91–100 of 159 posts
The quizzes and puzzles style of interviewing is terrible. Don't stress about it. Just be yourself. A good answer to most questions is, "I'd look on stack overflow and some blog posts to see what other people are doing." If they don't like it then you probably wouldn't enjoy working there anyway.
I went through something similar, and ended up failing a bunch of coding interviews. Also I read David Graeber’s book on bull shit jobs, which was really cathartic for me. I ended up quitting my job, selling my house, and now I’m looking for some property to buy so I can subsistence farm.
To provide a perspective from the other side of the table: I conducted a good share of job interviews for my company and would likely pose a comparable question to the applicant mostly to determine a) their ability to grasp a problem and to reflect on the degree of their understanding of it, b) test their behavior in situations that are over their head and c) test their ability to come up with and discuss solutions based on reasoning and the facts given.
For a) I would expect the applicant to identify what information is missing and either to communicate assumptions for the white spots on the map or to pose relevant questions. Regarding b), I would expect the applicant to openly state if they feel that the challenge is above their head _but_ try to give me a solution nonetheless. Which brings me to c): I would not expect a working solution; not even a complete one. I would like to see whether the applicant can work on given input and outline the reasoning behind the suggested solution in a coherent and understandable way based on that input.
My bottom line for you would be, that if you think what I said might apply to the interviews you experienced, you should try to re-frame such questions for yourself. Unless you see yourself unfit to adapt your approach (which I do not think, as ASKing-HN is proof for existent self-reflection), I see no reason in what you wrote that indicates that you should leave the industry.
I went through something similar, and ended up failing a bunch of coding interviews. Also I read David Graeber’s book on bull shit jobs, which was really cathartic for me. I ended up quitting my job, selling my house, and now I’m looking for some property to buy so I can subsistence farm.
I think it takes a certain amount of reflection to reach a mental state where you become the person you want to be. That is crucial to avoid subversion of the self to the corporation. Once you get there, you can have a more symmetric relationship with your employer. Both parties end up better off. It's a shame that society often doesn't have the "speed bumps" which allow people to do this without going through radical ups and downs, but it is harder to change society than it is to change yourself. I hope you get what you need out of your journey.
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This is really awesome - but I feel like it's also an extreme that few are willing to take. One thing which is an argument for software development is that the relatively good salary should enable you to save up and take a sabbatical every 4-5 years. To me, that is absolutely worth doing this job, even if I don't always like it (also, there's also almost nothing I would be qualified to do, at the moment, to be fair).
For sure, and it’s definitely something I never would have planned or expected for myself. It was also partly influenced by COVID, and further compounded by pretty rough break up. But the funny thing is, I really feel more comfortable and confident than when I was “succeeding”. I used to feel so guilty about a one line code fix taking weeks to deploy, or I used to feel so guilty and terrible for not paying attention…
Wow, you've succinctly described how I feel about my dev career spot on.
With over 20 years experience in the industry, and some products I have worked on visible in SuperBowl advertisements, I can honestly say during interviews I can count to potato. Most recently during a live coding challenge I forgot to you, you know, occasionally run and test the code I was working on, and had one hour to complete. I can also anecdotally report code challenges seems to have become a lot more common i…
> I can also anecdotally report code challenges seems to have become a lot more common in interviews recently. At least these are halfway representative of the job. It's a lot better than being told you're two inches tall, in a blender, and the blender's going to turn on in five seconds, what do you do.
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I'm a 44 year old software engineer. I've done other things before, but I've gotten an offer every place I've interviewed. This simply isn't true. It might be true in silicon valley or some other hipster magnets, but there's definitely a market for those of us who have been around for decades and been solving problems for decades.
Do you stay current? I see resumes for similar aged people who know cold fusion and Delphi, and those that know JavaScript and Elixer. I suspect interviews go very differently for the two groups.
I don't do web dev so I don't give a shit about javascript.
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> I can also anecdotally report code challenges seems to have become a lot more common in interviews recently. At least these are halfway representative of the job. It's a lot better than being told you're two inches tall, in a blender, and the blender's going to turn on in five seconds, what do you do.
Pleeeeease tell me you’ve actually been asked this question in an interview
I've gotten a logic riddle that involves scissors and rope, asking what my super power would be, and favorite movie. One that was at least based in math was how many ways are there for a knight to move from the lower left hand corner of a chess board to the upper right without moving back (no left or down moves). Not the DP-solution, though, a closed-form equation.
Sometimes, the interviewer will purposely give you a question beyond your reach. There are a few reasons. - To zero in on what you already know. - To see how you react in a situation where you don't have all the information. What is your attitude when you are in this situation? Do you shut down? Walk out? Or are you able to form open ended questions to get the missing information? In any type of job, you're always in…
I ask questions beyond the job scope in interviews, but I when the applicant looks nervous, I tell them that's what I'm doing. I'm often pleasantly surprised at the answers and it's one of the more useful aspects of the interview for me.