5 ms·

Many engineers who I know as friends/excoworkers who are in top companies (including but not limited to FAANG) barely eeked by into their job, usually with a la

Many engineers who I know as friends/excoworkers who are in top companies (including but not limited to FAANG) barely eeked by into their job, usually with a large string of failed interviews behind them. All of them consider themselves extremely lucky that they landed a job at a great company and believe that if they had to re-interview for the same position, odds are much more likely they'd utterly fail it. Yet they are currently working at highly respected top tech companies and are accorded a certain "elite" status by many of their peers at less prestigious/selective companies. My best friend is at Netflix and constantly dreads ever having to interview for another job again because he's dead certain he will bomb the leetcode rounds because he hasn't looked at an leetcode problem in five years. Even his current job at Netflix he considers having obtained through sheer luck, and he says none of his experience working at Netflix is of any help in solving leetcode problems. I quite often hear stories on here, Blind, Reddit, etc. of people who manage to land multiple simultaneous offers from FAANGMULA+ but have yet to meet such a person.

commandlinefan 5y ago
> because he hasn't looked at an leetcode problem in five years Am I the only one who feels like he could spend a week preparing and shred through any sort of reasonable algorithmic problem testing anybody would throw at me?
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  When is the last time you touched algos before?
- Aeolun 5y ago
  Of course not, but why would anyone assume that me, married, with children and a full time job has any inclination whatsoever to spend a whole week going over a bunch of stuff I’ll most likely never use again. First of all, I want to spend my limited free time doing other (fun) things, but more importantly, it insults my pride.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  You never know what they’ll ask, so full prep is impossible.
  - decafninja 5y ago
    The bar is probably higher than five years ago too? A few friends at Google who got in 10+ years ago tell me that there is no way in hell they could pass the typical interviews being conducted there today.
- sdevonoes 5y ago
  I also think he could prepare himself for such interviews. But, one week? Well, that depends: - is it one week as in 7 days off, and spending at least 8h/day? Then I would say, it may be enough. It just takes one problem you haven't seen before (you haven't prepared for) and you are out. - is it one week as in 5 days, and 2h/day (let's say, after dinner?). Then I don't think 1 week is enough. Around a month would be needed to match the previous scenario
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
> All of them consider themselves extremely lucky that they landed a job at a great company and believe that if they had to re-interview for the same position, odds are much more likely they'd utterly fail it. Hmmm... this makes me wonder if these kinds of interview strategies aren't promoted at such companies precisely because they make candidates feel more grateful and therefore less likely to leave, less likely to refuse overtime work, less likely to protest anything, etc.
- gkop 5y ago
  Yes, and it increases the cost to explore other companies.
mmmmkay 5y ago
I'm in this camp, and to top it off, I interview folks. It really is unfair to expect someone to be able to do something I myself probably wouldn't be able to do right now off the cuff.
Aeolun 5y ago
> I quite often hear stories on here, Blind, Reddit, etc. of people who manage to land multiple simultaneous offers from FAANGMULA+ but have yet to meet such a person. It doesn’t seem so surprising? They all require you to do and say the same thing, so by the time you can do those things well enough for one, you can do them well enough for all of them (in this case regurgitating leetcode while seeming marginally likable).
- isbvhodnvemrwvn 5y ago
  The only surprising thing is to land an offer at around the same time at multiple companies, especially the ones with very long interview cycle.
fsociety 5y ago
I’d bet money that this is imposter syndrome at work, and that with a couple days of refreshing they’d pass interviews no problem. There is always variability, and I think good interviewers actually help candidates a decent amount.. so if you get a bad interviewer they’d fail but that’s not on them. I’d bet they’d pass most interviews.
- decafninja 5y ago
  Doesn't impostor syndrome imply mistakenly feeling that they are not qualified to do their work? I think this is different because said people seem to be great engineers and confident at their actual job. What they are not confident is in their ability to be Professional Interviewers/Master Leetcoders, which is a skillset almost completely divorced from their actual work. I just landed a new job at a FAANG-level company two months ago. Not surprisingly, my actual work has no commonality with my Professional Leetcoder skills. I haven't looked at a leetcode problems since I got the offer and I fear my skills have already atrophied.
noleetcode 5y ago
> All of them consider themselves extremely lucky that they landed a job at a great company and believe that if they had to re-interview for the same position, odds are much more likely they'd utterly fail it. I expect we'd see this absolute disaster of an interview "process" fixed overnight if every company required their employees to re-interview for their position yearly (through some blind process so the interviewer isn't aware they're interviewing someone who already works there - yes I'm aware this won't work for small companies... it's not going to happen to begin with so let's just pretend :P). Every company would immediately start a "task force" to fix their interview process once they reject (and then fire) 90% of their staff after the first re-interview.

commandlinefan 5y ago

> because he hasn't looked at an leetcode problem in five years Am I the only one who feels like he could spend a week preparing and shred through any sort of reasonable algorithmic problem testing anybody would throw at me?

MattGaiser 5y ago
When is the last time you touched algos before?
Aeolun 5y ago
Of course not, but why would anyone assume that me, married, with children and a full time job has any inclination whatsoever to spend a whole week going over a bunch of stuff I’ll most likely never use again. First of all, I want to spend my limited free time doing other (fun) things, but more importantly, it insults my pride.
mixmastamyk 5y ago
You never know what they’ll ask, so full prep is impossible.
- decafninja 5y ago
  The bar is probably higher than five years ago too? A few friends at Google who got in 10+ years ago tell me that there is no way in hell they could pass the typical interviews being conducted there today.
sdevonoes 5y ago
I also think he could prepare himself for such interviews. But, one week? Well, that depends: - is it one week as in 7 days off, and spending at least 8h/day? Then I would say, it may be enough. It just takes one problem you haven't seen before (you haven't prepared for) and you are out. - is it one week as in 5 days, and 2h/day (let's say, after dinner?). Then I don't think 1 week is enough. Around a month would be needed to match the previous scenario

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

> All of them consider themselves extremely lucky that they landed a job at a great company and believe that if they had to re-interview for the same position, odds are much more likely they'd utterly fail it. Hmmm... this makes me wonder if these kinds of interview strategies aren't promoted at such companies precisely because they make candidates feel more grateful and therefore less likely to leave, less likely to refuse overtime work, less likely to protest anything, etc.

gkop 5y ago
Yes, and it increases the cost to explore other companies.

mmmmkay 5y ago

I'm in this camp, and to top it off, I interview folks. It really is unfair to expect someone to be able to do something I myself probably wouldn't be able to do right now off the cuff.

Aeolun 5y ago

> I quite often hear stories on here, Blind, Reddit, etc. of people who manage to land multiple simultaneous offers from FAANGMULA+ but have yet to meet such a person. It doesn’t seem so surprising? They all require you to do and say the same thing, so by the time you can do those things well enough for one, you can do them well enough for all of them (in this case regurgitating leetcode while seeming marginally likable).

isbvhodnvemrwvn 5y ago
The only surprising thing is to land an offer at around the same time at multiple companies, especially the ones with very long interview cycle.

fsociety 5y ago

I’d bet money that this is imposter syndrome at work, and that with a couple days of refreshing they’d pass interviews no problem. There is always variability, and I think good interviewers actually help candidates a decent amount.. so if you get a bad interviewer they’d fail but that’s not on them. I’d bet they’d pass most interviews.

decafninja 5y ago
Doesn't impostor syndrome imply mistakenly feeling that they are not qualified to do their work? I think this is different because said people seem to be great engineers and confident at their actual job. What they are not confident is in their ability to be Professional Interviewers/Master Leetcoders, which is a skillset almost completely divorced from their actual work. I just landed a new job at a FAANG-level company two months ago. Not surprisingly, my actual work has no commonality with my Professional Leetcoder skills. I haven't looked at a leetcode problems since I got the offer and I fear my skills have already atrophied.

noleetcode 5y ago

> All of them consider themselves extremely lucky that they landed a job at a great company and believe that if they had to re-interview for the same position, odds are much more likely they'd utterly fail it. I expect we'd see this absolute disaster of an interview "process" fixed overnight if every company required their employees to re-interview for their position yearly (through some blind process so the interviewer isn't aware they're interviewing someone who already works there - yes I'm aware this won't work for small companies... it's not going to happen to begin with so let's just pretend :P). Every company would immediately start a "task force" to fix their interview process once they reject (and then fire) 90% of their staff after the first re-interview.