5 ms·

I want to soften this viewpoint a bit. I had similarly bungled experiences with both Facebook and Google (eventually got offers from both, accepted at Google).

I want to soften this viewpoint a bit. I had similarly bungled experiences with both Facebook and Google (eventually got offers from both, accepted at Google). Missed phone calls, mistaken identity, inter-office communication problems and more. It's not a fair reflection of the company at large; recruiting is very often a shit show for all kinds of reasons.

kifler 11y ago
Ditto this experience from Shopify
bsg75 11y ago
It is fair however to keep in mind that employees, or potential recruits, who forget to keep meeting times or fail to show up could have a very different outcome.
- djtriptych 11y ago
  I'd say as a candidate you're on the hook as well to push the process forward.
stcredzero 11y ago
recruiting is very often a shit show for all kinds of reasons I never before experienced the kind of rudeness and incompetence during hiring I had encountered while being interviewed in the Bay Area tech scene. Interviewers not keeping phone appointments. Interviewers blatantly not listening. Interviewers basically (incorrectly) implying that I'm lying. I will observe that the YCombinator companies fared much better than the above, however. Much, much better!
- bane 11y ago
  I'm on the East Coast, and I've interviewed with a fair number of East Coast and West Coast companies and the West Coast ones were by far the worst. Google and Amazon have been fair to middling, but there's been some that were probably so inept it has to fall under some kind of criminal law somewhere.
  - Twirrim 11y ago
    Friend of mine got interviewed by a well known company down in the Bellevue area of Washington, for a role managing storage stuff, shortly after moving to the area. They got him in 5 times over a month for interviews with various people, and eventually about 3-4 weeks after the final interview they offered him the job. They seemed very surprised when he laughed and told them they were too late, he'd got work elsewhere, as if they somehow expected him to sit around on his arse waiting for the job.
    - adam419 11y ago
      Ebay? I'm curious to know the company if you're willing to share because I grew up in Bellevue and worked at a software company downtown there as well.
    - bane 11y ago
      Yeah, lots of the companies seem to operate like engineers aren't in high demand virtually everywhere and that they offer some kind of special je-ne-sais-quoi that will convince qualified people to sit around for months while they make up their mind. I can say having been on the hiring-side of various companies for a while, most East Coast companies can go from looking at an application to hire inside a couple of weeks if they're slow, inside of a week if they're pretty well put together and can get enough people for interviews. It just simply doesn't take 5 interviews and two months to find somebody -- that's just ineptitude...and those companies' own internal metrics show all the process and hoops don't make much difference in final employee performance.
    - kamaal 11y ago
      As a general rule you are better off not working at such places, because people there are generally so full of themselves. Growth, promotions, raises and other perks will come in a trickle unless you are a member of some political cartel in the company, because every one thinks they are special. Recruiting is worse of course, because they don't generally grant easy access to their elite club.
rdtsc 11y ago
Out of 6 companies I talked to over the course of a couple of months, Amazon somehow managed to stand out.
pekk 11y ago
It is an industry-wide cultural problem.
s73v3r 11y ago
I think it very much is a reflection of the company, in that it shows they don't take it seriously.
- djtriptych 11y ago
  I should add that I've also had fairly positive recruiting experiences at companies I ended up not liking at all. I'm saying there may be not be much correlation between the HR/talent departments and eng.
serge2k 11y ago
> It's not a fair reflection of the company at large; recruiting is very often a shit show for all kinds of reasons I have personally dropped the ball on an interview once, had the wrong time written down to meet someone. Apologized profusely when i did arrive. :/ Having interviewed with Amazon, MS, Google, and Facebook I have to say MS was by far the easiest experience of the 4. Applied, a few weeks later they contacted me, 2 weeks later I did my interview, offer a day later. Facebook and google it was more like apply wait weeks for response, wait a couple weeks for phone screen, wait a week for resposne, wait a couple weeks for a second phone screen, wait a week for response, wait a few weeks for in person, wait a couple weeks for response. Amazon was similar, but at least that was over the holidays and I actually travelled for that one.

kifler 11y ago

Ditto this experience from Shopify

bsg75 11y ago

It is fair however to keep in mind that employees, or potential recruits, who forget to keep meeting times or fail to show up could have a very different outcome.

djtriptych 11y ago
I'd say as a candidate you're on the hook as well to push the process forward.

stcredzero 11y ago

recruiting is very often a shit show for all kinds of reasons I never before experienced the kind of rudeness and incompetence during hiring I had encountered while being interviewed in the Bay Area tech scene. Interviewers not keeping phone appointments. Interviewers blatantly not listening. Interviewers basically (incorrectly) implying that I'm lying. I will observe that the YCombinator companies fared much better than the above, however. Much, much better!

bane 11y ago
I'm on the East Coast, and I've interviewed with a fair number of East Coast and West Coast companies and the West Coast ones were by far the worst. Google and Amazon have been fair to middling, but there's been some that were probably so inept it has to fall under some kind of criminal law somewhere.
- Twirrim 11y ago
  Friend of mine got interviewed by a well known company down in the Bellevue area of Washington, for a role managing storage stuff, shortly after moving to the area. They got him in 5 times over a month for interviews with various people, and eventually about 3-4 weeks after the final interview they offered him the job. They seemed very surprised when he laughed and told them they were too late, he'd got work elsewhere, as if they somehow expected him to sit around on his arse waiting for the job.
  - adam419 11y ago
    Ebay? I'm curious to know the company if you're willing to share because I grew up in Bellevue and worked at a software company downtown there as well.
  - bane 11y ago
    Yeah, lots of the companies seem to operate like engineers aren't in high demand virtually everywhere and that they offer some kind of special je-ne-sais-quoi that will convince qualified people to sit around for months while they make up their mind. I can say having been on the hiring-side of various companies for a while, most East Coast companies can go from looking at an application to hire inside a couple of weeks if they're slow, inside of a week if they're pretty well put together and can get enough people for interviews. It just simply doesn't take 5 interviews and two months to find somebody -- that's just ineptitude...and those companies' own internal metrics show all the process and hoops don't make much difference in final employee performance.
  - kamaal 11y ago
    As a general rule you are better off not working at such places, because people there are generally so full of themselves. Growth, promotions, raises and other perks will come in a trickle unless you are a member of some political cartel in the company, because every one thinks they are special. Recruiting is worse of course, because they don't generally grant easy access to their elite club.

rdtsc 11y ago

Out of 6 companies I talked to over the course of a couple of months, Amazon somehow managed to stand out.

pekk 11y ago

It is an industry-wide cultural problem.

s73v3r 11y ago

I think it very much is a reflection of the company, in that it shows they don't take it seriously.

djtriptych 11y ago
I should add that I've also had fairly positive recruiting experiences at companies I ended up not liking at all. I'm saying there may be not be much correlation between the HR/talent departments and eng.

serge2k 11y ago

> It's not a fair reflection of the company at large; recruiting is very often a shit show for all kinds of reasons I have personally dropped the ball on an interview once, had the wrong time written down to meet someone. Apologized profusely when i did arrive. :/ Having interviewed with Amazon, MS, Google, and Facebook I have to say MS was by far the easiest experience of the 4. Applied, a few weeks later they contacted me, 2 weeks later I did my interview, offer a day later. Facebook and google it was more like apply wait weeks for response, wait a couple weeks for phone screen, wait a week for resposne, wait a couple weeks for a second phone screen, wait a week for response, wait a few weeks for in person, wait a couple weeks for response. Amazon was similar, but at least that was over the holidays and I actually travelled for that one.