What do you do to be turned down by 38 companies? Do you turn on your laptop and it's running Windows?
For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
11–20 of 306 posts
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#12Luckily in my current job search I've only been told there would be a whiteboard once (this Friday!). This article made me nervous though—as a busy student I don't have time to sit down and review/learn all those tree and linked list operations as well as their complexities. Best interview I've had was pair programming with a team member and fixing a bug.
Yep! I have been interviewing for fun for the last few years (averaging maybe one or two interviews every few months), and I've seen all kinds of stuff. Way too many whiteboards. In fact, even after all these years, whiteboards still make me nervous, and basically makes it impossible to get into flow, or have a reasonably nice mindset for solving problems. And if I do this for fun, you can bet that people who depend on those interviews for their livelihood aren't feeling much better. I think it's a really stupid way to interview. Anyways, I agree with you: The best and funnest interviews -- and therefore the interviews I feel most comfortable (and therefore able to really show what I know) -- are the pair programming interviews. You build a special rapport with a single developer on the team, who gets a really good idea of the kind of coder you are. It's like a nice, calm conversation about technology.
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#13Some really great advice within that forms a foundation for the narrative. I can really appreciate the diligence and apparent 'no hard feelings' kind of pragmatism. I especially liked the closing part:
>If you fail 10 interviews in a row, go for the 11th interview. But take a look at all the variables, and see if there’s anything you can do differently to improve. Take the pressure off, and work through problems routinely to keep your muscle memory in shape.
That reminds me of being in 'game shape' as I call it for playing and soloing - standing around thinking about notes to play doesn't come off nearly as fluid as being so practiced as to get into the groove and run with it. Good parallel. Nicely framed conversation, glad to read it.
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#14Does anyone have any insight on this reflecting on a higher supply of devs and/or lower demand of employers (bad market for developers)?
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#15> You don’t get to use to your own IDE, you have an absurdly limited amount of time and you’re in an incredibly high-pressure environment. Here's a good interview tip that's helped me out with my last two job moves: Whiteboard code almost always comes out looking like crap because once you've fleshed out the idea, you can't easily insert lines. The solution is to bring a laptop with the IDE of your choice ready and s…
If your interviewer really dings you for the appearance of your scrawled code on the wall, they're being self-defeatingly stupid and you'd probably be happier working with other people. I do lots of tech interviews, and I always make it clear that I don't care how pretty the ink looks. I stick with the whiteboard because it's the best way for candidates to explain their analyses and algorithms before they write the c…
My Google interview in 2008, one guy asked me to write a binary tree structure and implementations of depth and breadth-first search (maybe also balanced insert?) on the whiteboard in C, which I blew through in no time. He then immediately said it was wrong and let me wither for a few minutes trying to figure out what the problem was before pointing out I forgot a semicolon.
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#16There's too much missing information in this article. In today's environment, a qualified programmer with the background this guy appears to have should get offers at a much higher percentage of companies.. IF everything is on the level: decent communications skills, applying for jobs whose requirements match skills, realistic compensation expectations, and (my guess in this case) already authorized to work in the US.
I would expect this low hit rate from a qualified individual looking for a job AND an H1B sponsor.
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#17Nearly every silicon valley interview is based on whether or not you are as hipster as the interviewer. Keep your head up and don't subscribe to the culture. You can be excellent and live as different as you want.
Full disclosure, I work for HackerRank, but I really wanted to comment for two reasons: (1) Reading this article and seeing the comments, really helps me see how my daily work helps level the playing field and as Alibek says, change people's lives. Very fulfilling and thankful for that. (2) Re: exabrial's comment above, where do you think culture fit should be evaluated in the process? Lots of interview processes tod…
This comment doesn't appear at all troll-like -- not sure why it was flagged.
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your interviewer really dings you for the appearance of your scrawled code on the wall, they're being self-defeatingly stupid and you'd probably be happier working with other people. I do lots of tech interviews, and I always make it clear that I don't care how pretty the ink looks. I stick with the whiteboard because it's the best way for candidates to explain their analyses and algorithms before they write the c…
My Google interview in 2008, one guy asked me to write a binary tree structure and implementations of depth and breadth-first search (maybe also balanced insert?) on the whiteboard in C, which I blew through in no time. He then immediately said it was wrong and let me wither for a few minutes trying to figure out what the problem was before pointing out I forgot a semicolon.
I hated seeing that kind of crap when I was on the hiring committee, and I think that it's less likely that you'd run into it today.
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#19There's too much missing information in this article. In today's environment, a qualified programmer with the background this guy appears to have should get offers at a much higher percentage of companies.. IF everything is on the level: decent communications skills, applying for jobs whose requirements match skills, realistic compensation expectations, and (my guess in this case) already authorized to work in the US…
The H1B factor certainly has weight - I can imagine it leading to a 2x factor in his rejection rate. But not the 5x rate he's apparently had to suffer through.
Re: For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies
#20Luckily in my current job search I've only been told there would be a whiteboard once (this Friday!). This article made me nervous though—as a busy student I don't have time to sit down and review/learn all those tree and linked list operations as well as their complexities. Best interview I've had was pair programming with a team member and fixing a bug.
Yep! I have been interviewing for fun for the last few years (averaging maybe one or two interviews every few months), and I've seen all kinds of stuff. Way too many whiteboards. In fact, even after all these years, whiteboards still make me nervous, and basically makes it impossible to get into flow, or have a reasonably nice mindset for solving problems. And if I do this for fun, you can bet that people who depend…
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