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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

#51

Post by tonyedgecombe »

vmception wrote: post #32
sethhochberg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Exploding offers are bluffs. We all know the team wanted someone that could hit the ground running yesterday for the last 6 months.

Yes, salespeople call it the impending doom close. If you don’t buy this car/house/holiday today it will be gone tomorrow.

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

#52

Post by tristor »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #31
sethhochberg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I liked to ask the question, "If I extended an offer you like, would you accept it?" It helps facilitate a regular conversation about if & when someone would accept an offer, and if any steps can be taken to make an offer happen.

That question is one of my favorite questions as a candidate because it provides the space to have a realistic conversation about compensation and what is necessary to make the move a reality.

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

#53

Post by austinl »

There's definitely a mindset thing to this that I need to work on, but my last experience going through the interview process was so draining that I didn't recover for several months.

It was my first time interviewing for "senior" roles — I did 5 on-sites (maybe 8 screens, starting from 15 phone calls?) while working full-time. I'm naturally pretty high-stress before interviews, and I felt like I needed to constantly be preparing, so it seemed like 3 months of a nightmarish grind.

Any advice from experienced interviewers for the next time around?

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

#54

Post by ptero »

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…

The problem I have with the setup the author listed is not the exploding part, it's the pressure to accept and calls from the hiring manager pressing to accept. All well within the exploding offer window.

If the team has this attitude before hiring, it often indicates that it will be "we need A B and C done by first thing Monday morning" after joining. My 2c.

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

#55

Post by ModernMech »

> Not enough clarity about your role

I experienced this one to the extreme. Not only would the recruiter not tell me what the scope of the job was, neither would the interviewing engineers nor the hiring manager. I went to the on-site interview with the promise that I would be working on "world-changing technology". The location of the interview was a nondescript building in the Bay area with an off-limits engineering pen I wasn't allowed to see. They kept me in a 10x10 cubicle with a white board and small table for 6+ hours during which a parade of engineers came through to ask me puzzle questions. None of the interviewers could answer simple questions like "What do you do?" or "What am I going to do?"

Seriously, how does anyone accept a job without knowing what the job is? I guess if you're a big enough corporation you can get away with that kind of thing.

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

#56

Post by vmception »

ptero wrote: post #54
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…

The problem I have with the setup the author listed is not the exploding part, it's the pressure to accept and calls from the hiring manager pressing to accept. All well within the exploding offer window. If the team has this attitude before hiring, it often indicates that it will be "we need A B and C done by first thing Monday morning" after joining. My 2c.

You can optimize for avoiding that and still wind up in that exact situation.

This is a complete non-signal.

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

#57

Post by beforeolives »

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…

This isn't the author's reaction to the interview process, it's their reaction to the way the company tried to pressure them into accepting the offer.

> Then the pressure started, incessant calls from the hiring manager and the VP of Engineering, back-to-back emails, all within the allotted time.

I agree with the author that it's a red flag - it communicates that they don't respect boundaries or behave professionally.

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

#58

Post by kevinskii »

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…

I completely agree. I work for a big company. I've been here for 18 years. It is a fantastic place to work. The people, the pay, the flexibility, the meaningful work, all are great. No place is perfect, but I haven't yet found anywhere I'd rather be.

However, our hiring process is sometimes shameful. You name it, we've probably done it. We've ghosted candidates that did really well in their interview. We've taken weeks to make an offer, and we've asked candidates to fly across the country for a 2nd onsite interview because some middle manager thought that Team X should talk to them.

We're getting better, but sometimes there are legitimate reasons for things like delays and ghosting that can't be disclosed to the candidate. I try to keep this in mind when I get treated similarly by other companies.

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

#60

Post by BossingAround »

vmception wrote: post #32
sethhochberg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Exploding offers are bluffs. We all know the team wanted someone that could hit the ground running yesterday for the last 6 months.

That is my experience as well. Every time I got an "exploding offer", I said "Thank you, but I need more time because I'm interviewing with other companies." This was always met with an "of course".

That said, I never got an offer from something like SV startup or a FAANG, so I can imagine it's totally different over there.

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