Job Hunting in 2022 • Hacker News Board

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#91

Post by Traubenfuchs » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:05 PM UTC

nsxwolf wrote: post #30

nvarsj wrote: post #22

Earlier 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...

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.

Propranolol can work equally or better without the reduction in mental performance benzos and benzolike drugs bring.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#92

Post by TimPC » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:06 PM UTC

You absolutely can prepare for system interviews it’s just some of the best content for doing so is behind paywalls. I opted to buy a course on leetcode covering this topic and my performance before was like night and day. Going through about 20 worked examples each of which has a 45 minute explanation means learning about 60 patterns you can slot into various problems. Once you’ve seen the patterns it’s a lot easier to apply them in different contexts to piece together the system you want.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#93

Post by singpolyma3 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:08 PM UTC

gymbeaux wrote: post #37

Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. We must prove to companies that leetcode is not the way.

But leetcode is so fun!

I've applied to interview a few places I never plan to work at, just so I could do their leetcode interviews. It's like a brain teaser book but you also get a live human evaluating.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#94

Post by lesuorac » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:10 PM UTC

mixmastamyk wrote: post #41

mhlakhani wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, I explicitly chose to not interview at FAANGs since I was previously at a FAANG and wanted to try my hand at a different type of company. I'd probably practice a bit more for FAANGs

Can we just call it BigTech? Silly revolving acronym is probably closer to MAMA now... why is Netflix even a member other than to avoid a slur?

https://www.fastcompany.com/90790394/what-are-the-faang-comp...

They're in it because it was a bunch of high growth stock that also coincidentally paid very well so the name transfered from finance to programming.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#95

Post by wildrhythms » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:11 PM UTC

wikibob wrote: post #70

nvarsj wrote: post #22

Earlier 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...

Look into beta blockers. Also used by stage performers for similar reasons. https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/generalized-anxiety-disord...

Or maybe the hiring process is broken beyond repair when engineers who are perfectly qualified need to inhibit parts of their brain just to 'perform' at an artificially inflated level.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#96

Post by 65 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:14 PM UTC

This is valuable for corporate software engineers working on giant systems.

But what about non-corporate software engineers? What about web developers? The interview process is very different depending on the company.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#97

Post by quickthrower2 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:15 PM UTC

Sodman wrote: post #39

I get that it's still a candidates market (especially for strong candidates like OP who can get 11 offers from 13 full attempts), but the spreadsheet of questions you should be asking a company linked in TFA has some eyebrow raising notes and unreasonable expectations imho. For example - there's a big pushback that any hiring manager worried about a candidate who don't have required skills they could learn in 6-12 mo…

This is why we can’t have nice things. Every company wants to make minimum investment in hires and hires want to jump to get paid as much as possible. Game theory playing out.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#98

Post by paxys » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:16 PM UTC

symlinkk wrote: post #61

paxys wrote: post #23

Earlier 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.

Regardless of the exact word choice, if you have a life goal that requires some extra effort and sacrifices, and you cannot get yourself to do it, you can't really blame your busy life or anything else. There are others who do all of the above and still make the time, and they are going to be more successful than you while you continue to complain about the industry/interview process/leetcode/whatever else.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#99

Post by wombatpm » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:17 PM UTC

majormajor wrote: post #75

nsxwolf wrote: post #25

On 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 ad…

What is a waste is interviewing for a Sr backend python role and being given a timed online test to implement a linked list class scratch.

IF I ever needed a linked list, I’d use collections.deque like a professional.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#100

Post by vavooom » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:24 PM UTC

The list of questions to ask in an interview they provide is quite thoughtful and well organized: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11DoQ-Bhvs5mfRwB0Bz6O...