Interview on Monday

A

Aquarians

On Monday I'll interview for a quant developer position with a $5B hedge fund. Would like to polish my discourse here by running a few versions through the wisdom of ET's select crowd :) Might ask the admins to delete the thread eventually but I'm also comfortable with it staying in the open (English "ask" makes no distinction between polite/interrogative and imperative tense, I'm using interrogative). Being a low level grunt programmer since almost 20 years now I may say some stuff that upsets a hiring manager's stomach but that's OK.
 
Robert Morse said:
I had a client that told me he worked for Google out of School. I asked him what his "question" was, as I heard they all get a logic question. His was, "How many STOP signs are there in the world and how did you calculate that". They wanted a number and his process.

Good luck with the interview.
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Thanks but I'm 20 years out of school so that's why I'm saying, things will go a bit different on this interview.
 
At the moment I've got a well paying job (above average developer salary in Germany / Sweden and well over UK average by the way) but still embarrassingly below US average according to this statistics: https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/it-salaries-software-developer-trends-2019

The company I work for has rosy perspectives as far as you can tell from the fact that stock value has almost tripled since start of year and it's got some deals with a billion-dollar funded startup (all public info). Besides that, I'm starting to do some side projects with an ex-trader from a big European investment bank.

So unless the deal I get it *very* rosy, there's little incentive for me to jump ship.

Apart from "developer" and "quant" also known under the name of "code" and "monkey", I'm also a researcher with the very stated purpose of getting rich. Maybe if I were getting $240k / year since my 3'rd year of employment I wouldn't be so dead set on monetizing my non code monkey capabilities. But I didn't and the pool of complacent code monkeys is only getting larger by the day and a known guy's observation is therefore reinforced day by day: “The world is a dystopian place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”
 
Anywayz, these guys employ "researchers" to look for "alpha". There's hardly a hard mention of the contracts they sign apart from the fact that they get "a portion" of their invention.

And as a developer I wouldn't even be recognized as a "researcher", already have a very negative experience with the imbeciles I used to work with (but what to expect from some monkeys anyways?). So apart from a salary just enough to make it another month, I've no permission at work to work on "research" stuff. Only janitor-level cleaning of crap (crapped by the very same monkeys obviously who are very happy *and* needy of someone to carry their crap away from them). But obviously if I do go the extra mile on my own at home and come up with something, then it belongs to them. Not even to the shady, laughable, measly bits that a researcher gets by default. All of it. Theirs. Dystopia in it's purest form.

Asked about the contract with them and obviously it's the same crap. Once in, I belong to them.

Including my hard-worked last 3 years and the strategies I have in the pipeline. Which as far as I got to know these guys world, are as different from what they do as curing an infection is done through bloodletting or antibiotics.
 
Aquarians said:
At the moment I've got a well paying job (above average developer salary in Germany / Sweden and well over UK average by the way) but still embarrassingly below US average according to this statistics: https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/it-salaries-software-developer-trends-2019

The company I work for has rosy perspectives as far as you can tell from the fact that stock value has almost tripled since start of year and it's got some deals with a billion-dollar funded startup (all public info). Besides that, I'm starting to do some side projects with an ex-trader from a big European investment bank.

So unless the deal I get it *very* rosy, there's little incentive for me to jump ship.

Apart from "developer" and "quant" also known under the name of "code" and "monkey", I'm also a researcher with the very stated purpose of getting rich. Maybe if I were getting $240k / year since my 3'rd year of employment I wouldn't be so dead set on monetizing my non code monkey capabilities. But I didn't and the pool of complacent code monkeys is only getting larger by the day and a known guy's observation is therefore reinforced day by day: “The world is a dystopian place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”
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Regarding the interview, the only thing I would recommend is for the projects you have worked on, including your side projects, be prepared to discuss them in technical detail as that is something you can prepare for. I agree with your assessment...don't jump ship unless it is a great offer. Good luck!
 
fan27 said:
Don't jump ship unless it is a great offer. Good luck!
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Thanks. $240k / year every year that passes. A very socialist 35% to the state, 50% of the rest in consummer needs and I'm still $1.5M beyond target savings. So whatever deal I struck with them, you now know that takes this into account.
 
Robert Morse said:
I had a client that told me he worked for Google out of School. I asked him what his "question" was, as I heard they all get a logic question. His was, "How many STOP signs are there in the world and how did you calculate that". They wanted a number and his process.

Good luck with the interview.
More...

That is very interesting, I did not know they did that.

Many years ago, myself and a relative of mine came up a silly thought experiment.

"How many Energizer bunnies would it take to evaporate the earths' oceans?"

The parameters were defined beforehand. An Energizer bunny produces how much mechanical energy based on the banging on the drum, using two "D" alkaline batteries over their it's lifetime... How many gallons of seawater could be evaporated by that mechanical output. How many gallons of seawater cover the surface of the planet, the time the bunnies could run on those two batteries, temperature and density factors of the seawater, etc etc etc.

In the end, when devising this thought experiment, it dawned on us that the answer is ONE.

Because an Energizer bunny keeps going and going and going...

THAT is a question that if I, as a Google hiring manager, asked a prospect and their answer was ONE? Instant hire. :)
 
Robert Morse said:
I had a client that told me he worked for Google out of School. I asked him what his "question" was, as I heard they all get a logic question. His was, "How many STOP signs are there in the world and how did you calculate that". They wanted a number and his process.

Good luck with the interview.
More...
Lol hahahahahahahaahahahahahah that's a pretty stupid question. How many stops signs in the world?

I hate when co workers ask me stupid questions that has nothing to do with making money. Trying to be smart or overthink something or be political correct or say quotes.

How about this. Solve all problems by getting rich.
 
Overnight said:
That is very interesting, I did not know they did that.

Many years ago, myself and a relative of mine came up a silly thought experiment.

"How many Energizer bunnies would it take to evaporate the earths' oceans?"

The parameters were defined beforehand. An Energizer bunny produces how much mechanical energy based on the banging on the drum, using two "D" alkaline batteries over their it's lifetime... How many gallons of seawater could be evaporated by that mechanical output. How many gallons of seawater cover the surface of the planet, the time the bunnies could run on those two batteries, temperature and density factors of the seawater, etc etc etc.

In the end, when devising this thought experiment, it dawned on us that the answer is ONE.

Because an Energizer bunny keeps going and going and going...

THAT is a question that if I, as a Google hiring manager, asked a prospect and their answer was ONE? Instant hire. :)
More...
Bullshitting is at an all time high.

It's a very stupid question for a hiring manager to ask anyone. I wouldn't want to work for a manager who ask me stupid questions. Would be waste of my time and then I gain no skill and be laid off in 3 years.

So much Bullshitting going on.. people better learn a skill and stop bullshitting. Or eat dog food at older ages. Make money.

"How many Energizer bunnies would it take to evaporate the earths' oceans?" Who cares is my direct answer to the manager.
 
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