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Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#31
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see the hiring conversation you had back in September '21; I don't see us canceling a meeting, but I'm sure that happened. That sucks! Getting an inscrutable Russian Nesting Doll response from the erstwhile retail sales manager of a company asking you to set up Nomad on top of Nomad and ELK on top ELK is an off-putting experience, but it's the kind of off-putting experience we're comfortable giving people: what we'…

ELK on top on Nomad, surely?

Just trying to capture the spirit of the original poster's concern. :)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#32

I sent an email a year or so ago about their unpaid pre-interview homework project (a non-starter to me). I got back an email from a real person, though I didn't pursue it because of the homework and an unrelated issue.

We don't do interviews at all; there's no "pre-interview" anything here.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#33
post #25
post #4

They were polite and gave credits as well, but I really thought the programming challenge was ill defined and broad. From the interviews and challenges I've run, it was much too broad and really required rereading and a lot of assumptions. Their response wasn't very clear either. Could have just been me, but I've never run into that situation anywhere else/ I will say though, they were very polite.

I have a lot to say about "ill defined and broad", starting with "I agree with you" and followed immediately by "c'est la vie". In a nutshell: we are extremely limited in how much time we can ask of candidates: our budget is the typical amount of time we believe those candidates would spend in more typical interview process (phone screens and an on-site interview loop). That means our programming work samples (WSTs)…

For sure, I know the struggle of interviewing and doing your best to make sure to save everyone's time during the process and there's a hard balance to achieve. I'd say Fly had an above average process overall from my personal experience.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#34
post #33
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot to say about "ill defined and broad", starting with "I agree with you" and followed immediately by "c'est la vie". In a nutshell: we are extremely limited in how much time we can ask of candidates: our budget is the typical amount of time we believe those candidates would spend in more typical interview process (phone screens and an on-site interview loop). That means our programming work samples (WSTs)…

For sure, I know the struggle of interviewing and doing your best to make sure to save everyone's time during the process and there's a hard balance to achieve. I'd say Fly had an above average process overall from my personal experience.

That's nice of you to say. Thank you! The other thing I'll say about our process: we don't have it exactly right yet. We learn some new big thing about once a month or so, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down; every time we learn something, by implication, it means we've been doing something pretty wrong previous to that point.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#35
post #18

I'm the Retail Sales Manager at Fly.io. How can I help you? We're happy to take the credits back if they make you uncomfortable. (I kid. I kid.)

So far, your comments and engagement with this thread are close to making me apply…

I had a look at their hiring page, and I would apply because it looks pretty awesome to apply. But I would feel bad to do that unless I was serious about changing jobs!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#36
post #32

I sent an email a year or so ago about their unpaid pre-interview homework project (a non-starter to me). I got back an email from a real person, though I didn't pursue it because of the homework and an unrelated issue.

We don't do interviews at all; there's no "pre-interview" anything here.

I see. Well, I didn't proceed past that email exchange, so I don't know what would have come next. What does your process consist of if there is no interview? It can't be just the homework, I hope.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#37
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't do interviews at all; there's no "pre-interview" anything here.

I see. Well, I didn't proceed past that email exchange, so I don't know what would have come next. What does your process consist of if there is no interview? It can't be just the homework, I hope.

It's all work samples. What else would it be? Interviews don't work; they select for people who interview well. The work we do is software development, not interviewing.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#38
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see. Well, I didn't proceed past that email exchange, so I don't know what would have come next. What does your process consist of if there is no interview? It can't be just the homework, I hope.

It's all work samples. What else would it be? Interviews don't work; they select for people who interview well. The work we do is software development, not interviewing.

I see. I could imagine submitting something I had done in the past, but the idea of doing custom work for free doesn't sound equitable. There was another issue too, but that should probably stay private.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#39
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all work samples. What else would it be? Interviews don't work; they select for people who interview well. The work we do is software development, not interviewing.

I see. I could imagine submitting something I had done in the past, but the idea of doing custom work for free doesn't sound equitable. There was another issue too, but that should probably stay private.

I'm easy to contact, if there's anything else you want to tell us.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone Interviewed at Fly.io?

#40
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see. I could imagine submitting something I had done in the past, but the idea of doing custom work for free doesn't sound equitable. There was another issue too, but that should probably stay private.

I'm easy to contact, if there's anything else you want to tell us.

OK, I might email. Thanks.
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