5 ms·

> And it really sucks that being a full time programmer isn't remotely sufficient experience for any kind of technical job interview I won't name names, but at

> And it really sucks that being a full time programmer isn't remotely sufficient experience for any kind of technical job interview I won't name names, but at least one large tech company in the bay actually runs evening classes for people interviewing (classes that are run by somebody very well known in the interview prep field: these aren't cheap sessions run by somebody internal). When I found this out I could only laugh: I assume the HR department looked at the number of people flaming out of the interviews and thought "what could we do about this?"...and rather than treating the symptom (changing the way that they interview) they treated the problem instead (even more prep).

stale2002 9y ago
Let me guess. The company is Google and the interview prep person is Gayle from cracking the code interview.
- poikniok 9y ago
  Close, I think the company is Facebook.
  - tdeck 9y ago
    Sounds like something Facebook would do. When I interviewed they told me that even though I was an industry candidate, they always try to make sure everyone gets two weeks before the interview to study. I don't know how this didn't set off BS detectors internally but there you have it.
  - Black-Plaid 9y ago
    Google actually does this in their Seattle location.
patch_cable 9y ago
Google offered classes in Seattle when I interviewed with them. My reaction was the same as yours.
austincheney 9y ago
Interviewing is stupid simple. It is your ego moment. You get to sit in a room and talk about yourself. Although you don't control the conversation you can steer it in creative enough directions to keep it fun and positive. Maybe if you are a college grad with 0 real life experience then maybe interview prep is necessary... don't know. I could be biased though. The last place I interviewed at they knew who I was, something about my software, and some of my online controversies before I even walked in the door. The best preparation for interviewing at large companies is having a second part-time job somewhere in management. I held my first management position in a part-time job at age 24 and was once a director. I have never held a management position in the primary full-time career, which is a weird inverse of power-distance in some work meetings. Being a parent is also good experience for dealing with people. What they need to provide education on isn't dominating the interview process... but drilling down on the proper information necessary for new candidate retention. I have worked at places that are awesome and really work hard to ensure you are happy and constantly engaged in the work. I have also worked at places that completely suck full of benchwarmers with a million layers of abstractions so that code monkeys can feel a bit more confident. It is helpful to know if you are going to be miserable in the organization. The candidate really does share some of the burden of figuring out if they will be a good fit for the organization, but this is often really hard to interrogate out of the interviewers even for experienced people.
- majormajor 9y ago
  "Interviewing is stupid simple. It is your ego moment. You get to sit in a room and talk about yourself. Although you don't control the conversation you can steer it in creative enough directions to keep it fun and positive." That would be a nice improvement as a first filter, IMO, but this isn't always the case. For Google, for instance, the very first step might be a 45-minute phone conversation with a bored engineer who just wants you to code up whatever tree-based structure and methods tickle their fancy. They might not even tell you what team they work on, or what they do. They have a script, and they run it from memory, and your experience and past accomplishments are out the window.
  - austincheney 9y ago

stale2002 9y ago

Let me guess. The company is Google and the interview prep person is Gayle from cracking the code interview.

poikniok 9y ago
Close, I think the company is Facebook.
- tdeck 9y ago
  Sounds like something Facebook would do. When I interviewed they told me that even though I was an industry candidate, they always try to make sure everyone gets two weeks before the interview to study. I don't know how this didn't set off BS detectors internally but there you have it.
- Black-Plaid 9y ago
  Google actually does this in their Seattle location.

patch_cable 9y ago

Google offered classes in Seattle when I interviewed with them. My reaction was the same as yours.

austincheney 9y ago

Interviewing is stupid simple. It is your ego moment. You get to sit in a room and talk about yourself. Although you don't control the conversation you can steer it in creative enough directions to keep it fun and positive. Maybe if you are a college grad with 0 real life experience then maybe interview prep is necessary... don't know. I could be biased though. The last place I interviewed at they knew who I was, something about my software, and some of my online controversies before I even walked in the door. The best preparation for interviewing at large companies is having a second part-time job somewhere in management. I held my first management position in a part-time job at age 24 and was once a director. I have never held a management position in the primary full-time career, which is a weird inverse of power-distance in some work meetings. Being a parent is also good experience for dealing with people. What they need to provide education on isn't dominating the interview process... but drilling down on the proper information necessary for new candidate retention. I have worked at places that are awesome and really work hard to ensure you are happy and constantly engaged in the work. I have also worked at places that completely suck full of benchwarmers with a million layers of abstractions so that code monkeys can feel a bit more confident. It is helpful to know if you are going to be miserable in the organization. The candidate really does share some of the burden of figuring out if they will be a good fit for the organization, but this is often really hard to interrogate out of the interviewers even for experienced people.

majormajor 9y ago
"Interviewing is stupid simple. It is your ego moment. You get to sit in a room and talk about yourself. Although you don't control the conversation you can steer it in creative enough directions to keep it fun and positive." That would be a nice improvement as a first filter, IMO, but this isn't always the case. For Google, for instance, the very first step might be a 45-minute phone conversation with a bored engineer who just wants you to code up whatever tree-based structure and methods tickle their fancy. They might not even tell you what team they work on, or what they do. They have a script, and they run it from memory, and your experience and past accomplishments are out the window.
- austincheney 9y ago