10 ms·

I think people put too much effort and time in this whole interview business. My suggestion, based on my experience, is to spend a reasonable time like a month

I think people put too much effort and time in this whole interview business. My suggestion, based on my experience, is to spend a reasonable time like a month, brushing up on most common data structures and algo. Then just take your chances. Rinse and repeat.

jonshariat 5y ago
Depends on your goal, some people want as many high offers as they can to drive up their comp even higher. When you're young it might be worth it but to me the cost/benefit isn't worth spending months over preparing.
pizza234 5y ago
I have exactly the opposite opinion, for couple of reasons: 1. interviews are black boxes - there's no feedback; getting feedback from a professional interviewer is the best way to understand one's weaknesses 2. dealing with pressure in simulated environment can help (a lot, for some) to handle pressure in a real one. I had no idea, for example, why I didn't fare well in a certain type of interview, until I did a mock one.
bckr 5y ago
I think interview practice with real interviewers and expert feedback is an excellent investment.
- WYepQ4dNnG 5y ago
  My strategy is simple: I do interview practice by simply interviewing with companies that I am not really interested in joining. That allows me to practice not only the technical interview but also all other steps involved. Last time I interviewed, I did 7 of these interviews, targeting: startups, pre-ipo, mid public companies, 2 of the FAANG I would never work for ... I did that while prepping for interviewing at the companies I was really interested in working for. And eventually it all worked out and got a few offers, of which two from FAANG of which one from one of the two FAANG I really wanted to join.
  - nvarsj 5y ago
    Simple but really time consuming. Experienced engineers with responsibilities outside of work don't have time for that nonsense. It's hard enough to do ONE interview, let alone do tons of fake interviews in preparation. No other industry is like this - once you've proven yourself as an experienced professional/exec, if you want to swap to another company, you just have a chat.
    - WYepQ4dNnG 5y ago
      I agreed, but it served the purpose of landing me a very good job. I don't think I am ever gonna job hunting again.
      - gcheong 5y ago
        "I don't think I am ever gonna job hunting again." That's what I thought about the job I came to SF for 20 years ago. Then 6 years in they got bought out and I got laid off. They weren't even a tech company. My career has been somewhat downhill ever since. Best of luck to you.
  - gcheong 5y ago
    I think the value is mainly in the feedback you get which can help if you have a specific problem you might not be aware of. The problem with just going out on interviews is that you never get any real feedback so you are left to your own analysis as to why a certain interview didn't result in getting to the next step or an offer which, in my experience, is kind of like trying to find a needle in a haystack in a dark barn without a flashlight.
  - hiq 5y ago
    Can you expand on your FAANG preferences?
    - WYepQ4dNnG 5y ago
      Suffice to say I'd never join Meta. I don't use their platform, I don't like what they do, and most important I don't like their tech bro company culture.
chillacy 5y ago
> based on my experience I will throw out counter-experience that I did not succeed at technical interviews until I treated it like a fulltime job. In the past I just brushed up and failed Google's interview a handful of times before I decided enough was enough. My takeaway ultimately is that how much time and effort one chooses to put in is entirely personal based on how much they want one of these jobs + what their gaps are in algorithms and data structures. Some people are going to need more effort than others.
b20000 5y ago
the process is incredibly inefficient and disrespectful. people have already paid for university degrees and getting a degree is no joke, certainly not at a european university. graduating without programming skills is impossible. what companies should do is ask you to walk them through a piece of code of your choice and discuss that and/or hire you for a month as a contractor and pay you a fair market rate.
- ex_amazon_sde 5y ago
  > graduating without programming skills is impossible I interviewed a lot of people and quite a few could not implement fizzbuzz.
- prepend 5y ago
  > graduating without programming skills is impossible I’ve encountered many who graduated from bachelor and even PhD programs without programming skills (even from European universities), so your statement is false. It also seems pretty weird to assume that a degree or certificate is foolproof for demonstrating programming skills. That seems like a lack of critical thinking skills.
  - b20000 5y ago
    well, where i graduated, people DID have those skills. so you are wrong. besides, companies already ask what university you went to and could get your records and individual class grades and use that combined with number of people fired that had the same degree to figure out if they want to hire you or not. after all, we are in the era of data science? and instead of paying recruiters lots of money for shuffling word documents around, they can use that money to pay prospective candidates for a month. it will be cheaper. the real reason for coding interviews is to wear you out so they can pay you less. the problem is that people go along with this clown show instead of simply walking away and doing something else.
    - overrun11 5y ago
      You end up with a far less merit based hiring pipeline. I work at a top tech company and don't have any degree at all. The current process gives people like me a chance, yours wouldn't.
paxys 5y ago
> people put too much effort > spend a reasonable time like a month Spending a month on interview training is exactly what I would consider unreasonable effort. Here's a scenario – I have worked at big tech company A for a decade writing backend code. Big tech company B has many openings for senior backend coders, and is desperate to fill them. B's recruiters are hounding me every day to consider a switch. The job looks interesting, and the salary and benefits are great. Should be a perfect fit, you say? Except if I interview with B today I'll get rejected at the very first coding stage. The barrier to entry they have created for themselves is me taking time away from my current job to solve programming puzzles, solving them perfectly in an interview setting, then throwing away all of that knowledge. They are never going to make me go through this effort unless I am truly unhappy at my current role. This is the exact reason companies are finding it so hard to hire engineers, and why they have to pay them so much to switch.
- vkou 5y ago
  Have you ever ran interviews? I have, and there's an incredibly wide range of candidates, all of whom with fantastic pedigrees, but some of whom are completely incapable of demonstrating their problem-solving ability. Likewise, some candidates have poor pedigrees, but make it clear to me that they can think, communicate, and code. I'm not saying that some of my rejections can't do that. But I can't measure what I didn't observe. I also get mountains of emails from recruiters about how deeply impressed they are with my skills, and how I should go work for their firms. I know that they are completely full of shit, because from looking at my LinkedIn, they have no idea whether or not I have any of those skills.
  - godot 5y ago
    You and the person you reply to are both right. Having been on both sides of the aisle, after working for almost 2 decades, this really makes me not look forward to switching jobs anymore. Interviewing for a job really is the worst part of working as a software engineer.
  - davey48016 5y ago
    I used to get recruiters messaging me on LinkedIn about my impressive Java experience, in spite of not mentioning Java on my profile. At the time, I was working for a company that used a lot of Java, but I was working on a .NET based product and hadn't touched Java since college.
kieselguhr_kid 5y ago
This is a lot easier to say when you're established in the industry and you have a "feel" for interviewing. When you're breaking in, you have to learn all the computer science shibboleths and industry jargon before people will take you seriously as a candidate.
agumonkey 5y ago
It's insane to me that we have to rehash everything every time. You graduate, you leetcode, you rehearse for a round of interview, and then you have to that all over again. So boring.
commandlinefan 5y ago
They all mostly ask the same sets of questions, too. If you get turned down by one interviewer, just keep track of what questions they asked, go look up the answers to those questions and you'll most likely be asked the same question by the next interviewer.
lmarcos 5y ago
A month? That's what I would consider "too much effort". What I do is: - read the whole website of the company I want to work for - apply That's it. If after N years of experience I'm not able to pass the tech interviews then I'm not a suitable candidate for them, and I simply accept that. To me, spending a month memorizing and refreshing concepts I learned when I was at uni, feels like cheating (because I'll forget what quickly studied in a few days). I do "study" on my own constantly, though. I'm always reading tech books and trying new things. I do it at my own pace. Perhaps that's the reason why I don't prepare myself for interviews.
- selcuka 5y ago
  > If after N years of experience I'm not able to pass the tech interviews then I'm not a suitable candidate for them, and I simply accept that. I wonder if you are thinking of the same tech interviews that anybody else here is talking about. Those tests are almost inversely correlated with N years of experience. Without specifically studying for those tests you would definitely score lower than an inferior (but well prepared) candidate.

jonshariat 5y ago

Depends on your goal, some people want as many high offers as they can to drive up their comp even higher. When you're young it might be worth it but to me the cost/benefit isn't worth spending months over preparing.

pizza234 5y ago

I have exactly the opposite opinion, for couple of reasons: 1. interviews are black boxes - there's no feedback; getting feedback from a professional interviewer is the best way to understand one's weaknesses 2. dealing with pressure in simulated environment can help (a lot, for some) to handle pressure in a real one. I had no idea, for example, why I didn't fare well in a certain type of interview, until I did a mock one.

bckr 5y ago

I think interview practice with real interviewers and expert feedback is an excellent investment.

WYepQ4dNnG 5y ago
My strategy is simple: I do interview practice by simply interviewing with companies that I am not really interested in joining. That allows me to practice not only the technical interview but also all other steps involved. Last time I interviewed, I did 7 of these interviews, targeting: startups, pre-ipo, mid public companies, 2 of the FAANG I would never work for ... I did that while prepping for interviewing at the companies I was really interested in working for. And eventually it all worked out and got a few offers, of which two from FAANG of which one from one of the two FAANG I really wanted to join.
- nvarsj 5y ago
  Simple but really time consuming. Experienced engineers with responsibilities outside of work don't have time for that nonsense. It's hard enough to do ONE interview, let alone do tons of fake interviews in preparation. No other industry is like this - once you've proven yourself as an experienced professional/exec, if you want to swap to another company, you just have a chat.
  - WYepQ4dNnG 5y ago
    I agreed, but it served the purpose of landing me a very good job. I don't think I am ever gonna job hunting again.
    - gcheong 5y ago
      "I don't think I am ever gonna job hunting again." That's what I thought about the job I came to SF for 20 years ago. Then 6 years in they got bought out and I got laid off. They weren't even a tech company. My career has been somewhat downhill ever since. Best of luck to you.
- gcheong 5y ago
  I think the value is mainly in the feedback you get which can help if you have a specific problem you might not be aware of. The problem with just going out on interviews is that you never get any real feedback so you are left to your own analysis as to why a certain interview didn't result in getting to the next step or an offer which, in my experience, is kind of like trying to find a needle in a haystack in a dark barn without a flashlight.
- hiq 5y ago
  Can you expand on your FAANG preferences?
  - WYepQ4dNnG 5y ago
    Suffice to say I'd never join Meta. I don't use their platform, I don't like what they do, and most important I don't like their tech bro company culture.

chillacy 5y ago

> based on my experience I will throw out counter-experience that I did not succeed at technical interviews until I treated it like a fulltime job. In the past I just brushed up and failed Google's interview a handful of times before I decided enough was enough. My takeaway ultimately is that how much time and effort one chooses to put in is entirely personal based on how much they want one of these jobs + what their gaps are in algorithms and data structures. Some people are going to need more effort than others.

b20000 5y ago

the process is incredibly inefficient and disrespectful. people have already paid for university degrees and getting a degree is no joke, certainly not at a european university. graduating without programming skills is impossible. what companies should do is ask you to walk them through a piece of code of your choice and discuss that and/or hire you for a month as a contractor and pay you a fair market rate.

ex_amazon_sde 5y ago
> graduating without programming skills is impossible I interviewed a lot of people and quite a few could not implement fizzbuzz.
prepend 5y ago
> graduating without programming skills is impossible I’ve encountered many who graduated from bachelor and even PhD programs without programming skills (even from European universities), so your statement is false. It also seems pretty weird to assume that a degree or certificate is foolproof for demonstrating programming skills. That seems like a lack of critical thinking skills.
- b20000 5y ago
  well, where i graduated, people DID have those skills. so you are wrong. besides, companies already ask what university you went to and could get your records and individual class grades and use that combined with number of people fired that had the same degree to figure out if they want to hire you or not. after all, we are in the era of data science? and instead of paying recruiters lots of money for shuffling word documents around, they can use that money to pay prospective candidates for a month. it will be cheaper. the real reason for coding interviews is to wear you out so they can pay you less. the problem is that people go along with this clown show instead of simply walking away and doing something else.
  - overrun11 5y ago
    You end up with a far less merit based hiring pipeline. I work at a top tech company and don't have any degree at all. The current process gives people like me a chance, yours wouldn't.

paxys 5y ago

> people put too much effort > spend a reasonable time like a month Spending a month on interview training is exactly what I would consider unreasonable effort. Here's a scenario – I have worked at big tech company A for a decade writing backend code. Big tech company B has many openings for senior backend coders, and is desperate to fill them. B's recruiters are hounding me every day to consider a switch. The job looks interesting, and the salary and benefits are great. Should be a perfect fit, you say? Except if I interview with B today I'll get rejected at the very first coding stage. The barrier to entry they have created for themselves is me taking time away from my current job to solve programming puzzles, solving them perfectly in an interview setting, then throwing away all of that knowledge. They are never going to make me go through this effort unless I am truly unhappy at my current role. This is the exact reason companies are finding it so hard to hire engineers, and why they have to pay them so much to switch.

vkou 5y ago
Have you ever ran interviews? I have, and there's an incredibly wide range of candidates, all of whom with fantastic pedigrees, but some of whom are completely incapable of demonstrating their problem-solving ability. Likewise, some candidates have poor pedigrees, but make it clear to me that they can think, communicate, and code. I'm not saying that some of my rejections can't do that. But I can't measure what I didn't observe. I also get mountains of emails from recruiters about how deeply impressed they are with my skills, and how I should go work for their firms. I know that they are completely full of shit, because from looking at my LinkedIn, they have no idea whether or not I have any of those skills.
- godot 5y ago
  You and the person you reply to are both right. Having been on both sides of the aisle, after working for almost 2 decades, this really makes me not look forward to switching jobs anymore. Interviewing for a job really is the worst part of working as a software engineer.
- davey48016 5y ago
  I used to get recruiters messaging me on LinkedIn about my impressive Java experience, in spite of not mentioning Java on my profile. At the time, I was working for a company that used a lot of Java, but I was working on a .NET based product and hadn't touched Java since college.

kieselguhr_kid 5y ago

This is a lot easier to say when you're established in the industry and you have a "feel" for interviewing. When you're breaking in, you have to learn all the computer science shibboleths and industry jargon before people will take you seriously as a candidate.

agumonkey 5y ago

It's insane to me that we have to rehash everything every time. You graduate, you leetcode, you rehearse for a round of interview, and then you have to that all over again. So boring.

commandlinefan 5y ago

They all mostly ask the same sets of questions, too. If you get turned down by one interviewer, just keep track of what questions they asked, go look up the answers to those questions and you'll most likely be asked the same question by the next interviewer.

lmarcos 5y ago

A month? That's what I would consider "too much effort". What I do is: - read the whole website of the company I want to work for - apply That's it. If after N years of experience I'm not able to pass the tech interviews then I'm not a suitable candidate for them, and I simply accept that. To me, spending a month memorizing and refreshing concepts I learned when I was at uni, feels like cheating (because I'll forget what quickly studied in a few days). I do "study" on my own constantly, though. I'm always reading tech books and trying new things. I do it at my own pace. Perhaps that's the reason why I don't prepare myself for interviews.

selcuka 5y ago
> If after N years of experience I'm not able to pass the tech interviews then I'm not a suitable candidate for them, and I simply accept that. I wonder if you are thinking of the same tech interviews that anybody else here is talking about. Those tests are almost inversely correlated with N years of experience. Without specifically studying for those tests you would definitely score lower than an inferior (but well prepared) candidate.