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

Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

dev.to

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 83 posts

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#41

Post by city41 »

spapas82 wrote: post #23
stale2002 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that companies like Google EXPECT you to cram on algorithms before the interview. They will even give you a study guide! Being really good at programming on a whiteboard is the name of the game. And studying for this is absolutely useful, and not "cheating" because everyone does it and is expected to do it.

This is only useful to the interview as a process and to the company since it believes that the best hires are the ones that study the hardest. I don't see how this process is useful to the candidate. I mean it is useful if he is actually hired but is there any other usefulness beyond this? Does it improve your skill? Makes you a better person? Is it fun? I don't think so. Also refer to my other comment.

I don't think companies necessarily think that. I think most companies resort to algorithm style interviews because they can't think of anything else that is better. You've got a candidate for probably an hour, probably in a room without a computer, what else can you do to exercise their programming knowledge besides toy algorithm problems?

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#42

Post by pkd »

mannykannot wrote: post #40

There is an important caveat in the last paragraph of the article: "Granted, all of this implies that companies have actually created an interview that actually tests the skills needed for the position they are hiring for."

Yes, and I am surprised that this wasn't at the start of the article instead. Very few companies have interview processes that test for the actual skills required on the job. Certainly not any of the big 4.

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#43

Post by monster_group »

stale2002 wrote: post #11
micheljansen wrote: post #2

Good piece, but misleading title. There is a big difference between "cramming" and preparing. Like the author says: "Preparing by learning about a company and its product makes sense. But preparing for an interview by cramming/studying material that is supposedly needed for the job makes no sense." When I get a candidate who has no sense of the job they are applying for and is not able to ask meaningful questions, it…

The issue is that companies like Google EXPECT you to cram on algorithms before the interview. They will even give you a study guide! Being really good at programming on a whiteboard is the name of the game. And studying for this is absolutely useful, and not "cheating" because everyone does it and is expected to do it.

Absolutely. As long as there are rules (cramming algorithms) I will practice the hell out and beat you (Google, FB, Amazon,MS) at your own game while playing by the rules. That's my attitude.

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#44

Post by 46Bit »

geebee wrote: post #14

There's a big difference between software development job interviews and job entrance exams that is often not evident on people who aren't deeply immersed in software culture. Interviews happen in every industry. An interviewer asks about your interest in the company, your background, your leadership skills. Your technical skills may be investigated here, but in a discussion format. You may be asked questions about y…

I've had software engineering interviews that started with a written exam on general math, linear algebra, pseudocode and a little system design. It was quite enjoyable and refreshing compared to most verbal interviews.

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#46

Post by bonniemuffin »

bdowling wrote: post #16
stale2002 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that companies like Google EXPECT you to cram on algorithms before the interview. They will even give you a study guide! Being really good at programming on a whiteboard is the name of the game. And studying for this is absolutely useful, and not "cheating" because everyone does it and is expected to do it.

How does one become really good at programming on a whiteboard? Should you rent a conference room and hire a couple of people to play the part of the interviewers and just practice?

I improved my whiteboard coding by interviewing for a lot of jobs that I didn't get. Eventually I got good enough to hire. :)

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#47

Post by Spoom »

spapas82 wrote: post #23
stale2002 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that companies like Google EXPECT you to cram on algorithms before the interview. They will even give you a study guide! Being really good at programming on a whiteboard is the name of the game. And studying for this is absolutely useful, and not "cheating" because everyone does it and is expected to do it.

This is only useful to the interview as a process and to the company since it believes that the best hires are the ones that study the hardest. I don't see how this process is useful to the candidate. I mean it is useful if he is actually hired but is there any other usefulness beyond this? Does it improve your skill? Makes you a better person? Is it fun? I don't think so. Also refer to my other comment.

Studying to interview with a big company definitely improved my skill and knowledge of Computer Science. Not fun, certainly, but to some degree useful outside of the interview.

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#48

Post by kcorbitt »

bla2 wrote: post #34
stale2002 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that companies like Google EXPECT you to cram on algorithms before the interview. They will even give you a study guide! Being really good at programming on a whiteboard is the name of the game. And studying for this is absolutely useful, and not "cheating" because everyone does it and is expected to do it.

I used to work at Google. I didn't study for the interviews, I just showed up. It went well enough to be hired. I did study CS and know my algorithms and data structures though.

It would be really interesting to do a study of Googlers and see how much time on average they spent preparing for the interview. Would also be interesting to compare that with average preparation of people who interviewed but didn't get the job.

And finally, it would be fascinating to plot career performance at Google vs time spent interviewing. Intuitively I would expect those who got an offer without studying to do better (higher latent intelligence), but I could also see it going the other way (lots of studying correlates with willingness to work hard on boring problems, which is what most Google engineers actually have to do day-to-day).

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#49

Post by smnscu »

I agree, some years ago I prepared for a month for a Google SWE interview and still failed. I haven't prepared for interviews since, nor asked to write code. Last time I interviewed at Google for a SRE-TPM position I was asked Python trivia during the phone screen, which left quite a bad taste in my mouth.

[Shameless plug, feel free to skip] However, if you do want to prepare for a Google-style interview, I maintain a list of resources here: https://github.com/andreis/interview

Re: Why I Don't Prepare for Job Interviews

#50

Post by brudgers »

zerr wrote: post #39
brudgers wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most companies aren't like Google. It makes sense for Google to encourage cramming on algorithms because the type of programmer Google does not need is one who "doesn't do algorithms" and so the cramming expectation filters against those. The type of programmer Google wants is one who can cram for algorithms in the sense that when there is a problem, the programmer can sit down and research algorithms and distinguish…

> Google does not need is one who "doesn't do algorithms" and so the cramming expectation filters against those. Except they filter those who "doesn't do algorithms" for free (the prep/cramming takes about 6 months I believe)...

Peter Norvig is Director of Research at Google. This is one of his essays: http://norvig.com/21-days.html For some people six months spent learning algorithms has value independent of Google's hiring process. Other people maybe not.
Post reply on HN