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Interviewing in Silicon Valley

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Re: Interviewing in Silicon Valley

#111

Post by abhiv »

mc-lovin wrote: post #31

I think there is a lot of negative bias here, because people who do badly in algorithms and data structure questions, or dislike them for some other reason, are more likely to speak on the issue. I think that these questions are good because they are difficult, and a smarter more capable person is much more likely to get them right. Notice that big tech companies have stopped with the "brainteaser" style questions li…

Where can you find prep questions for technical interviews? Glassdoor or somewhere else?

Re: Interviewing in Silicon Valley

#112

Post by patio11 »

bane wrote: post #70
libria wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I made it through the interview gauntlets and finally got to the compensation round Unless they have a rigid compensation banding structure or are on Glassdoor, recruiters/HR usually ask ballpark salary requirements at first contact to avoid this kind of thing, which I think is a legitimate inquiry. Though, if they insist on current salary they're probably looking to low-ball you.

It's almost always at the end. I wish it were closer to the beginning to save everybody time and hassle. For regular 'ol companies it's more about seeing what you want, most places will actually try and hit your desired salary so long as they can make some money on you. For SV-style companies it's different. It feels different. When you get to that point, it's almost like the tone of the conversation becomes "now tha…

You could do things like consultants, and ask a binary "Do you have budget of at least $XXX,000" up front, particularly if you have the flexibility to not worry about chasing away marginal prospects.

Re: Interviewing in Silicon Valley

#113

Post by Schwolop »

lutorm wrote: post #92
Schwolop wrote: post #44

The whole interviewing process is ass-backwards for smart people. I have little interest in working for a company where I'm going to struggle to do the job. I'm not going to apply for a job where I'd be out of my depth for any more than a month or so, because that sort of "if I don't get better at this soon I'm going to be fired" sort of stress is horrible. I want to find a job where I can succeed right off the bat,…

I know before I even get to the interview that I'm perfectly well suited for the company and can do the job - if I wasn't, I wouldn't have applied. You do realize that just because you think you are perfectly well suited for the job, that doesn't mean that the prospective employer has any way of knowing that or that it's even true, right? Sure, the company needs to show that they are a place you want to work at, but…

Oh absolutely - but both parties need to work this out. They need to work out that I'm suitable, and I (already knowing this, or at least thinking it) need to work out whether they're suitable for me.

The best interviews are two-way streets.

Re: Interviewing in Silicon Valley

#114

Post by quesera »

wowoc wrote: post #19
ultimoo wrote: post #12

I am in grad school and live with roommates in the SV. Amongst the six of us, we have interviewed at a cumulative of 20 big SV names in the last month and of course we discuss the interviews frequently with one another. Companies like Broadcom, Cisco, Juniper, Anritsu, Apple etc. solely rely on the programming problems the OP talked about. HP focuses on riddles and puzzles to a point where it is ridiculous and mind-n…

What's SoMA?

South of Market, an area of San Francisco.

...but it's usually "SoMa", like SoHo in NYC -- not "SoMA" like MoMA in NYC.

Folks who have lived in SF for longer than the current tech wave will tell you that it's properly "South of Market", not camel-cased anything. :)

Re: Interviewing in Silicon Valley

#115

Post by throwaway1979 »

brightsize wrote: post #90
balloot wrote: post #18

I despise interviewing for software positions. Engineers love to treat interviews like some kind of hazing. They're gonna make you quiver and sweat and if you can still solve their stupid brainteaser maybe they'll give you the honor of working with them. Problem being, this has basically nothing to do with how good you'll be at the job. I spend 0% of a normal day with someone I don't know staring me down and judging…

I'm a software developer. By far the best interview I've had in the past few years was with a very small startup in NYC with some cool tech. We had a fairly extensive and relatively detailed tech interview over the phone that included mostly general questions like explaining how DNS lookups work. They then gave me a fun, throw-away programming project to do offline in a day or so that utilized their preferred stack,…

This sounds like an awesome idea on the part of the startup. Kudos to them!

Re: Interviewing in Silicon Valley

#116

Post by throwaway1979 »

bluepanda_ wrote: post #48

I've seen so many posts about interview rants, including one I wrote myself, that I feel like the problem lies in the higher demand than supply of positions, and that interviews, not matter what bad feedback they seem to give, aren't that poorly designed.

You raise a valid point. Back in the old dotcom days, a body that could this thing called HTML got a job. While it seems we are in a tech boom (based on stories of 150K salaries in SF, oodles of stock options at established social media companies, etc.), perhaps we aren't. In the NYC area, my jaw has dropped when I see the large number of smallish startups working from co-working spaces. Are these people who shunned lucrative jobs or just couldn't get one?

Re: Interviewing in Silicon Valley

#117

Post by ccoggins »

abhiv wrote: post #111
mc-lovin wrote: post #31

I think there is a lot of negative bias here, because people who do badly in algorithms and data structure questions, or dislike them for some other reason, are more likely to speak on the issue. I think that these questions are good because they are difficult, and a smarter more capable person is much more likely to get them right. Notice that big tech companies have stopped with the "brainteaser" style questions li…

Where can you find prep questions for technical interviews? Glassdoor or somewhere else?

I'd recommend "Cracking the Coding Interview" by Gayle Laakmann McDowell. It's cheap at around 25 bucks on Amazon and has a pretty good cross section of questions. It isn't comprehensive by any means but I feel it's a good place to start. I think there is also a companion website that has more questions.
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