The rise of never-ending job interviews • Hacker News Board

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#301

Post by trinovantes » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:05 AM UTC

ladberg wrote: post #226

silisili wrote: post #119

My one and only Google interview went this way years ago. Each round they'd send me more books to study, which frankly I couldn't be bothered to read given the circumstances. My experience ended when an interviewer in round 3 or 4 asked me an obviously scripted question. I answered sarcastically, he got peeved, and I never heard from them again. I'm not claiming I'm Google caliber, whatever that means. Obviously I'm…

I had a similarly bad Google experience that I've talked about before[0] but will copy here: I was asked to do a task that eventually boiled down to a topological sort, and I thought the question consisted of recognizing that the answer was a topological sort and moving on because it was over the phone. However, that was not the case. The interviewer wanted me to code it all out over Google Docs, but I didn't remembe…

I once had an in-person interview where they gave me a sheet of printed code and asked me to point out the syntax errors. Some interviewers are absolutely insane.

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#302

Post by raffraffraff » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:06 AM UTC

silisili wrote: post #119

My one and only Google interview went this way years ago. Each round they'd send me more books to study, which frankly I couldn't be bothered to read given the circumstances. My experience ended when an interviewer in round 3 or 4 asked me an obviously scripted question. I answered sarcastically, he got peeved, and I never heard from them again. I'm not claiming I'm Google caliber, whatever that means. Obviously I'm…

Same-ish. I got through several phone interviews and was asked on-site for a full day of interviews, back to back, with a lunch break in the middle. The HR girl was honestly running around like the mad hatter, apologising for being late and then running away as soon as she had left me in the general area where my interviewer would be. Some of the interviewers left me with the next, others just wandered off, leaving me in a room. One of the interviewers was in a different office so we talked over video conference. I say "we talked" but he was reclining so far back in a chair that he might as well have been in bed, and he read questions from a sheet without once looking at the camera. After that I did actually get a decent interview from someone who was on the team I interviewed for. During the lunch break someone had to take me for lunch, and from the moment she showed up I gathered that, like perpetual interviewering, bringing ten-percenters for lunch was another boring part of the job. I also got a really bad 'vibe' just walking through the building. Lots of fun-looking-stuff like games and beer fridges, but everywhere, people with headsets on staring into screens, never once looking up to see who is in their vicinity. Anyone ever seen Coraline? The people with buttons for eyes...

After that whole depressing charade was over, I figured it would be an offer or GTFO. Nope, I got called for another interview. I said "eh, no thanks".

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#303

Post by mrb » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:07 AM UTC

silisili wrote: post #119

My one and only Google interview went this way years ago. Each round they'd send me more books to study, which frankly I couldn't be bothered to read given the circumstances. My experience ended when an interviewer in round 3 or 4 asked me an obviously scripted question. I answered sarcastically, he got peeved, and I never heard from them again. I'm not claiming I'm Google caliber, whatever that means. Obviously I'm…

As an ex-Googler who interviewed 100+ candidates (mix of phone & onsite interviews) I can tell you that there is a great variance across the company groups in the quality of questions we ask. And the reason is simple: it's up to the interviewer to choose his questions. Questions aren't standardized.

I took great pride in the fact that my questions were unique. I designed them myself, about 30: some quick knowledge tests, some elaborate coding challenges, and everything in between. And for a given candidate I would pick about 6-7 questions of the 30 to ask them.

I didn't care if the candidate didn't know or didn't find an answer. I would entice the candidate to drop it and just move to the next question. Some candidates make it hard because they want to keep persevering, keep thinking, but there is limited time in an interview. As an interviewer, my goal is to (quickly!) find and evaluate what you are good at, not what you don't know.

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#304

Post by atoav » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:08 AM UTC

silisili wrote: post #119

My one and only Google interview went this way years ago. Each round they'd send me more books to study, which frankly I couldn't be bothered to read given the circumstances. My experience ended when an interviewer in round 3 or 4 asked me an obviously scripted question. I answered sarcastically, he got peeved, and I never heard from them again. I'm not claiming I'm Google caliber, whatever that means. Obviously I'm…

Weird. When I was casting for actors instead of trying to "trick them into doing something bad" and throwing them out, I tried my best to get it to work with them, even if it meant I had to do something different.

A casting is always stressful, they don't need me as an enemy as well. If they are not good enough with a ton of help, they won't be good enough period. If they are really good with a little of help, they can still be better than someone who needs no help at all. In the end I care about the final result, not about whether they grade well on some invisible scale that only I can see.

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#305

Post by hdjjhhvvhga » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:09 AM UTC

trinovantes wrote: post #301

ladberg wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similarly bad Google experience that I've talked about before[0] but will copy here: I was asked to do a task that eventually boiled down to a topological sort, and I thought the question consisted of recognizing that the answer was a topological sort and moving on because it was over the phone. However, that was not the case. The interviewer wanted me to code it all out over Google Docs, but I didn't remembe…

I once had an in-person interview where they gave me a sheet of printed code and asked me to point out the syntax errors. Some interviewers are absolutely insane.

Actually this one might make sense, depending on the code and the position you applied for.

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#306

Post by 5350-uiop-1130 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:10 AM UTC

I think the post-covid wfh job market has clouded something a bit which is that the tech industry in particular is becoming increasing oversaturated.

There is so many people applying for positions now that companies are resorting to these more and more annoying filtering processes.

My first job in this field 14 years ago was one interview and I got the job the next day. That would be almost impossible today.

I blame it on two things, oversaturation of the "learn to code" meme and the rise and growth of recruitment agencies and their influence on HR practices. They have to justify their own jobs after all - just 10 years ago there wasn't really much of a concept of an HR or IT recruiter as far as I recall - or it was just emerging.

I've said this before but I believe this field is becoming increasingly commodified. Soon you will be either a "white-collar" fang or a blue-collar "independent contractor".

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#307

Post by Akronymus » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:12 AM UTC

wyclif wrote: post #269

pinewurst wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember getting one like that - Googler demanded some random value from a system .h file. Easy enough to grep if necessary, but _no_ it had to be from memory to make one Googley.

Google interviewers must hate Einstein. He said, "Never memorize something that you can look up."

If you need to look up something enough times, it'll stick anyways. But still, don't go out of your way to memorize something.

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#308

Post by imroot » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:13 AM UTC

Redhat: This one was for you. From the moment I applied through a recruiter until I got an offer letter was about 13 months.

In that time, I had already started my new job -- I didn't actually take the role at RedHat, but, I was able to use their offer letter as leverage to increase my salary.

I've worked for YC companies, I've worked for large companies. The larger companies seem to be a little bit easier to get into: my only interview at Luxottica was literally someone asking me about some retail experience I had about 20 years ago and some very basic Linux questions (retail technical architect position), but, I've had YC companies have a multi-month long interview process where I've been told after 10 or 11 interviews that they thought I was "Too senior for the role," which, just kinda blew my mind.

The whole process is broken, but, there's not really a good solution to fix it.

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#309

Post by raffraffraff » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:13 AM UTC

atoav wrote: post #304

silisili wrote: post #119

My one and only Google interview went this way years ago. Each round they'd send me more books to study, which frankly I couldn't be bothered to read given the circumstances. My experience ended when an interviewer in round 3 or 4 asked me an obviously scripted question. I answered sarcastically, he got peeved, and I never heard from them again. I'm not claiming I'm Google caliber, whatever that means. Obviously I'm…

Weird. When I was casting for actors instead of trying to "trick them into doing something bad" and throwing them out, I tried my best to get it to work with them, even if it meant I had to do something different. A casting is always stressful, they don't need me as an enemy as well. If they are not good enough with a ton of help, they won't be good enough period. If they are really good with a little of help, they c…

This. Help the person you're interviewing. You'll both get more out of it, you'll both enjoy it. If you're in a company that is expanding, you'll be interviewing a lot, so it's really important that it doesn't depress the shit out of you.

Re: The rise of never-ending job interviews

#310

Post by solumos » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 7:14 AM UTC

hasa wrote: post #290

I developed software professionally over 20 years and I get impression that I would not have survived any of these interviews. I remember the times in 90's when I had most of the Java classes & methods in my "working memory", but after that came syntax helpers and search engines. That ruined whole concept of programming with just text editor. I don't know if anyone else has similar experiences.

> That ruined whole concept of programming with just text editor.

What "ruined" it for you, "made" it for me :)

I absolutely hated my CS courses in undergrad and dropped the major after 2 classes. Didn't get back around to programming until a few years later - using Google makes it way more doable.