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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?

#271

Post by harrisoned »

scott-smith_us wrote: post #259
harrisoned wrote: post #129

Nine years ago, during the interview with the manager of a textile company, he asked what my religion was. I said i didn't had any, and then he said "You know what happens with people who don't follow any religion, right?" and pointed down, indicating that i was 'going to hell'. That made me want to quit right there, but i was so much in need of a job. I wasn't hired in the end, despite doing well on the tests. But i…

Isn't that ILLEGAL pretty much everywhere?

It is. But wasn't worth the trouble to fight over it.

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

#272

Post by gsuuon »

allo37 wrote: post #44
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'm curious what the answer was. I've read plenty about how the boutique finance sector is basically a parasite that only benefits a small cohort of already wealthy individuals, would like to hear what the other side has to say.

I think the value add of the speculative markets is (in theory) that people make predictions of what will be valuable -- if they're right they earn and if not they lose out. In effect, it's market research expressed as bets. That information can have utility but my opinion is that our current setup probably over rewards this sort of work.

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

#273

Post by idk1 »

After hearing some mildly homophobic comments at one place I worked, now in interviews when asked about hobbies I often drop in to a chat that my partner is a man, this means two things, if the company is anti-lgbt in anyway they can just not give me a job for any reason and also I don't have to come out at work if they do give me a job. Anyway, I did that in one interview and one person on a panel of three gave a horrifed face and shut down, and two other people in the interview were for lack of a better word, looked delighted. I did get the job offer, but the person who pulled the face would have been my boss so I turned it down.

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

#274

Post by justdavey10 »

A former boss (and friend) wanted me to join him on his team at a new company. I met HR in January, next interview in March with some of my (future) colleagues, then with the CFO as the CIO position was in flux at the time. Finally meet the CIO in April and get an offer in May. A few red flags:

The length of the recruiting process, no comms back and didn't want to bother my friend if it was a dud. Communication is important. Speaking with the other managers and CFO: "We're agile, we're not against procedures and process but we need to move fast" Met the CIO for 10 minutes who did a 'Machine Gun Style' interview: Rattled off questions one after the other for 10 mins and I guess I did ok since I got the job.

Suffice it to say, my buddy was laid off 1 month after I joined, the CIO another 4 months after that. So many good people to work with (thank goodness) but the culture was so messed up because of the impression that moving fast meant to cut corners no matter the cost to the company and employees. I lasted 2 years and learned so much about what to look out for now.

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

#275

Post by throwaway19423 »

iancmceachern wrote: post #37
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?

Robotics

Any company to recommend in the domain? You are right that robotics has a good future. Just really capital intensive and hard to make money in the short term. I have a friend who is a founder in the space and man .. what a long slog.

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

#277

Post by piuantiderp »

jlbooker wrote: post #207

In the interview I asked the technical lead, "So, what sort of version control do you use?" Answer: "Well, we just open the file on the server and Vim will tell you if someone else has it open too." Nope, nope, nopity, NOPE.

That's crazy, what year was this? Even Perforce sounds better

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

#278

Post by piuantiderp »

Lumi0 wrote: post #229

It was one of a French startup - it did pretty well in the market, and I liked what they've been doing. It was something like a fifth or sixth interview, and CTO told me they decided to offer me a position requiring more solid technical skills. I was happy to hear it, and I didn't think my boss should be also a different person and didn't ask about it. Later I realized my boss was awful at management and speaking wit…

Sorry you went through this but loved how you wrote it, building up to a punchline. I cannot imagine how bad it must have been, I've always assumed there is a baseline for managers in tech...
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