Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#301

Post by jdgiese » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

site-packages1 wrote: post #298

This is a really good list, and I don’t think I can add much to the discussion already here. But the article introduces the author as “passionate about architecting and building scalable software systems.“ Is _anyone_ passionate about this, or is this just marketing speak. It’s like introducing someone as “passionate about customer service,” give me a break.

Maybe it depends on what you mean by “passionate,” but I would say I’m passionate about customer service and about architecting and building scalable software systems. I cofounded a professional services firm, and it makes me happy to provide our clients a lot of value, and I do really enjoy thinking about scalable systems.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#302

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

Zippogriff wrote: post #250

seattletech wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that just drives me nuts. If you're recruiting, you're trying to sell me on the position.

Imagine if we did this for other things. "Why do you want to sell me this apple?" "Be... cause... I grow apples? To sell? And you said you want one, and are holding money?"

Hilarious. There's a car salesman joke in there.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#303

Post by chipuni » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:19 PM UTC

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…

People lie on their resumes.

There's a huge surplus of people claiming skills they don't have. You'd be shocked at how many people who claim to be strong data scientists don't know SQL.

When I last hired for a technical position, I had half an hour for each candidate to decide whether to move forward with them. I wrote up seven questions that took fifteen minutes to answer. I also spent fifteen minutes talking about the job, the co-workers, and answering questions about the fit of the position.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#304

Post by tomp » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #161

pnw_hazor wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always accept the time critical offer and continue interviewing and then jump if a better one comes through. There is no reason to be nice or considerate to companies, they will drop you in hot second if it is convenient for them.

Accepting an offer without an intent to follow through is fraud. If you think your counter-party is dishonest or ill-intentioned, then you should refuse to enter into any agreement with them.

Unless the company is legally binding themselves to actually pay you when the time comes (as in, if for any reason they rescind the offer, you’re still paid for, let’s say, a year of salary, and this without you having to sue them), I don’t see any reason why the employee should feel any more obliged, legally or otherwise.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#305

Post by Reedx » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

lgleason wrote: post #6

I can identify with the red flag where they try to pressure you to accept the offer in a short period. This is also called an exploding offer. I had a place do that to me and I ended up turning the opportunity down.

Sometimes they do that on Shark Tank (Mark Cuban especially), making an offer and saying "but you have to decide right now". Giving them just seconds, even when there are still other potential offers on the table.

It's a terrible dark pattern and wish everyone would just dismiss it outright. Kudos for doing so.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#306

Post by Traster » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

binarytox1n wrote: post #280

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have set up a strawman -- I didn't say go hire people who haven't seen code, I didn't even say don't do skill testing questions. The question is: at what point in the interview process do you start dumping skill testing questions at them? And I think as the first gate to pass, this is just awful. Further there's also a question of what kinds of questions, and how the question is asked, but that is a separate topi…

I did address your question - I ask them to write code first. It may waste your time, but it saves time for my team. You can't code? Ok, the interview is over. Thanks for your time. There's lots of debate on what kind of coding questions to ask. My questions are more fizz-buzz and less CS textbook. You'd be amazed how many people apply for senior level software engineer roles who can't demonstrate basic programming s…

It's also super awkward to talk to someone and get a real good understanding of their experience, how they fit, what they've done, what they'd want to do.... and then find out they can't code. And this does happen. It's much nicer for all involved to do that early in the process and write it off as a formality because it's a humiliation to throw that at someone at the last minute. It's an insulting waste of time for any decent candidate, but there are always candidates who can do everything but code and you have to weed those guys out.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#307

Post by GaryNumanVevo » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:29 PM UTC

scottlamb wrote: post #257

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anec-data: Turned down an $800k Principal ML Scientist job at a FANG. Interviewed with a director who couldn't answer what I would be doing / working on. Facebook is notorious for this, lots of friends get absolutely eye-watering salaries to sit around and provide 1% lifts on click-through-rates. Most fortunately leave after the 1-yr vest.

> Anec-data: Turned down an $800k Principal ML Scientist job at a FANG. Interviewed with a director who couldn't answer what I would be doing / working on. I agree that's weird. Edit: although when did this happen in the interview process? It's pretty common to first decide if you're interested in hiring someone in general and later do the match-making to a particular team/project. Maybe not at this level though... >…

It was a re-neg situation. I had accepted the offer, then was in talks with the director who recommended me. Unfortunately I can't say much more about that situation due to NDA.

IMHO hiring engineers to hyperoptimize advertisement platforms is a bit wasteful.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#308

Post by boring_twenties » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:31 PM UTC

redisman wrote: post #96

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!

One company a long time ago had an insane HR department with a question like "If there was a different company with the same salary, environment, culture, work as this one (but wasn't this one), would you want to work there?"

This was at the end of the process, after I'd already interviewed with all the technical folks and all the managers and they all wanted to hire me.

Apparently the desired answer was "no." My actual answer was something like "WTF are you talking about," and I somehow managed to get hired anyway. I later heard that if I'd answered "yes" it would have been difficult to overrule HR and get me hired. LOL

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#309

Post by Reedx » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:35 PM UTC

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…

Whiteboard coding in an interview is a performance anxiety test and hazing ritual as much as anything.

Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews

#310

Post by confidantlake » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 9:37 PM UTC

starfallg wrote: post #170

kthejoker2 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't "red flags" from the interviewer side pretty obvious? Most interviews are just noise with very little signal. Some basic red flags: * Poor ability to self-reflect or demonstrate that they've learned things from their experiences * Lack of or otherwise poor critical thinking * Inability to communicate * Inability to display core competency in the skills required for the job, especially when challenged (I don't…

The worst candidates know the exact way to act in the interview process. Once they're in, it's really difficult to get them out. I've seen some pretty terrible behaviour, all performed absolutely fine in interviews. So much so that I believe that interviews are only useful to establish basic suitability and that most companies should hire loosely with a long probationary period. Employees that don't perform would be…

That is definitely one model. The downside is that people are less likely to go to a company with high turnover (high turnover is a red flag for candidates).