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Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

blog.interviewing.io

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Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#91

Post by baron_harkonnen »

skohan wrote: post #77
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #66

As someone with 20+ years in the experience, red flag #1 for me is being expected to go through a skill-testing technical whiteboard (or similar) coding exercise before even having a deeper discussion about the role and whether there's a fit, etc. I've seen this many times and I find it baffling: I already have a very high paying high quality job, I want you to sell _me_ on the position before demanding I do stressfu…

I get the feeling a lot of this is cargo-cultism: I.e. people want to work at the kind of place which only hires geniuses who can dazzle with their real-time problem solving, but they don’t actually get the reasoning behind such an interview

The funniest part of this I've found is that in the rush to replicate FAANG white board interviews most companies end up with poorly thought out questions, with interviewers who are rushed to prep meaning that the question often contain technical errors and the interviewers can barely solve the problem themselves.

I've been on the other side of this process where the "solution" to a technical case study is flat out wrong, but most of the people training to do the interview didn't realize this to the point where the most skilled candidates would likely (and luckily for them) fail the interview by giving the correct answer!

This means that for many interviews at these wannabe-FAANG companies, if you really know your shit, you often have to proactively guess what the interviewer thinks is the correct answer.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#92

Post by hrktb »

kempbellt wrote: post #48
StillBored wrote: post #23

Role clarity is a huge one in my book. I've turned down numerous offers because when I asked what the specifics of my day to day job were going to be, the answers weren't clear. From the secret FAANG that likes to pretend what they are doing is defense contractor level top secret, and even after your hired you might not know what your actually working on, to the big companies where its clear the hiring manager only h…

Role clarity issues during an interview feels like going on a date with someone who doesn't know if they want to be in a relationship, or would rather adopt a parakeet. They don't understand why they are talking to you, "but maybe you can, I don't know, maybe do something of value here, but we don't know what that is. So here's a bunch of money. FIX US". It's usually a sign of lack of vision by leadership in the comp…

It can be great if you have things you want to do that most companies don’t come up by themselves.

Basically if you’re in a “Shut up and hire me!” mode and will self-manage and come up with what others also need to do. I find it tiring, but some people thrive in these roles.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#93

Post by opportune »

mdgrech23 wrote: post #55
vlovich123 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of the big tech companies, I've worked at Facebook, Google, & Apple. I've still not quite cracked what's different about Apple culturally that they seem to be more immune to this problem. The only main difference I can spot is I don't recall ever encountering a PM at Apple. To do planning engineers would propose improvements, new features, etc. These were bubbled up. Then executives would be responsible for building…

Would echo your sentiment that the role of project manager, product owner or whatever they're calling it these days needs to be rethought. In my org we literally have a squadron of these individuals which leads to bickering and an in-cohesive product experience.

My issue with the two “PM”s I interact with the most:

Project managers basically do something that the devs, especially dev manager, can handle themselves. It seems like a leftover process for when software contracting was more common. There’s no reason a developer can’t just manage the Kanban board and write a quick report.

Product managers can be really good but in a lot of cases they just devolve into stakeholder management with poor/no vision. Because they talk to upper management a lot they can get a lot of credit for things they didn’t have a lot to do with, because they’re the visible face for it. This can sometimes lead to the Product org getting too big because they get promoted up to Director and now need 10-100 reports for something that only needs like 3 Product managers max. Then you’re in a really bad spot because you’re going to be bothered by PMs with small scope a lot about stupid shit

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#94

Post by pnutjam »

101008 wrote: post #78
kempbellt wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Role clarity issues during an interview feels like going on a date with someone who doesn't know if they want to be in a relationship, or would rather adopt a parakeet. They don't understand why they are talking to you, "but maybe you can, I don't know, maybe do something of value here, but we don't know what that is. So here's a bunch of money. FIX US". It's usually a sign of lack of vision by leadership in the comp…

Oh, I am going through that. I started as a Python Sr dev a month ago, now I am handling server which is not my expertise. They are going down, deployment pipelines are not working, when I mentioned several times, my superior answer is "You are becoming a devop ;)"... I know they will be mad the day we deploy this to production and everything fails, but I honestly dont know what else to mention. (In my interview I sa…

Just consider it getting paid to improve your resume. Whether this project is unmaintainable won't matter when you've moved on for you 20% raise at the next company. The one you're currently working for will never give it to you.

- voice of experience -

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#95

Post by mywittyname »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #66

As someone with 20+ years in the experience, red flag #1 for me is being expected to go through a skill-testing technical whiteboard (or similar) coding exercise before even having a deeper discussion about the role and whether there's a fit, etc. I've seen this many times and I find it baffling: I already have a very high paying high quality job, I want you to sell _me_ on the position before demanding I do stressfu…

This could be a side-effect of how separations of concerns are handled vis-a-vis interviews at the company.

I do technical interviews for other teams within my company. I may not know much detail about the role, beyond just generally knowing with the team in question is responsible for and the topics they asked me to cover during the interview. I wouldn't ever think to ask for more details about the role because I assume that's a question for the manager or internal recruiter.

I honestly see it as a way to streamline the interview process and make it more fair. My role in the process is to determine how well you understand the core concepts of a handful of technologies, not to necessarily to sell you on the position or evaluate "culture fit." Of course, I try to be pleasant and want you to come away with a good experience. But sticking to the script is largely me being mindful of everyone's time; interviews are time-consuming and you probably don't want to be answering / asking the same questions to four different people.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#96

Post by redisman »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #66

As someone with 20+ years in the experience, red flag #1 for me is being expected to go through a skill-testing technical whiteboard (or similar) coding exercise before even having a deeper discussion about the role and whether there's a fit, etc. I've seen this many times and I find it baffling: I already have a very high paying high quality job, I want you to sell _me_ on the position before demanding I do stressfu…

One thing that's funny is when the internal recruiter for company X (that I had to google) reaches out to me and sets up a call. Then their question is why did you choose this company specifically? And I'm like dude, you called me!

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#97

Post by RobRivera »

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #38
erikerikson wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you are interviewing "for the company" (e.g. Google or Facebook). While it fits their processes, it's always seemed a way to create and reinforce lock in.

"lock-in" of _____ to ____ ? Do you mean making it more difficult for the employee to eventually leave / how?

Branding has its power over certain people.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#98

Post by dkarp »

Tech interviewing articles seem to do well on HN.

I'm guessing because it's something most of us can relate to and that's what made me click on it. But I feel like I've read this same content in different articles, that I've found on HN, multiple times.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#99

Post by jacquesm »

svachalek wrote: post #69
vlovich123 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of the big tech companies, I've worked at Facebook, Google, & Apple. I've still not quite cracked what's different about Apple culturally that they seem to be more immune to this problem. The only main difference I can spot is I don't recall ever encountering a PM at Apple. To do planning engineers would propose improvements, new features, etc. These were bubbled up. Then executives would be responsible for building…

I took that as the "secret FAANG". Apple definitely has PMs but they work differently than they do at most other companies.

Likely a direct legacy from the Steve Jobs days. When you have a CEO with such a strong product vision you don't actually need product owners/product managers any more other than to fill in the details. Those are still super important, but if you got those wrong it wouldn't pass review anyway.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#100

Post by eertami »

vlovich123 wrote: post #50
StillBored wrote: post #23

Role clarity is a huge one in my book. I've turned down numerous offers because when I asked what the specifics of my day to day job were going to be, the answers weren't clear. From the secret FAANG that likes to pretend what they are doing is defense contractor level top secret, and even after your hired you might not know what your actually working on, to the big companies where its clear the hiring manager only h…

Of the big tech companies, I've worked at Facebook, Google, & Apple. I've still not quite cracked what's different about Apple culturally that they seem to be more immune to this problem. The only main difference I can spot is I don't recall ever encountering a PM at Apple. To do planning engineers would propose improvements, new features, etc. These were bubbled up. Then executives would be responsible for building…

> I've still not quite cracked what's different about Apple culturally that they seem to be more immune to this problem.

... Really? I do not get that impression at all after Catalina and Big Sur. Every release these days seems to have more problems than the last. I'll put up with macOS until High Sierra is unsupported and then I'm done.

As an Apple employee commented here last year, "I am awed by the fact that we manage to release any software at all, let alone functional software."[0]

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21218413

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