I had technical phone interview with one big electronics company. At the end of the interview when I asked the interviewer his daily work and how it looks like, he was honest and told me something that he don't like it. Something the problem is ill-defined with the manager only cares about end result. He seems very depressed from how he talked about the company, and at the end asked me if I am still interested working for such kind of problems.
Decided then not to move to next step.
Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
371–380 of 394 posts
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#372Mic drop
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Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. Same, from FAANG companies. The feel that I get is more like, FAANG companies don't even know what you're going to do. They just want to hire top talent and figure out what you're working on later. They want someone "smart" who can ultimately work on any team, since whatever tea…
That's because FAANG has a hiring department, that's responsible for hiring. They also each have ~2,000 engineering teams, some of which may or may not have headcount. And once someone is accepted, teams with open headcount look at that person, and make an offer. The shortens the time that it takes to fill headcount, because there is a constant pipeline of ready candidates. This also means that you won't get yanked a…
Can't speak for FANG, but that's certainly not how Apple works.
Leaving aside recruiting events (universities, etc.), candidates are interviewed with a specific role / headcount slot in mind. Sometimes there will be several; it's rude to drag a candidate in multiple times to talk to different teams and so sometimes several will pitch to the same candidate on a given day. But the search always starts with a team or teams that are looking for someone.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
My whiteboard coding interviews now mostly consist of asking someone to write a for loop with one state variable. That's my bar for low skill. If you can't write 6 lines of code in 45 minutes with one loop and one variable, then you and I are going to have problems working on logic problems on a whiteboard on the actual job. I've interviewed enough people who don't even know the syntax of a for loop for the language…
I'm only 90% sure I know the syntax of a for loop in my chosen language, C#. The reason for the missing 10% is that I never write this syntax. Most loops are covered by a foreach or by LINQ (think: map and reduce, buy nicer). The few times I actually need a for loop I type: "for" and then I focus on the loop body. If my needs are more complicated, I _modify_ the for loop my IDE gives me.
Yea I meant a for-each loop.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not use fizzbuzz but variations that are simple like it. I do not like fizzbuzz for 2 reasons. It relies on a math trick. Modulus math is something everyone can grasp but it is not something everyone knows about. Plus it is easily looked up and gamed. I try to pick something that has a few if conditions and a loop, which is what most people do. Bonus if it can be a 'refactor' style problem for the small walkthro…
One of my goto fizzbuzz-like variations is windowed mean - how would you implement a class with a method accepting and returning a number, such that the number returned is the mean of the last 100 numbers the method was called with. Some people ask more clarifying questions than others, but in any case a few minutes gets spent on this, we have a laugh and move on with our lives. Of the failing candidates, around one…
That kind of math is fine. The mod operator is not one that everyone uses but add/sub/mul/div is something most people use all the time. It is why I avoid mod in that situation.
Once I show someone the 'mod' trick they instantly get it (if they have any sort of math background) but I want to avoid as much as possible anything tricky in a interview. I want them relaxed and not tense. As that is a different kind of test. Throwing in a trivia trick can hurt the interview. I have run across many programmers that are decent at it and have never used it.
Also for your problem it would depend on the level you are interviewing for and how much time you want to allocate for it. As it is also a balance of filter and getting to know them which is mostly time management on your part. Remember you probably are going to be working with them. So a bit of chit chat goes a long way too. You can also use 'fizzbuzz' as a question 'do you know the trick of fizzbuzz'. If I show them the mod trick and they get it right away they show aptitude to learn. If they already know it then see if they can explain it. etc etc... Get them to talk. Also talk back to them like a peer as they very well could be! They should be interviewing you too.
I just try to avoid tricky bits in interviews and expecting tricky results from them. It would be like asking the to write a swap two values function and expecting the triple xor solution. Tricky is for something you have been working on for 3 weeks and need a better solution, plus two spike stories. It is not for interviews. :) Just ask yourself would you be massively annoyed if someone asked you this in an interview with no context as to why and expected a particular answer. If the answer is you would be annoyed then do not do it. If you feel it is OK and you would expect it then go for it. Just remember your time management.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#376Earlier 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.
In the early part of this year, whilst on the hunt for a new job, I had the fortune(?) to interview with a FANG company (the company in question was towards the start of the acronym). They approached me, badgering for a CV (three times) and an interview, not me chasing them. And I didn't use a headhunter/outside recruiter. Sidenote: I had taught dozens of week-long corporate training classes in software development (…
Something seems off in this story. $110k base is less than the entry level salary for FANG https://www.levels.fyi/SE/Amazon/Google/Facebook
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#377Earlier 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.
In the early part of this year, whilst on the hunt for a new job, I had the fortune(?) to interview with a FANG company (the company in question was towards the start of the acronym). They approached me, badgering for a CV (three times) and an interview, not me chasing them. And I didn't use a headhunter/outside recruiter. Sidenote: I had taught dozens of week-long corporate training classes in software development (…
Late to comment, but thanks for sharing this anecdote.
I've done some mentoring of junior developers in the past. Many of them get hyperfocused on levels.fyi and HN comments talking about $400K salaries from FAANG companies. This leads a lot of them to become permanently disgruntled, convinced they're being severely underpaid.
When I started mentoring, I never thought I'd have to cheer people up about $150-200K offers in medium cost-of-living cities. Too many people are convinced that $400-500K is an easy-button. This is especially true for people who coasted by at the top of their classes at average universities who aren't used to being anywhere other than the absolute top of their local community.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm only 90% sure I know the syntax of a for loop in my chosen language, C#. The reason for the missing 10% is that I never write this syntax. Most loops are covered by a foreach or by LINQ (think: map and reduce, buy nicer). The few times I actually need a for loop I type: "for" and then I focus on the loop body. If my needs are more complicated, I _modify_ the for loop my IDE gives me.
Yea I meant a for-each loop.
I'm not sure the last time I wrote a for loop that wasn't for-each.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The problem's not even that I'm bad under pressure, and in fact I've repeatedly been told the exact opposite by people who've worked with me. The problem is specifically about doing a programming performance in front of an audience Sure a "whiteboard interview" basically optimizes for people who can actually pass whiteboard interviews rather than people who can do the job. But to claim that there is a NON-NEGLIGIBL…
I suspect some significant percentage of applicants may not have a disability, exactly, or always totally flub an interview in this way, but may do so often enough that it looks like the level of competence in the industry is much lower than it actually is, if one is taking one's personal experience with interviewees as an accurate measure of that. Add to this that assuredly some of the people confidently complaining…
I don't think it's 90%. I'm saying there is a very, very low bar, but I would say it's hit by 20%-30% of candidates that reached me, not that many. Obviously this depends on much you offer, whether HR prefilters, and the like. But this is not 90% of candidates, I think.
And I'm quite confident it's not the interviewer. Usually the panel is quite anonymous when it comes to calling a "bullshit" candidate. We ask panel persons individually to avoid the "no one wants to contradict someone calling X bullshit'" effect.
I don't think tech interviews are _any_ worse than the ones outside. If anything, we have less standardization than other industries. I work for a engineering company first (software second) and the engineer interviews are basically _manufactured by HR_ (not engineers).
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of my goto fizzbuzz-like variations is windowed mean - how would you implement a class with a method accepting and returning a number, such that the number returned is the mean of the last 100 numbers the method was called with. Some people ask more clarifying questions than others, but in any case a few minutes gets spent on this, we have a laugh and move on with our lives. Of the failing candidates, around one…
That kind of math is fine. The mod operator is not one that everyone uses but add/sub/mul/div is something most people use all the time. It is why I avoid mod in that situation. Once I show someone the 'mod' trick they instantly get it (if they have any sort of math background) but I want to avoid as much as possible anything tricky in a interview. I want them relaxed and not tense. As that is a different kind of tes…
I mean, "is x divisible by y?" is only one aspect of fizzbuzz, and something that can be solved in many ways - you don't have to use the mod trick. You could write a function that uses a loop and subtraction to do that bit, if it comes down to it. If I just want to see you can code I'll take it and move on, and if I'm at a point in the interview where I am looking for something else then that's a conversation starter.
But if you are applying for a programming position and claim a decade of programming experience - and literally can't come up with any path towards a solution - I smell a rat.