3 ms·

Thanks for your perspective on this. I'm earlier in my career by a good bit, but not new to the whole gig by any means now (12 years in). 2 years ago I wanted t

Thanks for your perspective on this. I'm earlier in my career by a good bit, but not new to the whole gig by any means now (12 years in). 2 years ago I wanted to change it up and looked on the job market. Ended up applying to a large company that makes exercise equipment, and the first technical interview was outsourced to a completely unaffiliated party based out of Russia. They proceeded to ask the same garbage FAANG style algorithm questions, I just half-heartedly dismissed the interview partway through because why should I waste my time with these stupid questions if you're not going to give me the time to ask questions from someone who works at the company. It's such a completely bizarre practice, and honestly insulting to a degree. I get that there's a huge influx of applicants at larger companies, however it's absurd to comply with this garbage structure where you can't even ask important questions to decide if you actually want to work there. I applied to a different job afterwards and once they told me they used that company as well, I refused to continue the interview process. Worked out in my case, I ended up somewhere far better than either of those companies. I just can't bring myself to respect companies that treat prospective employees in this manner, it's crap.

gregjor 4y ago
I think I would just hang up on an outsourced interview like you describe. If the company can't take the time to talk to me that tells me a lot about how they treat their people. Back when I had to interview for jobs I would try to turn the tables as early as possible. I would do my research on the company and their business. I would ask questions about the job, the company, the people. I would try to get the interviewer(s) to tell me about their job. People generally like to talk about themselves so I'd try to get them going on that. Of course you have to get in front of the right people -- an outsourced screening team probably can't even talk about the details of the job. I get why companies do this. They want to screen out unqualified candidates early in the process, because big companies get lots of applicants. I don't think the way many companies go about this works. I've been in the position of hiring at places that get hundreds of applicants for a job, and there's no way we could interview all of them face-to-face. I don't think brain teasers or algorithm questions are useful, though. I used to prepare questions relevant to the job for screening and interviewing. And I would ask questions to determine if the applicant had done any research -- astonishing how many people get to an interview without knowing the first thing about the company or what kind of work they might do there.

gregjor 4y ago

I think I would just hang up on an outsourced interview like you describe. If the company can't take the time to talk to me that tells me a lot about how they treat their people. Back when I had to interview for jobs I would try to turn the tables as early as possible. I would do my research on the company and their business. I would ask questions about the job, the company, the people. I would try to get the interviewer(s) to tell me about their job. People generally like to talk about themselves so I'd try to get them going on that. Of course you have to get in front of the right people -- an outsourced screening team probably can't even talk about the details of the job. I get why companies do this. They want to screen out unqualified candidates early in the process, because big companies get lots of applicants. I don't think the way many companies go about this works. I've been in the position of hiring at places that get hundreds of applicants for a job, and there's no way we could interview all of them face-to-face. I don't think brain teasers or algorithm questions are useful, though. I used to prepare questions relevant to the job for screening and interviewing. And I would ask questions to determine if the applicant had done any research -- astonishing how many people get to an interview without knowing the first thing about the company or what kind of work they might do there.