4 ms·

Yikes. I’m not terribly surprised by that, but I am pretty jaded about both hiring and big tech companies at this point so that’s probably why. I recently wrap

Yikes. I’m not terribly surprised by that, but I am pretty jaded about both hiring and big tech companies at this point so that’s probably why. I recently wrapped up a job search, and it occurred to me just now that in each of my job searches since finishing undergrad I’ve ended up at the company with the least painful hiring process. That’s not something I’ve intentionally tried to optimize for, but apparently I weight it pretty heavily. What’s really interesting is that this time around I ended up in a US federal position that I cold-applied for, over private sector positions for which I was being actively recruited. You’d think startups would be able to do better than the most bureaucratic organization in the history of our species, but no, they insisted on 5+ rounds of interviews and 8-hour “take home” exercises. For what it’s worth, my previous employer was a startup, I applied on a Friday afternoon and had a written offer in hand on the Monday morning 6 business days later.

amir734jj 5y ago
I completely agree. The interview process at big tech is a long, emotional and mental roller coaster now. Anyways, Thanks for the feedback.
bradknowles 5y ago
The thing that really impressed me about my first permanent job after college (at what we now call the Defense Information Systems Agency) was the approach that the interviewer took. He started off by saying that he knew I had interviewed at a lot of other companies on campus, and that I’d probably heard a lot of positive things said about those companies. He said that I could assume that all those same things were also true of working for the government. What he then proceeded to spend his time doing was telling me about all the disadvantages of working for the federal government. I really, really appreciated that authentic and unvarnished (well, probably lightly varnished) approach. And for some reason, they decided to hire me anyway. Thanks, Mr. Brewer!

amir734jj 5y ago

I completely agree. The interview process at big tech is a long, emotional and mental roller coaster now. Anyways, Thanks for the feedback.

bradknowles 5y ago

The thing that really impressed me about my first permanent job after college (at what we now call the Defense Information Systems Agency) was the approach that the interviewer took. He started off by saying that he knew I had interviewed at a lot of other companies on campus, and that I’d probably heard a lot of positive things said about those companies. He said that I could assume that all those same things were also true of working for the government. What he then proceeded to spend his time doing was telling me about all the disadvantages of working for the federal government. I really, really appreciated that authentic and unvarnished (well, probably lightly varnished) approach. And for some reason, they decided to hire me anyway. Thanks, Mr. Brewer!