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As a developer who is currently in the market after the last startup I worked for started laying people off, I definitely agree that the current process can be
by markbnj 11y ago
As a developer who is currently in the market after the last startup I worked for started laying people off, I definitely agree that the current process can be badly broken. This is the first time I have had to go out and interview cold in six years, and I'm struck by how much it has changed. I had one company put me through seven interviews with different team members, each lasting 30-45 minutes, each appearing to go very well (including comments like "You're a shoo-in" and "I'll be very excited to work with you," only to receive a two or three sentence brush off email more than a week after the last of them. The whole process took nearly a month. I interviewed with another company, an NYC startup, and again it went well. After three weeks and no response to a polite inquiry email from me they finally reached out and asked me if I wanted to do an onsite. Three weeks without a word on how I had done or whether they wanted to proceed. I don't want to work for a company that treats candidates like that. There were other examples: a company that did two phone screens and told me I'd fit in "very well" and then asked me to drive to Boston for a f2f lunch (ten hour road trip), after which they brushed me off because they didn't think I'd be happy if I couldn't use docker and kubernetes right away. I interviewed with a large mid-western company a week ago today, second interview, spent almost an hour with two senior engineers. Felt like it went well. Have not heard a single word since, and no reply to an inquiry email. It's just disrespectful as hell in my opinion, and tells me a lot about a company's internal culture.
- znebby 11y agoI responded to a job posting for a YC company on the HN front page. The CEO responded within an hour and we scheduled a call for the following day. 40 minutes before that call was scheduled to take place, he cancelled it and asked to reschedule. Understandable, these things happen. When the rescheduled call was meant to take place, he just didn't show up. I emailed him about an hour later, just saying that I'm not sure what happened but I didn't get a call. He never replied. A few days later they were posting jobs on YC again. It's not like it was my dream job but it just made me so mad that someone would treat me like that. When I get to be in a position of hiring people I will never treat anyone like that. In the rare case I ever have to miss a call without informing in advance, I'll at least have the courtesy to apologize. Extremely disrespectful and I definitely wouldn't want to work at such a place, especially when this behaviour comes from the CEO.
- percept 11y agoThe best jobs I've had were all handshake deals, short and simple. The 10-hour ones (screenings, exercises, interviews ad nauseam) are usually still open months later. It's not you--it's them.
- markbnj 11y agoYou know that's been pretty true for me, too. Often when one gig looks like its winding down I've met people and formed strong enough relationships that something else pops up, but this last startup was a mismanaged mess that fell apart for me in five months, so I sort of got caught by surprise.