Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tech Interview Handbook

techinterviewhandbook.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 132 posts

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#81

Post by danjac »

freyr wrote: post #51
dzonga wrote: post #38

this is the cancer in our industry. seems interviewing is geared towards whatever mega tech companies. yet this on hacker-news. a place filled with seed-stage companies, and early series * who probably just want someone who can get shit done. anecdote: honestly, I have had more problems regarding visa status more than anything, in picking up jobs.

The worst interviews I’ve ever experienced, hands down, were from startups. They asked the most ridiculous whiteboard problems, and that generally just identifies the candidates who crammed most the leetcode. The mega tech companies interviews, by comparison, were surprisingly more reasonable. The startups have probably adopted this approach because it’s all they know, but nobody is forcing them to.

That's because startups (by no means all, but far too many) are often run by people with very little experience (technical or business) and so they cargo cult their practices from the big players. They lack the acumen to filter and fine-tune these practices to their actual needs and means.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#82

Post by Rapzid »

_dw7s wrote: post #10

Here are some psychological tricks that will help you ace a job interview. Tailor your answers to the interviewer's age. Generation Y interviewers (between 20 and 30): Bring along visual samples of your work and highlight your ability to multitask. Generation X interviewers (between 30 and 50): Emphasize your creativity and mention how work/life balance contributes to your success. Baby Boomer interviewers (between 5…

Schmooze it or lose it.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#83

Post by drenvuk »

Aeolun wrote: post #48

Wow, literally the first thing I saw when I entered the page was an ad for ‘3 terrible interview answers’ I bounced immediately.

I understand the response but I'm wondering why you don't have an adblocker. even on mobile on ios they exist.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#84

Post by 100-xyz »

devnull3 wrote: post #77

Forget the Hunger Games, here is the dystopian shit right now: For a medium level leetcode problem here is the time split (for which 20 min are given typically): 1. 4 min => Read/interpret/parse the problem statement 2. 5 min => Formulate the solution. 3. 8 min => Actual code 4. 3 min => Edge cases/review --------------------- Notes: * #2 You should think of various algos, DS and lock on to a particular one. If you c…

I went through a interview round recently and concur with your findings. Got me all the way to Google Hiring committee.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#85

Post by Aeolun »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #67
Aeolun wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I have 10 years of experience in the field and when someone asks me that in an interview I still go like ‘duuuh?’. They’re like asking me to package up 10 years of experience into a 3 sentence package. How many ways are there to tell you that a caching mechanism is better for a site that barely ever changes than using database replication (yes, answering that question probably gave me some form of trauma). I…

I'm not talking about interviews themselves, but the way people prepare for them. > Do I really need to stop and unwind the steps my mind takes to arrive there If the other person can't tell whether you're regurgitating it or you actually know what you're talking about then yeah probably.

I agree this skill is valuble in interviews, but it doesn’t apply nearly so much in my day job, where I’m already the expert.

Hence it’s frustrating that the skills necessary for passing an interview do not align with those necessary to do the job.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#86

Post by d4mi3n »

bovermyer wrote: post #9

This is... incredibly disconnected from my 15-odd years of experience in my career. Is this how Silicon Valley engineering careers work?

Depends a lot on the companies and positions you’re interviewing for. I work in technical security these days and did very little in the way of actual code quizzes compared to when I was a straight up software engineer.

I think it also helps to remember that interviews are two-way. If you see a company with an insane interview process, do you really have confidence in the quality of a team you’d be on when you got to the other side of it?

These days I generally look for and focus on a few things when I interview with a company I’m interested in:

1. How do they make money?

2. Do they understand how they make money? Alternatively, do they understand their market, customers, and product value?

3. How mature is management? Good managers make or break your job satisfaction and dictate how good a company is at hiring & retaining talent, as well as dealing with adversity like professional adults.

4. How much of the work I’m doing is driven by planning as opposed to circumstance. E.g. am I working off a roadmap or expecting to spend the majority of my time handing incidents and fighting fires.

Your mileage may vary, but I suspect these good or bad interview practices will only exist as long as hiring managers allow them to.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#87

Post by eins1234 »

d4mi3n wrote: post #86
bovermyer wrote: post #9

This is... incredibly disconnected from my 15-odd years of experience in my career. Is this how Silicon Valley engineering careers work?

Depends a lot on the companies and positions you’re interviewing for. I work in technical security these days and did very little in the way of actual code quizzes compared to when I was a straight up software engineer. I think it also helps to remember that interviews are two-way. If you see a company with an insane interview process, do you really have confidence in the quality of a team you’d be on when you got to…

> I think it also helps to remember that interviews are two-way. If you see a company with an insane interview process, do you really have confidence in the quality of a team you’d be on when you got to the other side of it?

Exactly this. As someone who works primarily on frontend, I immediately disqualify any company whose frontend interview process for seniors+ doesn't involve actually building a frontend app/page/component/etc.

If I was ok with the prospect of working on a team with senior frontend engineers whose only competency was cramming leetcode, I might as well work at one of the tech giants.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#88

Post by mewpmewp2 »

ecshafer wrote: post #19

I disagree with this resume advice actually. He for example removes that he was in the military sniper team and won best shot, but keeps high school education? I would totally say the opposite, keep the cool the side thing that's a conversation starter, but remove irrelevant educational experience. Including the number of stars on the github projects they worked on seems so.... narcissistic? Promotional? Idk but its…

It is widely suggested that resume should be as metric oriented as possible so I wouldn't think anything bad about the stars. It is similar as to "I built X to increase Y by Z.". It does show impact.

Definitely wouldn't throw a resume out for something like this even if it for some reason is a pet peeve for you.

However I agree that cool things like the military sniper thing should stay.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#89

Post by mewpmewp2 »

ecshafer wrote: post #68
ren_engineer wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Github stars show the developer is either good at creating a project that serves a real need or at least decent at marketing their project, which in a startup role might be useful when you need somebody doing multiple things

Maybe it's just me, but contributed to X with no more information does not strike me as compelling. My initial assumption would be that they didn't do anything. It did not say created it, it did not say primary maintainer, or wrote X feature in Y.

They should describe what feature they provided, yes.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#90

Post by the_only_law »

pc86 wrote: post #61
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is such a strange optimization. As an industry we should boycott leetcode style questions.

You're welcome to, but don't expect to get jobs at any company folks have heard of. I don't like it, but it's just the way it is now.

Forget names, don’t expect to get paid any number that look remotely appealing.
Post reply on HN