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Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

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Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#21

Post by vmception »

>I turned down the [exploding] offer because the experience got me thinking about the company’s work culture. Were the methods employed by the company to get me to accept the offer indicative of their work culture?

I've never found the interview process to be reflective of the company. I find the interview process to be a random hodgepodge across the entire industry because nobody knows what they are doing. Small/not-big-tech companies literally just have people that googled "how to do a programming interview for ________ language" and skimmed a youtube video, lifted some questions from some articles, and made you solve it in codepen.

Extrapolating that to the actual culture is totally a miss.

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#22

Post by cambalache »

jtsiskin wrote: post #4
ziddoap wrote: post #2

Interesting read but I (and I think many others) would be more interested in reading about how one manages to land 60 interviews, at all, in the current job market. You must have either a stellar resume, incredible experience, access to a huge network, or a combination of the above.

“The current job market” - tech stocks and revenue is exploding, is the job market difficult currently?

From say, December 1995(An arbitrary date) to now, in every single month,you could find posts/emails/comments all over the internet claiming that in that month/year:

- The economy was in a slump and was going to get worse

- The job market was in its way situation ever

- All the good ideas had been taken, no hanging fruits anymore

- It was a bad time to study CS/law/medicine/engineering/math/physics

- The good times were over

- More and more people were "leaving the field"

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#23

Post by electrondood »

majormajor wrote: post #6
jtsiskin wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The current job market” - tech stocks and revenue is exploding, is the job market difficult currently?

I've anecdotally heard from former colleagues that it's gotten tougher to find entry-level or mid-level positions, not sure how broadly that applies, though.

This is sort of evergreen though.

It's like "last year at Burning Man was the last good year."

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#24

Post by Tallain »

majormajor wrote: post #6
jtsiskin wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The current job market” - tech stocks and revenue is exploding, is the job market difficult currently?

I've anecdotally heard from former colleagues that it's gotten tougher to find entry-level or mid-level positions, not sure how broadly that applies, though.

I will add my anecdote to the pile. It seems like there are a good number of positions out there, but it also seems like most of them are asking for senior level folks. Then, the ones I interview stall out because I either have too much experience, or not enough experience - I'm square in the middle ground where it seems nothing is quite right for me.

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#25

Post by sethhochberg »

vmception wrote: post #21

>I turned down the [exploding] offer because the experience got me thinking about the company’s work culture. Were the methods employed by the company to get me to accept the offer indicative of their work culture? I've never found the interview process to be reflective of the company. I find the interview process to be a random hodgepodge across the entire industry because nobody knows what they are doing. Small/not…

From the hiring side, a (reasonable) expiration on the offer helps be fair to the other people who are interviewing, too. If I have a single position open and multiple people interviewing, as a hiring manager I really need to know whether my top choice is serious once we're having a discussion about signing a contract - because if they aren't, or are still trying to land better offers from other places because they have concerns about my offer and aren't raising them, I have other candidates just hanging out and waiting. Its not fair to the other candidates to say "you're not my top choice from this round, please hang on just in case we need you", or to just stall while we see how things play out - nobody feels good about that.

Granted, if you're getting very short exploding offers from big companies who are almost certainly hiring for a role continuously or in bulk, that would leave a bad taste in my mouth too. But if you're interviewing at the kind of company that may have budget for just a single new hire, and multiple people are interviewing, a reasonable expiration makes sure we're both mutually serious about eachother. I want to hire you enough that we've put together a (hopefully) compelling offer, you want to work on the team enough that you (hopefully) either feel good accepting the offer quickly or raising your concerns so we can discuss. If the offer isn't right for you, sitting on it as a backup in hopes that you can find something better is detrimental everyone involved.

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#26

Post by TrackerFF »

I remember being in an interview, with a very respected figure/researcher in the local ML/AI scene - had seen some guest lectures/seminars he held at the local Uni., which were excellent.

He was glued to his phone for about 95% of the interview, completely focused on something else. It was quite the letdown.

But I understand that a lot of people really, really loathe doing interviews. Probably stipulated in their work contract that they need to attend to stuff like that.

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#27

Post by jcims »

LaserToy wrote: post #20

Had similar marathon 8 years ago and it is draining. Now, being on the other side (hiring folks for a startup), I would argue that some of flags are a bit misleading. Examples: “Undue pressure to accept an offer letter” - interviews are not free, companies are investing eng time into evaluating each candidate and once they find great one, they really want them to join. They also do not want to be part of a bidding wa…

>Not enough clarity about your role

This is true at large organizations as well, it's not like there is some jigsaw puzzle waiting for the candidate that's a perfect fit.

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#28

Post by electrondood »

LaserToy wrote: post #20

Had similar marathon 8 years ago and it is draining. Now, being on the other side (hiring folks for a startup), I would argue that some of flags are a bit misleading. Examples: “Undue pressure to accept an offer letter” - interviews are not free, companies are investing eng time into evaluating each candidate and once they find great one, they really want them to join. They also do not want to be part of a bidding wa…

Everything from the hiring company's perspective also applies to the candidate.

The company is investing a lot of time and effort in the interviewing process. The candidate has been preparing for weeks for an assessment that has nothing to do with their actual job, and is being assigned multiple take-home challenges that take 4-8 hours of their time, etc.

The company wants to feel free to shop around and spend as much time as they want to hire "the right candidate?" The candidate is entitled to the same, shopping around for "the right company."

The company wants to avoid a bidding war to get the candidate for the least amount of money they can get away with? The candidate wants a bidding war so they can get the most amount of money they can get away with.

The company asks the candidate what salary they are expecting. The candidate can simply ask what the range for the position is, since the company has that information.

The company spends the entire interview assessing the candidate, and maybe asks if they have any questions at the last minute? The candidate is entitled to know just as much about what they are potentially getting themselves into by accepting an offer as the company is by hiring a candidate.

etc.

The process is a 2-way negotiation between equal parties.

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#29

Post by tmpz22 »

sethhochberg wrote: post #25
vmception wrote: post #21

>I turned down the [exploding] offer because the experience got me thinking about the company’s work culture. Were the methods employed by the company to get me to accept the offer indicative of their work culture? I've never found the interview process to be reflective of the company. I find the interview process to be a random hodgepodge across the entire industry because nobody knows what they are doing. Small/not…

From the hiring side, a (reasonable) expiration on the offer helps be fair to the other people who are interviewing, too. If I have a single position open and multiple people interviewing, as a hiring manager I really need to know whether my top choice is serious once we're having a discussion about signing a contract - because if they aren't, or are still trying to land better offers from other places because they h…

From a candidate perspective its very hard to evaluate what your compensation should be without first pooling multiple offers. Its also very hard to schedule many interviews in a short period such that the offer letters can be compared side by side.

For this reason I generally indicate a 1-2 week response time to an offer letter. I almost always come in before that, maybe around 2-3 days, but I find it absolutely essential to accepting a job to have that breathing room. Even if I lose out of some offers, its still a better investment to be patient.

For context I've been in the industry 6 years with 2 jobs and maybe 12 interviews to date. Currently going through interviews for $job-3.

Re: Red Flags I Saw While Doing 60 Technical Interviews in 30 Days

#30

Post by colmvp »

majormajor wrote: post #6
jtsiskin wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The current job market” - tech stocks and revenue is exploding, is the job market difficult currently?

I've anecdotally heard from former colleagues that it's gotten tougher to find entry-level or mid-level positions, not sure how broadly that applies, though.

Yeah it's super competitive for entry level jobs. I live in a city with a lot of tech workers and it's not uncommon for entry level development jobs to have hundreds of applicants within a day or so.

I suck at actual technical interviews due to anxiety, but I score exceptionally well with take home tests so thankfully I was able to land a job.

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