4 ms·

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 bec

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).
    - hocuspocus 9y ago
      FB London has many teams doing interesting stuff. I'm not sure about Google (Zürich is bigger and pays more anyway) or Amazon. Netflix got back to me within a couple hours after a one-click application on their careers page! Unfortunately I had to prioritize other companies at that time, we put things on hold due to the visa situation in the US and I never got the chance to have a technical interview. Before I left Berlin, Twitch seemed to be hiring engineers there.
      - richardknop 9y ago
        Yeah, but pay in London is mediocre compared to contracting (for FB and GOOG). I applied to US. I was never interested in moving to Berlin.
jeffreyrogers 9y ago
Dude, any other job that pays remotely in the same range requires way more BS than doing 200-300 questions. If people want to make more they should just shut up, put their heads down for however long it takes, and signal whatever bullshit is required. That takes way less time than going back to school. If it were easy everyone would do it and doing it would be worthless. Want to work in finance? Have fun doing boring shit and working long hours for years. Doctor? Blow your 20s on 4 years of school + several more years of residency and maybe a fellowship. Lawyer? First, get into a good law school then spend an enormous amount of time working to get your billable hours in. And if you're a woman and want kids, good luck balancing all that with starting a family.

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).
  - hocuspocus 9y ago
    FB London has many teams doing interesting stuff. I'm not sure about Google (Zürich is bigger and pays more anyway) or Amazon. Netflix got back to me within a couple hours after a one-click application on their careers page! Unfortunately I had to prioritize other companies at that time, we put things on hold due to the visa situation in the US and I never got the chance to have a technical interview. Before I left Berlin, Twitch seemed to be hiring engineers there.
    - richardknop 9y ago
      Yeah, but pay in London is mediocre compared to contracting (for FB and GOOG). I applied to US. I was never interested in moving to Berlin.

jeffreyrogers 9y ago

Dude, any other job that pays remotely in the same range requires way more BS than doing 200-300 questions. If people want to make more they should just shut up, put their heads down for however long it takes, and signal whatever bullshit is required. That takes way less time than going back to school. If it were easy everyone would do it and doing it would be worthless. Want to work in finance? Have fun doing boring shit and working long hours for years. Doctor? Blow your 20s on 4 years of school + several more years of residency and maybe a fellowship. Lawyer? First, get into a good law school then spend an enormous amount of time working to get your billable hours in. And if you're a woman and want kids, good luck balancing all that with starting a family.