Hacker News Reader

Comment by OkayPhysicist | Hacker News Reader

My current job was less than a week between my application and signing the final offer. Day 1: I send in an application. Day 2: My future manager writes back "Hey, do you have any work examples in obscure language I used for 10 minutes in my EE classes?". I respond "No, nobody has work examples in obscure language." Later that day, same manager emails me again, asking the same question, in slightly different words. I say no again. They respond asking to set a time for an interview. I reply I'm free tomorrow. Day 4, interview. Takes an hour and half. I receive a job offer about an hour later. I reply we need to have a conversation about salary. Weekend rolls through, negotiations are successful and I'm hired on Monday.

View on HN

Do you now have any 'work examplesin obscure language'?

Or was the manager just interested in trivia?

The job was part of rewrite from the obscure language to C#. So I guess some, but mostly I just need to be able to read it.

This is so unusual it borders on unbelievable

In my last job search I had like 1 case like this out of 30-40. Might be my numbers though

Is that a normal number of leads to have in play? I certainly spewed my fair share of resumes into the void out of school but I haven't done that since.

I don't think so because most of these leads came from frontend recruiters that could have made a lot of money landing me a job, and as a result most of them were great opportunities for the recruiters, not so great for me and the potential future employer.

Don't get discouraged. Work on a personal project if you want, so you have something to show. In my experience it's only hard to land the first job. Once you do, it becomes easier. Don't read other people's experiences and think something is wrong. Good luck <3

I've had interviews with startups that will use a quick interview turn around time as a selling feature to close candidates.

I've also interviewed at Two Sigma where I was flown in onsite and by the last interview they had already reviewed most of my feedback and told me that they were going to extend an offer. I got the sense that if I wasn't using a 3rd party recruiter with rules they might have handed me an offer before I left offsite. But it was great having the chance to talk to my would-be manager knowing I would likely have the offer to discuss my role while I was still onsite.

I had a similar, but inverse experience - was brought in for an all-day interview, and after half a day both they and I realized that I wasn't going to be a good fit, so they let me go.

No hard feelings on my end; I was out of my depth at the time, and knew it, and was glad I wasn't going to have to waste the rest of my day and theirs.

> was glad I wasn't going to have to waste the rest of my day and theirs

If, during an interview, it becomes obvious to you that you aren't a good fit at the place for whatever reason, you don't have to wait for them to end the process early.

Doing so yourself is not only acceptable, it's also a professional courtesy that they will appreciate.

Remember, with all interview processes, you're evaluating the potential employer just as much as they're evaluating you.

I was hired on the spot after a 15 minute interview at a huge international bank. If they really like your profile this can happen.

heard of it, but never happened to me. The closest "turn around" was 2 weeks after getting a response from a recruiter (which took 3 weeks, so let's just ignore that). But that was because stage 3-6 of the interview was compressed into a full work day of revolving teams to talk to.

Given how the other processes work, I sort of prefer to get it over with. But I understand that that's not viable for people searching while still working full time.

Not unusual, my current job was just a back and forth email semi-argument with the CEO in less than a week. This has been my longest job tenure in my over 11 years of dev experience.

What is the obscure language?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com