81–90 of 347 posts
Be humble and honest. Don't present yourself as "the expert". Ask questions. Listen to people. Say "I don't know" if you don't know. You'll be surprised how often the response is "me neither!"
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In the last couple weeks I've had to decline 18 total hours of "challenges" and "work samples" from 4 different interview processes. I'm not sure at what point it became de rigueur to require applicants to complete on average 4.5 hours of work without pay, but I really, really don't think it's reasonable. I've even offered to show them my current projects in lieu of work samples, and no go. Baffling.
So 8 hour onsite interview is ok for you, but 5 hour home work is not? Where is logic in that?
A 5 hour homework assignment costs the company nearly nothing, but it still costs me 5 hours. This means the company has no incentive not to waste my time.
It's funny how grad school is designed to bring out the impostor in you, kind of like a negative image of the different kinds of "impostor" listed. Obviously each of these is false in their own way, but these are messages that you will be given / experience during your PhD, so it's no wonder how people come out the other end thinking like this: 1. "The Expert": your advisor/other professors/students will make fun of…
It sounds like you attended a toxic grad school. Was your program in Chemistry?
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Similar situation: I have a history of obtaining lower level positions and then quickly rising up to higher level engineering position within the same company (this has happened with two employers). I don't think this can reliably be used as a general strategy, I just have been lucky with employers. This doesn't give me a huge amount of confidence when considering my chances at getting a new job comparable to the lev…
This week I got to see the job posting for a replacement of a colleague of mine. The first requirement was 3 years of experience with a product we don't even directly use. I'm pretty sure the only reason it's in there, is that HR requires it for working in our department, even tough our specific team doesn't even touch it. The same line also requires "Java, Java script", while it's a backend Java position with litera…
As a last pass CEO asks for 3 years experience of a tech launched last year that he's just finished reading an article about. :)
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I've been pondering my thoughts on this, and I'm curious what you think. Would you prefer Phone Screen +: A) FANG/Valley style interviews multiple rounds of leetcode algorithm/data structure style questions and some whiteboard design/architecture. B) Pair Programming. A few rounds of pairing on a problems to see actual code. Maybe some lightweight whiteboard design/architecture. C) Take home challenge/assignment that…
If you're asking for C with 4.5 hours of work (as per example above) that's fine if you're paying for their time. Cheaper than a bad hire, stops you missing out on good hires who think "fuck that".
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> Cheaper than a bad hire, stops you missing out on good hires who think "fuck that". Does it? If I have a developer job then I'm paid well and don't really care about the money which I have enough of, I care about the time which I have very little of. If you're in the top 0.01% of companies to work for (and the applicant knows that) then it's probably a worthwhile time investment, but for the other 99.99% it's a was…
If you are interviewing with a company, asking you to spend time in exchange for money is reasonable. If you feel you are above that exchange, personally, that is an effective filter for a potential problem employee.
These tests are typically a pre-interview step and they don't really work well for much apart from that. So at this point I'm not interviewing with the company and all I know is that they have an interesting job ad. Considering how far from reality job ads can be I'm not going to waste hours based on one.
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> ...urge them to find their "superpower". Might I suggest "specialty", "focus area", or "expertise". Maybe "competitive advantage" if you're talking to business types. I like to tell engineers that their job is to be an expert. Find some area that we need more experts in. Read, experiment, troubleshoot, tweak, document, teach, and whatever else you need to do to be the person others rely on when they need an expert…
For what it’s worth Amazon HR specifically chose the term “superpower”. Not sure it needs to be replaced.
I am a grizzled, experienced, and sometimes overworked 42 year old engineer. When HR start bandying around terms like "superpower" - like I'm, I don't know, an eight year old or something - I am not going to be impressed.
(I do however agree with the overall thrust of the eight_ender's post about finding your area of speciality. Not that you shouldn't stray outside it, but everyone on my team has strengths and weaknesses. When, for example, I'm looking for advice about SQL Server, I'll unfailingly consult with my colleague Mark, because he spent years working on Red Gate's SQL Monitor so knows SQL Server very well.)
Stop treating being an impostor as something bad. See yourself as con artist who succeeds in senior developer, architect and management jobs without the required skills.
My current job is mainly kata for me, because most code reading, tweaking and engineering I do is well within my abilities. I can both choose my challenges and deliver, which is just perfect. I'll still mention that it took me almost a decade to get here, intensively tinkering on 1980ies computers as well as a pretty broad range of "modern" programming languages. All while working outside IT, part time if at all.
Stop treating being an impostor as something bad. See yourself as con artist who succeeds in senior developer, architect and management jobs without the required skills.
Suggesting that sufferers accept that might actually be true is not helpful.