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am I the only one concerned that this would even be a point of contention? This seems too trivial for anyone doing hiring or being hired to be hung up on.

munificent 5y ago
I mean, I'm guessing this is the main reason that they passed on me, but I'll never know for sure. Maybe they didn't like my personality. Maybe it was some other question I thought I did well on but didn't even realize I got wrong. Maybe a combination of things. For what it's worth, I didn't get a very good vibe from them. The impression I got was that their culture was more aggressive and competitive than I like. (Maybe this was to be expected for a company that made a competitive eSports game.) I'm not really what you'd call a brogrammer. So it was probably for the best that they said no. I ended up at Google, which has been better for me in every possible way.
- DonHopkins 5y ago
  >I'm not really what you'd call a brogrammer. I'd say you dodged a bullet, but it's more like you dodged a ball. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-XbDZUnUmw&ab_channel=MovieclipsClassicTrailers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-XbDZUnUmw&ab_channel=Movie...
scottlamb 5y ago
> am I the only one concerned that this would even be a point of contention? This seems too trivial for anyone doing hiring or being hired to be hung up on. You'd be surprised! I've done probably 200+ interviews across a couple companies. Over time if anything my questions have gotten simpler. I look for someone who understands the fundamentals of the stuff on their resume, asks good requirements questions, thinks a bit before leaping into the weeds, can explain their thought process, ideally does some of their own double-checking, and (if it comes up) can debug a problem I spot without my spelling out their error. And last but not least: I don't want to cause a panic attack, which would be mean and tell me nothing. Sometimes my candidates have been too nervous for me to know if I should hire them, and it's not a good experience for anyone. So I make the problem as simple as I can and make sure we get through the rest of that in as relaxed a fashion as I can manage. I'll ask a simple (often first-year CS) coding problem or a design problem, rarely both in the same interview slot. I never ask for tons of code on a whiteboard in a 45-minute slot.

munificent 5y ago

I mean, I'm guessing this is the main reason that they passed on me, but I'll never know for sure. Maybe they didn't like my personality. Maybe it was some other question I thought I did well on but didn't even realize I got wrong. Maybe a combination of things. For what it's worth, I didn't get a very good vibe from them. The impression I got was that their culture was more aggressive and competitive than I like. (Maybe this was to be expected for a company that made a competitive eSports game.) I'm not really what you'd call a brogrammer. So it was probably for the best that they said no. I ended up at Google, which has been better for me in every possible way.

DonHopkins 5y ago
>I'm not really what you'd call a brogrammer. I'd say you dodged a bullet, but it's more like you dodged a ball. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-XbDZUnUmw&ab_channel=MovieclipsClassicTrailers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-XbDZUnUmw&ab_channel=Movie...

scottlamb 5y ago

> am I the only one concerned that this would even be a point of contention? This seems too trivial for anyone doing hiring or being hired to be hung up on. You'd be surprised! I've done probably 200+ interviews across a couple companies. Over time if anything my questions have gotten simpler. I look for someone who understands the fundamentals of the stuff on their resume, asks good requirements questions, thinks a bit before leaping into the weeds, can explain their thought process, ideally does some of their own double-checking, and (if it comes up) can debug a problem I spot without my spelling out their error. And last but not least: I don't want to cause a panic attack, which would be mean and tell me nothing. Sometimes my candidates have been too nervous for me to know if I should hire them, and it's not a good experience for anyone. So I make the problem as simple as I can and make sure we get through the rest of that in as relaxed a fashion as I can manage. I'll ask a simple (often first-year CS) coding problem or a design problem, rarely both in the same interview slot. I never ask for tons of code on a whiteboard in a 45-minute slot.