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I interviewed with Netflix for a front-end JavaScript position a few years ago. I had two technical phone screens. One with the engineering manager and another

by halis 10y ago

I interviewed with Netflix for a front-end JavaScript position a few years ago. I had two technical phone screens. One with the engineering manager and another with a senior engineer on their team. Those went smoothly so I was asked to fly out to Los Gatos, CA. On-site I was supposed to talk first with the senior engineer I had already interviewed with over the phone. He was out sick so they changed at the last minute. In walks a guy in a fedora with full tattoo sleeves. He glances at my resume and laughs saying he hasn't looked at it at all and really knows nothing about me. He proceeds to ask me detailed questions about Node.js. I told him that I was very clear with them on the phone, that I've played around with Node, but I hadn't used it to any serious degree (at that point in my career). He continued with the Node.js questions for a while, some of which I knew because they were the same as the browser (console) some of which I wasn't familiar with at the time (EventEmitter). He then asked me some simple JavaScript, Backbone, CSS questions all of which were easy. He then asked me a C# question and I knew that too. We shook hands and after he left, the engineering manager came back in and I was basically escorted out. He said I was good but that I wasn't what they were looking for. I've had some retarded interview experiences but that one took the cake.

Grishnakh 10y ago
I wonder if he didn't like you because you didn't look like a hipster.... I'm totally serious: I really wonder how many of these baffling interview experiences where seemingly highly-qualified candidates get turned down is really about non-technical and non-work-related factors, but no one wants to actually admit it. How much of it is due to personal biases by the interviewers, who may discriminate against people for various reasons? A lot of people want to surround themselves with people just like themselves, so if you have a company full of hipsters wearing fedoras and someone comes in for an interview and they don't look like that, they could easily be passed over because they're "not a fit for our company culture". I don't think I'm half as competent as the guy who wrote this article, but I've had a much easier time getting jobs in general. My background isn't even CS, it's EE, so I totally suck at all the algorithm questions. But OTOH I generally apply for embedded programming positions where knowledge of algorithms isn't that important anyway. I even interviewed at Google (one of their recruiters contacted me) and had pretty much the same experience as him; I won't waste my time with that company again. A bunch of recruiters have tried to get me to interview at Bloomberg LP, but I would never work in that crappy open-plan environment that they're infamous for. But I frequently wonder how much of my success is just from being tall and in-shape, not having any obvious personality quirks, and "fitting in" with the look and the company culture (I interview with more stodgy places, not places with hipsters with arm-sleeve tattoos), rather than due to my technical proficiency.
- jjn2009 10y ago
  Netflix has a very strong focus on culture so you are likely correct, although it doesn't sound like he got to the part where they actually quiz you on their Netflix culture slide deck they likely did not continue for this reason. There is some merit to trying to maintain culture if they have some formula for what works there and they want to maintain it but an engineer could pretty easily think something along the lines of "he's not hipster enough" and then make a case that they don't fit the culture but really not care about netflix's corporate ideas about culture.
- johnward 10y ago
  Those bloomberg recruiters must contact everyone. I'm like "yeah I play around with Rails on side projects". Then they want to interview me. I've never gone through with it because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be successful in that position.

by halis 10y ago

Grishnakh 10y ago

I wonder if he didn't like you because you didn't look like a hipster.... I'm totally serious: I really wonder how many of these baffling interview experiences where seemingly highly-qualified candidates get turned down is really about non-technical and non-work-related factors, but no one wants to actually admit it. How much of it is due to personal biases by the interviewers, who may discriminate against people for various reasons? A lot of people want to surround themselves with people just like themselves, so if you have a company full of hipsters wearing fedoras and someone comes in for an interview and they don't look like that, they could easily be passed over because they're "not a fit for our company culture". I don't think I'm half as competent as the guy who wrote this article, but I've had a much easier time getting jobs in general. My background isn't even CS, it's EE, so I totally suck at all the algorithm questions. But OTOH I generally apply for embedded programming positions where knowledge of algorithms isn't that important anyway. I even interviewed at Google (one of their recruiters contacted me) and had pretty much the same experience as him; I won't waste my time with that company again. A bunch of recruiters have tried to get me to interview at Bloomberg LP, but I would never work in that crappy open-plan environment that they're infamous for. But I frequently wonder how much of my success is just from being tall and in-shape, not having any obvious personality quirks, and "fitting in" with the look and the company culture (I interview with more stodgy places, not places with hipsters with arm-sleeve tattoos), rather than due to my technical proficiency.

jjn2009 10y ago
Netflix has a very strong focus on culture so you are likely correct, although it doesn't sound like he got to the part where they actually quiz you on their Netflix culture slide deck they likely did not continue for this reason. There is some merit to trying to maintain culture if they have some formula for what works there and they want to maintain it but an engineer could pretty easily think something along the lines of "he's not hipster enough" and then make a case that they don't fit the culture but really not care about netflix's corporate ideas about culture.
johnward 10y ago
Those bloomberg recruiters must contact everyone. I'm like "yeah I play around with Rails on side projects". Then they want to interview me. I've never gone through with it because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be successful in that position.