I'd rather be tortured by al qaeda than go through all that. I wish someone would write an article on how to hack this process. There's always a back door. Then again if there were I wouldn't be sharing it here.
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Job Hunting in 2022
71–80 of 270 posts
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#72Those are some impressive numbers. While it seems clear that you can get interviews applying through websites and recruiters, I'm amazed by how effective networking is. Any suggestions on how I should manage that? I add people on LinkedIn, but that's about it. Don't really socialize or make friends with people at work.
> Don’t really socialize or make friends with people at work
Well there you have it. No need to be besties, just spend time with people you like. Be it at work or elsewhere. The rest follows.
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#73This is just depressing. How is the technical interview process valuable _for companies_ at this point when it seems to be evaluating how well you can prepare for their specific leetcode interview, and how well you practice the incantation of the system design problem (make sure you follow the template and the pattern!) - do they really think they're selecting the best candidates, and not the most practiced interview…
It's a selection for socio-economic status. Hiring people who have enough excess time to do this grinding excludes people like parents of young toddlers. So.. you'll probably get a bunch of young single people w/ enough income to not need to have multiple gigs.
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is incredibly common. I hate running interviews - we do the leetcode whiteboard pressure cooker crap - it's a policy I have no say in unfortunately. I've had candidates with strong backgrounds go to pieces right in front of me - it's awful to watch and I hate that I had anything to do with making someone experience that. More people than you might imagine take Xanax to get through interviews.
Don't do it, unless you are also under surveillance? Say yes and then run your block more humanely.
Or if there is some freedom around questions pick something that can be worked through. The worst are questions where if you don't know the algorithm or data structure there is no way to work it out from first principles.
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#75On my last job search I found that overloading myself with interviews was very stressful. It's one of the reason I will no longer continue with any process that has take home assignments - at one point I had 4 different assignments with overlapping due dates. Far too much stress (and I was ghosted on all of them). It's also not fun to be waiting to hear from the places you're really interested in while you've multipl…
I always thought the idea of a take-home sounded appealing, especially when I first heard of them ~15 years ago.
The first time I found a bug in a company's take home project spec rather spoiled them for me. And sadly, that's not the only time that happened! A candidate who puts more effort into it than the person who created it gets rewarded by feeling confused or like they're missing something because it doesn't add up? Nope, not great.
And now, 15 years further along, the idea of investing 4+ hours of my own time without even a human to ask questions of or discuss things with just has no real appeal (I've seen some that expect 8+, even).
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They had a _full_ pipeline, interviewing every day for three weeks straight. I honestly think I'd be physically incapable of doing this. I'm on the HSP side and even a single set of interviews is enough to drive me into an insomnia/anxiety cycle for weeks. I can't even imagine what this would be like for me. Albeit I admit it's the best way to get the job you want. Maybe I'm in the wrong industry...
Shit I'm brain-dead by about 3 hours into an interview or set of interviews, even if it's not the leetcode type. It's draining in a way that no actual work, even hair-on-fire emergency work, is (except maybe sitting in very-tense meetings—that's got a similar effect on me). Doing that more than once or twice in a single week might make me consider applying to clerk at a gas station instead.
Haha, I feel the same. Luckily it’s not everywhere like that and you could do much better than a gas station clerk, the biggest hurdle is to find the best place where you’d be the best fit at, the interview would likely run well and everything fall into place after that
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally, a large number of experienced engineers I know at big tech companies have been secretly hoping to be included in an upcoming layoff round. So many people have mentally checked out of their current jobs but are too lazy to grind leetcode and go through interview loops. Unless you are in a financial crunch or have other issues like visa sponsorship, getting paid for 6+ months to fully focus on the next ste…
“Lazy” is the wrong word. People work for 8 hours a day and then are expected to cook, clean, exercise, and maintain some sort of social life. Adding in Leetcode on top of that is going to cause something to give. There’s only so many hours in the day.
As evident by my current habits - I'm far more willing to walk in the cold wind and workout at the gym for two hours than I am willing to do even one leetcode problem.
I've been going to the gym 4-6x/week for the last couple months. I cannot get myself to do almost any leetcode even though I should be doing it. I've just accepted I'll not work for a while longer and keep going to the gym anyway.
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#78Sounds about expected even in current conditions. If you are fairly skilled programmer, somewhat senior. These layoffs don’t matter. I assure you that you won’t die of hunger if you quit/are laid off. Plenty of demand for non-coasters.
Yeah if you're good and have the resume/experience to back it up, you won't have any issues getting great offers even in this market. Great candidates are not easy to find in any market.
You're not getting roles at FAANG or most any place in SV without doing leetcode.
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#79I wrote a similar post but my search was in May instead of at the end of the year: https://www.observationalhazard.com/2022/05/my-experience-wi...
I wonder, if somebody has not a happy story, but an ongoing story of failures in job search - would he write such a story? Or we hear only from those who succeeds? Or, assuming that everybody eventually succeeds, those who take years to find a position won't write about it, as they are too exhausted or embarrassed?
People write them - they just don't gain traction. You also don't tend to write them with your name attached because that literally throws your own name down the drain.
People are also not interested in hearing troubling stories because everyone has a troubling story. They want to hear how you succeeded because they want to emulate that success. They want to learn the "one small trick" that will lead them to finally getting the job of their dreams.
Re: Job Hunting in 2022
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally, a large number of experienced engineers I know at big tech companies have been secretly hoping to be included in an upcoming layoff round. So many people have mentally checked out of their current jobs but are too lazy to grind leetcode and go through interview loops. Unless you are in a financial crunch or have other issues like visa sponsorship, getting paid for 6+ months to fully focus on the next ste…
“Lazy” is the wrong word. People work for 8 hours a day and then are expected to cook, clean, exercise, and maintain some sort of social life. Adding in Leetcode on top of that is going to cause something to give. There’s only so many hours in the day.
Sorry, but in my opinion your logic is very weird.
It's a fucking investment dude.
You invest those hours to have higher salary / cooler job / be better, etc.
You don't want to put X hours of effort into something that may make your 8h/day work better?
Your social life probably ain't gonna disappear if you'll spend a few hours a week for a month or two on learning
I've been working + getting degree on weekends for 6 years, so I kinda know something about lack of time.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone should be doing LC. Just don't act as if there was some tremendous trade off required to learn it