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It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

simonwillison.net

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Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#71

Post by fibonachos »

sudeepj wrote: post #65

There are two modes of hiring: 1. General purpose: Typical FANG like where hire first and then do team matching later 2. Targeted hiring: Companies want specific people and they try to recruit them A sizable number of top open-source contributors get recruited are in #2. Eg. 1) Top contributors in Rust lang hired by AWS. 2) FANG companies targeting top AI researchers from academia. One's open-source presence needs to…

After interviewing with multiple FAANGs and receiving no offers, my current employer recruited me based on my LinkedIn profile for a role on new team. I have since started telling the FAANG recruiters “thanks for reaching out, but no thanks“. I guess that puts me in group number 2?

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#72

Post by [deleted] »

kylec wrote: post #68
sudeepj wrote: post #65

There are two modes of hiring: 1. General purpose: Typical FANG like where hire first and then do team matching later 2. Targeted hiring: Companies want specific people and they try to recruit them A sizable number of top open-source contributors get recruited are in #2. Eg. 1) Top contributors in Rust lang hired by AWS. 2) FANG companies targeting top AI researchers from academia. One's open-source presence needs to…

I don't know if hire first, team match later is a FAANG thing, I've worked for two of FAANG and neither did that, I was interviewed by and hired onto the team I ended up working on.

[deleted]

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#73

Post by the_af »

maxk42 wrote: post #47
Zababa wrote: post #43

I had a few jobs interview recently. Here's what I got out of it: If you have something you want to promote (or is on your CV in general), be ready to talk about it. I'm very lucky because I can talk about things on the spot very easily. If that's not you, make a list of the few main points that you want to talk about and try to memorize it. If you always get the same questions, it may be a good idea to address them…

> I really underestimate the amount of stress that can be felt when you're alone facing 6 people for a job that you want. Practice. Go on interviews even when you don't need a job. Get that practice in and get comfortable with it. I went on 18 - 30 interviews a year for many years when I was a contractor and got very good at interviewing over time. I still get a bit tense when the job is particularly appealing, but w…

> "Practice. Go on interviews even when you don't need a job."

I'm ambivalent about this kind of advice. On the surface it seems right, and I've never been more comfortable in interviews than when I was thinking "I don't need this job", at the same time interviews are incredibly stressful time wasters. For a lot of people, interviewing is one of the most stressful situations they are going to be in, barring life or death situations.

Just the thought of 18 to 30 interviews a year makes me anxious and I don't even need to interview now.

I'm not a young person anymore, and interviewing more is not going to help me either. It's like pulling my teeth: not something I want to practice.

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#74

Post by inter_netuser »

solipsism wrote: post #67
maxk42 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really underestimate the amount of stress that can be felt when you're alone facing 6 people for a job that you want. Practice. Go on interviews even when you don't need a job. Get that practice in and get comfortable with it. I went on 18 - 30 interviews a year for many years when I was a contractor and got very good at interviewing over time. I still get a bit tense when the job is particularly appealing, but w…

Ah, yes, purposefully waste people's time. Fuck them, right? I've seen this kind of attitude before, and it's usually justified with something about how the companies don't respect your time so why should you respect theirs. The thing is... the kind of people at these companies who don't care about your time are the kind of people who would do something like this.

Whiteboarding will continue until morale improves.

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#75

Post by sudeepj »

kylec wrote: post #68
sudeepj wrote: post #65

There are two modes of hiring: 1. General purpose: Typical FANG like where hire first and then do team matching later 2. Targeted hiring: Companies want specific people and they try to recruit them A sizable number of top open-source contributors get recruited are in #2. Eg. 1) Top contributors in Rust lang hired by AWS. 2) FANG companies targeting top AI researchers from academia. One's open-source presence needs to…

I don't know if hire first, team match later is a FAANG thing, I've worked for two of FAANG and neither did that, I was interviewed by and hired onto the team I ended up working on.

Actually there both cases happen:

1. Team matching before hiring commitee [1]

2. Hiring committee approved but rejected because no team matched [2]

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductManagement/comments/o6gs9m/g...

[2] https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-failed-at-the-team-mat...

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#76

Post by vmception »

tdeck wrote: post #70
sudeepj wrote: post #65

There are two modes of hiring: 1. General purpose: Typical FANG like where hire first and then do team matching later 2. Targeted hiring: Companies want specific people and they try to recruit them A sizable number of top open-source contributors get recruited are in #2. Eg. 1) Top contributors in Rust lang hired by AWS. 2) FANG companies targeting top AI researchers from academia. One's open-source presence needs to…

I'm not sure if the extra work is rewarded as much as you might think. For example, I was shocked to see a prominent open-source contributor hired into Google as an L5. Without going into detail, this person built projects used by many people reading this comment. Granted, I don't know what their comp or interview process was like, but 5 is basically an ordinary senior engineer level at Google.

You shouldn’t be shocked by that, there are similar stories where the maintainer of a project, used by most engineers at Google, couldnt get hired due to the lesser relevant leet code / design / behavioral interviews

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#77

Post by the_af »

solipsism wrote: post #67
maxk42 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really underestimate the amount of stress that can be felt when you're alone facing 6 people for a job that you want. Practice. Go on interviews even when you don't need a job. Get that practice in and get comfortable with it. I went on 18 - 30 interviews a year for many years when I was a contractor and got very good at interviewing over time. I still get a bit tense when the job is particularly appealing, but w…

Ah, yes, purposefully waste people's time. Fuck them, right? I've seen this kind of attitude before, and it's usually justified with something about how the companies don't respect your time so why should you respect theirs. The thing is... the kind of people at these companies who don't care about your time are the kind of people who would do something like this.

Sorry if I misunderstand you, but are you saying that it's wrong to interview for practice because it's wasting the company's time?

Interesting, never thought about this. I think I disagree though; these are the people who (usually) play games with you and put you through some very stressful situation during the interview. I think candidates should be able to practice in a low stakes environment, i.e. one where they can't lose because they didn't really want the job. It's only fair.

I'm not a great interviewer, but I always ask why the candidate is looking for a job, and more than once they've admitted they weren't actively looking but just testing the waters, and I didn't hold it against them...

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#78

Post by sudeepj »

tdeck wrote: post #70
sudeepj wrote: post #65

There are two modes of hiring: 1. General purpose: Typical FANG like where hire first and then do team matching later 2. Targeted hiring: Companies want specific people and they try to recruit them A sizable number of top open-source contributors get recruited are in #2. Eg. 1) Top contributors in Rust lang hired by AWS. 2) FANG companies targeting top AI researchers from academia. One's open-source presence needs to…

I'm not sure if the extra work is rewarded as much as you might think. For example, I was shocked to see a prominent open-source contributor hired into Google as an L5. Without going into detail, this person built projects used by many people reading this comment. Granted, I don't know what their comp or interview process was like, but 5 is basically an ordinary senior engineer level at Google.

The key question imo is:

Was he still subjected to same interview process where he has to prove his coding skills inspite of being prominent open-source contributor?

As for L5 level based on anecdotal stories anything beyond L6 is hard in Google.

Search for "Crossing that barrier to L6 is getting more and more difficult with time" in [1]

[1] https://debarghyadas.com/writes/why-i-left-google/

The article is from 2019 and its not that old.

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#80

Post by vermarish »

kirykl wrote: post #58

I’ve been told in the past by hiring managers my resume (at the time) was too creative. And later by hiring gurus that you need a creative resume to be noticed. Noticed doesn’t necessarily get you the job

Are you talking about having a creatively formatted resume, or about exclusively focusing on projects which demonstrate creativity in your resume?
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