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Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

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Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#51

Post by desdiv »

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…

>Followed by 3 memorization questions.

Did you mean memoization, the optimization technique where you cache intermediate results? Or were they literally asking you to memorize and recite minutiae over the phone?

I always get these two words mixed up, and it doesn't help that Firefox doesn't think "memoization" is actually word.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#52

Post by Kurtz79 »

infinitone wrote: post #47
Kurtz79 wrote: post #34

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.

I'm a comp eng new grad with a bit of H/W exp. All I see when I look for entry positions are software?

You could look for embedded software positions.

I graduated in Electronics but it was clear for me that I liked software more, and embedded is a good compromise.

After a while, if you do ok with your job you could ask to move to more HW focused roles inside the same company.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#53

Post by ci5er »

raverbashing wrote: post #31
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.

Do you find this to be true of the hiring manager, or just the HR department that filters?

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#54

Post by jarsin »

desdiv wrote: post #51
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…

>Followed by 3 memorization questions. Did you mean memoization, the optimization technique where you cache intermediate results? Or were they literally asking you to memorize and recite minutiae over the phone? I always get these two words mixed up, and it doesn't help that Firefox doesn't think "memoization" is actually word.

I meant memorization. Questions that if I could remember I would have the answer to, or if i could google it then i would easily find the answer.

For example implement some specific algorithm. If you remember some of that algorithm or memorized it you are good. Otherwise you suck at development because you haven't had the need to implement that algo ever in your career..

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#55

Post by ILIKEPONIES »

harpb wrote: post #49

tl;dr: There are lot of opportunities for software engineers! 6 weeks ago, I left my job and here's my share of the search experience. 1 week after leaving the job, I got a cold email by a company who is 25-min drive away in Foster City. I did initial call with the HR on Dec. 1. On Dec. 2, I did my first phone interview. I was asked to rate my competency in Python and JavaScript on the scale 1-10. Then the interviewe…

One of the co-founders of underdog.io here. Awesome to hear that you talked to 7 different companies through the platform but not so awesome that the salary numbers in NYC didn't line up to your expectations. $160K is relatively high for NYC. We'll be in SF soon so hopefully we'll be able to introduce you to more cofounders/hiring managers that can offer a salary that's more on par with your expectations. :D

'throwawaybcporn' congrats on the new job!

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#56

Post by dominotw »

mgkimsal wrote: post #29

Maybe the lesson here is "quit trying to get jobs at tier 1 name brand companies". There are, by definition, only 500 companies in the Fortune 500. There are hundreds of thousands of smaller companies around the country that could use your skills.

Many companies on that list like thoughtworks are not tier 1 companies.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#57

Post by throwawaybcporn »

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…

This reminds me of my Facebook interview. The coding question was "given an array of all the words in the English language, print an array of arrays containing all the anagrams". In studying for the interview, I'd just refreshed on recursion and, in my general nervousness + excitement thinking I'd just been asked a question I'd literally studied an hour before, went right to work generating all the anagrams of each word in the English language.

About 5 minutes after the call ended, my jaw dropped open and I slapped my forehead. To find the anagrams of a word, just parse the set and remove any words that are (a) the same length and (b) contain the same numbers of each letter in the original.

Fizz buzz. And I made it like 1000x harder.

A generous interviewer would say, "Well at least he knows recursion and can do it on the fly in a stressful situation". But this is Facebook and they don't have to be generous. I gave them a reason to say "no" and then they said "no".

But as for "dysfunctional jokes", I have to agree (and you can tell from my OP that I have plenty of experience with it). Asking someone to code on the fly is like asking someone to write a novella on the fly. You need focus and concentration. By demanding it with someone breathing into your ear the whole time, you're simply giving those who are better able to handle pressure an advantage and those who can't a disadvantage. If this were a bomb-diffusal position, you'd want to filter for that. But this is coding, so what should pressure-handling matter?

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#58

Post by jarsin »

throwawaybcporn wrote: post #57
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…

This reminds me of my Facebook interview. The coding question was "given an array of all the words in the English language, print an array of arrays containing all the anagrams". In studying for the interview, I'd just refreshed on recursion and, in my general nervousness + excitement thinking I'd just been asked a question I'd literally studied an hour before, went right to work generating all the anagrams of each w…

haha exactly. i mean my typical day coding is my boss runs into my office. Tells me the entire company is going to fail if i cant figure out this trick problem in 30 seconds flat.

I mean i never research or think about shit. i just code it man and release it like a boss because thats how coding in the real world works. You better be quick on your feet if you want to get into the big guys. This is real world coding after all :) ...

haha

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#59

Post by throwawaybcporn »

EwanG wrote: post #32
infinitone wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 mana…

During this period, my dad said something that stuck with me: "The interviewing process is very human. There are all sorts of reasons it can fall apart, many that have nothing to do with you. Maybe they've got an inside candidate or someone decides they don't like the school you went to or the tie you're wearing."

I've found this to be true in a small number of my experiences. There are certain positions I interviewed for where my history was 100% in line with their needs, the interviews all went well and I should have gotten the job. But then didn't. Have no idea why not.

Re: Spreading a little Christmas job-hunting hope

#60

Post by throwawaybcporn »

cj wrote: post #10

Congrats on the new job! > I suffer from crippling anxiety [...] foggy Xanax brain. Consider asking your doctor about propranolol. It's a safe, non-addictive beta-blocker often used to treat high blood pressure, but it also eliminates the peripheral nervous system response to anxiety, the "fight-or-flight" adrenaline rush feeling: racing heart, shortness of breath, inability to concentrate, shaking, sweaty hands, blu…

I tried propanolol. I also tried alcohol, Klonipin, Zoloft, Lexapro, marijuana, meditation, Ambien, Benadryl (by the boatfull), Nyquil... it's been a real struggle.

So far the only thing that has helped (besides the Benadryl for getting me to sleep but not keeping me asleep or making the sleep worthwhile) was Lexapro for one glorious month. Seriously. It was a religious experience. I felt like normal people for a few weeks. Then relapsed.

Hopefully I can get it working again at some point.

Also, I don't really get nervous at the interviews. Actually, I'm as cool as a cucumber. It's just the night before that puts me through the ringer. It borders on panic. Part of my decision to accept the current offer is based on the "Dear God don't make me sweat out the night before interviews" aspect of things.

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