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I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

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Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#621

Post by gdy »

world32 wrote: post #617
rossdavidh wrote: post #291

When I was a new college grad, I felt trapped by the fact that everywhere I looked they wanted several years of experience, and I had none yet. How can I get experience if it's required to get the job? Now that I am 51, I feel annoyed that all of these stories of interviews involve asking questions about algorithms that rarely come up in real coding, and if they do you should NOT be rolling your own code, you should…

Are algorithm puzzles really that ubiquitous in the US? In the UK I've interviewed at dozens of companies and never once been asked to code a breadth first search or something like that. Nor have I ever heard of a developer being asked to solve such things in interviews over here.

What do they ask in the UK?

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#622

Post by nathan_f77 »

laumars wrote: post #597
saagarjha wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the same reason high school students apply to Stanford and MIT; there are amazing programs everywhere but top-level universities carry prestige and may have higher quality opportunities.

I did cover those points. As I said, the prestige is misguided (in the case of FAANG) and you don't need to go down the FAANG route to have access to higher quality opportunities. Those companies sure want you to believe what you're claiming because it means they get the first bite of the cherry but the reality is very different (from my experience anyway).

> The prestige is misguided (in the case of FAANG)

I strongly disagree, and I'm not sure why you would say that. I've heard that working at Google is a golden stamp on your resume, and you will be able to easily get a job at any other company. You'll probably even be able to skip the coding challenges in any future interviews.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#623

Post by kcmastrpc »

bytematic wrote: post #325
kcmastrpc wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, these tests are carefully devised to target young college graduates who will excel at these types of interviews because the material is still fresh and they have the free time to study. This is age discrimination disguised as "technical proficiency" exercises.

News to me students have the free time to study considering the hiring season is mid-semester during some of the hardest classes. Not to mention if they are working too

try having kids (after school activities, birthdays, etc), spouse (anniversaries/dates), elderly parents and in-laws, a huge network of friends/colleagues whose relationships require constant maintenance (you don't see them at class everyday), fitness/wellness ... i mean, is any of this sinking in yet?

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#624

Post by nathan_f77 »

This is really impressive! I will keep this in mind if I ever apply to any of these big tech companies. I've sent a few applications over the years, but I never got past a phone screening, and I didn't realize how completely unprepared I would have been.

Maybe these whiteboard interviews also filter out people who don't really want the job enough. If someone spends a lot of time brushing up on algorithms and practicing interviews, then it shows that they really want the job, so they're more likely to be a high performer.

I'm surprised they were able to get job offers from Google and Facebook, while their application was just rejected by Stripe. I also got rejected by Stripe without a phone call. I have some really talented friends who were also rejected after an interview. I'm starting to think that Stripe's hiring bar is just much higher than Google or Facebook.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#625

Post by kcmastrpc »

kkarakk wrote: post #522
bytematic wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News to me students have the free time to study considering the hiring season is mid-semester during some of the hardest classes. Not to mention if they are working too

haha guess what, the second piece of the puzzle is that you have to be rich enough to have time to study AND a place that is close enough that commuting to college and work doesn't mentally wipe you out everyday. why do you think silicon valley isn't seen as a place with actual opportunity for everyone even though everyone inside it thinks it's wonderful?

good point, it's also disadvantageous to both women and under-represented groups in this industry.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#627

Post by ljm »

rossdavidh wrote: post #291

When I was a new college grad, I felt trapped by the fact that everywhere I looked they wanted several years of experience, and I had none yet. How can I get experience if it's required to get the job? Now that I am 51, I feel annoyed that all of these stories of interviews involve asking questions about algorithms that rarely come up in real coding, and if they do you should NOT be rolling your own code, you should…

This is my main beef with tech interviews: you get given a test, or an algorithm, or put under the spotlight in a pairing session to solve a problem in essentially the least efficient way possible. It's usually under the guise of seeing how you think, but it's pretty damn hard to do that without also judging how the code looks and how much you were able to write.

This then becomes representative of your experience in spite of that fact that you are never likely to be confronted with that kind of problem with that kind of timeframe. Whatever's on your CV, and whatever you can say about what you've learned over the years, becomes totally irrelevant in the face of that.

I think it's offensive and I don't like how the industry has standardised on basically assuming everyone's a bullshitter. What's worse is that you'll have to repeat this over and over again for any company you interview with.

To that extent I'd much rather see the formation of a professional body that offers a trustworthy credential, potentially one that you need to renew every couple of years to ensure you're still current. That comes with challenges of its own but I'd rather have something that is both verifiable and can be reused.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#628

Post by laumars »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #622
laumars wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did cover those points. As I said, the prestige is misguided (in the case of FAANG) and you don't need to go down the FAANG route to have access to higher quality opportunities. Those companies sure want you to believe what you're claiming because it means they get the first bite of the cherry but the reality is very different (from my experience anyway).

> The prestige is misguided (in the case of FAANG) I strongly disagree, and I'm not sure why you would say that. I've heard that working at Google is a golden stamp on your resume, and you will be able to easily get a job at any other company. You'll probably even be able to skip the coding challenges in any future interviews.

> You'll probably even be able to skip the coding challenges in any future interviews.

Is this speculative or does this actually happen?

As a team leader I'm involved in hiring and I certainly wouldn't treat one applicant any different from another regardless of their previous postings nor experience (except when I'm headhunting someone I've previously worked with). My own experience interviewing has taught me it's easy for people to put stuff down on CVs (eg they might have legitimately worked at Google but through an acquisition rather than hired by; or not even with the team they suggest they have). So I would consider short-cutting part of the interview process in the way you described to be grossly negligent.

I don't dispute that your CV is more likely to get short listed however you can certainly still sell yourself without having FAANG on there.

My general point is that while I don't disagree that having FAANG on your CV will undoubtedly look good, however a good engineer shouldn't have any problems getting awesome jobs with or without FAANG. Thus is the prestige attached to FAANG really equatable in the real world or is it perhaps disproportionately hyped?

Maybe this is just one of those differences between how people are hired in SV (where I haven't worked) and London (where I do work)?

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#629

Post by nvarsj »

toephu2 wrote: post #294
martin1975 wrote: post #218

Way to go young'un! My advice would be, though it may seem attractive to work at the large behemoths, I'd advise you to go to a startup or a medium size company for greater satisfaction and less bureaucracy/politics.

Except FANG on your resume will do wonders for your career down the road..

The sad truth. Even the most mediocre programmer can get good roles with FAANG on their resume.

Re: I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days

#630

Post by widforss »

holdenc wrote: post #377
acpetrov wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just graduated, so I'm not dealing with constant internship interviews anymore, but at the time I absolutely hated it. My frustration isn't exactly like yours (my time is probably a lot less valuable). I feel that the questions are all geared at puzzle solvers. If you're a puzzle solver, you love answers. You love digging into the details. You love finding out the basic components of a system. I think these are the…

I am like you. For me, the solution has been build something and show it off. Building a great and useful app rarely requires Herculean feats of logic and puzzle solving.

My current problem is that I built an app and showed of to some gov agencies, and now that demo app is solving their business problems.
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