asking him how a maze solving algorithm relates to web development. To his credit the VP…

We need to start an image macro meme of these things. "Asks brutal tree sorting question" "Fixes Docker image configurations all day"

This drives me nuts. It seems there is no such job as "Web Developer" anymore. Everyone must be a JavaScript Software Engineer (tm)

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#110

Post by bsvalley »

bit_logic wrote: post #44

As a senior engineer who already has a good job, here's how I've adapted to the stupid tech interview and plan on doing for future jobs: - Stay at my job longer and push for more raises/promotions. So far this has worked well. I may not get more in raw $ amount vs job hopping, but when risk adjusted (the risks of any new job such as bad manager, etc.) it's worked out ok so far. I think some job hopping is still good…

I like your first point, though your 2nd and 3rd points tell me you haven't applied for a while :) They've all adopted the google model, small or big companies it doesn't matter. You start with a 45 minute technical phone screen (algorithm/data structures), sometimes a second tech phone screen, an onsite of at least 5 hours with at least 3 to 4 45-minute technical screens (algo/data structures) as if it wasn't enough... let's repeat the same exercise 10 times to make sure you'll fail at least once... Finally, an additional "culture fit" 45 minute chat with a director or VP at the end of the onsite. An additional home assignment is given to you when they have too many candidates to chose from.

So it's not just about skipping companies who ask stupid questions and definitely not about working only one or two evenings on algo stuff. Trust me I've been through this process recently with 15 companies! I worked for a bunch of top companies in the past and I can attest, it is extremely painful. They want robots now and interviewers are lazy and annoying. How naive I was when I carefully selected the only company and job I was interested in at the beginning. Then I went through the process and got smashed in the face. I had to align another 20-30 companies to get at least 10 to 15 tries, then an offer. An offer from choice #15?? That sucks... it's 2017 and things have dramatically changed.

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