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The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

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Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#491

Post by _bxg1 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #295
_bxg1 wrote: post #279

A few months ago I interviewed with Major CDN Company for a front-end dev position. They sent me a take-home React/NextJS project stub with dependencies and such already defined, and instructions to finish building out the full app. "Perfect!", I thought. No stage pressure, plenty of opportunities for going an extra mile. They encouraged me to get creative and I did; it met all the requirements and then some. I proud…

It's hilarious, but I think you dodged a bullet. Imagine for a minute actually working there.

My (somewhat charitable) interpretation was that either:

- The position had already been filled and they didn't want to bother fully informing me

- Both my contact and the person who "reviewed" my submission just really didn't care at all about the process and/or felt their time was better spent writing code than doing hiring (both people were technical)

For what it's worth, this was actually the second time I'd interviewed at this company, and the first time - while I didn't get the job - I went all the way through to the final interview and everyone I met was perfectly reasonable and nice.

Just reinforces the point from the article: an enormous factor in these processes is what kind of person you happen to be randomly assigned to on the other side. So don't take the results too seriously.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#492

Post by mattrp »

Benjammer wrote: post #5
proximitysauce wrote: post #3

In addition to all of the very dystopian examples given in this post, there are other non-technical, super-dystopian things that have been popping up as "trends" in the tech industry. Ever heard of top-grading? It's the most oppressive interview technique of all time. A series of grueling multi-person interviews. A retrospective of all work experiences since high school . You also have to get multiple prior employers…

Yet, the people who pass the grueling gauntlet will still be dumped on a fringe feature team with a first- or second-time engineering manager within 2 years of your age, and a PM that's fresh out of college (or worse, just finished MBA) who is spending 100% of their time learning how to use Jira instead of how to build product.

That’s what I don’t get - they spend so much time hiring for these narrow skill sets and then the guy next to you takes longer than five minutes to figure out Jira.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#493

Post by DoreenMichele »

_bxg1 wrote: post #491
DoreenMichele wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hilarious, but I think you dodged a bullet. Imagine for a minute actually working there.

My (somewhat charitable) interpretation was that either: - The position had already been filled and they didn't want to bother fully informing me - Both my contact and the person who "reviewed" my submission just really didn't care at all about the process and/or felt their time was better spent writing code than doing hiring (both people were technical) For what it's worth, this was actually the second time I'd inte…

Thank you for this follow up comment.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#494

Post by willberman »

cdoxsey wrote: post #353

I was given a 2-hour coding challenge once to build a language server for a programming editor. It had to implement 3 functions: 1. show help text (type/doc string) for a word 2. go to definition 3. find all references My first thought was "this is an absurd request for a two hour coding challenge". My second thought was "boy I hit the jackpot, a few years ago on a whim I built my own language server for Go in sublim…

FWIW. This is an absolutely awful coding challenge for an interview especially in a 2-hour setting. The challenge requires building off of implementation details for a few very specific technologies. Interviews are supposed to test for general problem solving capabilities within some domain of competence. Unless the job was specifically to work on a go language server, and that was your aforementioned domain of competence, I see no rationale for using this programming challenge to determine employment.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#495

Post by whiskyant »

daenz wrote: post #286

If all you care about is money, go bust your butt on leetcode and ace a FAANG interview. If you care about a work-life balance, and having a big impact on a small team, work for a medium-small startup and negotiate a flexible schedule. Personally I get a huge kick out of making massive improvements to a small business's tech and infrastructure. The lack of bureaucracy is a freedom that is often taken for granted. If…

There are plenty of small teams within FAANG that offer big impact, and which have good WLB.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#496

Post by jedberg »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #456
jedberg wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have yet to meet anyone who feels good about the prospect of working for them, anyone who works there who's super proud of their mission I worked at the N in FAANG. It was the best large company work environment I ever worked in. The people I worked with were top notch, I looked forward to going into to work. Our mission was to deliver entertainment around the world. I believed in that mission. I think entertainm…

What about delivering MAFIAA's DRMs around the world ? (after the second attempt by Netflix to get in the streaming market.)

Netflix never wanted to do DRM. They fought the studios and tried to teach them for years that it was pointless. Eventually they had to relent because the studios had more power than they do.

To answer the follow up question -- the Netflix originals have DRM because they aren't made by Netflix, they are still made by regular Hollywood studios that demand DRM. And for the few where Netflix has control, it's easier technology-wise to just put DRM on everything instead of littering the code with exceptions for some content.

At the end of the day, DRM for rented content isn't so bad. You're renting it. You shouldn't have control over it.

I still don't like DRM on content I'm buying.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#497

Post by [deleted] »

bradlys wrote: post #490
igetspam wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked there in the early 2000s. It was fun. Then it wasn't any more. I was much earlier in my career and when I left, having it on my resume meant a lot. Now I've done more and more interesting things. I told the FAANGs, in no unclear terms, I'm not interested. They seem to have gotten the message eventually. I like small companies. You work harder and have a lot more impact. The compensation is good too. Leave. T…

> I like small companies. You work harder and have a lot more impact. The compensation is good too. Leave. The grass is greener. What small company is regularly paying over $300k+/yr for senior software engineers and paying over $500k/yr for staff+? The only people I see leaving the big companies are those who already got their riches and/or bought real estate earlier. The rest of us are either tied to them or trying…

[deleted]

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#498

Post by mattrp »

bllguo wrote: post #338
agumonkey wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what are better recruitment ideas replacing cover letters ? (honest question)

I wish I had answers. I don't - I just know that cover letters aren't it. I've been on both sides of hiring at this point. On the applicant side, I have never seen any indication that anyone has ever read my cover letters. Writing them is a chore. And though my sample size is very limited, I have never had success with bespoke cover letters/cold emails/etc.; the time has always been better spent on reaching more peop…

I have a pretty long resume at this point (23 years now in the workforce)... I use the cover letter to try to summarize a few takeaways using very short sentences. It seems like if you don’t hit at least one positive talking point within the first 5 seconds of reading they will never bother reading the rest of the resume. I once actually did step into recruiting at a startup I worked at once. We had about 25,000 emails come in for 20 positions and the recruiting team was going insane trying to sort them. I wrote a few quick filters to draw out interesting resumes but I ended up reading nearly half the resumes... over a weekend. I get that reading resumes is tedious but I just have so little sympathy for these people who have so little attention to detail / ability to structure their work passing judgement on my ability to conjure some algo.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#499

Post by mnm1 »

Quekid5 wrote: post #78
allovernow wrote: post #11

In my admittedly limited experience, there's one way to avoid such nonsensical interviews - run away from bureaucracy. Seek smaller organizations (startups in particular) and if you're lucky enough to have a minimally cross-disciplinary background, you can seek out niche organizations where you'll interview with technical specialists who'll ask reasonable questions that are actually related to your work and your inte…

I agree on small orgs, but... recommending startups is a bit iffy, IMO. DGMW, startups can be great, but if you're just a good programmer wanting a stable job, then that startup job is not the job for you. However, you could be a huge contributor and positive influence in a small org... and it's possible to gain a lot of life satisfaction that way[0]. Plus, your employer actually knows you and understands the value y…

I only disagree with "as they must be in a small org". I only wish that was true, but my experience says otherwise. A small company might give one agency or it might not. Or it can do both over time. With a dozen people in the company you'd think it'd be wise, but the latest management trends and compensation procedures prevent it. In other words, we build what the boss wants and have zero incentive and time to work on anything else. In fact, if there is time, I actively avoid any tasks not delegated by management so as not to appear like I'm working on non sanctioned things. But mostly, the time just expands to fill the work. Or the other way around. There is zero incentive to try to change this or do anything not scheduled as it has been shown it'll not be appreciated but with empty words.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#500

Post by nutjob2 »

ummonk wrote: post #161
thedance wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you sort an infinite stream?

You could have a balanced data structure and keep inserting into it.

Sorry, you failed the interview! Your algorithm doesn't terminate, it's no better than an empty infinite loop.

If a list is sorted, then you'd be able to return the largest value. Since that is impossible the correct answer is that it's impossible.

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