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If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

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Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#51

Post by eastbound »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #17

My last job search took a toll on my mental health. I felt like a worthless person for 3 months. I could feel (or imagine?) the disdain of the interviewers as I was failing their tests. The fake enthusiasm on their side as they rejected me ("that was great! But we're not going to move forward with you! Good luck!!!") and on my side while pretending I was excited when in fact I was worried about money and the gap on m…

I’ve just hired a wrong person. I’m extremely worried how I should manage an exit plan with her, I don’t see a good way of minimizing the impact.

Some employers are stupid and make bad decisions because they’re too shy to ask for a third round of interview when we assume everyone at that level will know the standard set of JS skills, especially since the market is difficult for employers. While it’s painful to give them the time to evaluate you properly, it may also save you from a bad employer.

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#52

Post by noncoml »

throwawaygram wrote: post #21
noncoml wrote: post #4

Do you know the meme on Reddit that shows a blob in a square, deciding to give the outside world a try, gets punched and says never again? That’s how I feel when I try to interview for an software engineering role.

Grammar nit pick, "a" if the first letter of the following word starts with a consonant sound else "an". A ball. An echo.

I started writing “an SDE”, then replaced the SDE with software engineering, but didn’t bother proof reading..

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#53

Post by yrgulation »

Trasmatta wrote: post #41
yrgulation wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come? Genuine question. I interviewed at a company once. They asked me to do some funky stuff with some hex css colours, many many years ago. After i proudly failed they said thats what their buddy was tested about at google. Company went under and didnt shed a tear over not joining. Truly a waste of time. Later found a similar “test” in a high school cs “olympiad” book under a different name and context.

How come I went through those interviews? Because I needed a job, and almost every company is horrible at interviewing, so you just kind of have to deal with the hazing ritual. Unless you manage to get really lucky.

Sorry, i meant how come they all had horrible interviews. Silly phrasing and anecdoting on my part. You indicated “hazing”. What happened? Anyway no need to answer. I’ll do an instagram reply on you: the ocean is deep. There’s room for everyone. Learn anything you can from failure and move on.

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#54

Post by politician »

cloverich wrote: post #42
stackbutterflow wrote: post #17

My last job search took a toll on my mental health. I felt like a worthless person for 3 months. I could feel (or imagine?) the disdain of the interviewers as I was failing their tests. The fake enthusiasm on their side as they rejected me ("that was great! But we're not going to move forward with you! Good luck!!!") and on my side while pretending I was excited when in fact I was worried about money and the gap on m…

This was my exact experience. But I scheduled so many interviews I didn't have time to dwell. Which is great, because I am good at dwelling. I bombed many interviews in an embarrassing fashion. After about 10 or so, I started to improve. And as the questions on each successive interview began to rhyme with previous ones, I got faster and better. You know your comfort zone best, but just as a data point, consider whet…

The tragic part of the inane way that we interview candidates is that if the new job works out, interview hacking skills begin to decay immediately. After a few years, interview skills for the next job search will begin in roughly the same place.

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#55

Post by philliphaydon »

eastbound wrote: post #51
stackbutterflow wrote: post #17

My last job search took a toll on my mental health. I felt like a worthless person for 3 months. I could feel (or imagine?) the disdain of the interviewers as I was failing their tests. The fake enthusiasm on their side as they rejected me ("that was great! But we're not going to move forward with you! Good luck!!!") and on my side while pretending I was excited when in fact I was worried about money and the gap on m…

I’ve just hired a wrong person. I’m extremely worried how I should manage an exit plan with her, I don’t see a good way of minimizing the impact. Some employers are stupid and make bad decisions because they’re too shy to ask for a third round of interview when we assume everyone at that level will know the standard set of JS skills, especially since the market is difficult for employers. While it’s painful to give t…

This is why propbation periods exist. It’s a chance for the employee or employer to back out.

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#56

Post by soared »

happyopossum wrote: post #27

I’ve seen so many of these jokes and complaints about modern SV interviews that I was blown away when I recently interviewed at a FAANG… I was assigned a recruiter who communicated clearly and often with me, told exactly how many interviews I was doing (3), what each was about, and all 3 were scheduled on the same day, and were handled by extremely smart and supportive people. Offer came through by the end of the wee…

Meanwhile my 3rd round at amazon was like a 7 hour virtual loop.

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#57

Post by yrgulation »

Retric wrote: post #47
yrgulation wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing wrong in playing the game. But believe me there’s better pay out there.

You’re selling your life, focusing on chasing ever more money is a poor trade IMO. Not saying you have to join a non profit, just consider what you want to work on, who you want to work with, and the kind of hours you want to put in.

Yeah sure i should chase making a boss happy instead “for stuff that matters”. No thanks. I’ll work my butt off instead for the right people and pay. It’s a win win situation.

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#58

Post by dleslie »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #43
stackbutterflow wrote: post #17

My last job search took a toll on my mental health. I felt like a worthless person for 3 months. I could feel (or imagine?) the disdain of the interviewers as I was failing their tests. The fake enthusiasm on their side as they rejected me ("that was great! But we're not going to move forward with you! Good luck!!!") and on my side while pretending I was excited when in fact I was worried about money and the gap on m…

Who watches the watchmen? Who hires the people who hire people?

Ha, as though those testing for merit and value are themselves tested for the ability to do so. ;)

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#59

Post by hotpotamus »

bruce511 wrote: post #37

Interviewing is hard, requires skills precisely zero people are trained to do, and has huge long-term upsides and downsides to a business. I'm a programmer. I trained for years to do that. Then I'm asked to hire someone. A task I have zero experience or training at. Spoiler alert - any actual competence is a fluke. At my peak I was hiring maybe 2 or 3 people in a year. Mostly I hired people I'd heard about who came w…

I think I've been fairly successful as an interviewer by having a few basic rules.

Basically, do your homework, which I'm routinely surprised is so lacking in the adult world. For interviews, that means read their resume and probably have it with you in print form or other when you interview them. Print feels more sociable than staring at them over a laptop and clicking a bunch of keys while they talk - though I do type on video interviews.

The resume should somewhat align with the job they're interviewing for - that's on HR to get that far. Basically, I want to know if the person is going to be OK to work with and isn't full of shit. Hopefully you can get that much out of an interview because otherwise they aren't really that useful.

Basically I just ask a few normal interview questions mostly focusing on projects or accomplishments people have done. Cross reference with their resume and ask them about some points on it and make sure that their answers make sense. Ideally HR can verify that their work history at least matches their resume.

I never interviewed that much, but as far as I know, I never had any serious bozos let through, so I think I did OK.

Re: If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

#60

Post by PretzelPirate »

PebblesHD wrote: post #44

These styles of multi-round interviews inspired by the FAANG collective started picking up in Australia before the pandemic, but it got to a point where most of my more talented colleagues and I all agreed it just wasn’t worth the time for the salaries being offered. 4 round interviews for a ‘senior’ developer position on $120k? When interviewing my own candidates, I use a 1 hour interview mostly focused on approach…

I don't like having one interview with one interviewer. That can easily result in that interviewer having a bad day or simply being biased and costing someone a job.
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