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Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

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Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#101

Post by sillysaurusx »

asimpletune wrote: post #26
kerneloftruth wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've walked out on a couple of interviews when they tried whiteboard coding. I politely laughed and said I really don't do performance art. I thanked them for their time and left.

But that is sort of a performance art response isn’t it? Unless you think that whiteboard interviews are so bad that they’re universally seen as wholly inappropriate. The thing is they’re not. Sometimes we want to see code that runs and compiles. Sometimes people want to see how you think. Whiteboard interviews are designed to do the later, because coding is not thinking. I think the whole whiteboard interview = bad…

Suppose a chef interviews for a kitchen. Rather than anyone testing the chef on his or her ability, they test them on their poetry.

That’s exactly analogous to whiteboard interviews. You can feel however you want to feel, and no one will change your mind. The fact is, you never code on a whiteboard. You’re not testing ability.

Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#102

Post by kube-system »

donquichotte wrote: post #33

In interviewed at a local startup [1] and had a nice chat with one of the founders. We talked about 1h. It was pleasant and I got a code review assignment, timeboxed to 1h. Not sure if I managed to do something useful, but I handed back my solution in time and never heard from them again. I pinged them once more, but no response. I have not been able to figure out what that was about... maybe they were trying to get…

If it's a small startup where the founders are doing first interviews, then I'm sure they're just overwhelmed with tasks. I don't see what the value would be in having a founder chat with you for 1 hour to get a 1 hour code review out of you... unless they think your time is more valuable than their founders, which doesn't make much sense.

Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#103

Post by c2h5oh »

sys_64738 wrote: post #93
c2h5oh wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not looking. I've got companies reaching out to me. If there is no recruiter or recruiter defers to interviewer to discuss salary range then I want that question out of the way before I spend my time interviewing. It doesn't matter if they tell me what the salary range is or confirm my expectations are within their salary range for that role - I just want to know upfront before everyone involved wastes their time…

As I say above, if there's a fit between company and candidate then things can be done to make sure that everybody is happy. You can't do that with inflexible salary ranges ahead of time.

If upper bound of their salary range is e.g. 30% below what I make right now it's very unlikely we can find an agreement and even if we could I'd be wary to accept an offer, because as an "expensive hire" I'd be less likely to get a raise in the future.

Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#104

Post by simonbarker87 »

jstx1 wrote: post #82
simonbarker87 wrote: post #9

Really minor but I interviewed with a big second tier tech company that you’ve heard of and right after asking me the first question decided that would be the best time to raise his standing desk, which was very slow to raise and required him to sort of weird hover and stand in time with the camera as it rose. Not rude but really distracting.

This is so minor that I don't think it belongs; I'm surprised you even remembered that it happened.

I remember it because it was an amusing and slightly weird interaction in hindsight. I remember all sorts of odd actions from me and others over the years. If you don’t absorb and remember how others act around you (and how they react to your own actions) then you can’t improve your own actions in the future.

That seems like such an obvious thing to do I don’t think it needs stating; I’m surprised you even thought to bring it up.

Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#105

Post by waylandsmithers »

In my most recent job search:

1) Acting surprised I wasn't going to do the coding exercise in Java, when Java wasn't on my resume

2) Not believing that JavaScript doesn't have some of the string functions that Java has

3) Ghosting instead of formally saying they aren't moving forward

edit:

From my working experience though, sometimes HR and recruiting are really in their own world and not indicative of the whole company. At a past job that was the most amazing place work, recruiting would do things like double booking people on multiple simultaneous interviews, sending meeting invites at night for the next morning, refusing to cancel interviews for candidates interviewing for jobs that were already filled "just in case" and other fun adventures we had to figure out how to try to navigate in the moment.

Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#107

Post by c2h5oh »

sys_64738 wrote: post #90
c2h5oh wrote: post #31

Mostly by fucking about the pay: - By refusing to disclose salary range and insisting I should go through the process before they can tell me. They don't get an interview. - By trying paint their company as a startup despite over a billion dollars in investor money or, in one case, being publicly traded. Used to justify below market rate salary. - By claiming role is fully remote and then slashing salary range at the…

Salary ranges don't define a generic position for experienced people. When we're trying to hire we think of the position we're trying to fill and write up an ad for that. But you get varying quality and experience and sometimes great candidates might be worth fighting HR for. It's not the first time I've applied for a more junior position but when my experience becomes apparent then the hiring manager will fight for…

> You have to be willing to work with the hiring companies.

Agreed if I'm looking for a job. If companies are reaching out to me when I'm not looking it's up to them to show me there is some upside to jumping ship, other than default buzzword package. Stonewalling any attempts to confirm an agreement is even remotely possible is a dealbreaker for me in that situation.

Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#108

Post by klipklop »

narraturgy wrote: post #19

Treating me like a child because I'm applying for new grad/junior positions. If they looked at my birthdate they'd notice I'm 30. I'm trying to support a family, and I am unavailable during the days because I am working full time to support that goal, but they want me to participate in 2-3 interview steps which could range anywhere from 15 minutes to 4 hours and it's apparently rude of me to ask for that information…

I feel you. I am going to go into interview number FOUR tomorrow and I have not even gotten to the 'onsite.' From there it's another four interviews. Trust me that it does not get any better at the 'senior' level either.

Sure feel sorry for the next-gen kids that will have to put up with 8-10 interviews (at a single company, for a single role) or more just to land a job.

Maybe we should blame how hard it is to fire people?

Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#109

Post by schmookeeg »

Had an interviewer boast that she tried to intern at the company, was rejected, and then just never left - "LOL!" (I smiled politely, while horrified) ... while holding "director of HR" title no less.

Even more surreal when I took the job, later decided it wasn't my cuppa, and had the exit interview conducted by this same person -- and having to sit there while she provided me absolutely false information about transitioning, asking me to sign a "hush" contract on my way out, and then later not providing final payroll until WAY after the state requirements. Eep.

Of course, the joke's on me, they IPO'ed recently and she probably has twice my net worth now. :) C'est la vie!

Re: Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?

#110

Post by kube-system »

AtNightWeCode wrote: post #61

Patronizing interviewers. Have not met any myself but worked with that kind of people. People that start off an interview with a 30 min lesson why the interviewer is better than the candidate. The worst hiring though is when you are asked to take a code test and you can clearly see from the extent of the test that they want a POC for something. I was given a code test that was basically a complete MS paint. I did not…

Yeah, the most frustrating recruiting call I've ever had was someone like this. I was having a discussion with a recruiter about the company's software platform they had developed. Any time I said 'platform', the recruiter would interrupt me and say "no, it's an ecosystem". They were wrong anyway, the hiring company itself called it a "platform" on their own website.

It was one of the strangest and most dead-end discussions I've ever had.

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