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Flunking my Anthropic interview again

taylor.town

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Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#321

Post by user_7832 »

jimmar wrote: post #98
jp57 wrote: post #68

One great piece of advice an informal mentor gave me long ago is that there is no information in a rejection . That is to say that you cannot draw any conclusions about yourself or your interviewing technique or your skills or anything from the single accept==0 bit that you typically get back. There are so many reasons that a candidate might get rejected that have nothing to do with one's individual performance in th…

> there is no information in a rejection. The most helpful job interview I had was when the interviewer broke script and just leveled with me about how I wasn't presenting myself well. There was a shared connection (our alma mater) that must have convinced him to be straight with me instead of hiding how poorly I was doing behind a mask. The HR handbooks say that you should never let a candidate know why they were no…

> If you're not getting offers, I strongly recommend that you find somebody you trust to do a mock interview. Let them critique your resume, cover letter, posture, awkwardness, lame handshake, etc.

Slightly odd question but: what if it's the opposite of this?

Interviews are almost never an issue.

I would like to think (and have been told so too) that I'm both technically sharp and knowledgeable enough, and can communicate well enough. I have a firm handshake, and thanks to the ability to happily dive into topics I read up on, I can speak confidently - both on hard facts, as well as my understanding or opinion of any technical matter in my field - for hours maybe, if not longer.

But getting the interview... is.. legitimately hard. Multiple people have said my resume is quite solid, but I rarely get through beyond the base round.

Would you have any tips for just the act of getting a foot in the door, so to say? I'm reasonably optimistic I can take it from there.

(Two things I can probably change - using customized CVs (and a cover letter, where applicable), and reaching out to employees/HR at the places I'm applying at. Though that honestly seems exhausting with so many applications...)

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#322

Post by ptero »

notyouraibot wrote: post #319

Yeah, I recently had an offer letter in hand, the company flew me out to do a final security review since it was a sensitive cyber sec role, did a 2-hour long polygraph test which went quite well honestly, but then 3 weeks later they told me they have decided to move ahead with another candidate? Made no sense and broke me down for weeks. Totally defeated. I still don't understand how they could move ahead with anoth…

That would be a rare case where I would reach back for more information. Rescinding an offer is, in my book, a huge black mark against the company and I would consider shaming them in a blog post as well.

Was this your first polygraph? I never had one, but I heard that passing the first one for a high level ticket virtually always takes several tries.

Did they tell you that you passed the poly?

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#323

Post by huhkerrf »

dijit wrote: post #305
huhkerrf wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear this about lawsuits a lot, but it doesn't really track for me. If a hiring manager says, "we decided to pass on you because you didn't go in depth as much as we hoped on how you would handle latency," why does that open the company up to a lawsuit anymore than no answer? I could see if the feedback was "we wanted someone who better fit the culture," but giving a specific answer on a core hiring criteria doesn'…

I've been hiring people for a while and I use my "common sense" to violate conventions because of humanity, but I think you'd be surprised how defensive it becomes. I always tell people why they didn't pass the interview, or why we didn't select them. Usually in a reasonably detailed way. A plurality of individuals have tried to argue with me, that I didn't understand them (which, if true, could be a communication is…

Indeed. The closest I've ever come to "arguing" (quotes very much intended) was when a recruiter called to give me feedback, and followed up by asking if I would like a call back if a more junior role opened up.

I told her that I respected their opinion but that I disagreed that I wasn't ready for the more senior role, and so I wasn't interested, but appreciated their time nonetheless. And I was appreciative. Although I predicted as soon as the interview was over that I wasn't getting an offer and why, having confirmation helped me refine where I messed up in the interview.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#324

Post by WalterBright »

saagarjha wrote: post #317
WalterBright wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better world would be one with no locks on doors. But until then, I'm going to lock doors.

Plenty of people keep their doors unlocked until they get stolen from.

Sure. And they accomplished nothing.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#325

Post by simoncion »

Joel_Mckay wrote: post #230
theteapot wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are these rules from (I asked Claude but it doesn't know either)?

Rule #6: Perspective is earned, and cannot be given freely. If I recall, it was mostly gleaned from meetings with startup CEO/CTO after years in operation. Mostly just documents the various cons pulled on technical people... like illegally farming CVs for LLM products, and cheap work Visas. =3

> Perspective is earned, and cannot be given freely.

Perspective is developed rather than earned. Having said that, a numbered list of rules can be given freely. That's, like, one of the points of writing things down or otherwise committing them to long-term storage.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#326

Post by notyouraibot »

ptero wrote: post #322
notyouraibot wrote: post #319

Yeah, I recently had an offer letter in hand, the company flew me out to do a final security review since it was a sensitive cyber sec role, did a 2-hour long polygraph test which went quite well honestly, but then 3 weeks later they told me they have decided to move ahead with another candidate? Made no sense and broke me down for weeks. Totally defeated. I still don't understand how they could move ahead with anoth…

That would be a rare case where I would reach back for more information. Rescinding an offer is, in my book, a huge black mark against the company and I would consider shaming them in a blog post as well. Was this your first polygraph? I never had one, but I heard that passing the first one for a high level ticket virtually always takes several tries. Did they tell you that you passed the poly?

Yeah it was my first polygraph so I was sweating buckets! The polygraph was relatively simple though, they tell you all the questions they will be asking beforehand, so nothing unexpected is thrown at you.

I think I passed the poly cause if I didn't then they would tell me that instead of saying they selected another candidate and honestly I was so depressed and defeated that I just didn't bother communicating with them after that, 3 weeks of constant waiting and reaching out for updates and then finally getting an 'Unfortunately' email kind of did it for me.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#327

Post by corimaith »

jp57 wrote: post #68

One great piece of advice an informal mentor gave me long ago is that there is no information in a rejection . That is to say that you cannot draw any conclusions about yourself or your interviewing technique or your skills or anything from the single accept==0 bit that you typically get back. There are so many reasons that a candidate might get rejected that have nothing to do with one's individual performance in th…

But you know, this kind of information burden is one of the factors radicalizing the youth right now. These people don't just dissappear into a void if they are unwilling to accept that, they're organizing and being drawn to more radical movements to crush you. So is this way of dealing with workers here really that sustainable?

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#328

Post by devoutsalsa »

jp57 wrote: post #68

One great piece of advice an informal mentor gave me long ago is that there is no information in a rejection . That is to say that you cannot draw any conclusions about yourself or your interviewing technique or your skills or anything from the single accept==0 bit that you typically get back. There are so many reasons that a candidate might get rejected that have nothing to do with one's individual performance in th…

The opposite can also be true. The worst job I ever had was where I was hired by a company, and placed on the team of, a hiring manager that had recommended I not be hired. He offered me no support at all. They just couldn't find many people willing to work at the company, and I was naive enough to just be excited that someone wanted me. I left after about 5 months.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#329

Post by paulcole »

spectraldrift wrote: post #202
paulcole wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course, once you internalize this belief, any motivation to study is gone This is definitely not a universal truth. I know that if I had done better in every interview then I would’ve moved ahead and gotten the job. I guess that’s a different way of saying I was “bad” (not good enough). And it doesn’t affect my motivation in a negative way. I find that it actually helps me want to improve more.

I agree with your sentiment, but what you're referring to is "I'm not good at this task yet" which is different from "I am inherently incapable/inferior". The first can motivate, the second does not- this is supported by a large body of pedagogical research. https://opentext.wsu.edu/theoreticalmodelsforteachingandrese...

> the tendency to internalize rejection as a sense of being inherently 'bad.‘

OK so just avoid this tendency.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#330

Post by 64d032fe »

dakiol wrote: post #38
julianeon wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the age of social media. This person has hit the front page of HN twice now. That's a commercially valuable skill. At this point, having proved that can do something commercially valuable a couple times now, I think they should run with it. Start a YouTube channel. Keep racking up views. Then, eventually, do partnerships and sponsorships, in addition to collecting AdSense money. If you like to write or perfor…

You think too much of HN.

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