41–50 of 372 posts
The hardest part about interviewing is that there is no feedback loop; I once interviewed at 10 companies within 2 weeks and got rejected from all of them, but to this day I still don't know what part I need to improve upon.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most engineers are introverts and relatively humble - so interviewing is difficult. We have to remind ourselves that we are pretty good. I always went on 2 practice interviews before the real interview and it worked.
> Most engineers are introverts is this a defensible statement? I haven't seen any research that would lead me to believe that most engineers are introverts.
“Keeping those skills sharp even when you’re not job hunting.” It’s so tiring to continue to see this. If the “skills” you need to keep sharp are not the same thing as the skills you exercise through your job, that’s a giant red flag that the hiring company should be avoided. If you’re practicing leetcode or Kaggle in your spare time to pass interviews, you need to stop and realize you’ve set up your goals completely…
The advice of going on interviews semi-regularly is one that I tell everyone soliciting advice (even my direct reports, though only once and only if conversation veers that way!). I don’t mean the leetcode hoops (etc, though that is part of the game) but once you’re in the door. It’s a unique skillset that degrades fast, not unlike dating skills.
It's crucial to continue dating while you're in a relationship. Especially a long-term relationship, which can cause your dating skills to become very rusty.
> Keeping those skills sharp even when you’re not job hunting. I rather hire someone with wisdom across multiple areas than a bleeding edge expert in few, very narrow specialty. In my experience, a group of generalists will often deal better with a problem than a group of specialist.
That is a skill a lot of developers practice way too little. It's also a skillset that is increasingly valuable if you want a promotion.
It's interesting how so many of the responses here assume that the skills people should keep sharp are narrow technical skills. I'd expect a developer to keep their technical skills sharp as part of their day to day job. That's not the most important reason to practice interviewing; the most important reason is to know how to sell those skills.
I know lots of techies dislike having to know to sell themselves, but the reality is that hiring managers can't read minds, so selling your skillset is part of the job, but one you don't use very often in many jobs.
> Your mad technical skills no longer matter to them. If anything, humility and an openness to learning will show you in the best light. I've been interviewing for the last couple of weeks and I agree with this. Being a "good" human being, i.e. candid, humble, kind, friendly, seems to be valued a lot more than what I thought before. At the end of the day is people working with people, and the more humans that interac…
Can confirm as a senior engineer at a FAANG. I've rejected people for showing negative non-technical traits but being ok technically, and recommended people for hire with not the best technical skills but with excellent non-technical/leadership traits. Life is too short to work with assholes if it can be helped.
I'm not an expert, but this can be a really slippery slope to implicit bias creeping in to your hiring decisions, especially if these traits are outside of your area of interview/expertise.
The hardest part about interviewing is that there is no feedback loop; I once interviewed at 10 companies within 2 weeks and got rejected from all of them, but to this day I still don't know what part I need to improve upon.
- In an interview, if you feel it could have gone better, you can ask your interviewer about better solutions. I have literally done this in interviews that led to an offer - when they get to the point where you ask questions, one of yours can be "I don't feel like I got to a great solution here, can you explain what an efficient solutions would look like, or point me to a reference where I can read up on this"?
- You can ask your recruiter for feedback, or just suggestions for general areas that you can improve. More likely than not, they won't respond or will tell you the policy is not to share anything, but you've already lost out on this job, and one polite inquiry is not going to put a black mark on your record at this company.
> Your mad technical skills no longer matter to them. If anything, humility and an openness to learning will show you in the best light. I've been interviewing for the last couple of weeks and I agree with this. Being a "good" human being, i.e. candid, humble, kind, friendly, seems to be valued a lot more than what I thought before. At the end of the day is people working with people, and the more humans that interac…
Humility and earnestness can go a long way. A big ego never helps.
One additional tip on recruiters: have a cheat sheet ready (web page or public Google doc) that answers the basic questions they'll have for you and makes clear your expectations. Here's the info I ask them to provide: - Job Title and Salary - Job Description - Company Overview and Location - Steps in Hiring Process Whenever I'm emailed by a recruiter, I politely thank them for reaching out, paste the link to the che…
Do you find that recruiters will typically give you a salary range beyond "competitive" before you've started the interview process?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you find that recruiters will typically give you a salary range beyond "competitive" before you've started the interview process?
You usually have to be the first mover and be willing to give them a number you’re looking for.
> Your mad technical skills no longer matter to them. If anything, humility and an openness to learning will show you in the best light. I've been interviewing for the last couple of weeks and I agree with this. Being a "good" human being, i.e. candid, humble, kind, friendly, seems to be valued a lot more than what I thought before. At the end of the day is people working with people, and the more humans that interac…
Amazon in particular, I had told the interviewer that my day-to-day was in C#, but they continued to ask rigorous javascript questions, of which I could explain most of the answer, but failed to find the very specific javascript answer they were looking for. As a result, I was blocked by Amazon from any further interviews for one year. (And at the time, incredibly disheartening in my job search...)