The technical interview is an ego trip

I've done dozens of interviews and after all of it, I realized there are only four qualities we quantify as useful: caring, ability to listen, ability to learn.

Re: The technical interview is an ego trip

#6

Post by darth_avocado » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

Can we also add to the list of things that we don't need 8 interviews AND a tech screen to figure out whether a person can code?

Re: The technical interview is an ego trip

#7

Post by jonfw » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #5

Of course it is, it's a way to gauge whether "someone is dedicated to the job by cramming the algorithms section they haven't touched in years" I've done dozens of interviews and after all of it, I realized there are only four qualities we quantify as useful: caring, ability to listen, ability to learn.

That's only 3

Re: The technical interview is an ego trip

#8

Post by daggerdrone » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #5

Of course it is, it's a way to gauge whether "someone is dedicated to the job by cramming the algorithms section they haven't touched in years" I've done dozens of interviews and after all of it, I realized there are only four qualities we quantify as useful: caring, ability to listen, ability to learn.

Fourth quality: ability to count

Re: The technical interview is an ego trip

#9

Post by aphextron » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 9:21 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #4

Is it already that time of the week again?

We should just have a template to fill out for these posts

Re: The technical interview is an ego trip

#10

Post by TheCapn » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 9:21 PM UTC

This was my take on interviewing with Amazon at one point a long while ago.

The initial interview itself was pretty straight forward, but it seemed like every answer I gave was "wrong" because the interviewer was looking for key phrases instead of understanding of the concepts. We talked about hashing, and when he asked if I knew what hashing was I said sure, its a one-way function to create a unique identifier. He asked me to elaborate, so I sorta... talked more? I remember feeling confused because I'm not sure what else he wanted me to say. Eventually he ended the question, said he was looking for me to say hashing is for "fingerprinting"

We moved on, he asked me for an example of a hash function. I said md5 or sha. He pressed further, asked about collisions and eventually cut off the line of questioning telling me he was looking for an example like the modulus function. Questioning lead further to reaching into linked-lists and the like.

Having never sat through this kind of interview I was left with a really salty taste for the process. If any they were looking for was me to rattle off some pre-determined key words then what good is the interview for? I incorrectly assumed he was gauging my familiarity with the subject rather than repeating my 2nd year university coarse which introduced shit like data structures and algorithms.

His smugness in the way he concluded each topic was just a giant turn off of ever seeking further work with companies like Amazon (giant & highly competitive software conglomerates). I feel like everyone is trying to one up or appear to be king shit in some way, it left a bad taste. (For the record, I did a couple interviews of this style before totally writing the experience off. Others were better, but this experience always stuck with me)