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Job Hunting in 2022

mhlakhani.com

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Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#251

Post by shagie »

Hermitian909 wrote: post #63
bcrosby95 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> imagine we didn't have feature X, how would you add it to the product? I think pulling specific ideas from your actual system is full of traps. These are probably problems you've thought of - both actively and passively - for days, months, or even years. The person you're interviewing has had no such benefit, and it might be very hard for the interviewer to be able to separate what they think is reasonable and what…

> I think pulling specific ideas from your actual system is full of traps. These are probably problems you've thought of - both actively and passively - for days, months, or even years. The first time you give the interview certainly, but you have time to formalize and tune the interview. Write down what you're going to ask, what signals you're looking for, the quality of a solution you expect. Socialize this with en…

That part about "write down the question" and the "what are you looking for" is a rather important part that most people ignore and just wing it.

By having that rubric down it becomes easier to make the objective choices (that can be backed up with HR). Additionally, that same question (with the same rubric) can be used by other interviewers for other candidates and overall, you would hope that the same candidates would get the same thumbs up / thumbs down evaluation no matter who asked the question or considered them.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#252

Post by zdragnar »

ramraj07 wrote: post #195
zdragnar wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done a 5 1-hour round interview once, and have refused to do them since- including actively turning down a second interview when the process wasn't clear prior to the initial screener call. I've the good fortune of pretty much being able to pick and choose between jobs, but I also essentially have written off working at a FAANG and at companies run by former or wannabe FAANG engineers. Fortunately, there are sti…

What was your ideal interview experience that you also considered to be very effective?

To respond to both you and the sibling comment, a short take home assignment which is used to guide a final interview is fine for junior positions.

For senior positions, I would rather spend an hour or two talking through hypothetical scenarios, including design decisions and teamwork. I want to hear deeper knowledge from a candidate, not "do they know valid syntax and are they able to solve trivial problems".

As in all things, it depends on the company that is doing the hiring and the role they are being hired for. In some cases, "senior" roles are basically individual contributors with a few years of experience. In others, a senior should be able to translate business requirements into a big picture technical solution, break down the portions of the stack they are familiar with, and explain what assumptions are made and what unknown factors need to be sussed out in order to plan a proper implementation.

The latter portion is difficult to do with a take home assignment without careful planning for the follow-up interviews. 5 hour round-robin interviews typically (in my experience) end up being "live leet code" sessions that don't represent day-to-day work at all.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#253

Post by RobRivera »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #108
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...

Same here. I've been known to have panic attacks during interviews where I have to excuse myself and get out of the room ASAP. > Maybe I'm in the wrong industry... I wonder this as well for myself. I really like software development, but the interviewing is just getting to be too much. It would suck to have to change careers away from something you're pretty good at and really like just because of what basically amou…

It's more than lame, its an awful bastardization of how our trade should be evolving. The only real accountability that can be made is to become financially independent and just start building your own things. Ship to market and not fret about revenue growth.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#254

Post by BFLpL0QNek »

listenallyall wrote: post #190
dan-robertson wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would the person who wrote the best dry-cleaner management software do well at a company like Google? That is, I think a lot of the required skills there are ‘getting things done in a company the size of Google’ and having worked at Meta for a few years is perhaps a better signal for that than having made some great software. Likewise someone from Google may have a harder time in some startup where the structure is d…

> Would the person who wrote the best dry-cleaner management software do well at a company like Google? Offer them a job and find out. > the required skills there are ‘getting things done in a company the size of Google’ this sounds like a fake excuse to exclude someone who has demonstrated a high degree of ability and skill, but doesn't fit your mental image of what a Google employee should be -- otherwise known as…

> but doesn't fit your mental image of what a Google employee should be -- otherwise known as gatekeeping

Otherwise known as “culture fit”?

I say that sarcastically. Anywhere I see “culture interviews”, “our culture”, or “culture fit” I think it’s one of those bull shit jobs type things, and used as a get out clause in the hr tool box.

For the big companies, culture fit often feels a bit cult like. It’s no longer a job to pay the bills even if you enjoy the work, instead you have to believe the company is changing the world, eat, sleep and live the company values etc etc.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#255

Post by flamebreath447 »

jacurtis wrote: post #158
the_jends wrote: post #122

I think this write up is a good resource for those who got called into at least an interview. I wonder how does one improve if the rejections come even before a single interview? At that stage companies typically will not give you any reason for the rejection either for legal reasons or simply convenience. This leaves you hesitating whether to apply to other companies for fear they will reject you for the same unknow…

This is almost impossible to answer because there are so many reasons that it could be. But I've been hiring manager and looked through thousands of resumes/CVs and hired about 50-60 engineers. 1. Far under-qualified. People apply for senior positions with literally 18 months of experience ALL THE TIME. Seriously... ALL THE TIME. 2. Too many technologies on your CV. A lot of resumes will just list every language or t…

I spotted at least three typos in your response so I stopped reading.

Maybe spelling is hard for them or English isn’t their first language.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#256

Post by joshka »

mhlakhani wrote: post #85
angarg12 wrote: post #81

I know it's a very touchy subject, but it would be immensely helpful if OP posted numbers about the offers he got. Personally, my compensation is underwater due to the recent stock crash, and leadership has insinuated to expect zilch for 2023. I'm not in the job market due to visa, but I feel the insane comp bubble has burst, and I missed the train. I'm anxious to see how the job market evolves over the next year, bu…

I agree it's touchy unfortunately. I'm not comfortable sharing in public due to $REASONS, but I have been sharing with friends/family/folks who've been looking. I will say I got offers comparable to my pre-stock crash comp, but I hit a comp cliff either way in 2022 (even without the crash).

Would you be fine with sharing the company list?

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#257

Post by zeroonetwothree »

nmfisher wrote: post #192
turdprincess wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem these days is that it’s so hard to fire someone. I’m not sure if it’s legal, cultural or otherwise, but I constantly see coworkers who are at best useless and often detrimental being kept on and on and on. So the game becomes to avoid hiring someone like that at all costs, because once they are hired they are impossible to get rid of. I wish employment was more like contracting - you give someone…

Isn't the USA (including California) entirely at-will employment, so it's not hard to fire anybody at all?

Theoretically yes. In practice every big company has a large amount of self-imposed process around firing to minimise the risk of lawsuits.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#258

Post by lance_klusener »

scarface74 wrote: post #212
listenallyall wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sorry kids, no Disneyland this year, I used up my vacation days back in Feb when I interviewed for a week straight

Given the choice of being able to take little Timmy to Disney world and providing him food and shelter and being able to cash flow him through college, he will get over it. Before you respond that I don’t know what it’s like juggling a family and I must be a fresh college grad, the 74 in my username has significance

As someone that comes from humble backgrounds from a third world country, i went on 0 vacations. All the money was put in for education, food , clothing and shelter.

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#259

Post by zeroonetwothree »

bubba_sparks wrote: post #69

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.

The back door is being friends with the HM

Re: Job Hunting in 2022

#260

Post by lance_klusener »

Hermitian909 wrote: post #27
vsareto wrote: post #9

That first impression (and how you tackled it) of system design interviews makes me question their usefulness. Like, how good of a signal can companies really be getting if it's too different from real world systems? Feels like an artificial wall too - many companies don't approach the scale where this stuff matters, so getting that experience is hard.

> Like, how good of a signal can companies really be getting if it's too different from real world systems? There are "layers" to the signal you can get from system design interviews: 1. Are they aware of "big concepts", indexing, sharding, queues, scheduling, etc. 2. Are they comfortable actually using and manipulating these abstractions in an academic sense? e.g. new college grads may have never used an index, but…

"walk through a zero downtime migration plan from before and after we add a feature."

How does one approach this?

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