I was hoping this was red flags from the interviewer side. Yeah I'm hoping a blog will give me some feedback.
I could write one, but I'd have to ask about breaching NDA.
Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
171–180 of 394 posts
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's because FAANG has a hiring department, that's responsible for hiring. They also each have ~2,000 engineering teams, some of which may or may not have headcount. And once someone is accepted, teams with open headcount look at that person, and make an offer. The shortens the time that it takes to fill headcount, because there is a constant pipeline of ready candidates. This also means that you won't get yanked a…
Sure. I mean, I get the reasoning/justification behind it. But I'm generally not interested in jumping through all of the toxic tech interview process hoops without first knowing what's at the other side; I've learned that lesson the hard way. And I think that probably filters a certain type of talent away from FAANG companies.
What's on the other side is generally above average pay, and access to ~2,000 teams, many of whom are doing very different things, that you can make a lateral transfer to relatively easily.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#173I can identify with the red flag where they try to pressure you to accept the offer in a short period. This is also called an exploding offer. I had a place do that to me and I ended up turning the opportunity down.
I have done the same when I was about to graduate and started looking. One company started the process long before the others (which all basically followed the same schedule), and gave me an offer before I even had applied to anyone else. At the time I was very afraid of missing out, but the way they gave me only a few days to think about moving to a different city almost a year ahead left a sour taste in my mouth an…
Hah! I experienced the exact same thing just a month ago. It did build up goodwill between myself and the company that fast tracked me an offer. Thus, some good came out of it.
I don't see how an exploding offer is a good strategy. The kind of people you'll catch with that trick are not the unicorns. Until the exploding-offer, I was a big fan of that company.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am amazed when I see older style windows pop up alongside the windows 10 styling.
As am I, because the older style settings windows tend to actually be able to solve my problems. What truly blows my mind is when the same settings are scattered among four different windows. See: Anything to do with sound.
Seconded - with the whole WFH explosion sound is one are where windows needs improvement.
In the old days billg / Balmer would have shouted at people until this was fixed
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#175I can identify with the red flag where they try to pressure you to accept the offer in a short period. This is also called an exploding offer. I had a place do that to me and I ended up turning the opportunity down.
I refused to accept an offer quickly twice, only to find that the place was about to be bought and I would have gotten a payout if I'd have been an employee. As a new employee it wouldn't have been huge, but still it would have been nice
Sometimes playing good poker means folding bad hands that end up winning due to random chance. If you make a habit of accepting offers due to pressure tactics, you will end up regretting it more often than not.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Writing code on a whiteboard like it's a test or a competition, without being able to sit down in my editor of choice and calmly think it through and trial and error. Programming is not sports. I'm not a coding athlete. Maybe it is for some people, but not for me. That's not what the job I've held for all this time has ever been about. Plus you get to a certain age and experience and the thought of "proving myself" t…
If you have to sit down and deeply think about a question like fizzbuzz then as an interviewer I'd be a bit concerned - this is a quick check to make sure you're basically competent, not architecture of a critical piece of infrastructure. If you just don't like hand writing and prefer typing, then that's cool with me and you can just do that during the interview (the content of interview is important, not the medium…
> If you're mentoring a 25 year old you'll have to prove yourself to them every day.
No, you won't. If they don't want to listen to you, they don't have to. As a mentor it's my job to listen to them and guide them with experience as my context, not joust with them over irrelevant, stupid, gotcha contests. And I'm happy to help them realize that just by not engaging in it.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I've turned down numerous offers because when I asked what the specifics of my day to day job were going to be, the answers weren't clear. Same, from FAANG companies. The feel that I get is more like, FAANG companies don't even know what you're going to do. They just want to hire top talent and figure out what you're working on later. They want someone "smart" who can ultimately work on any team, since whatever tea…
That sounds about right. FAANG companies usually need generalists because teams are so big and scopes shift often enough that the ability to pinch hit becomes an important trait. Or if they need specialists, they usually need [company]-flavored specialists, which you can't be if you didn't come from internally. In my experience the managers usually have a pretty good idea of what work they need filled, but because th…
FAANG companies need specialists not generalists. Being large companies, they have groups of people to work on dedicated aspects and technologies. Employees can have a very narrow and specialized focus.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#178I sometimes feel self-conscious asking deep questions about morale, especially when I'm on the fence about working at a place and am just being polite in case I need this as a Plan C. There are some questions where if you get the person to take them seriously you may pop whatever bubble they're living in that helps them get through the day. One place, I was not doing so great. I was participating in the interview pro…
Interesting. It seems almost immoral to interview new hires when you know there are insurmountable problems at the company that make you consider leaving. Not saying you are immoral here -- just that it does seem to pose a dilemma. I have not had to interview someone for a company that I want to leave. It sounds like it would suck and require some level of internalized rationalization to go through with it.
Two things. One, you don't always know the answer to a question until someone asks it, and then you can't un-hear the question. I thought I was just grouchy until asked, and then I realized I was properly unhappy in this role. Which I said makes me uncomfortable about asking hard questions of people I don't know and probably will never work with.
Two, it's easier to leave a place when you know you've left a project in good hands, instead of knowing things will unravel if you do. Mostly, it's an ethical problem if you sabotage the hiring.
But I'll agree that there is a tension between professionalism and social responsibility. What do I owe to my employer, what do I owe to the local developer community? The next time I interviewed, a guy I had a lot of respect for referred me to a used-car-salesman of a recruiter for a place he was leaving. I did contract-to-hire, walked away from that one. Felt a bit like a meat shield to cover his retreat. I realized all the things I respected him for were past tense, and honor that but stay the hell away from him now.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#179As someone with 20+ years in the experience, red flag #1 for me is being expected to go through a skill-testing technical whiteboard (or similar) coding exercise before even having a deeper discussion about the role and whether there's a fit, etc. I've seen this many times and I find it baffling: I already have a very high paying high quality job, I want you to sell _me_ on the position before demanding I do stressfu…
I think this viewpoint is common from senior engineers but not entirely merited. (FWIW, I am also a senior engineer, and I have seen this play out from both sides of the table.) Sometimes folks overestimate their value as senior engineer for certain types of companies, and under-appreciate the risk companies take in hiring an employee. Large companies, for example, generally do not need yet another L6+ that cannot ge…
I have to head out for a bit, so can't write much, but I don't think we actually disagree. The point I was making is that in this organizing of the interview process we need to put figuring out whether there's a potential match before proceeding to the confrontational 'testing your skillz' phase. Otherwise we're just wasting time.
And, to be honest, as a well paid senior engineer my time is pretty valuable. Doing a skills test and then finding that the job is not of interest to me is pretty frustrating.
Re: Red flags I saw while doing technical interviews
#180I can identify with the red flag where they try to pressure you to accept the offer in a short period. This is also called an exploding offer. I had a place do that to me and I ended up turning the opportunity down.
I know a lot of people who have “accepted” exploding offers but then just keep interviewing and will try to renegotiate or just reneg if they get a better one.
"Let your 'yes' be 'yes' and your 'no' be 'no'"
I would personally feel uncomfortable doing this as would a lot of the people I know.