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Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

teamblind.com

171–180 of 201 posts

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviews are all lies. Sure, some people would claim "It's just about putting your best foot forward and presenting yourself in the best possible light," but those people are such liars they lie about lying. Lying by admission is still lying.

God that's cynical. In the final round of my last FAANG interview after bumbling through part of it, at a very senior level, the interviewer flat out asked me "so uh, how long has it been since you did Android?", presumably due to my poor performance. I admitted I'd spent the majority of the last 2 years on iOS even though I'd done Android in the past too, and lo and behold, hired. Honesty and respect are valued wher…

I admitted I'd spent the majority of the last 2 years on iOS even though I'd done Android in the past too

How would it be any different if you had simply lied about Android experience? As in, you simply were never remotely competent at it and you just said it had been awhile?

Fake it until you make it is age-old advice and you being lucky enough to have an interviewer who cared isn't really an argument against it.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#172
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just glanced at their career page and all the US based engineering and product management jobs are in the bay area. California doesn't have protected status for being unemployed.

It is very weird that your precise case has to fit a couple of narrow criteria to be protected against discrimination in the US. From a moral perspective, discrimination is discrimination regardless of its grounds. The default position should be that it is illegal. This would avoid endless sterile discussion about whether this or that is a protected class.

Job requirements "discriminate" and narrow the candidate pool. Also only one state considers it a protected class. Compare that to sexual preference which 29 states consider protected. Being able to cut candidates if they were involuntarily cut from their job isn't high on my morality list compared to other social issues.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#173
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lying is not a solution Agreed. You should not lie in interviews. A common way of avoiding having to lie is registering your own consulting company after getting laid off. No resume gap! As far as if it fools recruiters, no idea. It's got to sometimes, right? I see it too often on LinkedIn for it to be useless.

I’d personally see that as lying.

I'd say it's reframing the problem in a way that makes the original question about resume gap pointless.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#177
post #126

There's a missing bit of context here about what "laid off" actually means in this person's case. We are assuming it means a non-performance related reduction in force, but it may be something different. If I had to guess, I'd suspect the hiring committee found reason to suspect this person was laid off for performance / behavior. For example, perhaps their company has not conducted a large layoff, or is known for la…

> I'd suspect the hiring committee found reason to suspect this person was laid off for performance / behavior. For example, perhaps their company has not conducted a large layoff, or is known for laying off based on performance. Even if true, this is something the recruiter and/or some of the interviewers should also have been aware of. The candidate should not have to go through the entire interview loop (I would i…

That's what I am saying. The HC is there to make final judgement based on the data. This is what's making me think it's not a systematic thing (we never hire people who were laid off) but something specific to that person (we suspect he was fired for a reason)

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#178
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's nice to know these laws exist, what would you really do with it? The company proved it has a terrible culture. Doesn't seem worth it to fight for a job with them.

"While it's nice to know these laws exist, what would you really do with it?" This is exactly how I feel about tenant laws in the US. It's great they exist, but who's going to get a lawyer to stay somewhere they aren't wanted. All these laws that protect the vulnerable still require a lawyer to enforce them. Lawyers aren't accessible to most.

For what it's worth, Washington, DC, has an Office of the Tenant Advocate.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#179
post #69

What a disgusting but revealing story. By saying "being laid off is a red flag" they are loudly signaling that actually they have no way of measuring interview performance and are just trusting the former employer's judgement? So why even bother with the interview then? It would be like if someone is selling me their car and I run the car history report and see it was in a minor collision but was repaired. I look ove…

If my selection criteria for an employee was their ability to come up with good analogies to certain situations, you would be eliminated pretty early on.

He who pays the piper calls the tune.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

// I have never met a company that was able to reliably gauge performance I have had the opposite experience. Every company I've worked for, the employee ranking matched my perception of that employee pretty well on average.

How did you know their ranking? Smells of circularity.

Two ways. Seeing who was laid off in performance rounds.

Also as a manager, sat in plenty of calibration meetings where we lined up rankings across managers.

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