I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by alkibiades » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:13 PM UTC

guessmyname wrote: post #9

> If it’s of any use: I was interviewing for my second job out of college with about two and a half years of experience without any particularly notable internships or employers on my resume; I went to a very small school that had zero known software companies at their “career fair”; I started preparing in late April and started applying in June/July; and, lastly, a few months in, my job is everything I could have po…

have you tried lately? it seems like it’s gotten a lot easier lately since the market has been heating up. Source: tried a few months ago and got all the offers also

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

#72

Post by gamma-male » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:13 PM UTC

40acres wrote: post #3

I'm working on preparing for an interview gauntlet but in no way would I do 6 interviews in 6 days. A full day of interviewing is such a draining experience mentally and physically, after interviewing with Google in 2014 I just wanted to get a glass of water for my parched throat and go to sleep. Congratulations to the OP, I have EPI as well and it's certainly a challenging book.

I interviewed with Google a few months ago and it was the worst. I was dying by the end of the day. It is so intense that I just wanted to give up by the last interview. I don't think I will ever apply there again, or if I do I will care less about going 100% for each interview.

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

#73

Post by chooseaname » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:13 PM UTC

apo wrote: post #53

Implied but not explicitly stated in the post is the idea that these interviews are mainly about solving puzzles given during interviews. How depressing. A big part of software development is knowing how to get things done with people you don't agree with or like. A good chunk of the rest is about communication. You know, organizing thoughts into something coherent and actionable, speaking, writing, and most of all l…

No, it's a hazing ritual to see if you'd be a good member of their fraternity.

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

#74

Post by wuunderbar » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

Cookingboy wrote: post #61

As someone who has interviewed with 3 of those 6 companies and gotten offers from all 3, I think the best way to approach these interviews is to not walk in with the mentality that it's a one sided "test" where you are put on a spot to defend yourself. In reality it's more often than not a role-playing exercise where you are pretending to be coworkers trying to solve problems together. Sure you'd be the one leading t…

> In reality it's more often than not a role-playing exercise where you are pretending to be coworkers trying to solve problems together. Sure you'd be the one leading the problem solving, but being capable to explain your thought process effectively, having the ability to exchange ideas with the interviewer, and just being able to come across as a good teammate is probably more important than getting that last 5% of optimization.

Agreed. A lot of times the interviewer will give you hints in the right direction without holding it against you. They usually want you to succeed.

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

#75

Post by alkibiades » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #33

dimgl wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not trapped literally. This is all a mental game. Everything you just listed is an excuse.

Wife and kids are (top) priorities, not excuses.

right but then you’ve made your choice and you live with it.

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

#76

Post by gamma-male » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

apo wrote: post #53

Implied but not explicitly stated in the post is the idea that these interviews are mainly about solving puzzles given during interviews. How depressing. A big part of software development is knowing how to get things done with people you don't agree with or like. A good chunk of the rest is about communication. You know, organizing thoughts into something coherent and actionable, speaking, writing, and most of all l…

I've gone through the same. Only google makes you write code on the whiteboard and only Google gives you A lot of puzzle coding interviews. With the others there is way more discussion and system design going on. It's much nicer as a candidate.

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

#77

Post by jethro_tell » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

kasey_junk wrote: post #14

ForrestN wrote: post #10

I find it shocking that Facebook would still be considered as a peer to these other companies in terms of desirability as an employer. I would only accept a position at Facebook, which seems to be building a fundamentally destructive product while going out of its way to behave unethically in many dimensions, if it was an absolutely last resort to pay the medical bills of some dying loved one or something. Why would…

Cash

I have a number of friends who moved over recently because they were getting their salaries doubled. I cant wrap my mind around it, but money talks.

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

#78

Post by honkycat » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

avitzurel wrote: post #8

I really dislike the fact that you need to study for weeks with specific questions that really have no hold in real life. I've been doing this for 16+ years and I have never asked the type of questions you encounter in these books. Not even once.

Getting a computer science degree from a fancy university would prepare you for these types of questions.

They are a ( maybe unintentional ) dog-whistle for coming a wealthy background which means you will fit right into the cultures at these sorts of places.

Learning to program takes a lot of privilege. Look up the stats for how many google SWE's do not have degrees / where they come from.

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

#79

Post by nuna » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

markdoubleyou wrote: post #12

"After about a month of consistently practicing problems each day (maybe 2–3 hours/day, more on weekends)..." I'm reading this as a guy with a wife, kids, full-time job, and rusty whiteboarding skills. My inability to make this kind of time investment makes me feel trapped at my current position.

mom here. same 2 kids, one a baby... they dont sleep man. I practice at night, about 1 hr before bed. Sometimes during lunch break at work. It takes much longer and its hard to remember all the algorithms. I hope to land a better job too. I am confident in my abilities and I've always been well liked and done great work, but I am not quite confident with interviews yet...

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

#80

Post by odorousrex » Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

guessmyname wrote: post #9

> If it’s of any use: I was interviewing for my second job out of college with about two and a half years of experience without any particularly notable internships or employers on my resume; I went to a very small school that had zero known software companies at their “career fair”; I started preparing in late April and started applying in June/July; and, lastly, a few months in, my job is everything I could have po…

I cannot help but think that these big tech companies (FAANG, et. al) are missing out on diversifying and increasing their engineering expertise by passing over developers like you.

I often think what would Google/Facebook would be like if they hired in some experienced engineers that may not be able to whiteboard a BFS tree or can tell you Djikstra's algorithm, but have proven business track records of getting projects done, on budget, and on time. Real, pragmatic, get-it-done types of engineers. (That's not to say whiteboard expert engineers can't also be this way - it's just that whiteboard interviews don't hire for this in particular - technical expertise comes first)

There was an excellent comment on another thread yesterday (that I can't find) that basically said something along the lines of "If I'm asked about BFS trees in an interview I'm going to tell them I'm just going to google a library that can handle it - I've got more important work to get done"