3 ms·

I'm absolutely one of these people who melt down. Give me a task and leave the room and I'm on it, but while being watched I loose all ability to think, which

by cnp 12y ago

I'm absolutely one of these people who melt down. Give me a task and leave the room and I'm on it, but while being watched I loose all ability to think, which I think has a lot to do with the fact that I never went to college and jumped right into the industry directly after high school essentially bypassing a very important skill you learn there: test taking. Two weeks ago the position of my dreams -- literally, exactly what I wanted to do, and at a totally rad and well-regarded company -- vanished during my second interview after (what I believe) was a killer and detailed coding challenge submission (which we discussed at length) and an excellent first interview. Why? Function.apply -- LOL "Describe event delegation" -- LOL Stuff you learn during DAY ONE of JavaScript coding (I've been programming for over ten years in a number of languages, and have built many, many large-scale applications). It was absolutely humiliating, and I'm still recovering from it in the worst of ways. My brain just froze up completely. Thanks for putting the site up because I'm sure there are many people that will benefit. I've got an interview at Amazon at 3pm and those are notoriously difficult; wish it were already live and running! I'm not looking forward to it.

hueving 12y ago
Not to be a downer, but Amazon isn't that great of a company to work for in the grand scheme of tech companies. Very few perks for engineers and penny pinching on workstations, monitors, etc. It really starts to wear on you after a while and you feel like nothing more than a 'necessary cost'.
- cnp 12y ago
  I most definitely do not want to work at amazon :) This is a contract position till I find something that is right.
gearoidoc 12y ago
Dude, if you're that passionate about that job you just described then I'd suggest calling the company up and explaining what happened. Having interviewed many people I'd certainly be open to giving someone a second chance if they explained a situation like yours to me.
- cnp 12y ago
  After the second interview I had an entire email written out that I was going to send to their lead, but honestly, given that the app that they asked me to develop prior to the interview was well done, detailed, commented and modern, complete with a PR flow that me and one of their devs went through via GitHub, I felt that if they were willing to pass due to me obviously locking up on a Skype + Google-Doc shared whiteboard, and on the most basic of JavaScript skills (which were clearly elaborated upon within the project), then it wasn't the right fit anyways.
  - TrainedMonkey 12y ago
    "I felt that if they were willing to pass due to me obviously locking up on a Skype + Google-Doc shared whiteboard, and on the most basic of JavaScript skills (which were clearly elaborated upon within the project)" Or it could be a simple miscommunication, or they thought somebody else done the app given your performance on the interview. Reaching out and asking will cost you little compared to potential windfall.
    - gearoidoc 12y ago
      Exactly. I mean, it would take a fairly skeptical person to think that you submitted someone else's code but maybe they just weren't willing to take the risk. Either way, I think you've nothing to lose by sending that mail/picking up the phone. Regardless of the doubts the interviewer may have in you post-interview they'll know that everybody is prone to a bad day every once in a while.
  - akanet 12y ago
    For those interviewers and candidates looking for a better solution than the "google doc shared whiteboard" - I suggest checking out a product I make: https://coderpad.io/ https://coderpad.io/ You can think of it as a much higher fidelity Stypi, Etherpad, Collabedit, etc, except that you can run the code in the browser as you write it. It really helps alleviate the choking sensation of being asked to write out an entire problem on a whiteboard without any of the modern affordances we've come to know and love.
dl8 12y ago
Pretty much the same thing happened to me a year ago, I was at an onsite interview, did really well 4 out of the 5 rounds, but 1 round I just completely choked some basic linked list question and looked like an idiot.

by cnp 12y ago

hueving 12y ago

Not to be a downer, but Amazon isn't that great of a company to work for in the grand scheme of tech companies. Very few perks for engineers and penny pinching on workstations, monitors, etc. It really starts to wear on you after a while and you feel like nothing more than a 'necessary cost'.

cnp 12y ago
I most definitely do not want to work at amazon :) This is a contract position till I find something that is right.

gearoidoc 12y ago

Dude, if you're that passionate about that job you just described then I'd suggest calling the company up and explaining what happened. Having interviewed many people I'd certainly be open to giving someone a second chance if they explained a situation like yours to me.

cnp 12y ago
After the second interview I had an entire email written out that I was going to send to their lead, but honestly, given that the app that they asked me to develop prior to the interview was well done, detailed, commented and modern, complete with a PR flow that me and one of their devs went through via GitHub, I felt that if they were willing to pass due to me obviously locking up on a Skype + Google-Doc shared whiteboard, and on the most basic of JavaScript skills (which were clearly elaborated upon within the project), then it wasn't the right fit anyways.
- TrainedMonkey 12y ago
  "I felt that if they were willing to pass due to me obviously locking up on a Skype + Google-Doc shared whiteboard, and on the most basic of JavaScript skills (which were clearly elaborated upon within the project)" Or it could be a simple miscommunication, or they thought somebody else done the app given your performance on the interview. Reaching out and asking will cost you little compared to potential windfall.
  - gearoidoc 12y ago
    Exactly. I mean, it would take a fairly skeptical person to think that you submitted someone else's code but maybe they just weren't willing to take the risk. Either way, I think you've nothing to lose by sending that mail/picking up the phone. Regardless of the doubts the interviewer may have in you post-interview they'll know that everybody is prone to a bad day every once in a while.
- akanet 12y ago
  For those interviewers and candidates looking for a better solution than the "google doc shared whiteboard" - I suggest checking out a product I make: https://coderpad.io/ https://coderpad.io/ You can think of it as a much higher fidelity Stypi, Etherpad, Collabedit, etc, except that you can run the code in the browser as you write it. It really helps alleviate the choking sensation of being asked to write out an entire problem on a whiteboard without any of the modern affordances we've come to know and love.

dl8 12y ago

Pretty much the same thing happened to me a year ago, I was at an onsite interview, did really well 4 out of the 5 rounds, but 1 round I just completely choked some basic linked list question and looked like an idiot.