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Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

robertheaton.com

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Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#31

Post by patio11 »

baby wrote: post #18

> “Design the infrastructure for a link-shortener.” I'm wondering how to answer that? * Get a short and memorizable url. * When you enter an URL hash it, put it in a hash table and use the hash for the link. > “If I type https://google.com into my browser and press enter, what happens?” How would you guys answer this one? I'm not sure I've enough knowledge to do that. I'd say: * first TLS handshake thanks to RSA to s…

I'm wondering how to answer that?

If you gave that response at an interview, you'd be praised for knowing what a URL shortener is, then asked to drill into more detail. For example, what data store would you use for your hash table? What technology do you use for your web tier? Are those physically on the same box? OK, that's fine. Twitter just bought you and you have 48 hours until you're receiving 100,000 requests per second. What needs to change about your architecture? OK, good answer, good answer. We recently discovered that people are abusing our infrastructure to cloak links to pages delivering malware. We need to be able to ban a domain and yank all their links retroactively. How can you accommodate that? etc, etc

How would you guys answer this one?

Start by saying that you're capable of approaching that problem at multiple different levels of the stack, from the browser chrome to the networking layer to HTTPS to HTTP to Google's (presumed) infrastructure to the browser again. Ask where they want you to drill down. Networking? OK. Evince some knowledge of what DNS is. Mention that Google controls the records for google.com on a nameserver somewhere. Maybe talk about bind a little bit. Mention in a wee bit of detail how the A record propagates out to the rest of the network, including to the user's DNS server. Observe that since it is google.com it is certainly cached there (and is probably already in the OS's DNS cache to boot, you might add). Ask if the interviewer would like to hear about TCP/IP or SSL handshakes or what have you next.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#32

Post by boothead »

bluejet wrote: post #10

I recently went through the same process and didn't have quite the same luck. Background: London. Comp Sci. from top 10 worldwide college. 2 years C++, Python, iOS experience in well known company on high profile project. Internship at start up with VC funding before that. Github profile with open-source projects, own projects etc. Started blog etc...basically everything that is recommended. Studied for 5 months (up…

Why SF? From what I've seen the London tech scene is really kicking off now. Some of the better funded start ups here are even starting to compete with finance jobs salary wise. And on finance: There are loads of jobs that industry in London, C++ and python make the world go round in hedge funds and investment banks!

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#33

Post by [deleted] »

baby wrote: post #18

> “Design the infrastructure for a link-shortener.” I'm wondering how to answer that? * Get a short and memorizable url. * When you enter an URL hash it, put it in a hash table and use the hash for the link. > “If I type https://google.com into my browser and press enter, what happens?” How would you guys answer this one? I'm not sure I've enough knowledge to do that. I'd say: * first TLS handshake thanks to RSA to s…

[deleted]

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#34

Post by void-star »

This may very well have been an excellent piece. But, the author lost me no later than 2 sentences in with his immature and sexist "nerdy girl" analogy. I just didn't even bother to read the rest. Working in silicon valley myself, I already waste enough time on people who think this kind of immature male mindset is okay.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#35

Post by temuze »

petenixey wrote: post #5

(sorry for sidetracking the excellent piece but...) When I examine the ~13,000 hours I've spent programming I find it hilarious that interviews should centre around algorithmic problems. I've been guilty of it myself and failing FizzBuzz is definitely a true negative but it's so little of a true positive it's not even funny. What I would really love to know about you as a candidate is: - do you know how to actually n…

I think most interviews don't focus enough on systems. I expect every software engineer to know:

- How virtual memory works

- How threads work

- How TCP works

- How ports work

- How ethernet works

- How DNS works

- How a web server works.

And so on. A lot of these things are more important than theory (but I think theory is important, too!).

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#36

Post by steven2012 »

michaelochurch wrote: post #7

Getting a job in Silicon Valley, as an outsider, isn't hard. Getting a good job is hard. Many offers will come through at a lower level just because, whatever you did, you didn't do it in the Valley. That's Cali arrogance for ya. Hedge fund interviews are a lot more intense and technically difficult (and you feel good when you pass) but don't come with the VC-fueled, youthful arrogance of a proper Valley company. Hed…

Every time startups are mentioned, you have a lengthy diatribe over how Silicon Valley sucks. Yet, you've admitted that you've never worked in Silicon Valley. I'm sorry you are so butthurt over being screwed over by a NYC startup, but it's not that bad out here. Every place has assholes and arrogant pricks, but some of the best team members I've worked with are out here as well.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#37

Post by vijucat »

mpeg wrote: post #9
sergiotapia wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you work at Google or Facebook or any other of the tech giants, you need to know your algorithm-type questions. For the other 98% of companies, there's just no need. I've also never ever had to do strange things with binary trees.

Why? Do Google or Facebook engineers live in a magical world in which they need to know off the top of their heads the big-O complexity of every possible sort function ever mentioned in an academic paper? I see this argument used time and time again, but it makes no sense to me. Surely they can just search for it when they need it too :)

This is needed more for the people inside than outside. I used to be at a famous hedge fund, and then at banks like Goldman Sachs where this attitude was common : "We hire selectively; only 1 in 750 applications is given an offer". Now how does that make you feel to be an employee? It's an amazing feeling, isn't it? To know you're special, that you're a diamond in the dust. It makes it easier for the employer to then demand you to create great things, eh? You're going to pressurize yourself to show them you're worth it.

But in reality, what happened, at least in my experience, is that the top talent almost always left because a) they never really got to use that Longest Common Subsequence algorithm that they quizzed on, so the actual daily work-experience was sappy compared to the hype or b) it was just one more conquest anyway; off to better / greater things that challenged their abilities

The real gems, in my not-so-objective perspective, were the in-betweeners : people who may not be brilliant, but those who worked hard enough to pass the interview and were really thankful to have a great employer. They stuck around and worked sincerely and were an asset to the firm in every way possible.

IMHO, a firm needs 90% ordinary folks, and only a handful of brilliant crazy geniuses.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#38

Post by joshbert »

void-star wrote: post #34

This may very well have been an excellent piece. But, the author lost me no later than 2 sentences in with his immature and sexist "nerdy girl" analogy. I just didn't even bother to read the rest. Working in silicon valley myself, I already waste enough time on people who think this kind of immature male mindset is okay.

That is a shallow and inaccurate assessment of what's one the best articles that's been posted in the past month.

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#39

Post by [deleted] »

mercurial wrote: post #27
baby wrote: post #18

> “Design the infrastructure for a link-shortener.” I'm wondering how to answer that? * Get a short and memorizable url. * When you enter an URL hash it, put it in a hash table and use the hash for the link. > “If I type https://google.com into my browser and press enter, what happens?” How would you guys answer this one? I'm not sure I've enough knowledge to do that. I'd say: * first TLS handshake thanks to RSA to s…

No DNS resolution? As for the link shortener infrastructure, I'd ask for more context to get a better idea of the scope. If there is not more context than that, define the scope at which you're operating (eg, "I understand 'infrastructure' as 'the structure of the service' and not as 'the physical infrastructure'" and define yourself what the URL shortener does (going with "a web service with a single endpoint" sound…

[deleted]

Re: Lessons from a Silicon Valley job search

#40

Post by at-fates-hands »

>> You want to start negotiating at your strongest point - when they have said “we love you, let’s make a deal.”

One simple practice is at the end of the interview when you get the, "So what's the salary range you're looking at?" question, I always give them about 5-10K higher than what I'm currently making with the caveat, "But I'm always open to negotiating." which keeps the door open for the company/agency to get creative with incentives or other valuable options to bring you on.

You shouldn't feel bad about asking for extra stuff. 95% of the developers companies are hiring are just taking what they offer them. If you negotiate, companies are more likely to give you some additional extras. You just have to ask for them.

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