Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

news.efinancialcareers.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 731 posts

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#371

Post by mtberatwork »

landtuna wrote: post #189
millstone wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds damn frustrating. Would you be willing to share your area of expertise? At 17 YoE, I avoid the cloud and ML because it's hard to bring my skills and experience to bear, and also I have no passion for them. But I have also found there's a ton of C++ code out there; IME there's a lot of appetite for someone who can wrangle it.

Well, the technologies I've used are all over the place, but the niche is defense contracting. Until now, I don't think I realized that processing lots of data really fast locally (i.e., not in the cloud) wasn't more generally in-demand.

> the niche is defense contracting

That's not exactly a small niche. Edit: Just saw your LinkedIn profile below, have you applied to DC area companies? I think you would have much more success in the DMV metro area.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#372

Post by ghaff »

decafninja wrote: post #12

Unless you've made it to your "endgame" company that you're happy to stay at for a while, I feel investing anything more than the bare minimum to get your assigned work done is worth less than just grinding leetcode and otherwise studying for interviews. Doing an actual good job, above and beyond, is not going to be worth much when you're looking for your next job. Thus we're now seeing the rise of Professional Inter…

>until I make it into such an "endgame" company.

Unless you're close to retirement and don't really need the money, it's unlikely you'll know when you're there. Companies change and/or get into trouble, managers change, projects get canceled, etc. I've been at companies I spent quite a few years at and I still came close to quitting for various reasons (and eventually did). I'd submit there is no predictable endgame over more than a 2-3 year time horizon.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#373

Post by m000 »

> If I'd had the opportunity to read-up on it, I would have been fine.

This highlights the paradox of Hackerrank-style tests. They would make sense in an age where the overhead to refresh your knowledge about something took time and effort: Find a relevant paper book, read it, perhaps type-out the examples. But in that age. where they would make sense, we didn't have the technology to make them available to the masses.

Today, where refreshing your existing knowledge only takes a couple of minutes searching online, these tests actually do a bad job in telling apart the code-monkey from the expert who happens to be a bit rusty on a specific topic.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#374

Post by grishka »

koonsolo wrote: post #284
throwaway201103 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would any company want me to write an array sort instead of calling the .sort() method on the standard array class? Is that really the sort of thing they want their devs to code and debug and maintain by hand?

If you can't do a sort, how will be be able to do more high level complex things?

Some people consider me a senior, yet the only sorting algorithm I actually remember and can write from scratch without consulting anything is bubble sort. And maybe insertion sort. And that's it. Both horribly inefficient. In real life I use whatever the language provides, for example Collections.sort in Java.

The more general problem is just how far removed from reality are all these questions. I once tried interviewing for Google, just for fun because they sent me an email about it. They asked me about quicksort, I said that I'm able to implement it in any language I know given an hour and the ability to google things. They were apparently not very satisfied with this response.

Why do you need to recite things from memory on the interviews while you'll be able to consult whatever the hell you want on your actual job? No one knows.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#375

Post by bananaface »

abj wrote: post #370

What if we form a group/site that refuses to do leetcode interviews? This seems like a classic coordination problem. If enough people refuse, companies will have their talent pool limited. We could use this group to help match companies and developers who don't want to leetcode. If it's true that leetcode filters out great developers, than companies who 'can't find talent' should be able to use our group to find some…

Won't work because there's a giant incentive to defect and no way to effectively police it.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#376

Post by okareaman »

yodsanklai wrote: post #359

I've just landed a job at a FAANG company. Some random subjective comments based on my experience: - it was hard work - there was no way I could have passed these interviews without all the work. - my past experience and education barely helped me for the interview - it's not enough to be able to solve the problems, you need to be able to solve them on the spot, without much thinking, in an interview context - I pass…

> - it's not enough to be able to solve the problems, you need to be able to solve them on the spot, without much thinking, in an interview context

Sounds like they're looking for assembly line programmers - crank out the code, pass it off, then on to the next piece of code without pause. This would be a nightmare for me. The high salaries and prestige of these companies definitely would not be worth it. I'm not neurotypical. I met an older man when younger who recognized this when he hired me so he left me alone. I worked at home and provided him programming solutions on my time schedule, which turned into millions of dollars for me and much more for him. I'm happy to let the fast programmers do the speed programming.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#377

Post by rorykoehler »

anon9001 wrote: post #303
asdff wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed this a few times in my career and have had to start slowing myself down at times. If I deliver in a day instead of the expected two for example, I don't get that second day off, I get twice as much work and get paid the same for it. The harder I work, the less I make. If they want me to bust my ass and sacrifice sleep I need to be given hazard pay.

You're right, and as a result I try to work no more than 4 hours a day, preferably less. I take every possible opportunity to extend timelines, create buffer, and reduce scope. I'm highly incentivized to farm as much time as possible, so that's what I do. I try to target obscure projects that I already know how to do, where there's an assumption that nobody really knows how to do it because it's obscure. Complexity a…

This sums up perfectly why I’m pro universal basic income. How many people do this? Think of all the collective brain cycles wasted. We’re stealing from our future. You’re clearly smart and capable. Work you don’t find rewarding stole your motivation. If you could work on projects that reflect the world you want to live in you would create something much more valuable top society than whatever it is you’re half assing now.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#378

Post by decafninja »

kemiller2002 wrote: post #355
decafninja wrote: post #12

Unless you've made it to your "endgame" company that you're happy to stay at for a while, I feel investing anything more than the bare minimum to get your assigned work done is worth less than just grinding leetcode and otherwise studying for interviews. Doing an actual good job, above and beyond, is not going to be worth much when you're looking for your next job. Thus we're now seeing the rise of Professional Inter…

I understand where you are coming from, but I honestly disagree. I always try and do the best job possible, but I don't do it for the company, I do it for me. I think of it as training to make myself better. I am always looking out for my skills and experience, so when the next opportunity comes around, I'm ready to take it. You could say that it's resume stuffing, but I don't think of it and mean it that way. I want…

I've been where you were at too. The problem is, no matter how good of a real day to day job I've done and what practical real world skills I've learned, "when the next opportunity comes around" as you say, I wasn't ready to take it - because I got burned by leetcode interviews that have nothing to do with the above.

I too, want to do everything you mention, but until I get past the leetcode gatekeepers, it doesn't matter.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#379

Post by tomohawk »

koonsolo wrote: post #284
throwaway201103 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would any company want me to write an array sort instead of calling the .sort() method on the standard array class? Is that really the sort of thing they want their devs to code and debug and maintain by hand?

If you can't do a sort, how will be be able to do more high level complex things?

This is a common falacy that comes from academia.

If you can't divide numbers, how will you ever do algebra?

Guess what? They're different skills.

A person who is good at algebra, may not be good at all at division. I know a few who fall into that category. The use a calculator.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#380

Post by st1x7 »

- It's an anonymous source claiming 15 years of experience and technical proficiency but somehow still had to relearn basic concepts. I'm not buying it.

- I would much rather do general computer science problems than have to answer questions about the framework that happens to be trendy this year or have to spend days on evaluation projects. General CS questions also allow people to transition between domains and subfields more easily.

Post reply on HN