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I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

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Re: I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

#11

Post by claudius »

CmonDev wrote: post #6

"I'd love to just grab a coffee and discuss how we can work together" How do they know you are good? Do you propose they grab a coffee with every candidate?

> How do they know you are good? Do you propose they grab a coffee with every candidate?

Decent grades in uni or school and/or appropriate references from your last workplace. Or do you think a handful of interviews can give a more thorough evaluation that 8 years of secondary school + 3-4 years of technical college/uni + however many years in the workforce?

Re: I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

#13

Post by anujdeshpande »

The company that I currently work for hired me without an interview. I was hired because I was coming to the meetups that they held at their premises for all most a year (I was a student then). We worked on some great open source projects, hackathons and conducted a lot of free events and workshops with them all around town. No tech interviews, no negotiations and other stuff. We just decided to work together formally. Note: 2 of us were hired like this(at the same time)

Re: I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

#14

Post by watwut »

" I'd love to just grab a coffee and discuss how we can work together."

I do not think the just grab a coffee type of interview leads to great productive teams. Such interview measures primary how charismatic you are, not what you can do.

Obviously, too much testing and too many tech interviews are waste of time and wrong. However, the company need to do some of it if it does not want to collect all local bullshitters and word smiths with no real ability.

Re: I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

#16

Post by cclogg »

With iOS development I've typically had the interviews that you are seeking. I show them my apps over coffee and then I do a few hours (or a feature) of contract work (paid) for them and it usually works out and I continue onwards :)

I am not sure that this works for all situations though; maybe I've been lucky too... I tend to work for smaller startups.

Re: I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

#17

Post by ansimionescu »

derwildemomo wrote: post #9

A while ago, a recruiter from one of the big players got in touch.. well, after 4 interviews they finally figured that I was too inexperienced (merge sort run time complexity is, in fact, way more important that most other things when developing mobile stuff). Total waste of time. The process concluded with them offering me that I may apply a year from now, again :D.

If you want to fix fridges, that's perfectly fine, but at least try to understand why the people who build them might not be interested in hiring you.

Anyway, here's a list of interview resources for programmers that I maintain (oriented towards companies like G/Fb): https://github.com/andreis/interview

Re: I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

#18

Post by hkmurakami »

Get hired through your network: people you've worked with before, who know your OSS work, etc.

I vouched very strongly for a former colleague of mine, and the team basically just had a series of chats with him to get to know him, reviewed his github, and never threw him a homework problem or coding question because they considered my strong endorsement of him (and them knowing my character) to be enough. Needless to say, it has worked out well for all involved.

Re: I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

#19

Post by doodyhead »

I imagine this strategy would only work if you already had a connection with the company that's recruiting. 100% of the roles I've secured since I started work at the age of 14 -- tech and non-tech, part-time and full-time -- have been through networking.

Re: I want a job, but don't want to do those stupid tech interviews

#20

Post by ketralnis »

claudius wrote: post #11
CmonDev wrote: post #6

"I'd love to just grab a coffee and discuss how we can work together" How do they know you are good? Do you propose they grab a coffee with every candidate?

> How do they know you are good? Do you propose they grab a coffee with every candidate? Decent grades in uni or school and/or appropriate references from your last workplace. Or do you think a handful of interviews can give a more thorough evaluation that 8 years of secondary school + 3-4 years of technical college/uni + however many years in the workforce?

> Or do you think a handful of interviews can give a more thorough evaluation that 8 years of secondary school + 3-4 years of technical college/uni + however many years in the workforce?

Actually, I do. I think that uni grades are mostly uncorrelated to real-life ability, and I think that there is a class of employee that's really good at looking good regardless of actually doing well. So his coworkers would say that he did great. Getting stuck with that guy really sucks. Not to mention that most employers are so worried of being sued that at best they'll say "I can confirm Joe worked here from 2011 to 2014"

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