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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

#171

Post by skhameneh »

antiterra wrote: post #150

Hits close to home. I did an interview with a static analysis company and everything went well until the “People Gardeners” interview. It was a relatively short meeting that was mostly taken up by them asking basic career history questions, but part of it supposedly had some kind of personality fit methodology. I was told matter-of-factly that I was out of touch with my emotions and therefore couldn’t fit the team. T…

What an asshole interviewer. I look back and think about a time I was asked what city I lived in and how big my house was (actually asked square footage...wtf) during a post-interview, but part of the interview, lunch. The more I look back and think about it, the more I question why I didn't just walk out then and there.

It's so easy to slip into trying to fit bizarre culture interviews that one may not realize what's highly unethical in the moment.

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

#172

Post by PebblesHD »

md5wasp wrote: post #145
shoo wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can certainly hit AUD 200k (including superannuation) as a senior software engineer at one of the big australian banks. To go much higher you probably have to stop being an IC and start being an engineering manager. Or stop being a permie and start being a contractor. Some US-based well funded companies that hire software engineers in Australia are willing to bid substantially higher for senior engineers (i.e. ~…

Can you say any company names? I’m an ex-FAANG eng in Sydney currently considering options.

Day-rate contracting can get you very close if the last minute renewals are something you can deal with. The telcos are currently going through a hiring period and I’ve seen 1250/day plus super offered a few times recently. For perm roles, it’s certainly much harder, and I’ve only seen one IC role offered in market at over $220k at the firms I’ve worked at, but the flip side is I’ve seen a few higher ones offered to recommended candidates off market.

The old adage still applies, the jobs you want aren’t advertised and the candidates you’re looking for aren’t on job boards looking.

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

#173

Post by anchochilis »

yrgulation wrote: post #75
jackblemming wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always amuses me seeing programmers chasing as much money as possible when they make a fraction of executives or many other professions. Even if they're at the "elite grand master SRE" level. Still a fraction of some MBA.

thats why i keep telling people that software “engineering” or computer “science” are not worth pursuing. unless you use either as a launchpad. these types of jobs are just fancy bricklaying. however there is nuance to everything. some people find 200k a year and living with flatmates in an expensive city rewarding. to each their own. i know i did. until it hit me.

All work is fancy bricklaying if you're jaded enough.

Surgeon? Just spackling the same old organs day in day out, with the additional downside of potentially killing someone if you have an off day and place a brick upside down.

Professional football player? It's repetitive manual labor! Often performed outdoors in inclement weather. High likelihood of involuntary retirement due to workplace injury.

Executive? Staring at endless spreadsheets all day... With rows and rows of those brick-like rectangular cells...

All fun aside, I don't think many bricklayers could find it within themselves to complain about making 200k a year to work in jeans and a hoodie in an air-conditioned building with foosball tables and free snacks.

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

#174

Post by jiveturkey »

djmips wrote: post #50
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…

Maybe I'm accidentally good at interviewing and hiring. At least, all my hires have worked out well. I've never hired anyone who didn't last long and all ended up being great. I don't trust 'professionals' to do that hiring. Maybe what I'm trying to say is we should train the people on the team on whatever it is they are missing in order to hire people better. The people on the team know best what they are looking fo…

that doesn’t make you good at interviewing! it might mean the opposite! you might be too loss averse

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

#175

Post by traviscj »

sahila wrote: post #121
bmitc wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went through an interview cycle at a FAANG, and I'm pretty sure only one interviewer out of five was directly involved in the actual position. And I'm somewhat certain that it was the others who were the nos. I actually didn't find out anything about the position until the final interview. Additionally, no one in the panel was a software engineer ... for a software engineering position.

That sounds unlike faang interviews (the only one person being a swe part). Which one was it and what were the interviews like? The non-team thing is common but they do it to bring “objectivity” to the process and since it’s leetcode or system design questions, it usually doesn’t matter unless you’re applying for a highly specialized role. I can speak for google and Amazon - you might not even apply for a specific te…

I read as “only one person on the team I was interviewing for”, not “only one person was swe”

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

#176

Post by kurupt213 »

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…

Try to develop her during the probationary period. Sometimes it’s just a rough start

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

#177

Post by PebblesHD »

thundergolfer wrote: post #169
md5wasp wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you say any company names? I’m an ex-FAANG eng in Sydney currently considering options.

Canva, Square, AWS, Atlassian, Palantir, Google. If you’re senior ex-FAANG you can easily get $250+ $300+ is probably staff level and above.

Surprised to see Square and Canva in the list there. I’m currently staff level elsewhere but semi-regularly get approached by them with offers lower than $200k for senior roles. Would you say the salaries mentioned are fairly common there or fairly niche?

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

#178

Post by allendoerfer »

targ65 wrote: post #167
cooldrcool3 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should we put our mental health on the line for this industry? There must be other jobs that are fulfilling and pay the bills.

whose bills though? most people find one of the most high paying jobs they can, then adjust their lifestyle to that income, then if they miss the mark ('lowball offer') they have to keep looking. lifestyle regression is exceptionally hard for humans, especially if your friends/neighbors don't have to go through the same thing (e.g. there's no war raging in your country). the best thing to do would be to keep your spe…

> the best thing to do would be to keep your spend way below your means. this maximizes your options and gives you choice. but who does that?

Many do. The FIRE movement shows this.

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

#180

Post by iou »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #110
treyfitty wrote: post #94

I’ve been interviewing for 8 months. Getting to many final rounds, 1 lowballed offer, 1 rescinded offer, and it’s playing a mental toll. Today, I got a rejection that went along the lines of “everyone loved you and there was absolutely 0 negative feedback, but we just found a better fit.” I almost broke down, but hid behind a facade of positivity because the long weekend was starting and my kids can’t afford a bummed…

This is why I just interview endlessly. At least one a week. You need to develop a callus to interviewing. Find the time for it by rubber stamping a few code reviews. It gets boring after a while. Just a very repetitive process after 100 or so.

Do you do the full loop with each company? How do you select the companies? Do you feel bad if they’re smaller ones and you’re not serious about it?
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