With a good network, you can find a job. With good networking, you have a nice Rolodex without much influence.
You are referring to networking. This is very important and can definitely help you land a job.
Here's a list of some - never used it but was on here a while back:
Wrong assumption - the majority of my on-site interviews don't even use whiteboards. They involve discussing real world problems and work experiences with me. I still do not get offers from them.
This seems like a good interview process. If you're qualified for the position, then what part of the interview is working against you?
I can certainly work with a team and I can program at least as well as most of my peers, but interviews are difficult for me.
You could go find your nearest open-mic night and sing/play for the audience. You can read poetry or sing karaoke.
It's probably going to suck the first time you do this. However, keep doing it. Eventually, you will get more comfortable and confident. It takes lots of practice.
I did a lot of stage performances as a musician. I used to vomit before going on stage. Eventually, I got used to it. Eventually, I was able to interact with the crowd. Eventually, I got comfortable. This confidence helped with many other areas of my life. It did take work and pushing through the discomfort and fear. It was not easy.
This may work for you.
Maybe it helps to contact the company that rejected you and ask them why they rejected you. This would allow you to narrow down your weaknesses and improve these skills. I've never tried this myself, so I'm not sure how common such a request is, but it seems like a sensible thing to do.
I’d be happy to do this for acquaintances near me (Cambridge, Mass.)
Here's an example:
- apply to job
- recruiter does phone screen
- you're asked you to complete exercise before an interviewer has reviewed your profile/resume/application
- you put a bunch of work into doing exercise well and return it
- your exercise is not reviewed at all because: the job has been filled, the job has been closed, an interviewer didn't like your resume/CV/application, the recruiter misplaces your exercise, the team is too busy to review any exercises, etc.
So its not really a coding exercise where we ask someone to fix a bug or write code and then evaluate their coding style. Its a little different in that we are looking for problem solving skills in a startup environment. I don't think this approach will work for a large company where every developer has a specific role. But it works well for us.
I suspect every good candidate had the same approach. If you're getting people to do this for free, you're not getting very good applicants.
In this market, the people you're interviewing are far more desirable than you are.
As an interviewer, I tend to avoid paying applicants. It just feels odd. Instead, I try to make the opportunity (interview plus potential job) as enticing as I can. Once it gets out that an that an interviewee pays interviewees, I'd be concerned that I'd attract "professional" interviewees who just want the money. As a blood bank, I wouldn't pay people to donate blood either for reasons that feel similar.
The kind of coding tests I don't like are the ones that seem too onerous and involved for the given role. I have recently phone interviewed with a company, which they don't make their own software as a revenue source but build software for other clients. I talked over the phone with one of the lead programmers, discussed my skills, situations related to my work experience, etc.
Afterwards, he issued me a coding exercise with a VERY DETAILED .pdf document that felt uncomfortably close to a request for proposal and summaries of requirements. I hesitated and replied back about this. They assured me that this is not unpaid work and that everyone has to take this same test, in the language of their choosing. The test was intended to produce code for a MVC web app that they can evaluate. So I guess they really wanted sample code, despite having already produced other samples from Github, and discussed my real-world MVC work projects from my perspective as a mid-level developer (including one where I had architectural control).
I think the most disappointing thing, though, is that this long test is mandatory for everyone that they interview. So, the responses and decisions you make in the phone interview portion don't seem to have any real impact on the next step in the process. Someone could have a highly popular library on Github and they could still say, okay you gotta take this test. Non-trivial tests should be tailor made to a person's own experience.
Interesting. I think that is one good approach. Because I've come across many people (aspiring to be software workers) who 1) cannot even follow clearly specified instructions to the letter (a basic skill for a software person), and/or 2) cannot figure out ways to deviate from those instructions in meaningful ways, if they do not work.
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=ctci+coding+full+form
for those who don't know the acronym.
I've had a few people (beginners looking for a job) ask me for help on just those sorts of interview questions - and not being interested in spending time on learning the underlying fundamentals, though I had mentored them (on mentoring sites like Codementor) some on those areas earlier (at their request). Misguided, to say the least. Told them that that (just doing the interview prep) is not a good approach, because, even if they manage to clear/pass the interview, with or without my or others' help, they will likely get found out soon for their lack of fundamental knowledge, soon after getting a job.
Wrong question. The right question is "which companies actually respond to you within a week of application submission". Those "reapply in six months if you don't hear anything" emails tell me a LOT about a company's real priorities.
I kind of fear when I actually have to do an interview. I'm hoping I make it to the end of my career before that happens.
People don't know how hard it is to get a job offer until they are unemployed and don't have a good network. I would love it if I never have to worry about finding another job again.
Talk to your friends and workmates, ex-managers etc. If you've done good work in the past, people will be happy to get you in on the fast track. Companies hate doing interviews, so anything they can do to streamline that process they will generally do.
I'd broaden that to networking in general. Tech presentations also raise your profile, especially with manager types who attend.
I am at a loss for networking ideas.
Best decision I ever made
Decided "Ah well, may aswell go and startup another business." Haven't looked back since.
Your other comment indicates that your question is not "what jobs interview with day-to-day challenges rather than google-scale hypotheticals"
>They involve discussing real world problems and work experiences with me. I still do not get offers from them.
The question should not be "how do I run from this problem"
It is first "how do i get a credible assessment of why I didn't receive offers"
and then "how do I build or repair that area of my skills"
This applies equally if not especially to "soft skills" aka "how am I perceived by other humans".
edit: I poked back into your history and it seems that you figured this out with your question from ~20 days ago. That's the right thread to pull IMO and it looks like that post got some responses. I'd say keep pushing in that area - sub one month is a very short timeline for both personal growth and varied interview rounds.
But almost everything about soft skills on a job interview feels too orthogonal and dissimilar to my applied work soft skills. Interviews like that are more suited for sales jobs, I think. Sales skills seem like they have been put on a pedestal. Therefore I cannot see these interviews as an accurate representation of most soft skills at work.
Edit: Also about my older thread, are you referring to the one about returning to an office job after 2 years of being away from it? I really do feel like this is what I need and almost all the jobs I apply to require daily 9-5 office work. I'm a homebody and hang out only with 3 people regularly. It remains to be seen on the "when" of I'll get that kind of job.
This isn't about you, I don't know you, and you may well be the exception to this. But, given that; in my experience everyone I've ever met in person who claims that their social skills are not why their (not just coding) interview skills are lacking is wrong. Often they're wrong because they don't even realize it, because their peers know that communications skills are lacking and then don't even raise the issue to avoid the possibility of a (quite common) poor reception of the feedback. Don't assume the lack of criticism as an endorsement. If someone thinks you lack something technically but have strong communication, they'll tell you that. If someone thinks you lack communication skills, they'll do their best to avoid treading on the viper, because they don't know how you'll respond.
> But almost everything about soft skills on a job interview feels too orthogonal and dissimilar to my applied work soft skills. Interviews like that are more suited for sales jobs, I think.
I'm not even 100% sure what you mean by that, but I read it as "I don't really need the skills you think I do." Again, I'm not sure that's what you meant, but as a disinterested third party, if I read it that way, I'd be surprised if some interviewers don't.
That's an interesting thought. It never occurred to me that feedback on technical skills is more commonly given than feedback on communication skills. How did you discover that?
Also, withholding certain kinds of feedback because of fear of reprisal does not seem like an effective way to manage or improve your employees. So they'd rather fire you without telling you how you needed to improve? That doesn't sound like good management to me and it sounds like these are the types of managers I should avoid.
So I guess you're saying I should be studying people skills, I guess? I often hear that I need to get mock interviews but there are few official sources for it. Also it's not very instructive to tell someone to just find any friend. Most people do not have experience interviewing programmers, so they wouldn't be good for mock interviews. And mock interviewing with friends would introduce too much of a positive bias you won't have from strangers.
Whenever we need to hit consultants for some work, we NEVER make them do technical exercises. We just trust their word.
However, the people that want a steady paycheck are put through much more tedious tasks for less pay.
Logic being it was very easy to fire bad consultants. Employees it was more work.
Additionally, the military is unlikely to pay you favourably compared to the same job in civvy street.
But after having pass tech tests, multiple calls and had people very impress about my 10year career its hard to see anything else then the word "culture" in these instances.
I think you're a victim of the process and sheer numbers, tbh. Keep at it and you'll probably land something remote.
Thru take home test passing, inital 2 calls with people then video calls afterwards just to fail just seems odd but maybe I'm overthinking it. Local interviews havn't been well either. They tend to fall apart in the second call (not video). Seems like most people dont do in-shop interview but all over the net now.
I normally get filtered out of phone interviews for some reason, with no technical questions. I do perfectly fine when it's a technical interview. I guess I just don't have an attractive personality.