3 ms·

> I won’t name any specific companies here, but tech giants (many with good intentions and with marching orders to boost their diversity numbers) often do a con

> I won’t name any specific companies here, but tech giants (many with good intentions and with marching orders to boost their diversity numbers) often do a considerable amount of outreach and pre-interview engagement with candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. This outreach is usually an info session where one engineer speaks to a virtual room of candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. The engineer tells them what to expect in technical interviews, encourages them to learn how to articulate their thought process out loud while solving a problem, and recommends resources like Cracking the Coding Interview. Some companies even go so far as to offer their underrepresented candidates a mock interview or two. [...] Unfortunately, for candidates who are unfamiliar with the process, neither of these interventions is nearly enough. At some point how much hand-holding is enough? They pretty much told candidates where to get sample problems, gave a session showing what the interview is like, did one mock interview... Pretty much all what prospective applicants have to do is pair up and do a few more practice rounds. How is it the evil tech company's fault? They gave them the toolbox with all the tools in it and instruction on what to do. And the material to practice building whatever they said they will test them on.

claudiulodro 6y ago
I haven't participated in too many FAANG interviews and even with the recruiter handholding it's still super confusing if you're not familiar with the scene: What difficulty of questions will be asked? Easy? Hard? Do people actually want to "hear the thinking process" or do they just want an optimum answer regurgitated quickly? Do I need to practice "regular" interview questions also ("What's your greatest weakness?")? All of this with a life-changing, potential millionaire amount of money at stake, which isn't great for the nerves.
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  > What difficulty of questions will be asked? Easy? Hard? Do people actually want to "hear the thinking process" or do they just want an optimum answer regurgitated quickly? Do I need to practice "regular" interview questions also ("What's your greatest weakness?")? Isn't it what they talk about in the outreach session described above?
  - bradlys 6y ago
    Some of them do but every interviewer you encounter has their own methodology. It is exceptional to be at a company and all the interviewers are on the same page about how to interview. This is true even at FAANG where they’re all supposedly trained on how to interview ... but still end up all acting differently.
- pavas 6y ago
  In case you want a real answer here: > What difficulty of questions will be asked? Easy? Hard? Easy to medium depending on the position or any number of factors. MAYBE hard if you've done really well and solved the questions quickly. > Do people actually want to "hear the thinking process" or do they just want an optimum answer regurgitated quickly? Thinking process is far more important than getting the optimum answer. You have to talk your thought process out loud. Think less "find the best answer" and more "gather requirements and optimize within the given time window". It's far better if you treat questions as applicable to real world scenarios where you only care asymptotic complexity as a tool, because you have real resource/network constraints. It is still important to know how to analyze asymptotic complexity. It is not important to get the most optimal answer, but it is important to be able to optimize on the trivial (brute-force) answer which you should always state to begin with. Depending on the interviewer, they'll ask you go further and maybe prod you with hints. It's really really important to communicate and make sure you're solving the right problem and that the interviewer is on board; this is also a skill that you pick up. It also very much applies on-the-job "I did exactly what was asked" is probably the wrong thing to say if you're not taking ownership to clarify the issue and solve the root problem, because that's what's ultimately important. All of this can be learned with practice, and it is 100% expected that you study and practice. > Do I need to practice "regular" interview questions also ("What's your greatest weakness?")? Yes, behavioral questions are also important as long as you can pass the technical portion. The idea here is to understand how you would deal with situations. You answer these in a STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or SAR format, and you should have these STAR format answers prepared for any types of questions they would ask. Depending on the company's guiding principles you would formulate your answers to display how you exhibited a particular principle in each of your stories. Don't be humble -- use "I" language rather than "we" language here (I had to practice this). Data based answers are best here ("grew user engagement as measured by replies by X%" vs "grew user base"). Impact is important but unfortunately that's not always within your control. The end-result isn't necessarily important but your learning is (e.g. if the project flopped, what important things did you learn that you'll never make the mistake of repeating again, and how can you pass that knowledge on to your team). Lastly, these interviews are designed to weed out false positives so even if you're more than qualified luck still plays a part and it can be a numbers game, so keep trying.
brandall10 6y ago
I interviewed with Google last summer, and the recruiter personally did all of this (aside from a mock, but did mention interviewing.io) and included a pretty lengthy email with resources. I’m a white male. Still, the vast majority of applicants aren’t going to pass. It’s not like it’s just some minor brushing up for most - it takes real work and dedication, for some that could do the job well over 100 hours... an infinite amount of time probably won’t be enough for those who can’t.
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  > it takes real work and dedication, for some well over 100 hours. Or a serious algorithm and data structure class.
  - hocuspocus 6y ago
    For most people, not really. You don't study how to solve leetcode questions on a whiteboard during a typical DS & algo class. The more serious and advanced the class, the farther it'll be from interview questions really. And even if you prepared well at some point, how long can you be good at it without regular practice? The day job of a software developer rarely requires reaching for clever algorithms.
maerF0x0 6y ago
No specific amount of "hand holding" is enough until the diversity numbers are up, as that is now the metric. This is not a specific judgement about diversity as a metric, but an observation of making any something a metric.

claudiulodro 6y ago

I haven't participated in too many FAANG interviews and even with the recruiter handholding it's still super confusing if you're not familiar with the scene: What difficulty of questions will be asked? Easy? Hard? Do people actually want to "hear the thinking process" or do they just want an optimum answer regurgitated quickly? Do I need to practice "regular" interview questions also ("What's your greatest weakness?")? All of this with a life-changing, potential millionaire amount of money at stake, which isn't great for the nerves.

908B64B197 6y ago
> What difficulty of questions will be asked? Easy? Hard? Do people actually want to "hear the thinking process" or do they just want an optimum answer regurgitated quickly? Do I need to practice "regular" interview questions also ("What's your greatest weakness?")? Isn't it what they talk about in the outreach session described above?
- bradlys 6y ago
  Some of them do but every interviewer you encounter has their own methodology. It is exceptional to be at a company and all the interviewers are on the same page about how to interview. This is true even at FAANG where they’re all supposedly trained on how to interview ... but still end up all acting differently.
pavas 6y ago
In case you want a real answer here: > What difficulty of questions will be asked? Easy? Hard? Easy to medium depending on the position or any number of factors. MAYBE hard if you've done really well and solved the questions quickly. > Do people actually want to "hear the thinking process" or do they just want an optimum answer regurgitated quickly? Thinking process is far more important than getting the optimum answer. You have to talk your thought process out loud. Think less "find the best answer" and more "gather requirements and optimize within the given time window". It's far better if you treat questions as applicable to real world scenarios where you only care asymptotic complexity as a tool, because you have real resource/network constraints. It is still important to know how to analyze asymptotic complexity. It is not important to get the most optimal answer, but it is important to be able to optimize on the trivial (brute-force) answer which you should always state to begin with. Depending on the interviewer, they'll ask you go further and maybe prod you with hints. It's really really important to communicate and make sure you're solving the right problem and that the interviewer is on board; this is also a skill that you pick up. It also very much applies on-the-job "I did exactly what was asked" is probably the wrong thing to say if you're not taking ownership to clarify the issue and solve the root problem, because that's what's ultimately important. All of this can be learned with practice, and it is 100% expected that you study and practice. > Do I need to practice "regular" interview questions also ("What's your greatest weakness?")? Yes, behavioral questions are also important as long as you can pass the technical portion. The idea here is to understand how you would deal with situations. You answer these in a STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or SAR format, and you should have these STAR format answers prepared for any types of questions they would ask. Depending on the company's guiding principles you would formulate your answers to display how you exhibited a particular principle in each of your stories. Don't be humble -- use "I" language rather than "we" language here (I had to practice this). Data based answers are best here ("grew user engagement as measured by replies by X%" vs "grew user base"). Impact is important but unfortunately that's not always within your control. The end-result isn't necessarily important but your learning is (e.g. if the project flopped, what important things did you learn that you'll never make the mistake of repeating again, and how can you pass that knowledge on to your team). Lastly, these interviews are designed to weed out false positives so even if you're more than qualified luck still plays a part and it can be a numbers game, so keep trying.

brandall10 6y ago

I interviewed with Google last summer, and the recruiter personally did all of this (aside from a mock, but did mention interviewing.io) and included a pretty lengthy email with resources. I’m a white male. Still, the vast majority of applicants aren’t going to pass. It’s not like it’s just some minor brushing up for most - it takes real work and dedication, for some that could do the job well over 100 hours... an infinite amount of time probably won’t be enough for those who can’t.

908B64B197 6y ago
> it takes real work and dedication, for some well over 100 hours. Or a serious algorithm and data structure class.
- hocuspocus 6y ago
  For most people, not really. You don't study how to solve leetcode questions on a whiteboard during a typical DS & algo class. The more serious and advanced the class, the farther it'll be from interview questions really. And even if you prepared well at some point, how long can you be good at it without regular practice? The day job of a software developer rarely requires reaching for clever algorithms.

maerF0x0 6y ago

No specific amount of "hand holding" is enough until the diversity numbers are up, as that is now the metric. This is not a specific judgement about diversity as a metric, but an observation of making any something a metric.