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It's chronological, although I did want to emphasize this issue in recruitment. First impressions count. It's hard to know what a company is really like witho

It's chronological, although I did want to emphasize this issue in recruitment. First impressions count. It's hard to know what a company is really like without knowing some insiders. Searching on the Internet may find opinions pointing every which way. And then, you meet their recruitment team, and get your first -- and maybe last -- firsthand exposure to the internal workings of the company. Hiring the right staff is obviously very important. So any issues with the hiring process that cannot be fixed is deeply worrying. Does the company not value hiring? Why can't it be fixed? Who will my co-workers be? What else is broken? etc. I regret that I didn't walk out during the misaligned interviews, to save everyone's time. I did eventually tell recruiters not to contact me anymore, but that seemed to make them more interested, and I was handed to a different team. (In the end, I picked Netflix anyway, and am very happy I did.) Netflix recruiting was awesome, and I think other companies can do the same. Don't put up with recruiting problems -- help fix it. It may be your company's first and last impression.

fecak 12y ago
I've dealt with many companies large and small (retained recruitment, tech) that have admitted early on to flaws in their hiring process. Typically, I find it's someone in engineering all the way up to the CTO that admits the process is broken, and they generally want to circumvent internal HR processes to get the candidate to their potential boss and co-workers as efficiently as possible. HR typically wants to control as much of the process as possible, which often means an HR screening first. This tends to turn off engineers considerably, as it's deemed a waste of time, so the first step in the process is perceived negatively and that negative first impression is hard to overcome. The clients I've represented that have the smoothest process are those that use HR to facilitate and provide answers to questions, but to try and limit involvement beyond that.
UnoriginalGuy 12y ago
Do Netflix's interviews have any trick questions (e.g. manhole covers) or coding questions that have nothing to do with the job (e.g. Write a function that can detect a cycle in a linked list)? I would never interview at major tech' companies because from what I've read of their interview process, it is all about knowing random Computer Science trivia and studying a book of trick questions. I like more traditional corporations/business who give you questions actually applicable to the job and your experience. Silicon Valley interviews are pretty insufferable, due to their pseudo-intellectual elitism. Companies should take their interview, and then give it to what they consider their most successful employees. If the employees wouldn't be "hired" then the interview process is completely broken.
- mjr578 12y ago
  As always, it depends on the group or team you are applying for. Some groups actually have a lot of applied computer science concepts and benefit from these type of questions. On my team, Web UI, we typically try to ask questions that pertain to the tasks they would encounter day to day.
- jghn 12y ago
  I feel your pain on coding questions which have nothing to do with the job, but this can be difficult. We recently tried to identify such a question, with a scope such that the candidate should take about an hour and a half to complete - where complete also implies documentation, tests, etc. We couldn't find an appropriate question which would be something that would be highly indicative of the specific work they'd be doing that a) Didn't require a ton of domain knowledge (we don't expect people to have that domain knowledge coming in) or b) Would be too specific to particular technologies such as which ORM type library one is using, which type of DB, what libraries, etc. Typically when I've seen examples of these questions where they are fully relevant they're in a space that's tightly defined - you're using say RoR, MySql, etc and candidates are expected to be proficient in those. That's not us.
- CrankyFool 12y ago
  I'm a hiring manager at Netflix and spend a bunch of time talking to other hiring managers at Netflix. I don't know anyone who does trick questions (most people I know find them anathema, and even Google -- famous for them -- acknowledges they're useless). I definitely do know some people ask the 'cycle in a linked list' question (or others like it); honestly, I don't see a problem with that set of questions.
  - pja 12y ago
    even Google -- famous for them -- acknowledges they're useless When I interviewed at Google (four years ago now I think) there were no trick questions. Hard questions? Yes. But none that had "gotcha" answers that you'd either have to know already or be some kind of genius to come up with on the spot in an interview.
- 12y ago
dinkumthinkum 12y ago
Brendan, I'm interested in your reaction to what a few other posters wrote and floated to the top regarding very aggressive, tactless hiring manager gleefully indulging about firing people or brow beating about quick firings due to performance, seems several people have the exact same experience and it belies your post a bit.
- brendangregg 12y ago
  I was surprised, but the original poster followed up to say that that person has left the company. Would be helpful if people can note when the bad experiences happened. I got some blunt answers (reinforcing what was in the culture deck), which felt different than the happy-talk you can get with other companies, but I appreciated the honesty. I didn't get anything tactless.

fecak 12y ago

I've dealt with many companies large and small (retained recruitment, tech) that have admitted early on to flaws in their hiring process. Typically, I find it's someone in engineering all the way up to the CTO that admits the process is broken, and they generally want to circumvent internal HR processes to get the candidate to their potential boss and co-workers as efficiently as possible. HR typically wants to control as much of the process as possible, which often means an HR screening first. This tends to turn off engineers considerably, as it's deemed a waste of time, so the first step in the process is perceived negatively and that negative first impression is hard to overcome. The clients I've represented that have the smoothest process are those that use HR to facilitate and provide answers to questions, but to try and limit involvement beyond that.

UnoriginalGuy 12y ago

Do Netflix's interviews have any trick questions (e.g. manhole covers) or coding questions that have nothing to do with the job (e.g. Write a function that can detect a cycle in a linked list)? I would never interview at major tech' companies because from what I've read of their interview process, it is all about knowing random Computer Science trivia and studying a book of trick questions. I like more traditional corporations/business who give you questions actually applicable to the job and your experience. Silicon Valley interviews are pretty insufferable, due to their pseudo-intellectual elitism. Companies should take their interview, and then give it to what they consider their most successful employees. If the employees wouldn't be "hired" then the interview process is completely broken.

mjr578 12y ago
As always, it depends on the group or team you are applying for. Some groups actually have a lot of applied computer science concepts and benefit from these type of questions. On my team, Web UI, we typically try to ask questions that pertain to the tasks they would encounter day to day.
jghn 12y ago
I feel your pain on coding questions which have nothing to do with the job, but this can be difficult. We recently tried to identify such a question, with a scope such that the candidate should take about an hour and a half to complete - where complete also implies documentation, tests, etc. We couldn't find an appropriate question which would be something that would be highly indicative of the specific work they'd be doing that a) Didn't require a ton of domain knowledge (we don't expect people to have that domain knowledge coming in) or b) Would be too specific to particular technologies such as which ORM type library one is using, which type of DB, what libraries, etc. Typically when I've seen examples of these questions where they are fully relevant they're in a space that's tightly defined - you're using say RoR, MySql, etc and candidates are expected to be proficient in those. That's not us.
CrankyFool 12y ago
I'm a hiring manager at Netflix and spend a bunch of time talking to other hiring managers at Netflix. I don't know anyone who does trick questions (most people I know find them anathema, and even Google -- famous for them -- acknowledges they're useless). I definitely do know some people ask the 'cycle in a linked list' question (or others like it); honestly, I don't see a problem with that set of questions.
- pja 12y ago
  even Google -- famous for them -- acknowledges they're useless When I interviewed at Google (four years ago now I think) there were no trick questions. Hard questions? Yes. But none that had "gotcha" answers that you'd either have to know already or be some kind of genius to come up with on the spot in an interview.
12y ago

dinkumthinkum 12y ago

Brendan, I'm interested in your reaction to what a few other posters wrote and floated to the top regarding very aggressive, tactless hiring manager gleefully indulging about firing people or brow beating about quick firings due to performance, seems several people have the exact same experience and it belies your post a bit.

brendangregg 12y ago
I was surprised, but the original poster followed up to say that that person has left the company. Would be helpful if people can note when the bad experiences happened. I got some blunt answers (reinforcing what was in the culture deck), which felt different than the happy-talk you can get with other companies, but I appreciated the honesty. I didn't get anything tactless.