6 ms·

It always strikes me as odd at how much HN complanies about hiring practices in tech. Spend a few weeks with Leetcode and CTCI and you have a decent shot at sal

It always strikes me as odd at how much HN complanies about hiring practices in tech. Spend a few weeks with Leetcode and CTCI and you have a decent shot at salaries in this range at the BigCo's (depends on location of course). What other industry has it's interview process so transparent with such high rewards?

mchaver 9y ago
What is CTCI? Search engines didn't return any results that make sense.
- Momquist 9y ago
  http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/ http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/
- sidlls 9y ago
  Cracking the Coding Interview. It's a book by a software coder about how to pass code interviews at places like Facebook and Google. I suspect the author makes more money on the book than she ever did as a coder.
  - mchaver 9y ago
    Thanks. I knew of the book, but not the acronym.
sidlls 9y ago
I complain about it because it's absurd. It's also actually not that transparent, because for all it supposedly is there is still the bias against age, gender and a number of other things that no matter how Leet your Code interview is will get you rejected.
hocuspocus 9y ago
If you have a job and any kind of social life, going through 200~300 questions like OP is going to take you more than a few weeks. A lot of people complain because this is the very example of cargo culting, you hire people who went through the same questions and reject those who haven't, even though it has no bearing on their ability to do the job.
- richardknop 9y ago
  Sure but you are forgetting a key factor. Once you get Google/FB/Amazon (or to a lesser extent even a unicorn like Netflix/Airbnb/Dropbox etc) on your CV, that will help you tremendously in your career. You will get shortlisted for top jobs and bombarded by opportunities by recruiters forever and you will be able to skip any screenings and phone interviews and just go for final onsite interview mostly. Investing several weeks or couple of months once might be worth it as you will reap benefits for a long time, perhaps until retirement. You need to consider this before you decide not to spend the time to go through CTCI etc.
  - hocuspocus 9y ago
    I've had interviews with most companies you mention. Getting in touch with a recruiter and passing the phone screenings hasn't really been a problem. Maybe I'm not smart enough, but on-site rounds are a different story. I've practiced CTCI and solved my fair share of questions on Leetcode. Yet I find pretty hard to get back into it on a short notice. It's not a one-time investment. I assume I'm not the only one since - The on-site to offer conversion ratio is typically between 6:1 and 8:1 at such companies. - Most people do better with practice. It implies that a standardized process is biased towards people who have the opportunity and time to interview a lot for fun. (Some companies let teams do their own hiring though, where this is less of an issue). Not everyone lives in the valley or in a place with a high concentration of tech companies. At least the Microsoft-era questions such as "how much would you charge to clean all the windows in Seattle" were more equally silly and unfair to everyone, including outsiders.
    - richardknop 9y ago
      Well I applied for a job at both Netflix & Twitch and never heard back from them. I think if I had Google/Apple/Facebook/Amazon on my CV I might have gotten more recognition. Just my personal opinion, I could be wrong. Funny thing is, I have been called by Google, Amazon and FB recruiters in London couple of times. But I never went for onsite interview. I figured they can't really match contractor pay and they only outsource "shitty" jobs to London (I told recruiters my contractor rate and asked them if they can match/beat it and answer was no).
jaredklewis 9y ago
This is such a good point. Imagine you discovered an opportunity for arbritage in currency exchanges, for example. A normal person might quickly act to start printing money before the market corrects and the opportunity ends. Meanwhile, programmers have noticed that being able to solve algorithmic quizzes with a smile is a free ticket to an oversized salary. Their collection reaction? Disgust and defiance! As you say, people in other professions would probably be happy to replace their black box interviews with a set of relatively uniform tests. All a programmer has to do to get a job is ring up a recruiter and then complete some algorithmic challenges. From the perspective of the programmer, why do we want to replace this?
- cesnja 9y ago
  Because one would want to work with people that are good at the work they do, not just good at the interviewing.

mchaver 9y ago

What is CTCI? Search engines didn't return any results that make sense.

Momquist 9y ago
http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/ http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/
sidlls 9y ago
Cracking the Coding Interview. It's a book by a software coder about how to pass code interviews at places like Facebook and Google. I suspect the author makes more money on the book than she ever did as a coder.
- mchaver 9y ago
  Thanks. I knew of the book, but not the acronym.

sidlls 9y ago

I complain about it because it's absurd. It's also actually not that transparent, because for all it supposedly is there is still the bias against age, gender and a number of other things that no matter how Leet your Code interview is will get you rejected.

hocuspocus 9y ago

If you have a job and any kind of social life, going through 200~300 questions like OP is going to take you more than a few weeks. A lot of people complain because this is the very example of cargo culting, you hire people who went through the same questions and reject those who haven't, even though it has no bearing on their ability to do the job.

richardknop 9y ago
Sure but you are forgetting a key factor. Once you get Google/FB/Amazon (or to a lesser extent even a unicorn like Netflix/Airbnb/Dropbox etc) on your CV, that will help you tremendously in your career. You will get shortlisted for top jobs and bombarded by opportunities by recruiters forever and you will be able to skip any screenings and phone interviews and just go for final onsite interview mostly. Investing several weeks or couple of months once might be worth it as you will reap benefits for a long time, perhaps until retirement. You need to consider this before you decide not to spend the time to go through CTCI etc.
- hocuspocus 9y ago
  I've had interviews with most companies you mention. Getting in touch with a recruiter and passing the phone screenings hasn't really been a problem. Maybe I'm not smart enough, but on-site rounds are a different story. I've practiced CTCI and solved my fair share of questions on Leetcode. Yet I find pretty hard to get back into it on a short notice. It's not a one-time investment. I assume I'm not the only one since - The on-site to offer conversion ratio is typically between 6:1 and 8:1 at such companies. - Most people do better with practice. It implies that a standardized process is biased towards people who have the opportunity and time to interview a lot for fun. (Some companies let teams do their own hiring though, where this is less of an issue). Not everyone lives in the valley or in a place with a high concentration of tech companies. At least the Microsoft-era questions such as "how much would you charge to clean all the windows in Seattle" were more equally silly and unfair to everyone, including outsiders.
  - richardknop 9y ago
    Well I applied for a job at both Netflix & Twitch and never heard back from them. I think if I had Google/Apple/Facebook/Amazon on my CV I might have gotten more recognition. Just my personal opinion, I could be wrong. Funny thing is, I have been called by Google, Amazon and FB recruiters in London couple of times. But I never went for onsite interview. I figured they can't really match contractor pay and they only outsource "shitty" jobs to London (I told recruiters my contractor rate and asked them if they can match/beat it and answer was no).

jaredklewis 9y ago

This is such a good point. Imagine you discovered an opportunity for arbritage in currency exchanges, for example. A normal person might quickly act to start printing money before the market corrects and the opportunity ends. Meanwhile, programmers have noticed that being able to solve algorithmic quizzes with a smile is a free ticket to an oversized salary. Their collection reaction? Disgust and defiance! As you say, people in other professions would probably be happy to replace their black box interviews with a set of relatively uniform tests. All a programmer has to do to get a job is ring up a recruiter and then complete some algorithmic challenges. From the perspective of the programmer, why do we want to replace this?

cesnja 9y ago
Because one would want to work with people that are good at the work they do, not just good at the interviewing.