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Flunking my Anthropic interview again

taylor.town

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Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#51

Post by gk1 »

almostgotcaught wrote: post #35
julianeon wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the age of social media. This person has hit the front page of HN twice now. That's a commercially valuable skill. At this point, having proved that can do something commercially valuable a couple times now, I think they should run with it. Start a YouTube channel. Keep racking up views. Then, eventually, do partnerships and sponsorships, in addition to collecting AdSense money. If you like to write or perfor…

> This is the age of social media. This person has hit the front page of HN twice now. That's a commercially valuable skill. In general yes, wrt HN it's not; literally in this second post he bemoans that the first one didn't pay off for him.

As someone who’s hired many dev advocates, I definitely value the ability to turn mundane topics into posts that hit the HN front page. If they can do this about something as dull as failing interviews, imagine what they’d do with an actually interesting technical topic.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#52

Post by [deleted] »

busterarm wrote: post #40
corytheboyd wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a little confused, because first you challenge me, but then come to the exact conclusion that resumes are largely unreadable. I’ll look for something they claim to have done to dig deep on, see if it’s BS or not, but I’m not reading every X by Y% with my jaw on the floor. FWIW I’m generally on the back side of the process, where someone at the front (is supposed to have) vetted the person already.

> where someone at the front (is supposed to have) vetted the person already. I think that's a mistake, personally. Each interviewer needs to make an independent decision and relying on the judgement of a screener early in the process is giving that person disproportionate weight towards hiring for your team. Usually that resume screener is someone in HR. Would you trust them to decide who your team hires? Your posts…

[deleted]

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#53

Post by reaperducer »

mock-possum wrote: post #45

I truly do not understand the use of this public self castigation; it does not strike me as healthy, if anything it’s a cry for help, and I’m uncomfortable being exposed to it.

In some cultures, it's perfectly normal, and not too long ago was generally considered healthy.

See, for example, self-deprecating British wit. Or anyone from the upper Midwest.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#54

Post by gk1 »

stickfigure wrote: post #25
corytheboyd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe a good point, but honestly, interviewers barely read resumes, they’re very, very likely not going to read your blog, or remember “hey it’s the person from that blog post I ready 7 weeks ago.”

I expect that for a Developer Relations role, someone read the blogs.

Absolutely. Especially for late-stage candidates.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#55

Post by mock-possum »

almostgotcaught wrote: post #30
jckahn wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Because it's cringe. I'll never understand why people publish essentially personal diary entries in public spaces. It must be some kind of shame kink.

100% agree—

> The first time I flunked an Anthropic interview (ca. 2022), I accidentally clicked a wrong button during their automated coding challenge. It was easy to swallow that failure. I made an honest mistake; I expect companies to reject candidates who make honest mistakes during interviews.

> This is different. I didn't misclick any buttons. My best wasn't good enough. I'm not good enough.

That’s a physically difficult passage for me to read, what an awful way to talk about yourself.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#56

Post by layer8 »

> On top of their secret take-home assignment, I independently published diggit.dev and a companion blogpost about my [sincerely] positive experiences with Claude. I was hoping that some unsolicited "extra credit" would make me look like an exceptional/ambitious candidate.

As an employer, such brown-nosing would put me off. Being exceptionally eager to please can be a red flag.

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#57

Post by [deleted] »

ciigugv754 wrote: post #50
busterarm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> interviewers barely read resumes I feel like this is the biggest lie ever told in this industry. Do you, as an interviewer, not read resumes? I read loads of resumes and the truth is more like everyone are terrible communicators. Especially software engineers. Most resumes are badly formatted, badly typeset, full of errors and give me confusing/contradictory details about what your job responsibilities were rather…

It is true for some companies. That said, in my experience, the more it was visible in an interview that the interviewer read my application, my website, my open-source code etc, the more enjoyable working for that company has been for me. I guess it’s a sign people at such a company give a shit. It transfers to other areas than just interviews led by them. At this point, if I see that the interviewer barely skimmed…

[deleted]

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#58

Post by lylejantzi3rd »

corytheboyd wrote: post #17
kashunstva wrote: post #12

I have no idea to what extent Anthropic or other employers delve into prospective candidates’ blogs; but this strikes me as too much self-disclosure for one’s own good. We all have idiosyncrasies; but calling oneself weird on a now widely published blog article seems like it risks defeating the goal of making oneself an ideal candidate for many job opportunities. Look, many of my own eccentricities have been (net) va…

Maybe a good point, but honestly, interviewers barely read resumes, they’re very, very likely not going to read your blog, or remember “hey it’s the person from that blog post I ready 7 weeks ago.”

People get hired all the time based on their online content. Or, at the very least, they get interviews when they wouldn't otherwise. Don't forget about the luck surface area!

Re: Flunking my Anthropic interview again

#60

Post by unsnap_biceps »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #24

> I expect companies to reject candidates who make honest mistakes during interviews. So the only ones who make it are 100% flawless?

I do my very best when interviewing to ignore honest mistakes and look at the person. My criteria is more around, is this person demonstrating the ability to learn and grow? If so, everything else can be taught or developed.
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