111–120 of 250 posts
You can build a startup in the time it takes to thoroughly prepare for these interviews/positions. Willingly subjecting yourself to this rat race is essentially the same thing as stamping yourself as an "ibm man," in the words of Jobs. Who cares if you don't know the intricacies of all the hot algorithms of the day. Spend your time creating actual value for the world, instead of practicing just for the sake of impres…
IBM do some good engineering, generally treat their employees well, have favourable maternity benefits, and employ some great people. Probably not going to be your first choice if what you want is a small, dynamic, startup atmosphere, but as an employer I wouldn't fault them. (yes, ex-employee)
Their corporate culture has changed a bit in the past few decades.
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> Each time I sit down to brush up on the details of Prim's algorithm or the exact implementation of quicksort, my eyes glaze over and I start thinking about how I'd much rather be building or tinkering with something. So that's what I end up doing. Nailed it. Another interesting thing I noticed about myself in technical interviews is that I have a lot of trouble doing things that I would have no trouble with if I'm…
Has anybody here ever actually been asked to exactly implement quicksort?
Hiring is entirely broken. I don't think anyone is listening to developers. I took some data about this (tracking pixel in a Developer Auction profile), but someone did an even better job than me and posted in these comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5730843 I want a company that treats me with dignity and respect, even before and during the interviewing pipeline. How a company treats people during interv…
actually, this I find is the biggest annoyance of all. Every company I've interviewed with over the last few years has said "show us your github".....so far, not one has actually looked at it. It's kind of like walking into an interview with a company that has a web-presence and saying "so, what line of business are you in?".
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Sorry, but the thing that reeks of entitlement is Google's abusive "we can pass you from interviewer to interviewer, making you do anything we want for days, and you'll take it because there are plenty more where you came from," hiring practices. If Google thinks they have the power to do what they want to a candidate, and the GP poster thinks he has the power to limit how much of his time he'll offer them, I don't s…
I work at Google. My opinions in this comment are my own and not my employers. Google gets thousands of resumes and they have to whittle them down. Some are easy to rule out just based on the resume. Others are easy to rule out in the phone interview. But a large amount of them make it to the full in person interview. Now Google could just take it as first come first served and hire the first people that look decent.…
I just want to say I interviewed at the Googleplex in June 2012 and it was an amazing experience. When I got the "rejection"(5 days later, which is standard in my experince), I didn't feel bummed or angry - I felt that I was defeated fairly in a challenging game of chess with people better than me. The programming questions I got weren't out-of-bonds ridiculous like I'm always hearing about. While the process took nearly 6hrs that day, it wasn't just for the sake of it. I had real discussions about real-world problems and I enjoyed it greatly. Those 6hrs flew by. Everyone should go through Google's interview process at least once; it will reveal limits that you didn't know you had. I'm a better person, career-wise, because of that experience. Also, I'm sure I was able to get the awesome job I have now only because I was still charged-up from Google-interview-preparing a few weeks before.
P.S., I'm sure I was close. I got a lot of smiles, nods, "yup, correct" and organic conversation that didn't seem rehearsed and they seemed happy to talk about so I suspect I did better than they expected but just... not... quite there yet... compared to some other candidates.
Every time I read the word passion in one of these articles I cringe. This has to be the most overused word in silicon valley. It's really just a convenient way to abuse people. Can't work 90 hours? Not passionate enough. Have a family commitment? Where's your passion? Passion. We get it already.
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Bootcamp in the Marine Corps is an example of a tough hiring practice. Are your friends and family doctors or lawyers, per chance? Both professions use grueling hiring marathons which are much, much worse than a software engineering interview (residency and the bar exam). All other engineering professions require a rigorous licensing process, whereas software engineering is one of the cushiest jobs on the planet. In…
In a certain state of the economy, you're right. But, at least here in the US, we currently have way more demand for good developers than we have supply. Basic economics says that your model will not work. For example, the company for which I work bills me out at $250 / hr. I get something like 15-30 job requests from other companies a week. It would not make any economic sense for me to pursue any of these other com…
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But they pay way more right ? That has to count for something .
http://jacquesmattheij.com/Programmers+Salaries+at+google+25... Claims 130 is about average engineer salary at the big G.
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"making you do anything we want for days" Days? I believe the median is 5 hours. The decision may then take days... but that's not the same thing.
When I was talking to them I was informed the hiring process usually took around 8-9 weeks. First a screening call, then a phone interview, then sometime later an in person interview, then an evaluation day in a Google building with multiple interviews and talks with various parts of various teams, then they would let you know within a couple of weeks. Yeah, no thanks.
Presumably, you expect to hold the job for next few years of your life, at a minimum. If you can't budget 10 hours of your time, and you can't wait for a few weeks for an answer, it just doesn't sound like you really want to work there. Unless you're in desperate need for a job sooner... then I'd understand better.
Step 1) Send the candidate a small unattended coding test they can do in a couple of hours. If they pass great if they dont offer them feedback.
Step 2) Invite them in for a pair programming test this should take max one hour, they can spend 15-30 minutes with one or two people on the team solving a problem.
You wouldn't believe the amount of people who have amazing looking CV's but when it comes to actually coding they just are not up to scratch.
There is also obviously personality fit and other subtleties but thats the basics.