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Except for the part where other professions do hire like software development (and a lot of firms don't require take home tests). Generally jobs that require a

Except for the part where other professions do hire like software development (and a lot of firms don't require take home tests). Generally jobs that require a technical skill set and are equally high paying do focus on these things. Consulting has case study interviews and quantitative tests, finance firms outside of the sales heavy organizations are known for asking complex math problems and puzzles. Hell, even accounting firms do case studies for people with a bit of experience (something you get good at by dedicating extra time outside of work). In similar fields that don't do these types of challenges, they focus on academic excellence and professional certifications. A doctor will get hired because they came from a top residency program, a lawyer will get hired because they made law review at a T14 school. The only example that I can't really debunk is the civil engineering one, although, it isn't known for being high paying and i'm not super familiar with the industry.

_raoulcousins 9y ago
Are all-day interviews typical in other professions? Honest question. I don't think it's a good or bad thing. I appreciate meeting a lot more people when it's a long interview, but of course it is tiring.
- pdubbs90 9y ago
  Can't speak for many professions, but a long series of interviews where you do a bunch of modules and meet a large proportion of your team is pretty typical in consulting.
- zjaffee 9y ago
  I think it very much depends, some professions have much longer interviews (at least historically), namely where banks would do super days where you could be having possibly 10 interviews (compared to maybe 4-5 you'd have in software). However, the difference here is that a lot of software companies will then later have you talk to different managers on the phone rather than knowing which team you'd be on at the time you get the initial offer.
s17n 9y ago
You forgot to mention that standardized test are used in a lot of these professions (eg, accounting and medicine). It often seems to me that the people who complain about software hiring actually like the completely vacuous "talk about yourself" type interview that you get for some corporate jobs. Either that or they just like bitching and it never occurs to them to consider why things are the way they are. Not that there isn't a ton of room for improvement - it's known that the whiteboard coding interview process gives terrible signal - but that's because it's an extremely difficult problem, not because the current methodology is particularly stupid.

_raoulcousins 9y ago

Are all-day interviews typical in other professions? Honest question. I don't think it's a good or bad thing. I appreciate meeting a lot more people when it's a long interview, but of course it is tiring.

pdubbs90 9y ago
Can't speak for many professions, but a long series of interviews where you do a bunch of modules and meet a large proportion of your team is pretty typical in consulting.
zjaffee 9y ago
I think it very much depends, some professions have much longer interviews (at least historically), namely where banks would do super days where you could be having possibly 10 interviews (compared to maybe 4-5 you'd have in software). However, the difference here is that a lot of software companies will then later have you talk to different managers on the phone rather than knowing which team you'd be on at the time you get the initial offer.

s17n 9y ago

You forgot to mention that standardized test are used in a lot of these professions (eg, accounting and medicine). It often seems to me that the people who complain about software hiring actually like the completely vacuous "talk about yourself" type interview that you get for some corporate jobs. Either that or they just like bitching and it never occurs to them to consider why things are the way they are. Not that there isn't a ton of room for improvement - it's known that the whiteboard coding interview process gives terrible signal - but that's because it's an extremely difficult problem, not because the current methodology is particularly stupid.