5 ms·

I still recall an interview I did at a recently public company in New York, for a DevOps position. 4/5 of the interviews went sailingly, with heavy emphasis on

I still recall an interview I did at a recently public company in New York, for a DevOps position. 4/5 of the interviews went sailingly, with heavy emphasis on networking, scripting, and AWS knowledge. Then the lead engineer sailed in, five minutes late. He gave me an algorithm question straight from the Google playbook (I don't remember the question, sadly), then after I asked for a few minutes to ponder, proceeded to smirk and interrupt me every 30 seconds to ask if I needed help. In between he was chatting on his phone with the audible keybord ticks enabled.

aigo 5y ago
> chatting on his phone with the audible keybord ticks enabled. That alone is a disgrace.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Please go off in a corner and ponder why such casual ageism is as unwelcome as casual racism or sexism and maybe just stay there until you come up with an answer. Substitute woman for boomer in that sentence and listen to what it sounds like.
  - aigo 5y ago
    I could substitute it for child, another group of people who are broadly less likely to know where the setting is, and it wouldn't be offensive that way either.
    - chiph 5y ago
      As someone who was born before the moon landing and saw one of the last IMPs get installed on the ARPANET, yeah that was offensive. You should apologize. Knowing to silence your phone in meetings is a matter of having manners, not age.
      - aigo 5y ago
        Just as no-one would begrudge a dominated race from poking fun at the dominant race, I don't see why you are so on your high horse about the dominant age group getting the same. 'Punching up' is fair game where I come from. I'm afraid I just don't get your outrage at an innocent comment poking fun at the most dominant section of society. But, as you're the second person to have taken offence, I'm going to delete it anyway.
        ghaff 5y ago
        First of all, I'm not a particularly big fan of generational stereotypes in general, especially on a board like this that aims to do better. If I made a comment to the effect of "Zommers are the most entitled group I have ever seen," I would be (rightly) most likely downvoted to oblivion. Secondly, I have never encountered it as a problem--at least in a way that affected me (never could really get into a dot-com company but we know how that mostly ended up). But that's mostly because I've had various roles where experience really trumped other things. But ageism is clearly an issue in tech broadly so I take issue with with the justification that it's OK to make casual cracks with the justification that it's punching up. To say nothing that it added absolutely nothing to your comment. Rude interviewers are the issue. Not some imagined inability for older individuals to silence their phones. Finally, I'm not sure doubling down on the oppressed race thing helps your argument--especially given what the age breakdown in tech looks like.
        justin66 5y ago
        Ah yes, racial humor. That will never fail you in business provided you deliver it the appropriate way. Good luck with your interviews, you’re going to do great!
        justsaying9 5y ago
        > 'I'm afraid I just don't get it.' Personally, I'm not afraid of your lack of tact or humility, just disgusted by it. I'm a Millenial, btw.
      - justsaying9 5y ago
        > 'As someone who was born before the moon landing' That would include any and all of us in this thread. No man has ever come anywhere near the moon. Unless, of course, you happen to know of some kind of magical (presumably still classified) rocket nozzle tech that would somehow avoid leaving a crater in the soft 'lunar dirt' as the 1960s tin can touched down on the 'lunar surface.' Not to mention an actual solution to various other hard technological problems of space travel, like radiation shielding, heat rejection (no, space isn't 'cold'), battery power, lack of any visible stars, workings of a camera in a high radiation environment, etc, etc. And how about that lunar module 'computer'? Anyone ever replicated that 1960s technological wonder? Oh, the schematics and tech were all 'lost'. Someone accidentally recorded over the original telemetry tapes with Gilligan's Island reruns. I see. What a terrible accident. Not to detract from your main point, of course; tye interviewer was terribly rude. Selfish. Just like the liars who faked the 'moon landing' in the Nevada desert, near Indian Springs.
    - ghaff 5y ago
      Yeah. Go ahead and double down. If you don't see the difference you're just the sort of person who I wish would just get out of tech.
echelon 5y ago
What an ass. I wish there was a way to report bad interviewers. Maybe some tech media company will do hidden camera interviews and publish a scathing rebuke of the practice.
- ushakov 5y ago
  there’s a site in Russian, ebanoe.it (translated: f*cked IT) which does exactly that!
- nijave 5y ago
  Some companies will ask for feedback after the interview and there's sites like Glassdoor. The last place I did interviews at, we'd bring all interviewers into a quick debrief meeting and talk about whether to give the candidate an offer (going off the notes we took during the sessions). It was pretty obvious if someone had a particularly bad session and could be weighted against other peoples' input Unfortunately it can be really hit and miss
- dehrmann 5y ago
  > I wish there was a way to report bad interviewers. You can always tell the recruiter/coordinator. It's just tricky because you don't want to burn bridges, doing it before you hear back could be read as you asking for a do-over, doing it after could come across as bitter.
  - baskethead 5y ago
    Recruiters don’t care. I’ve had some of the rudest interviews recently and complained to the recruiter and they completely ignored me.
    - b3morales 5y ago
      Depends on the recruiter and their relationship to the company.
  - geoduck14 5y ago
    We are hiring at my company. We ALWAYS value feedback. Last week we heard someone had a bad experience and the feedback was taken seriously, and without resentment. If you have a good or bad experience, PLEASE consider telling the recruiter know.
zerocount 5y ago
This happened to me at a recent Google interview. It was the last interview of 5 and the guy gave me a gnarly graph problem. I was trying to wrap my head around it, but he kept interrupting me and giving me unwanted help. I ended up getting writer's block and just mentally shutdown because he wouldn't let me have time to think. He ended the interview early because of poor performance. It made me feel like I didn't know anything and was very embarassing. It also changed my outlook on Google, and I'll never interview with them again.
- derwiki 5y ago
  That’s rough. But sounds like an unpleasant work environment so at least you short-circuited that!
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

aigo 5y ago

> chatting on his phone with the audible keybord ticks enabled. That alone is a disgrace.

ghaff 5y ago
Please go off in a corner and ponder why such casual ageism is as unwelcome as casual racism or sexism and maybe just stay there until you come up with an answer. Substitute woman for boomer in that sentence and listen to what it sounds like.
- aigo 5y ago
  I could substitute it for child, another group of people who are broadly less likely to know where the setting is, and it wouldn't be offensive that way either.
  - chiph 5y ago
    As someone who was born before the moon landing and saw one of the last IMPs get installed on the ARPANET, yeah that was offensive. You should apologize. Knowing to silence your phone in meetings is a matter of having manners, not age.
    - aigo 5y ago
      Just as no-one would begrudge a dominated race from poking fun at the dominant race, I don't see why you are so on your high horse about the dominant age group getting the same. 'Punching up' is fair game where I come from. I'm afraid I just don't get your outrage at an innocent comment poking fun at the most dominant section of society. But, as you're the second person to have taken offence, I'm going to delete it anyway.
      - ghaff 5y ago
        First of all, I'm not a particularly big fan of generational stereotypes in general, especially on a board like this that aims to do better. If I made a comment to the effect of "Zommers are the most entitled group I have ever seen," I would be (rightly) most likely downvoted to oblivion. Secondly, I have never encountered it as a problem--at least in a way that affected me (never could really get into a dot-com company but we know how that mostly ended up). But that's mostly because I've had various roles where experience really trumped other things. But ageism is clearly an issue in tech broadly so I take issue with with the justification that it's OK to make casual cracks with the justification that it's punching up. To say nothing that it added absolutely nothing to your comment. Rude interviewers are the issue. Not some imagined inability for older individuals to silence their phones. Finally, I'm not sure doubling down on the oppressed race thing helps your argument--especially given what the age breakdown in tech looks like.
      - justin66 5y ago
        Ah yes, racial humor. That will never fail you in business provided you deliver it the appropriate way. Good luck with your interviews, you’re going to do great!
      - justsaying9 5y ago
        > 'I'm afraid I just don't get it.' Personally, I'm not afraid of your lack of tact or humility, just disgusted by it. I'm a Millenial, btw.
    - justsaying9 5y ago
      > 'As someone who was born before the moon landing' That would include any and all of us in this thread. No man has ever come anywhere near the moon. Unless, of course, you happen to know of some kind of magical (presumably still classified) rocket nozzle tech that would somehow avoid leaving a crater in the soft 'lunar dirt' as the 1960s tin can touched down on the 'lunar surface.' Not to mention an actual solution to various other hard technological problems of space travel, like radiation shielding, heat rejection (no, space isn't 'cold'), battery power, lack of any visible stars, workings of a camera in a high radiation environment, etc, etc. And how about that lunar module 'computer'? Anyone ever replicated that 1960s technological wonder? Oh, the schematics and tech were all 'lost'. Someone accidentally recorded over the original telemetry tapes with Gilligan's Island reruns. I see. What a terrible accident. Not to detract from your main point, of course; tye interviewer was terribly rude. Selfish. Just like the liars who faked the 'moon landing' in the Nevada desert, near Indian Springs.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    Yeah. Go ahead and double down. If you don't see the difference you're just the sort of person who I wish would just get out of tech.

echelon 5y ago

What an ass. I wish there was a way to report bad interviewers. Maybe some tech media company will do hidden camera interviews and publish a scathing rebuke of the practice.

ushakov 5y ago
there’s a site in Russian, ebanoe.it (translated: f*cked IT) which does exactly that!
nijave 5y ago
Some companies will ask for feedback after the interview and there's sites like Glassdoor. The last place I did interviews at, we'd bring all interviewers into a quick debrief meeting and talk about whether to give the candidate an offer (going off the notes we took during the sessions). It was pretty obvious if someone had a particularly bad session and could be weighted against other peoples' input Unfortunately it can be really hit and miss
dehrmann 5y ago
> I wish there was a way to report bad interviewers. You can always tell the recruiter/coordinator. It's just tricky because you don't want to burn bridges, doing it before you hear back could be read as you asking for a do-over, doing it after could come across as bitter.
- baskethead 5y ago
  Recruiters don’t care. I’ve had some of the rudest interviews recently and complained to the recruiter and they completely ignored me.
  - b3morales 5y ago
    Depends on the recruiter and their relationship to the company.
- geoduck14 5y ago
  We are hiring at my company. We ALWAYS value feedback. Last week we heard someone had a bad experience and the feedback was taken seriously, and without resentment. If you have a good or bad experience, PLEASE consider telling the recruiter know.

zerocount 5y ago

This happened to me at a recent Google interview. It was the last interview of 5 and the guy gave me a gnarly graph problem. I was trying to wrap my head around it, but he kept interrupting me and giving me unwanted help. I ended up getting writer's block and just mentally shutdown because he wouldn't let me have time to think. He ended the interview early because of poor performance. It made me feel like I didn't know anything and was very embarassing. It also changed my outlook on Google, and I'll never interview with them again.

derwiki 5y ago
That’s rough. But sounds like an unpleasant work environment so at least you short-circuited that!

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]