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The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

jarednelsen.dev

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Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#561

Post by empath75 »

ummonk wrote: post #144
throwlaplace wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

having just recently (in the last 2 weeks) completed >100 problems on leetcode i can affirmatively tell you that it's not actually that difficult to game this system. i read elements of programming interviews (took about a month of a couple of hours a day) and then just blitzgrieged leetcode. this was all in prep for a FAANG internship tech screen i had yesterday. it went well (not perfect but well). but it is true t…

The people complaining are usually the ones who can't just prep for algorithmic interviews with a couple hours a day of effort for a month. Which makes the algorithmic interview a relatively good filter - ability to learn something difficult quickly is a very important skill at high performance software companies.

It also screens out older people with children who just don’t have the time.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#562

Post by jfkebwjsbx »

AlexCoventry wrote: post #392
jonathankoren wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You joined a giant megacorp. They’re all like that. There’s very little difference between Google and Oracle in this regard.

From what I've read, Google is a much more humane and pleasant environment to develop software in.

That was a decade ago.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#564

Post by wuschel »

EpicEng wrote: post #124
ideal0227 wrote: post #90

When my classmates were preparing interview coding questions, I was working on a mini TCP implementation and a toy kernel. AWS rejected me since I failed to write prefect code to traverse a tree in level order. Google did not even give me an interview since I told the campus recruiter I have not prepared for the coding questions. Then I ended up with an internship at CoreOS and created etcd. I am glad that they did n…

Wow. I don't have as prolific a tale as that, but I'm in the looking stage right now and the idea of cramming for a test I haven't taken in 12 years annoys the hell out of me. I've done some pretty interesting things in biotech in my career, things that required learning about motion control, digital imaging, signal processing, and biology... but if I want a job as a web dev I apparently need to memorize how to imple…

Hi EpicEng,

just out of curiosity to learn more about your project: Where could I contact you?

Cheers!

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#565

Post by blueboo »

ideal0227 wrote: post #90

When my classmates were preparing interview coding questions, I was working on a mini TCP implementation and a toy kernel. AWS rejected me since I failed to write prefect code to traverse a tree in level order. Google did not even give me an interview since I told the campus recruiter I have not prepared for the coding questions. Then I ended up with an internship at CoreOS and created etcd. I am glad that they did n…

Two questions.

How long do you think it would’ve taken you to prepare and ace these kinds of coding interview questions? (I bet less than 100 hours.)

But I’m more interested in the following: what interview process do you think would have correctly (and reliably) evaluated someone with your profile?

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#566

Post by Ygg2 »

pansa2 wrote: post #488
throwaway582 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sucks that you've had that experience, I'm sorry. I hope it's the exception and not the rule. I work on the Advertising part of Giant Search and Advertising, and my experience has been pretty great—indeed, working on interesting problems with a high degree of autonomy. I do need to persuade others of my ideas sometimes, or let them persuade me against them, but this seems like a good thing, and doesn't feel poli…

> I work on the Advertising part of Giant Search and Advertising [...] on interesting problems Genuine question - what do you consider to be interesting problems in advertising?

The only interesting problem in advertising - How to part people from their money :P

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#567

Post by blueboo »

karlkatzke wrote: post #332
bilekas wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to note about coding interviews, they're very simular to somone looking over your shoulder while you're working. Nobody can perform well like that.. One great colleague who I wish I was in the interview for, simple started thinking out loud. Everything he was thinking, he said out loud, and of course, the team loved it. Because thats all it's about. If its not over a video chat/submission, comment your code…

So I had an interview that was like that, but I wasn’t given enough information. I was asked to implement the “inverse square law in code” ... and I explained to the interviewer who was two years out of college (I looked up all of the interviewers on linkedin, so I had a good idea of their experience and areas of expertise) that my first step as someone who hadn’t been in an academic environment or exposed to this ki…

No interview process is invulnerable to bad faith interviewers. Refusing to help you past roadblocks just makes for a worse interview signal. Maybe the candidate doesn’t know X but has extraordinary depth on Y, and so on. Bad interview training or negligence!

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#568

Post by bartread »

_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…

> (both people were technical)

Well, they might have claimed that but based on your account I'm having my doubts.

On a more serious note, I do find the attitude towards hiring in many companies perverse. I realise it can be time-consuming, frustrating, and draining, but at the same time it's hugely important.

Of all my responsibilities, Literally the most important is building a strong team: hiring is a critical component of that. We're always looking for ways to improve the experience for candidates, and I'm still involved in interviewing fairly regularly. I feel like it's important for me to set that example.

As with many things, if you're hiring and want to enjoy the results of making great hires, you have to learn to love the process somewhat.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#569

Post by whatevah5982 »

throwaway582 wrote: post #269
throwaway5283 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absolutely true. I work at Giant Search and Advertising Company, and joining was a huge mistake. I thought I would be working interesting technical problems with a high degree of autonomy — instead the work is extremely boring, and you get ahead by playing political games rather than by innovating. I’m one of the rare few here who managed to get through the interview without really preparing. Before joining,…

That sucks that you've had that experience, I'm sorry. I hope it's the exception and not the rule. I work on the Advertising part of Giant Search and Advertising, and my experience has been pretty great—indeed, working on interesting problems with a high degree of autonomy. I do need to persuade others of my ideas sometimes, or let them persuade me against them, but this seems like a good thing, and doesn't feel poli…

Some years ago I was unsatisfied with my pay and I accepted the interview of a Giant Search corp, getting to the on-site interview. The lunch with random employees was perhaps the best part of the experience for me, as it became abundantly clear that a good chunk of devs that I had some conversation with outlined in very generic terms the same basic stuff everybody else needs to do in software: maintenance, basic infrastructure, scripts, and so on. Which is, you know, totally expected.

I'm pretty sure that everything is at scale and so on, but I couldn't shake the feeling that up to that point the stuff I would be working on was not on the table and I could be switching from a place where I like what I'm doing [biotech] to just a highly paid but plainly boring SE job.

This curbed my enthusiasm instantly. Up to that point in my career I always considered available positions based on the actual function I would be doing in the company, never vice-versa.

The afternoon sessions didn't work as well, and although I could still have some extra interviews through phone calls I cancelled them a few days afterwards.

I cannot say for sure what did I miss, but I am certainly totally disillusioned for Big Search as a company today due to it's consumer attitude that I no longer wish for a position there.

Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews

#570

Post by htfu »

karlkatzke wrote: post #332
bilekas wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to note about coding interviews, they're very simular to somone looking over your shoulder while you're working. Nobody can perform well like that.. One great colleague who I wish I was in the interview for, simple started thinking out loud. Everything he was thinking, he said out loud, and of course, the team loved it. Because thats all it's about. If its not over a video chat/submission, comment your code…

So I had an interview that was like that, but I wasn’t given enough information. I was asked to implement the “inverse square law in code” ... and I explained to the interviewer who was two years out of college (I looked up all of the interviewers on linkedin, so I had a good idea of their experience and areas of expertise) that my first step as someone who hadn’t been in an academic environment or exposed to this ki…

Though what's a bit silly here is that all the information you need is right there in the two words "inverse square", it's only the word "law" tacked on that made you (presumably) assume there had to be more to the concept.

You'd assume a competent enough interviewer wouldn't be so rigid and at least hint that you shouldn't overthink it...

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