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A former classmate of mine posted on her blog yesterday about some of her tech interview experiences. She didn't generalize about inclusive culture, but her per

A former classmate of mine posted on her blog yesterday about some of her tech interview experiences. She didn't generalize about inclusive culture, but her perspective is enlightening. http://stephaniehurlburt.com/blog/2016/10/5/a-few-stories-of-tech-interviews http://stephaniehurlburt.com/blog/2016/10/5/a-few-stories-of...

thedufer 10y ago
Perfect correlation between good interviews and getting an offer does not inspire confidence in how accurate the descriptions are. Times like these you want to hear the other side of the story.
- stephenboyd 10y ago
  If an excellent candidate doesn't get an offer, it's probable that something went wrong in the interview process. And if there are only three examples of rejections, there's not enough data to talk about unexpected correlations.
  - thedufer 10y ago
    > If an excellent candidate doesn't get an offer, it's probable that something went wrong in the interview process Google sees about half of their employees come from at least a second interview attempt, implying that qualified people fail at least 1/2 the time. Maybe you're claiming that their process is terrible? Or that most companies are significantly better at hiring than them? As the only data point I can find, though, it seems pretty damning. > And if there are only three examples of rejections It's unclear to me why only rejections count. 7 for 7 is a lot more concerning than 3 for 3. FTR, out of the 6 interview processes I've gone through I can think of 2 that don't correlate in this way (one in each direction). So I think I have some basis for suspicion.
random314 10y ago
Looks like she really dislikes being asked to code in an interview. She just wants to have a friendly conversation. She will be a great fit for consulting firms that bill by the hour.
- ubernostrum 10y ago
  For what it's worth, I hate and am doing everything I can to kill the coding interview as typically practiced. Giving a take-home exercise and having part of the interview be a collaborative review of it? Good idea, works well. Developing exercises where interviewer and candidate pair on a problem, using real coding tools and looking things up as necessary? Good idea, works well. "Here's the whiteboard, here's a problem, code it up" -- doesn't usefully distinguish qualified from unqualified candidates, doesn't give you meaningful information about job-relevant skills, serves only to make people squirm and serve as a "yeah, but I had to do it to pass the interview, too, so now you do". Get rid of it forever. Also, any set of questions designed not to determine someone's programming ability but instead to act as a proxy for something else, like "went to Stanford", goes out the window first chance I get.
  - hvidgaard 10y ago
    If you cannot write a basic loop and if statement of maybe 10-20 lines on a whiteboard, you're going to have a hard time in a team of developers trying to collaborate in problem solving. This is not implementing van Emde Boa search structure, but simple stuff any entry level programmer must comprehend for a general programming posistion.
    - ubernostrum 10y ago
      If you want a coding exercise you can have one. If you think the only way to have a coding exercise is to pose a whiteboard problem, then my advice is get out of this industry, now.
      - hvidgaard 10y ago
qb45 10y ago
She shouldn't be feeling bad and wasting time on some of those interviews (unless she's really desperate for a job, which I hope isn't the case anymore). Early rudeness ought to be an instant no-go, things won't get better if there is no obvious reason for that. Interviewers who clearly hate their job would make me wonder what kind of unpleasant tasks are waiting for me. Formal interview detached from actual job and modeled after some Google suggest a company that is prone to CYA and doesn't really know what they want from their people, probably not a great place unless you are feeling extraordinarily helpful and charitable today.

thedufer 10y ago

Perfect correlation between good interviews and getting an offer does not inspire confidence in how accurate the descriptions are. Times like these you want to hear the other side of the story.

stephenboyd 10y ago
If an excellent candidate doesn't get an offer, it's probable that something went wrong in the interview process. And if there are only three examples of rejections, there's not enough data to talk about unexpected correlations.
- thedufer 10y ago
  > If an excellent candidate doesn't get an offer, it's probable that something went wrong in the interview process Google sees about half of their employees come from at least a second interview attempt, implying that qualified people fail at least 1/2 the time. Maybe you're claiming that their process is terrible? Or that most companies are significantly better at hiring than them? As the only data point I can find, though, it seems pretty damning. > And if there are only three examples of rejections It's unclear to me why only rejections count. 7 for 7 is a lot more concerning than 3 for 3. FTR, out of the 6 interview processes I've gone through I can think of 2 that don't correlate in this way (one in each direction). So I think I have some basis for suspicion.

random314 10y ago

Looks like she really dislikes being asked to code in an interview. She just wants to have a friendly conversation. She will be a great fit for consulting firms that bill by the hour.

ubernostrum 10y ago
For what it's worth, I hate and am doing everything I can to kill the coding interview as typically practiced. Giving a take-home exercise and having part of the interview be a collaborative review of it? Good idea, works well. Developing exercises where interviewer and candidate pair on a problem, using real coding tools and looking things up as necessary? Good idea, works well. "Here's the whiteboard, here's a problem, code it up" -- doesn't usefully distinguish qualified from unqualified candidates, doesn't give you meaningful information about job-relevant skills, serves only to make people squirm and serve as a "yeah, but I had to do it to pass the interview, too, so now you do". Get rid of it forever. Also, any set of questions designed not to determine someone's programming ability but instead to act as a proxy for something else, like "went to Stanford", goes out the window first chance I get.
- hvidgaard 10y ago
  If you cannot write a basic loop and if statement of maybe 10-20 lines on a whiteboard, you're going to have a hard time in a team of developers trying to collaborate in problem solving. This is not implementing van Emde Boa search structure, but simple stuff any entry level programmer must comprehend for a general programming posistion.
  - ubernostrum 10y ago
    If you want a coding exercise you can have one. If you think the only way to have a coding exercise is to pose a whiteboard problem, then my advice is get out of this industry, now.
    - hvidgaard 10y ago

qb45 10y ago

She shouldn't be feeling bad and wasting time on some of those interviews (unless she's really desperate for a job, which I hope isn't the case anymore). Early rudeness ought to be an instant no-go, things won't get better if there is no obvious reason for that. Interviewers who clearly hate their job would make me wonder what kind of unpleasant tasks are waiting for me. Formal interview detached from actual job and modeled after some Google suggest a company that is prone to CYA and doesn't really know what they want from their people, probably not a great place unless you are feeling extraordinarily helpful and charitable today.