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They didn't brief me to expect that. Or, to be fair, maybe they did and I missed it. I didn't mention above that he refused to answer a couple of basic questio

They didn't brief me to expect that. Or, to be fair, maybe they did and I missed it. I didn't mention above that he refused to answer a couple of basic questions (what type of work is it? what language? where will the job be? can I be remote?) until he got through the script. It was like talking to a machine. And he was rude. I got a negative impression. I know, sometimes recruits are expected to put up with some rudeness or brusqueness to show how flexible they are, can put up with different personalities etc. But this guy just came across as kind of immature and arrogant. Sorry, but I'm quite glad I terminated the interview and he also seemed unwilling to push at all, just said "okay!" in a sing-song voice that implied "yeah whatever, go die". At least be polite and try to convey some professionalism or you're going to turn off people who prefer to work around professionals.

nobodyandproud 6y ago
My one face-to-face interview (put me off for life): Some interviewers were there because they’re committed. Some were doing it because they had to (last-second substitute) and it showed as they were rude about it or highly disorganized. You don’t have to take it and it’s okay to cut interviews short as the interviewer (I’ve done it before), but it’s a mistake to be unprofessional about how it’s cut short.
VRay 6y ago
Yeah, you're getting a lot of pushback from the corporate drones on here, but you 100% made the right call. If you want to be a part of the FAANG hive mind, you have to be willing to jump through a bunch of hoops. The job itself is mostly just cranking out/maintaining a bunch of boring backend plumbing for boring stuff, with little to no correlation between the value you bring to the company and your compensation. Saved the company a million bucks a year? "Great, here's a $25,000 bonus." Saved the company a million bucks a year, but your VP lost a fight with another VP? "You're just not a team player, no bonus this year"
- codingprograms 6y ago
  I know you’d like to believe this. But I see a constant stream of challenging software problems at FAANG
  - VRay 6y ago
    Yeah, but basically anyone at a FAANG company who landed in any other non-FAANG company would be able to singlehandedly revolutionize the tech at that company. Those same skills that let you plug Machine Learning Library A into Tracking Database B could make things that vastly increase productivity for a bunch of regular people, and if you're doing it for yourself or a small enough shop, it could actually pay off.
    - codingprograms 6y ago
      I can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not
      - VRay 6y ago
        ah, you'll probably get there someday.. Hopefully via observation and not via getting repeatedly screwed over by politicking middle managers
vechagup 6y ago
> he also seemed unwilling to push at all, just said "okay!" in a sing-song voice that implied "yeah whatever, go die" Is the idea here that you wanted the interviewer to beg you to stay on the call? I interview for a BigCo. Most of us do it not because we love interviewing but because 1) It's a way to check the "citizenship" box on performance reviews. 2) A director or VP sent a mass email exhorting us to join the interviewer pool. Everyone I know in fact views interviewing as a chore that takes away from one's day job. But, there's standardized training and emphasis on objective tests and rubrics to minimize bias. Given this assembly line process and the fact that most interviewers want to be elsewhere, there's very little reason to expect a random interviewer to want to sell you on continuing a process that you consider yourself above. If a candidate proclaimed that they didn't agree to the terms of one of my interviews midway through, I'd certainly exchange a few words with them to try to make them more comfortable, but in the end I would by fine with bidding them farewell and being glad that writing up that interview feedback would be easy.
- blisterpeanuts 6y ago
  I mean, yeah, you're probably right. I might have stayed on the call if he'd explained why the actual code was necessary, could even have met me halfway by saying "Yeah, I know it's kind of silly, but it's a requirement. Would you mind doing this, and then we can get on to more interesting stuff?" Or something like that, but he didn't have any kind of friendly or diplomatic response, maybe I was feeling impatient that day; I honestly can't remember because this was like 10 years ago.
  - vechagup 6y ago
    Yeah, one consequence of hiring exclusively based on technical skill is that you end up with some employees that are empathy challenged. My employer recently added one "are you a human?" interview to every loop presumably for this reason.

nobodyandproud 6y ago

My one face-to-face interview (put me off for life): Some interviewers were there because they’re committed. Some were doing it because they had to (last-second substitute) and it showed as they were rude about it or highly disorganized. You don’t have to take it and it’s okay to cut interviews short as the interviewer (I’ve done it before), but it’s a mistake to be unprofessional about how it’s cut short.

VRay 6y ago

Yeah, you're getting a lot of pushback from the corporate drones on here, but you 100% made the right call. If you want to be a part of the FAANG hive mind, you have to be willing to jump through a bunch of hoops. The job itself is mostly just cranking out/maintaining a bunch of boring backend plumbing for boring stuff, with little to no correlation between the value you bring to the company and your compensation. Saved the company a million bucks a year? "Great, here's a $25,000 bonus." Saved the company a million bucks a year, but your VP lost a fight with another VP? "You're just not a team player, no bonus this year"

codingprograms 6y ago
I know you’d like to believe this. But I see a constant stream of challenging software problems at FAANG
- VRay 6y ago
  Yeah, but basically anyone at a FAANG company who landed in any other non-FAANG company would be able to singlehandedly revolutionize the tech at that company. Those same skills that let you plug Machine Learning Library A into Tracking Database B could make things that vastly increase productivity for a bunch of regular people, and if you're doing it for yourself or a small enough shop, it could actually pay off.
  - codingprograms 6y ago
    I can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not
    - VRay 6y ago
      ah, you'll probably get there someday.. Hopefully via observation and not via getting repeatedly screwed over by politicking middle managers

vechagup 6y ago

> he also seemed unwilling to push at all, just said "okay!" in a sing-song voice that implied "yeah whatever, go die" Is the idea here that you wanted the interviewer to beg you to stay on the call? I interview for a BigCo. Most of us do it not because we love interviewing but because 1) It's a way to check the "citizenship" box on performance reviews. 2) A director or VP sent a mass email exhorting us to join the interviewer pool. Everyone I know in fact views interviewing as a chore that takes away from one's day job. But, there's standardized training and emphasis on objective tests and rubrics to minimize bias. Given this assembly line process and the fact that most interviewers want to be elsewhere, there's very little reason to expect a random interviewer to want to sell you on continuing a process that you consider yourself above. If a candidate proclaimed that they didn't agree to the terms of one of my interviews midway through, I'd certainly exchange a few words with them to try to make them more comfortable, but in the end I would by fine with bidding them farewell and being glad that writing up that interview feedback would be easy.

blisterpeanuts 6y ago
I mean, yeah, you're probably right. I might have stayed on the call if he'd explained why the actual code was necessary, could even have met me halfway by saying "Yeah, I know it's kind of silly, but it's a requirement. Would you mind doing this, and then we can get on to more interesting stuff?" Or something like that, but he didn't have any kind of friendly or diplomatic response, maybe I was feeling impatient that day; I honestly can't remember because this was like 10 years ago.
- vechagup 6y ago
  Yeah, one consequence of hiring exclusively based on technical skill is that you end up with some employees that are empathy challenged. My employer recently added one "are you a human?" interview to every loop presumably for this reason.