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Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

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Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#31

Post by raverbashing »

mgkimsal wrote: post #28

A lot of software companies seem to have a set of conflicting beliefs. 1 Iterative/agile software development. YAGNI. Build the bare minimum, then iterate when you learn more. 2. Hire slow, fire fast. A really agile org would be hiring fast too. Now... I know a lot of this has to do with labor laws - hiring an actual employee brings extra baggage. And in the US at least, more people may want to be employees for reaso…

I agree with this sentiment

More to the point, they think employees have zero flexibility. That if the employee is hasn't worked with a certain technology (like Hibernate, but has Java experience) this doesn't matter.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#32

Post by EwanG »

infinitone wrote: post #21
jarsin wrote: post #12

I wouldnt worry about getting passed up by the bigger companies. Everyone knows their interview processes are highly dysfunctional jokes. Then most startup companies copy them because they all think they are going to be the next google etc. My last interview at amazon went like this: Stupid trick coding question over the phone that I did not understand at all. Followed by 3 memorization questions. followed by one que…

I did the new grad assessment test last week for Amazon, I am more than positive I aced both sections, especially the coding questions (passed all tests). Yet somehow I still didn't advance. I have other interviews in the pipeline that were way tougher and I didn't get the solutions 100% yet I still advanced.

Could be worse. About five years ago I was interviewing at Amazon, and had gotten picked by the hiring manager and all that was left was a "trivial" HR screen. Lady there felt that since I had mainly done consulting I couldn't be trusted to stay at a full time job, and so overruled the hiring manager and I didn't get the position.

The rest of the story? A couple years later I had a chance to talk with the hiring manager while he was applying for a position at a place I was working - seems the person HR picked led to their whole unit being disbanded because they failed so miserably. He felt he had to take some of the blame for not keeping a closer eye on the person, but still...

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#33

Post by vivekpreddy »

pookieinc wrote: post #11

JS + Ruby/Rails dev here w/ 3+ years experience under belt. Currently looking for job myself and have been for about 3 months. Funny how, like OP, my resume and exp. is "very impressive", yet it doesn't lead anywhere, not even to a phone interview sometimes. I'm attempting the numbers game approach (apply for 100 companies, 5 will get back to you, select from those 5), but I've hit the edge of: what if there are none…

Two of our best engineers came from Hacker News. I'd be more than happy to chat if you're looking. Drop me a note at vivek@entelo.com!

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#34

Post by Kurtz79 »

Congrats and best luck for the future.

In a way it's kind of belwildering how radically different seem to be the job hunting experience for many HW users.

You see so many posts like "I had multiple six-figure offers", or "it's impossible to find enough candidates for the position" and then you see posts like this.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#35

Post by br0ke »

Grats on the job!

I hear you about the anxiety. I managed to land an interview with nvidia in 2001 and was so nervous that I couldn't eat or sleep for the 24 hours before the start of the interview (then ate lunch with them at their cafeteria and was wolfing food down like an animal). Didn't fare well, but a year later of hunting and working as a substitute teacher, I ended up working with a great team at FedEx for a while and went to being a "computer scientist" at the army research lab after that.

Anxiety is a challenge, but it can be overcome! I'm even in the process of starting with "toastmasters" to get me out of my comfort zone and learn how to be "on" around strangers.

Again, congratulations and thanks for sharing!

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#36

Post by BigChiefSmokem »

jarsin wrote: post #12

I wouldnt worry about getting passed up by the bigger companies. Everyone knows their interview processes are highly dysfunctional jokes. Then most startup companies copy them because they all think they are going to be the next google etc. My last interview at amazon went like this: Stupid trick coding question over the phone that I did not understand at all. Followed by 3 memorization questions. followed by one que…

Ha yes 100x this!

I usually add these companies (and if possible, the team in question) and keep track of the position and project as well. They're not going to like it when the chip on my shoulder becomes too big and I decide to compete against them.

Just don't become a super villain like Guy Pierce did in Iron Man 3

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#37

Post by BigChiefSmokem »

infinitone wrote: post #21
jarsin wrote: post #12

I wouldnt worry about getting passed up by the bigger companies. Everyone knows their interview processes are highly dysfunctional jokes. Then most startup companies copy them because they all think they are going to be the next google etc. My last interview at amazon went like this: Stupid trick coding question over the phone that I did not understand at all. Followed by 3 memorization questions. followed by one que…

I did the new grad assessment test last week for Amazon, I am more than positive I aced both sections, especially the coding questions (passed all tests). Yet somehow I still didn't advance. I have other interviews in the pipeline that were way tougher and I didn't get the solutions 100% yet I still advanced.

Acing all tests and doing great with question and still not being hired usually means you weren't a "cultural fit" (usually an institutionalized popularity contest).

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#39

Post by dmeb »

mgkimsal wrote: post #28

A lot of software companies seem to have a set of conflicting beliefs. 1 Iterative/agile software development. YAGNI. Build the bare minimum, then iterate when you learn more. 2. Hire slow, fire fast. A really agile org would be hiring fast too. Now... I know a lot of this has to do with labor laws - hiring an actual employee brings extra baggage. And in the US at least, more people may want to be employees for reaso…

I think this is something that would mostly be taken up by people trying in the early stages of their career. The revealed preference of more senior people is to not push for these kinds of contracts.

A shorter trial period makes a lot of sense, especially as more and more people with weaker tech backgrounds are drawn into software development by the strong job market. That said, internships fulfill this role for a lot of companies. Especially at the larger tech companies, internships seem like primarily an extended job interview.

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