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The worst part is that Coinbase's interviews are difficult. If I'd spent months studying, rejecting other (good faith) offers, and then had this happen I'd not
by kodah 4y ago
The worst part is that Coinbase's interviews are difficult. If I'd spent months studying, rejecting other (good faith) offers, and then had this happen I'd not only be in a bad spot (without a job entering a recession) but I'd be furious at the inequality of input and output.
I've been interviewing for the past month and I made a rule that I won't be doing any algorithm interviews. I didn't have time to study; some friends questioned whether this was a good idea or not. I ended up submitting code samples when recruiters or managers would try to go through that kind of phone screening. Not only am I interviewing at better quality firms, but it's not nearly as stressful.
Anecdotally there is a high correlation between firms that tell me they're freezing hiring, etc and algorithm interviews.
- pavlov 4y ago> ”Anecdotally there is a high correlation between firms that tell me they're freezing hiring, etc and algorithm interviews.” Both are signs of companies that treat employees as ammunition rather than assets.
- jlund-molfese 4y agoHow do you find the better-quality companies you apply to? Are you able to decline to answer algorithm questions when they're asked, and instead convince companies to accept code samples? There is https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards , but there aren't many larger companies on the list
- granshaw 4y agoYeah avoiding LC interviews typically means missing out on most of the high paying companies, for some it’s worth it
- kodah 4y agoFor context, I will actually be making substantially more - at least one order of magnitude - wherever I land.
- top_kekeroni_m8 4y agoProbably just means you are currently underpaid
- humaniania 4y agoThe cryptocurrency pyramid scam bubble popping is not indicative of a recession.
- exdsq 4y agoAre you suggesting we’re not entering a recession?
- doktorhladnjak 4y agoWe are probably already in one. Q1 GDP already shrank.
- arthurcolle 4y agoRecessions are definitionally 2 quarters of consecutive shrinking GDP growth so 1 quarter of shrink can not qualify as a recession
- solveit 4y agoOf course it is. Money flows.
- davidgerard 4y agoIt's the other way round. When NASDAQ sneezes, crypto catches a cold. I think because there's some tech investors who put a few percent into crypto, and when the market heads south you sell your frivolous rubbish (the crypto) first. And it takes very little actual-dollar volume to tank crypto Same thing happened in March 2020, when investors panicked over COVID-19 and flew to US treasuries. Stocks went down, crypto went through the floor.
- scottLobster 4y agoA decade and a half of easy money leads to a lot of bullshit. I imagine many of those firms are your typical SV startup or wannabe SV startup that only exists due to easy money and doesn't yet have to make actual profit to survive. So they can tell themselves leetcode performance matters and get high on their own supply. In my experience the higher quality non-FAANG firms who aren't wildly popular places to work and also need to turn a profit to survive tend to be more appreciative of qualified applicants and waste less time getting them started
- mattbuilds 4y agoDoes a good way of finding these place exist? I would guess word of mouth and your network are best. As someone not super plugged into the VC world, and who is mostly interest in good sold work and interesting problems, and not the hype around “being a startup” I would be interested in knowing.
- nso95 4y agoAvoid SV or just apply at non-tech companies
- 1270018080 4y agoAre there ANY companies that pay well and don't do algorithm interviews?
- xref 4y agoThousands upon thousands. There are a lot more companies in the world than FAANGs and SV unicorns.
- scarface74 4y agoWhat is your definition of “pays well”?
- krainboltgreene 4y agoWhy don't you ask the parent of the parent?
- scarface74 4y agoHe said at least $200K. Which companies pay software developers over $200K and don’t require DS&A interviews? I doubt there are “thousands”
- kodah 4y agoI live in the Bay Area, I'm looking above $200 base. There's at least ten, because that's what I started my search with. I'm down to three.
- scarface74 4y ago$200K and living in the Bay Area would not come near peaking my interest. I would have been better off staying at my enterprise CRUD job in a medium cost of living area with my big house in the burbs making in the mid $100s. I’m making in the $200s now. But I found a job at $BigTech that was permanently remote.
- jes 4y ago> I'd be furious at the inequality of input and output Stranger here. Just want to suggest that getting furious over things outside of your control, or the world not being as you would like it to be, is optional. If you don't like being enraged, you can quit that pattern with some practice in learning to notice your emotions as they come and go, and then learning to interrupt the chain of events that leads to the state of being furious and brooding.
- bathtub365 4y agoIt’s ok to be mad at a company if they fuck you over by rescinding a signed offer.
- jes 4y agoOf course. If someone wants to be angry, that's their choice. Yet a lot of people get angry easily, and being an easily-triggered person works against a person's life. No one wants to constantly have to walk on eggshells around another person in order to be their friend, partner, child, etc. Personally, I don't enjoy the emotion of being angry. If you do, more power to you.
- tonguez 4y ago“Personally, I don't enjoy the emotion of being angry.” no one cares
- ss2003 4y agoIt's nice to be able to afford to not get angry. That's not an option for everyone.
- jes 4y agoWith respect, it's not a matter of money or resources. Getting angry is optional. With some practice (largely, mindfulness) people can learn to notice their emotions and not become strongly identified with whatever is happening in the moment, and choose to do something more productive than simply stewing or ruminating in the unfairness of life. Thanks for engaging.
- bingohbangoh 4y agoThis sentiment seems common on Hacker News but I'm not sure its wise. Companies that have high standards are far more interesting places to work at and with more interesting colleagues. They all require whiteboards and leet code. It's definitely true that not all companies that use these algorithm interviews are worth working for. But, at least in my experience, companies that don't require them at all are pretty awful places to work. It demonstrates that management doesn't care who they hire.
- jackblemming 4y agoHow many companies have you worked for?
- sarchertech 4y agoAlternatives like take homes, pair programming etc… don’t demonstrate that a company doesn’t care who they hire. I mean sure it could, but it could also demonstrate they don’t cargo cult interview practices. Other industries don’t hire this way for anyone but fresh grads, and most don’t even do this for them.
- lrvick 4y agoI have advised, consulted for, or worked full time at 20+ companies, interviewed at too many to think about counting, and conducted technical interviews at 10+. Without exception the companies that weighted academic algorithm skills over practical architecture skill and implementation experience had some of the most confident and brazen mistakes in security or scalability and some of the poorest work-life balance.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 4y agoI can confirm Coinbase interviews are difficult. I went in relatively confident and still failed. Looking back, it would appear I got lucky since we all know new blood is the first to be dropped come a downturn. Well, maybe potentially not lucky since I recently jumped ship anyway, but it is not crypto or startup so risk level is lower. To your point, I agree. As an applicant, I would be really aggravated if I passed on an offer, because I received and accepted offer from another place ( and that another placed rescinded offer afterwards ). Can I assume there will be some lawsuits over this ( in that case there seems to be an incurred loss )?
- turdnagel 4y agoWhat position did you interview for at Coinbase? I made it to offer stage and did not have to do any algorithms.
- distrill 4y agowhat position did you interview for? they are very definitely an algorithm interview company for technical roles.
- bluedevil2k 4y agoI went through the whole Coinbase interview process at the Staff level a few months back - I thought all their interviews were fair and represented what I would have been doing there as my job. There weren’t any LC questions and the algorithm questions were all based around doing crypto related things.
- kodah 4y agoSame, mine was Staff level as well. I had to build a filesystem. I finished it, but I was left wondering if I was actually going to be working on an OS there.
- neilv 4y ago> I'd be furious at the inequality They needn't get furious. They need to get a lawyer.
- asah 4y agoSeriously ? So let me get this straight: now, we're not allowed to ask people if they can perform an __essential function of the job__, without being labeled "inhumane" ? You interview for sanitation work, I want to know that you can sling a heavy bag of hot garbage. You interview for SWE, I want to know that you can throw a sling a heavy bag of hot garbage!!!
- a_chris 4y agoYeah, because we spend the whole day reversing a linked list in your real-life SWE job, right? It's ridiculous that we have to study all those algorithms that we will never use it in your life, it's just too much.
- throwawaymaths 4y agoI had an interview once that wanted me to do A-star "find fastest routing of internet packets between sites" and when I presented a brute force path finder and he complained about the big O, I told him that his problem as framed only featured tens of graphs and his business domain as framed (as a function of the company's domain) would never have more than 20 sites, and anyways a sneakernet (ship ssds) would be faster (which he conceded). I didn't get the job.
- scarface74 4y agoThem: “Write a method to parse an address” Me: “This is a domain I’m familiar with because I spent 9 years working in the bill payment industry. Here all of the corner cases you have to deal with. You’re much better off using these USPS certified CASS solutions instead of writing it internally for these reasons and went on to explain all of the drawbacks of writing software that didn’t give you a competitive advantage.” The middle level developer interviewing me wasn’t impressed. The director was and I got the job and soon became the lead.
- mattbuilds 4y agoYou’re allowed to do whatever you want, and the person being interviewed can reject for any reason. If someone has code samples, years of experience building things and can make it clear to companies that they can do the job, I don’t see the problem. It’s a two way street about finding a good fit, I think a lot of employers don’t see it that way. Maybe they should.