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Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#51

Post by extraduder_ire »

jakedata wrote: post #17

I was summoned to a nondescript industrial building, found my way upstairs and wound up in a grubby room posing as a lobby. I was seated on a low futon and had several discussions with my knees nearly level with my ears. The conversations were overly casual but with some oddly specific IT security questions. I seriously contemplated walking out of what was clearly an amateurish, shoestring operation. Nope... I have w…

> So in the spirit of the recent post about Charlie Munger killing a lot of pilots

Mind linking this? The search box isn't giving me any recent results that look right.

Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#52

Post by hw-guy »

nameless912 wrote: post #21

I once was interviewing for an internship at a quant firm in Chicago (I was in my Sophomore year I think at UIUC) and my interview went pretty well up to the point of my second-last interview of the day. Then, I sat down with the VP of engineering, and he opened the interview with "so, what do you think it is we do here?" And I naturally stuttered through a canned answer about how they use arbitrage opportunities in…

I have a friend in a similar business who was honest enough to admit that his impact on society was "likely negative, at best neutral," but it was a comfortable living.

Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#53

Post by cvhashim04 »

throwaway19423 wrote: post #25
aprdm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nvidia, like many other tech companies, has many people/teams/departments/division. Is very hard to get a clear view of the world from a single point. Who knows, maybe if you joined you would have hated it too, or loved it ! The story you shared is likely shared by many other companies that went through hyper-growth TLDR: Stuff is hard!

NVidia was truly a spectacular opportunity. So was Microsoft, Databricks, etc. I picked a dud, and didn't realize it until it was too late (just now). Question is .. what are the obvious winners today, and for the next 10 years? Some opportunities I missed but they didn't go anywhere: Docker, Qualcomm. Consumer Devices is a general dud I think. Software and data is where it is at. I dunno?

BioTech :P

Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#54

Post by xprn »

extraduder_ire wrote: post #51
jakedata wrote: post #17

I was summoned to a nondescript industrial building, found my way upstairs and wound up in a grubby room posing as a lobby. I was seated on a low futon and had several discussions with my knees nearly level with my ears. The conversations were overly casual but with some oddly specific IT security questions. I seriously contemplated walking out of what was clearly an amateurish, shoestring operation. Nope... I have w…

> So in the spirit of the recent post about Charlie Munger killing a lot of pilots Mind linking this? The search box isn't giving me any recent results that look right.

Suppose I Wanted to Kill a Lot of Pilots https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37209309

Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#55

Post by paulddraper »

nameless912 wrote: post #49
outsidetheparty wrote: post #19

I should have spotted it but didn't: They took me out skiing one day between interviews (they were courting me pretty hard, and good snow was a selling point for the region) and I met the CEO for the first time on the slopes. He wore a full motorcycle-style helmet with a mirrored face visor which he refused to open; it was like talking to a member of Daft Punk. It had fake hologram bullet-holes on it. More importantl…

My last CEO (healthcare startup) told me during my interview with them "but you don't look autistic!" and that should have been the end of the conversation there. When people show you who they are, believe them and all that.

....what was the lead up to that statement?

"I'm autistic"

"Oh, you don't seem autistic"

Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#57

Post by kapilkaisare »

cvhashim04 wrote: post #53
throwaway19423 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NVidia was truly a spectacular opportunity. So was Microsoft, Databricks, etc. I picked a dud, and didn't realize it until it was too late (just now). Question is .. what are the obvious winners today, and for the next 10 years? Some opportunities I missed but they didn't go anywhere: Docker, Qualcomm. Consumer Devices is a general dud I think. Software and data is where it is at. I dunno?

BioTech :P

Really? Tell me more, please.

Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#58

Post by paulddraper »

Not a specific story here but as you read these....

I have NEVER ever ever ever seen a red flag (in an employer or employee or any other relationship) that was not real.

Not every red flag needs to be a deal killer, but it never is just your imagination or just goes away.

Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#59

Post by AnimalMuppet »

They said they liked to start their engineers on the assembly line for a few months so they "know what's going on". Um, no, not for me. Found out later that "no" was definitely the right call. What they really liked was having engineers working on their assembly line.

Re: Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered during a hiring process?

#60

Post by blarnopre »

Remember that every company, like every interviewer, is trying to put their best foot forward during the interview process.

You can never expect them to be on any better behavior, so expect this as your top bar for your relationship and you'll not have many surprises.

As a corollary, that means anything that looks like a red flag is probably an iceberg.

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