Interview advice that got me offers • Hacker News Board

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#191

Post by ek750 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:42 PM UTC

decafninja wrote: post #149

a_wild_dandan wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain why it scales worse than current typical interview sessions?

Because a candidate can grind leetcode and prepare for a huge number of companies. On the other hand, something like a homework assignment is typically good for a single company, and if you fail, it's time and effort and emotional energy down the toilet.

I've done tons of interviews over the past 10 years. It was surprising to me the number of times the experience on a resume didn't line up with what the interviewee showed through conversation and small whiteboard exercises.

I get that it's not very real-world representative, and that's why homework is used instead by some companies.

Maybe the answer is to give the applicant a choice? Either be prepared to convince me you know what you claim, or demonstrate it with a take-home problem.

Personally, I'd prefer a day of in-person-pair programming as part of the interview. I'd get a better feel for the team and their workflows. If it's a total horror show, it's good to know up front :)

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#192

Post by xyzelement » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

deedubaya wrote: post #189

I wonder how many, if any, great software engineers simply let their careers stall out because they don't want to deal with the ceremony around tech hiring.

Same kind of person who never finds a partner because of the "ceremony around" dating, I guess?

In both situations, it's not like you're adding a commodity product to your Amazon shopping card. The matching is non-trivial and both parties have to recognize and commit to the effort-full process.

To abstract your comment all the way out - how many people live well below their potential because they are too lazy or afraid to work and get something they really way?

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#193

Post by city41 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:51 PM UTC

a_wild_dandan wrote: post #120

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had this discussion during interviews as a disarming technique. Candidates will sometimes express nervousness at the beginning and say stuff like "I'm terrible at interviews" or "it's been a while since I've had to do this kind of programming," and I try to respond by making it clear that I understand that the whiteboard coding has very little in common with the actual job and that I'm not judging them, so when…

> I'm honestly not sure what I'd replace it with if I were. Just to theorize: how about having the interviewee write a narrowly scoped toy project that's relevant to the position? (Edit: On site, as a replacement for white boarding.) A JS to-do app for a front-end engineer, for instance. Just a short thing you and the candidate can attack together in a couple hours. The candidate can write "normal" code, google thing…

I worked at a company that did this. This company always pair programmed. So the interview took place at a pairing station. We gave the candidate a choice of about 10 toy problems to solve, and then we coded for 2 hours. They could use Google, their preferred IDE, whatever they wanted.

Of all the companies I have worked at, this was by far my favorite interviewing technique. But, I think it works best when you pair with the candidate. So if pairing at your company is not done, it might not be a good fit.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#194

Post by aidenn0 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:52 PM UTC

valarauko wrote: post #135

saagarjha wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It limits your options down . If you say you're looking for $100/hour, and the recruiter was planning on giving you $150/hour…guess what offer you're going to get?

To play Devil's Advocate, and I ask as someone not in the industry (I'm in academia) - is the difference between expectations really that large? I would imagine (perhaps unreasonably) that a relatively seasoned person on the job market would have a reasonable understanding of their market value within a few percentage points - so the recruiter might be willing to pay up to $105/hour, while you low balled it at $100/h…

The difference between expectations can be more than 100% of the lower number.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#195

Post by hardlianotion » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

adamredwoods wrote: post #50

_benj wrote: post #2

> 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…

I have had opposite experiences. Many of my interviews were straight evaluations on technical ability, many of which I failed. 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 Amaz…

Very similar experience at a consulting firm. No Matlab on CV. At interview

- do you use Matlab? "No".

- show me where the errors are in these Matlab code samples.

hard to respect an attitude like that.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#196

Post by baby » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

mercutio2 wrote: post #77

totaldude87 wrote: post #67

I recently got interviewed by a FAANG company, and it was not a nice experience, it had like 4 hours of back to back interviews with 4 different people and couple of them didn't even bother.. on the technical side, I was asked questions that didn't even fit my profile :( . although am waiting for their response, regardless of whether i have cleared their "tech" rounds, at this point I dont even care about that interv…

If you're not up for four to eight hours of interviews (with a break or two, depending on how long the day is), asking the standard bank of questions, it doesn't sound like you're a good fit for a big tech company. But why did you bother applying? None of what you describe seems like it should have been a surprise.

I work at a big corp and I interviewed for big corps and oh my it is awful. I remember leaving a google interview so mentally drained I couldn’t open my eyes anymore.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#197

Post by xyzelement » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

hnrodey wrote: post #131

Has anyone here pivoted from software engineer to software engineering recruiter? Curious or yours (or anyones for that matter) thoughts on this topic. It's a move I've considered just to keep my career interesting.

Closest I have come is managing a lot of recruiting (but still from the engineering side) and I know a few very senior folks who started their own headhunting firms - it's an obvious move given their vast network.

I don't know for sure but I suspect most recruiters make a LOT less than the roles they are recruiting for, since generally the skills to make a good recruiter are easier available than those that make an engineer. If you want to broaden your career while getting more into dealing with humans rather than code, the obvious progressions are engineering management and perhaps product management.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#198

Post by xyzelement » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:56 PM UTC

itronitron wrote: post #102

Worth noting that the author claims to get lots of job offers but is not able to "create an array" in a language of their choice from memory.

I think you're saying this to dismiss the wisdom of the author.

I think it's actually worth noting that you can be a very valuable developer and not remember minutiae.

For example, in the last few days I wrote in C++, Python and JS. Do you think my fingers always typed the right type of bracket to create an array as I jumped between the languages? Who cares.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#199

Post by alboy » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 9:59 PM UTC

decafninja wrote: post #152

Bahamut wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Although this is welcome to hear, it's not something a candidate can count on reliably nor something they can really control. After all, a candidate can come off as likeable to one interviewer and unlikeable to another. Versus just being able ace through leetcode problems - that's a more objective criteria a candidate has more control over. Personal anecdote. I interviewed at a FAANG, got rejected. They actually offe…

Clearly they want you to demonstrate a working knowledge of binary search.

Re: Interview advice that got me offers

#200

Post by xyzelement » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 10:00 PM UTC

yudlejoza wrote: post #116

hfkldjsjfkdj wrote: post #100

These blogs are just for procasinators to feel productive. If you landed the interview then it is just about practicing through a lot of questions. The time you finished reading this comment and this blog, some people out there have already completed a mock interview or a leetcode question. I wonder who made greater gains.

I agree with this. I would add, these holier-than-thou FAANG interviewers writing blog posts about how to clear a FAANG interview are actually bullshitters. They want to feel good about themselves. So they write. When push comes to shove, these same interviewers would clear the candidates who've pretty much memorized all the medium-level leetcode problems, but lie during the interview by claiming that they've never s…

>> P.S.: The non-tech part is not that hard. Just don't be a dick.

This is probably true for junior roles but gets much more important for senior roles or ones where they are testing out your potential to take on greater responsibility shortly after joining.

An answer to a vague behavioral question can make a ton of difference. EG:

Question: Have you ever managed people?

Answer A: Nope, always an individual contributor.

Answer B: No, but at my last job I took ownership of a project that involved coordinating work of 50+ developers, UX people, QA, etc to deliver.

Question A is technically correct and "not a dick" but if the person has it in them to figure out to provide answer B (assuming it's true) they are more likely to get a more senior job and make more money.