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Do you know the meme on Reddit that shows a blob in a square, deciding to give the outside world a try, gets punched and says never again? That’s how I feel wh

Do you know the meme on Reddit that shows a blob in a square, deciding to give the outside world a try, gets punched and says never again? That’s how I feel when I try to interview for an software engineering role.

pvillano 4y ago
for those who haven't seen it https://webtoons.com/en/slice-of-life/bluechair/owlturd-69-vulnerable/viewer?title_no=199&episode_no=442 https://webtoons.com/en/slice-of-life/bluechair/owlturd-69-v...
Ancalagon 4y ago
There’s enough competition for good software engineers you don’t really need to do this to yourself. You won’t get in a FAANG but if a process is getting really annoying like this just withdraw.
Trasmatta 4y ago
This is the major reason I haven't been looking for a new job. I haven't been super happy at my current place, but at least I don't have to go through yet another life draining and de-humanizing interviewing process. Not to mention the first 6 months or so at a new job trying to figure out how the internal politics work. "Better the devil you know" and all that.
- yrgulation 4y ago
  > but at least I don't have to go through yet another life draining and de-humanizing interviewing process. Stop interviewing at code assembly lines? There are loads of sane places to work at with sane interviews and great tech and pay. FAANG and similar are undergoing a slow rot. You’ll do fine.
  - Trasmatta 4y ago
    I've never even interviewed at a FAANG. I've interviewed at like a dozen companies throughout my career, across all sorts of different businesses. All of the interview processes I've been through were awful.
    - yrgulation 4y ago
      How come? Genuine question. I interviewed at a company once. They asked me to do some funky stuff with some hex css colours, many many years ago. After i proudly failed they said thats what their buddy was tested about at google. Company went under and didnt shed a tear over not joining. Truly a waste of time. Later found a similar “test” in a high school cs “olympiad” book under a different name and context.
      - Trasmatta 4y ago
        How come I went through those interviews? Because I needed a job, and almost every company is horrible at interviewing, so you just kind of have to deal with the hazing ritual. Unless you manage to get really lucky.
        yrgulation 4y ago
        Sorry, i meant how come they all had horrible interviews. Silly phrasing and anecdoting on my part. You indicated “hazing”. What happened? Anyway no need to answer. I’ll do an instagram reply on you: the ocean is deep. There’s room for everyone. Learn anything you can from failure and move on.
    - JauntyHatAngle 4y ago
      Admittedly, I'm doing devops/sre interviews, but I just changed jobs for the first time in 5 years. 4 different jobs I interviewed for. All of them were reasonable, the one I accepted had 3, 1 hour interviews, the questions asked were very reasonable, friendly, etc. I dunno, maybe I'm lucky but I've avoided FAANG my whole career and only had good experiences in interviews.
  - inferiorhuman 4y ago
    I've been doing the look for work grind off and on for a few months. I've had one okay, one great (Render), a couple comically bad, and then a bunch of leetcode type places… for an SRE role. The best of the leetcode fans actually had the self-awareness to ask why I declined the interview request. One recruiter begged me to go through with it because they were working hard on getting an exemption for SRE hires so it wouldn't matter if I passed. One of the worst was a company that's been posting on HN for nearly a year looking to fill a bunch of spots, I can't imagine why they've been looking for so long… If there's a good filter to avoid that nonsense I'd love to know what it is. Somewhere around a decade ago I interviewed with Apple and it was nowhere near as obnoxious as what I've seen so far.
    - yrgulation 4y ago
      > I've been doing the look for work grind off and on for a few months. ok i may be living in a bubble or something. where in the world is looking for work in tech a grind?
      - inferiorhuman 4y ago
        I probably have a lower tolerance for bullshit both compared to my younger self and compared to most other people. So it's not just the effort of filtering out ridiculous job postings – I'm not going to work for a blockchain equipped, NFT based dog therapy app company, nor do I share your passion in bringing social media to defecation tracking, etc. Now I'm spending some time and landing right into the leetcode queue. Or going through a decent interview process only to get met with a hiring freeze. The whole process is just tedious.
        yrgulation 4y ago
        Nuance is everywhere. We all have filters and goals and its important to apply them. If the leetcode queue will get you where you want then thats best. As a matter of principle i dont like it, because i think its too junior - no insult intended. Usually the types of companies that employ this interview technique also suffer from hiring freezes now and then. I skipped all that and went for the go getters. Can you do it? Sure if you pay enough.
  - dvtrn 4y ago
    Is there some magical keyword or ‘tell’ that you’ve zeroed in on and want to share with the rest of us when looking at a job ad to tell if it’s a “code assembly line” or not before applying? From the rest of your comments you seem pretty confident and specific about not having these problems, so I’m curious to know what’s in your secret sauce.
    - vogt 4y ago
      I don’t have magic to share and certainly have taken on bad jobs I regretted signing on to, but for one, I always look for some degree of humanized speech in the job listings. So what I mean by that is not so much fluff about how great the company is and how big the mission is, and more about “we’re looking to add X people who are good at Y”. But most of all, just simply job descriptions that feel like they weren’t churned out by a machine trained to hunt for “3 years of python”. Also I like to see that engineering managers are the ones doing recruiting if it’s a company that is not Google sized, or at least a recruiter who specializes in engineering. I don’t trust that the “Head of talent” shares the same motivators that get me out of bed In the morning. An engineering manager might not either, but I feel safer betting in that direction. My two cents, YMMV, mine certainly has
yrgulation 4y ago
> That’s how I feel when I try to interview for an software engineering role. You meant to say when you interview for the wrong companies? Google’s (and other leetcode nurseries) been steadily regressing. Not sure you want to be a part of it. Only idiots build sorting algos in 2022 let alone ask highschool questions about them. Keep hunting and grab some popcorn - it will be fun to watch.
- Buttons840 4y ago
  > Only [well-paid] idiots Working at Google may be going down with the ship, but at least in the end you get to sail away on your golden life boat.
  - yrgulation 4y ago
    Nothing wrong in playing the game. But believe me there’s better pay out there.
    - Retric 4y ago
      You’re selling your life, focusing on chasing ever more money is a poor trade IMO. Not saying you have to join a non profit, just consider what you want to work on, who you want to work with, and the kind of hours you want to put in.
      - yrgulation 4y ago
        Yeah sure i should chase making a boss happy instead “for stuff that matters”. No thanks. I’ll work my butt off instead for the right people and pay. It’s a win win situation.
        Retric 4y ago
        Working your butt off is one option, working significantly less than full time is another. However, if you only focus on pay you drastically diminish your search space. No SV company is actually pushing the bounds of AGI research for example.
throwawaygram 4y ago
Grammar nit pick, "a" if the first letter of the following word starts with a consonant sound else "an". A ball. An echo.
- noncoml 4y ago
  I started writing “an SDE”, then replaced the SDE with software engineering, but didn’t bother proof reading..
- rendall 4y ago
  Give typos a pass, and if it can be explained as a typo, then it is a typo. That includes errant apostrophe's.
  - throwawaygram 4y ago

pvillano 4y ago

for those who haven't seen it https://webtoons.com/en/slice-of-life/bluechair/owlturd-69-vulnerable/viewer?title_no=199&episode_no=442 https://webtoons.com/en/slice-of-life/bluechair/owlturd-69-v...

Ancalagon 4y ago

There’s enough competition for good software engineers you don’t really need to do this to yourself. You won’t get in a FAANG but if a process is getting really annoying like this just withdraw.

Trasmatta 4y ago

This is the major reason I haven't been looking for a new job. I haven't been super happy at my current place, but at least I don't have to go through yet another life draining and de-humanizing interviewing process. Not to mention the first 6 months or so at a new job trying to figure out how the internal politics work. "Better the devil you know" and all that.

yrgulation 4y ago
> but at least I don't have to go through yet another life draining and de-humanizing interviewing process. Stop interviewing at code assembly lines? There are loads of sane places to work at with sane interviews and great tech and pay. FAANG and similar are undergoing a slow rot. You’ll do fine.
- Trasmatta 4y ago
  I've never even interviewed at a FAANG. I've interviewed at like a dozen companies throughout my career, across all sorts of different businesses. All of the interview processes I've been through were awful.
  - yrgulation 4y ago
    How come? Genuine question. I interviewed at a company once. They asked me to do some funky stuff with some hex css colours, many many years ago. After i proudly failed they said thats what their buddy was tested about at google. Company went under and didnt shed a tear over not joining. Truly a waste of time. Later found a similar “test” in a high school cs “olympiad” book under a different name and context.
    - Trasmatta 4y ago
      How come I went through those interviews? Because I needed a job, and almost every company is horrible at interviewing, so you just kind of have to deal with the hazing ritual. Unless you manage to get really lucky.
      - yrgulation 4y ago
        Sorry, i meant how come they all had horrible interviews. Silly phrasing and anecdoting on my part. You indicated “hazing”. What happened? Anyway no need to answer. I’ll do an instagram reply on you: the ocean is deep. There’s room for everyone. Learn anything you can from failure and move on.
  - JauntyHatAngle 4y ago
    Admittedly, I'm doing devops/sre interviews, but I just changed jobs for the first time in 5 years. 4 different jobs I interviewed for. All of them were reasonable, the one I accepted had 3, 1 hour interviews, the questions asked were very reasonable, friendly, etc. I dunno, maybe I'm lucky but I've avoided FAANG my whole career and only had good experiences in interviews.
- inferiorhuman 4y ago
  I've been doing the look for work grind off and on for a few months. I've had one okay, one great (Render), a couple comically bad, and then a bunch of leetcode type places… for an SRE role. The best of the leetcode fans actually had the self-awareness to ask why I declined the interview request. One recruiter begged me to go through with it because they were working hard on getting an exemption for SRE hires so it wouldn't matter if I passed. One of the worst was a company that's been posting on HN for nearly a year looking to fill a bunch of spots, I can't imagine why they've been looking for so long… If there's a good filter to avoid that nonsense I'd love to know what it is. Somewhere around a decade ago I interviewed with Apple and it was nowhere near as obnoxious as what I've seen so far.
  - yrgulation 4y ago
    > I've been doing the look for work grind off and on for a few months. ok i may be living in a bubble or something. where in the world is looking for work in tech a grind?
    - inferiorhuman 4y ago
      I probably have a lower tolerance for bullshit both compared to my younger self and compared to most other people. So it's not just the effort of filtering out ridiculous job postings – I'm not going to work for a blockchain equipped, NFT based dog therapy app company, nor do I share your passion in bringing social media to defecation tracking, etc. Now I'm spending some time and landing right into the leetcode queue. Or going through a decent interview process only to get met with a hiring freeze. The whole process is just tedious.
      - yrgulation 4y ago
        Nuance is everywhere. We all have filters and goals and its important to apply them. If the leetcode queue will get you where you want then thats best. As a matter of principle i dont like it, because i think its too junior - no insult intended. Usually the types of companies that employ this interview technique also suffer from hiring freezes now and then. I skipped all that and went for the go getters. Can you do it? Sure if you pay enough.
- dvtrn 4y ago
  Is there some magical keyword or ‘tell’ that you’ve zeroed in on and want to share with the rest of us when looking at a job ad to tell if it’s a “code assembly line” or not before applying? From the rest of your comments you seem pretty confident and specific about not having these problems, so I’m curious to know what’s in your secret sauce.
  - vogt 4y ago
    I don’t have magic to share and certainly have taken on bad jobs I regretted signing on to, but for one, I always look for some degree of humanized speech in the job listings. So what I mean by that is not so much fluff about how great the company is and how big the mission is, and more about “we’re looking to add X people who are good at Y”. But most of all, just simply job descriptions that feel like they weren’t churned out by a machine trained to hunt for “3 years of python”. Also I like to see that engineering managers are the ones doing recruiting if it’s a company that is not Google sized, or at least a recruiter who specializes in engineering. I don’t trust that the “Head of talent” shares the same motivators that get me out of bed In the morning. An engineering manager might not either, but I feel safer betting in that direction. My two cents, YMMV, mine certainly has

yrgulation 4y ago

> That’s how I feel when I try to interview for an software engineering role. You meant to say when you interview for the wrong companies? Google’s (and other leetcode nurseries) been steadily regressing. Not sure you want to be a part of it. Only idiots build sorting algos in 2022 let alone ask highschool questions about them. Keep hunting and grab some popcorn - it will be fun to watch.

Buttons840 4y ago
> Only [well-paid] idiots Working at Google may be going down with the ship, but at least in the end you get to sail away on your golden life boat.
- yrgulation 4y ago
  Nothing wrong in playing the game. But believe me there’s better pay out there.
  - Retric 4y ago
    You’re selling your life, focusing on chasing ever more money is a poor trade IMO. Not saying you have to join a non profit, just consider what you want to work on, who you want to work with, and the kind of hours you want to put in.
    - yrgulation 4y ago
      Yeah sure i should chase making a boss happy instead “for stuff that matters”. No thanks. I’ll work my butt off instead for the right people and pay. It’s a win win situation.
      - Retric 4y ago
        Working your butt off is one option, working significantly less than full time is another. However, if you only focus on pay you drastically diminish your search space. No SV company is actually pushing the bounds of AGI research for example.

throwawaygram 4y ago

Grammar nit pick, "a" if the first letter of the following word starts with a consonant sound else "an". A ball. An echo.

noncoml 4y ago
I started writing “an SDE”, then replaced the SDE with software engineering, but didn’t bother proof reading..
rendall 4y ago
Give typos a pass, and if it can be explained as a typo, then it is a typo. That includes errant apostrophe's.
- throwawaygram 4y ago