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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

#461

Post by monocasa »

loktarogar wrote: post #340
aantix wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst is when you do the task and then they just don’t respond. Not even a simple, “we’re not interested”. No feedback. Just. Left. Wondering. It’s cruel. It’s demeaning. Tanium was especially cruel. 6 hours of live coding interviews and the only reason I got any response from them was because I had to consistently hound them for a couple of weeks and ask a friend that worked there to internally ping someone.

Had one with Deliveroo. They responded, but they were declining me because I didn't do what they explicitly told me not to do in the instructions. They wanted people who "went above and beyond".

Going "above and beyond" in a coding assignment can be a slight negative when I'm grading. Albeit this is a security company and adding pieces on top of the requirements could lead to unthought about interactions and more surface area.

But I'm also about work life balance, and honest day's wage for an honest day's work, so I probably defer from that company in a few ways, lol.

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

#462

Post by max76 »

ummonk wrote: post #355
max76 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iraq is in the running for the biggest mistake in US history? I have a one word rebuttal to that sentence. Slavery.

I think mistake implies good intentions.

I always think of mistake as simply "to be wrong". Am I mistaken in my assumption?

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

#463

Post by FanaHOVA »

gregd wrote: post #327
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…

Why are people putting up with this?

Not sure about this case, but you usually get compensated for these take home projects. They also give you an amount of hours you should work on it and pay you (One of them I did was ~$200/h)

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

#464

Post by therein »

gesman wrote: post #418
loktarogar wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had one with Deliveroo. They responded, but they were declining me because I didn't do what they explicitly told me not to do in the instructions. They wanted people who "went above and beyond".

This is BS. They probably were doing interviews to satisfy ongoing visa process for already selected candidate. And the declining everyone with lame excuse.

This is almost certainly the case.

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

#465

Post by nostrademons »

corndoge wrote: post #240
agrippanux wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When interviewing execs who would be building new departments a few years ago, I would pose the question of "In the wake of Arab spring in Libya, the people decide that you are their next leader. What happens in your first 100 days?". The answers ran the gamut from lazy to fantastic to terrifying. A lot of answers where generic "coalition building" variety. The better answers identified key areas to focus on like inf…

>Bad answers had... Asking a politically charged question on statecraft and judging the answer based on your own personal ideas about how to run a state strikes me as a bizarre way to conduct an interview, even for an exec. >The worst answers had the exec killing people Play stupid games, win stupid prizes?

He's hiring an exec who will presumably have to operate within his company. If the exec's thought process differs too much from his personal ideas, both the exec and the company are gonna have a bad time.

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

#466

Post by lhorie »

gcheong wrote: post #443
lhorie wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> It's on par but still bullshit

I've actually had something like that happen to me too, but in a different company. From my experience as someone who's conducted a lot of interviews myself, I think this can happen due to various reasons:

- broken telephone (recruiting org rarely physically talks to eng org). If you call the recruiter after the fact, they may not have the context for the rejection and might make stuff up on the spot to get you off their back, because at that point, you're kind of "wasting their time" (given that their job description is to keep the hiring funnel greased, not maintain long-term relationships)

- technical interviewers don't always have interviewing training and may reject based on bogus reasons (e.g. feelings), then try to "justify the decision" after the fact. A few might not even keep good notes of their interviews

- sometimes candidates do solve a problem, but are legitimately rejected because they did so in a non-ideal way (e.g. performance problem, missing important edge case, struggling too much with basics like syntax, soft skill red flags such as lack of interest/proactiveness, etc). But often times the interviewer doesn't give the negative feedback to the candidate, leaving the candidate with a false sense of accomplishment.

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

#467

Post by neilv »

busterarm wrote: post #398
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…

I remember my Uber interview. My interviewer was sitting in a room full of people when they called me, asked me questions and then proceeded to have conversations with the other people in the room without listening to me and would ask me to repeat my answers. And do it again. 15 minutes of this and I hung up on them. This was about 4 years ago and the equity that I have in the company I joined instead is on an upward…

Ouch. I'm glad you cut it short. I had a variation on that.

Earlier in dotcoms, I wanted to work in a then-prominent organization. The technical phone screen went well. When they asked what I'd like to work on, I said something like HCI-ish R&D (in which I also had experience) for their important product, so they scheduled me for another phone screen, with the person who was in charge of that.

I'm reasonably good at hearing tone, and the person on this second phone screen didn't seem to want to talk with me, from the start. They asked me to talk about ideas, then they muted their end. I knew this wasn't going well, but I really wanted to work there, and I was trying to figure out how to salvage it, and I had to start talking immediately, so I started going into some applicable research ideas/approaches. Still muted, no comments, no questions, no backchannel cues whatsoever, so I kept going. When apparently the time block for the interview was up, he un-muted his end, and said something like, "I'd hoped you'd talk about a GUI enhancement to ." And that was the end of the interview.

That gave a bad impression of the organization, that they'd have someone who'd behave like that, managing people in a key group. So I didn't pursue things with the original group, which liked me.

It's a little validation, but no consolation, that their market-leading product later got driven into the ground, losing to an innovator who entered the market.

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

#468

Post by jackpirate »

qes wrote: post #395
falsedan wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how many of them did you exercise in the last 6 months/5 years I'm 5/7 out of 22, +2 if I go back a decade or two

6 months seems too short, but in 5 years the only ones I haven't done are plan an invasion (how many people out of billions have?), butcher a hog specifically (fish though), design a whole building (designed and built a.. room.. for purposes.. no small or simple task), written a sonnet specifically (other creative writing), set a bone, pitch manure (bagged it, also bailed hay, grew food, etc.), fight physically, or d…

Anyone who's played a strategy game has planned an invasion.

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

#469

Post by jazzyjackson »

pembrook wrote: post #280
corndoge wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Bad answers had... Asking a politically charged question on statecraft and judging the answer based on your own personal ideas about how to run a state strikes me as a bizarre way to conduct an interview, even for an exec. >The worst answers had the exec killing people Play stupid games, win stupid prizes?

This is why we need less humans and more AI/ML in the candidate selection process. The guy posing Arab Spring interview questions sounds just like those 65 year old talent scouts in MoneyBall skipping over a talented 3rd baseman because the kid “doesn’t have good legs.” Humans are immensely stupid and irrational when it comes to judging other humans.

what data would you train your machine with?

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

#470

Post by Zenbit_UX »

grogenaut wrote: post #147
Zenbit_UX wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had given me a live demo of their product on a call beforehand, so I know they didn't have this. They wanted me to design a feature they didn't have yet on their current product.

If they had paid you for your time would it have been ok?

Yes. It would have gone a long way to make me feel like I wasn't being conned into free labor.
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