The Horrifically Dystopian World of Software Engineering Interviews

A

Aquarians

OK, I'm not sure if this topic belongs to "App Development" or "Chit Chat" thread.

Pros for "App Development": it's software development specific, so I assume non-programmers (on chit-chat) will understand little of what it involves.

Cons for "App Development": it's a generic rant related to professional software development, so perhaps it better belongs in the chit chat forum.

Article here: https://www.jarednelsen.dev/posts/T...pian-world-of-software-engineering-interviews

Anyways, opinions?
 
Aquarians said:
OK, I'm not sure if this topic belongs to "App Development" or "Chit Chat" thread.

Pros for "App Development": it's software development specific, so I assume non-programmers (on chit-chat) will understand little of what it involves.

Cons for "App Development": it's a generic rant related to professional software development, so perhaps it better belongs in the chit chat forum.

Article here: https://www.jarednelsen.dev/posts/T...pian-world-of-software-engineering-interviews

Anyways, opinions?
More...

I have a friend who applied at Microsoft. Although he has an exceptional background, he did not get the job. My friend described his interview and said he was given a fairly simple database problem in which the interviewer displayed his “Lack of competence or knowledge”. I suggested to my friend the interviewer did not give a damn about the problem. The relatively simple problem combined with the interviewers apparent missteps suggested he was looking for something else. The interviewer was interested in my friend’s people skills as frequent and extensive corroboration on projects is expected. A lightbulb seemed to go off in my friend’s head and he ultimately became a sub contractor at Microsoft, after making the necessary adjustments.
 
Aquarians said:
OK, I'm not sure if this topic belongs to "App Development" or "Chit Chat" thread.

Pros for "App Development": it's software development specific, so I assume non-programmers (on chit-chat) will understand little of what it involves.

Cons for "App Development": it's a generic rant related to professional software development, so perhaps it better belongs in the chit chat forum.

Article here: https://www.jarednelsen.dev/posts/T...pian-world-of-software-engineering-interviews

Anyways, opinions?
More...
Those are the hoops you have to jump through to get into any of the big tech companies. However, there are plenty of software engineering jobs out there that do not require that.
 
You obviously have never undergone any quant trading interview sessions. You get bombarded with puzzles the second you enter. Not by one interviewer but one after another after another, sometimes up to 10-20 interviews PER ROUND. This in comparison is a joke. Getting paid a handsome amount is competitive. What else did you expect?

By the way, I think the mistake the guy in the link made was to be way too generalist. As generalist you literally compete with the rest of the world. By specializing in a very narrow niche but being world class is probably easier to secure a good job. But preselection of companies and teams will be essential. For example, be a world class android coder. Do nothing else. Or specialize in particular databases, no need to know Java or C# or Python. What that guy described happens perhaps to new grads fresh out of college (questions about data structures and absolutely basic algorithms) but nobody who has worked for more than 5 years should be asked those questions. If, then either one Interviews for the wrong job or the interviewer is a bit thick. I might be wrong as I don't have a CS background but that is how I recruited some project managers and developers into my past teams for jobs in the 250k per year base salary range.

Aquarians said:
OK, I'm not sure if this topic belongs to "App Development" or "Chit Chat" thread.

Pros for "App Development": it's software development specific, so I assume non-programmers (on chit-chat) will understand little of what it involves.

Cons for "App Development": it's a generic rant related to professional software development, so perhaps it better belongs in the chit chat forum.

Article here: https://www.jarednelsen.dev/posts/T...pian-world-of-software-engineering-interviews

Anyways, opinions?
More...
 
Last edited:
Aquarians said:
OK, I'm not sure if this topic belongs to "App Development" or "Chit Chat" thread.

Pros for "App Development": it's software development specific, so I assume non-programmers (on chit-chat) will understand little of what it involves.

Cons for "App Development": it's a generic rant related to professional software development, so perhaps it better belongs in the chit chat forum.

Article here: https://www.jarednelsen.dev/posts/T...pian-world-of-software-engineering-interviews

Anyways, opinions?
More...

Glad I'm retired and don't have to deal with this shiite anymore... :cool:
 
I hate to be too cynical, and I believe a lot of these hiring managers are actually looking for the best candidates, but I suspect some of this is to help foment the idea that tech companies just "can't find" enough American engineers. They scream that they really need to have the H1-B visa program expanded and are "forced" to out source coding to India, etc. Why pay an American $150k when you can get a "super experienced" Mumbai guy for five bucks an hour...
 
I don't think you hate being that :D

But where did you read that between the lines? The point is to get the job done not to create some racially diverse team. Especially in top companies. We are talking about teams that actually create new market leading software. Not some SQL or web design sweat shop.

Option_Attack said:
I hate to be too cynical, and I believe a lot of these hiring managers are actually looking for the best candidates, but I suspect some of this is to help foment the idea that tech companies just "can't find" enough American engineers. They scream that they really need to have the H1-B visa program expanded and are "forced" to out source coding to India, etc. Why pay an American $150k when you can get a "super experienced" Mumbai guy for five bucks an hour...
More...
 
Option_Attack said:
I hate to be too cynical, and I believe a lot of these hiring managers are actually looking for the best candidates, but I suspect some of this is to help foment the idea that tech companies just "can't find" enough American engineers. They scream that they really need to have the H1-B visa program expanded and are "forced" to out source coding to India, etc. Why pay an American $150k when you can get a "super experienced" Mumbai guy for five bucks an hour...
More...

you are not cynical. Before h1b is allowed to proceed, job must be advertised, if anyone applies, they will be interviewed. Essentially “fake” interview so to speak.
 
Not at Google or other top shops I hear. Not saying it won't happen. But perhaps you should not use some mediocre company and generalize. And perhaps American job applicant should actually understand that they are not necessarily the best at all. Especially in CS. So, when companies interview international applicants, sometimes even a majority being international applicants or international students then it's often not to hire at lower salaries but because they just score higher on average. The US has 440million, the rest of the world how many? It's pretty simple math to figure out that when a US company wants the best that a majority of the best are not gonna be Americans.

RedDuke said:
you are not cynical. Before h1b is allowed to proceed, job must be advertised, if anyone applies, they will be interviewed. Essentially “fake” interview so to speak.
More...
 
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