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I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

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Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#441

Post by Loughla »

JudgeWapner wrote: post #368
Loughla wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-baited statement (and I'm aware it's discussed a lot here), but my experience with people saying the candidate wouldn't be a good 'fit' was just a way to enforce bias either unconsciously or consciously. And led to problems with group-think and an inability to think in different ways. Now granted my hiring sample is less than 100, but that has been my experience so far.

why should the candidate just apply for software engineering jobs? Isn't focusing on one field just enforcing their bias to a particular industry? Shouldn't we enforce basic rules that candidates apply to a diverse gamut of other jobs, such as truck driving, painting, and customer service? And shouldn't we shame them if they decline an offer for a labor job by calling out their biases? Shouldn't we require candidates…

I can't tell if you're being serious or not. If you are, then you have missed the point entirely and I would argue don't even understand what I was talking about in the first place. If you're not, then you got one over on me 100%.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#442

Post by wycy »

rickyc091 wrote: post #206
TallGuyShort wrote: post #201

My last company did interviews like this - I was always disgusted at the way most of the team would sit around and just find things to pick on in the person's code. Dumb stuff too. It became an excuse for a lot of the engineers to just make fun of someone who had successfully completed the program, but didn't take the time to JavaDoc everything and follow the same code style best practices we did. Things you can easi…

Not saying this approach was correct, but given a choice, what type of interview would you prefer? Hackerrank? In person, programming challenges, smaller take-home assignment, other?

A very small-scale assignment with a work/difficulty level on the order of magnitude of an Advent of Code single day challenge seems reasonable. And a follow-up discussion afterwards is crucial to ensuring that the interviewer has put an appropriate amount of effort into actually reviewing the interviewee's code so that it wasn't all just a waste of time.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#443

Post by gcheong »

lhorie wrote: post #419
distances wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having never worked in SV, are these home assignments common there? I know several engineers who would refuse to do any homework at all as a matter of principle, so a task of this magnitude without compensation sounds laughable on the face of it.

FWIW, this is not how Uber does interviews anymore. Now the process involves a technical phone screen and an onsite, with coding exercises that are meant to be completed in 30-45 minutes. I believe it's pretty on par with other tech companies in the Bay area.

It's on par but still bullshit. I interviewed with Uber, got said phone screen, managed to solve the problem then was told Uber decided to "go in another direction" and would not be moving forward with my application. When I asked for clarification as to what that meant considering I solved the problem the recruiter called me and said some hand wavy stuff about how I didn't solve it "quickly" enough (I had plenty of time left to answer questions about it and ask question of the interviewer eventhough my first solution was not optimal and we did optimize it) but that the interviewer was up for having me try again. I declined.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#444

Post by [deleted] »

bennylope wrote: post #264
dangus wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something wrong here, this is not how it's supposed to work. Clearing on one device definitely clears the rest for me. Perhaps you should try logging off and logging in again.

> There is something wrong here, this is not how it's supposed to work. I totally agree.

[deleted]

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#445

Post by logfromblammo »

skrebbel wrote: post #26
dawnerd wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My policy, before finding a place I like and plan to stick around at, is no programming tasks. There's plenty of companies desperate to hire than you can be picky if you know your stuff. I also will walk out if they start up with those 'clever' programming questions that have nothing to do with the job.

Can you illustrate that in practice? You took out the time to go to some office. You just spent an hour talking about your hobbies and attitudes and the company's working culture etc. Then, a programmer asks you to balance a red/black tree. You do.. what? You angrily throw the marker on the ground, cry insult, and run out the building? No, right? So then what? I see this repeated a lot on HN and I'm not sure I'd have…

A cute thing to do whenever someone sandbags you with trivia is to suggest going over to the developer desks and asking everyone in turn if they know the answer. If you find someone that does, you answered the question. If you don't, then you suggest doing a web search, and you have also shamed your interviewer.

If they don't wave you off at the suggestion, you also get to meet everyone and see their work environment.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#446

Post by acomjean »

rdez6173 wrote: post #104

I am a software engineer and I was once asked during an interview at a large hedge fund to pick a side and debate why war is justified. When I pressed them about the relevance, they indicated that they often have heated debates on all manner of topics, so they wanted to see my thought process. I enjoy solving complex problems, but socio-ethical problems are way outside of my wheelhouse. I politely indicated that I di…

Yeah. I had an interview with a 2 tests. One had a you check a list of personal attributes you see about yourself (diligent, careful, fun, approachable.....) Second side of paper, same list of terms “check all that others see you as”. Then a one hour paper coding type exam.

I’ve also done a one hour codility online coding test more recently. I thought I’d hate it but frankly it’s wasnt over the top hard and kinda fun.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#447

Post by mattkrause »

meddlepal wrote: post #378
ummonk wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the norm but it's not uncommon at startups. Also, it seems to be standard practice for data science interviews. I personally don't put up with it, but then there are always lots of commenters in HN who bemoan whiteboard interviews and prefer take-homes. To each their own.

I prefer take homes if they are reasonably scoped and turn around expectations are around 1 week. I would rather whiteboard about the design of the app/tool than some random question another engineer pulled out of their ass twenty minutes before the interview and has unreasonably strong opinions about the design and implementation based on whatever source they stole the problem from because they don't actually unders…

The scope is important. Some of the data science take homes I've seen could be looking for a decent/good-enough solution that takes an an hour to a full-fledged research program that would keep a few FTEs busy for a year.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#448

Post by nitrogen »

lawlessone wrote: post #416
la_barba wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is devaluing the word abuse. A voluntary optional task which you can decline at any time, is not "abuse" no matter how you spin it.

There are lots of situations that are voluntary but abusive. You can look at any job and claim it can't be abuse because people can leave the job. You ignore that leaving the job means loss of income, status, or worse even.

In fact in many abusive situations the abuse is how the abuser keeps the abusee from exercising their freedom to leave. The relationship being nominally voluntary has nothing to do with whether it is abusive.

Re: I turned my interview task for Google into a startup

#449

Post by kelnos »

distances wrote: post #335
thoreauway wrote: post #305

I interviewed at Uber before they launched. Their "take home" was to create... Uber. Here's the exact challenge: UberCab Coder Challenge 1) Write a program that determines the wait time, trip time, rating, and fare for a black car trip in San Francisco, given that the customer's pickup location and destination is randomly placed anywhere in San Francisco proper, and given that there are X number of cars all placed ra…

Having never worked in SV, are these home assignments common there? I know several engineers who would refuse to do any homework at all as a matter of principle, so a task of this magnitude without compensation sounds laughable on the face of it.

Home assignments are probably not yet the norm, but are becoming more common. There's been a lot of backlash toward whiteboard coding, but most companies still want some sort of concrete work product. I would expect a reasonable home assignment would take no more than a couple hours to complete.

If a company gave me something as time-consuming as Uber's, I'd say no thanks. Otherwise, I'd prefer a home assignment over whiteboard coding since it will give the interviewers a much better idea of my skills.

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