One thing I rarely see talked about is that the people doing tech interviews just plain suck at interviewing. Everyone assumes intent; that interviews go a cert

One thing I rarely see talked about is that the people doing tech interviews just plain suck at interviewing. Everyone assumes intent; that interviews go a certain way because someone has decided they should go that way. While that is quite possibly true at FANG, in my experience it's not the case elsewhere. Interviews at most companies amount to "hey, who wants to/can interview someone next week?" Some people volunteer, and then they wing it. They might do a FANG-style interview because that's what they think they're supposed to do. They might parrot whatever the interview process was when they were hired. They usually just wing it, making up questions as they go. It's not normally intentional or nefarious. Good engineers don't often make good interviewers. Sometimes they don't want to be doing the interview, and are simply trying to bumble through it. Usually, they have the best intentions, but they don't know what they're doing. No one's prepared them; they haven't prepared themselves (and likely don't know how to). Everyone usually has good intentions. They want to give the candidate a fair shake; they don't want to make the wrong decision; they want to find a good coworker; they want to do their employer a solid by finding the best employee. I know I suck at interviewing, despite doing it dozens of times. I've had a few regrets about people I've hired, but not many. Whatever failures my process has, I don't think they're too egregious. I've been on my own to figure out what works and what doesn't.