Ask HN: Have you ever been hired without an interview?
Has a company ever courted you, instead of you applying to them or going through a standard interview? How did it work for you?
I got my current job 2 years ago without an interview because I went into the building and asked the lovely receptionist if I could speak to the manager - she asked why, I gave my name, and my qualification and she called the manager asked if the manager would be interested and they were - so I went and handed the manager my credentials etc and started a few weeks later.
I also managed to score a job that was completely irrelevant to my qualification but I was bored and want to do something else for a bit - by just asking for it, and it was a job that required maybe one or two days a week of actual work. I managed to negotiate almost $100k a year for 2 days a week, and then I went and worked in another job - and just to put in perspective, it was just a reception/admin type role. I only asked for the job because I was fairly confident I could ask for a high wage relative to the actual job and get exactly what I wanted.
I think it’s just easier for some people than others. I think I might be quite Machiavellian compared to others. When I have a really specific goal I can generally engineer a situation to go exactly how I want it to go including getting jobs without interviewing. But I have a pretty good success rate when interviewing as well.
If a company is courting you directly, they very likely already know more about you than an interview will reveal to them anyway.
For me, the big difference is that I don't know them as well and without an interview, I am missing a large opportunity to gauge how well I would fit into the company. So it means I have to do a bit more research than usual.
I had been working remotely doing similar work at another company for years prior while going through school, and I had met him my sophomore year while looking for a teacher to help me play better.
By the time I graduated, my playing skills had surpassed his, and he offered me the job. I got it without an interview or even submitting a resume.
I stayed there for two years until I got fed up with Windows CE (and Microsoft in general), and I left to pursue consulting with open source and Linux.
Lots of my other job offers have been quite random as well like the guy I bought a used Volvo 850 asked if I was a sw dev and could write a sort-of print driver. I said probably and they showed up at my door on the weekend with a dev laptop. Had it working by Monday, got an offer which paid for the car loan.
Another time was a coding contest, an obvious hiring stunt. I was interested in how fast I could make it go. Got 2nd place. When coning in for my prize was invited to socialize then an interview. I bombed the interview but must have been a good 'culture fit' aka fun drunk.
Freelancing actually seemed like a life exploit at some point. Skip technical interviews, only do product interviews. Get basically double salary and WFH benefits. But the catch is it runs dry.
Most full time jobs don't go so well though. They're often authoritarian cultures. There's a CEO with strong vision that's all in his head. He can skip the interviews.
A lot of really smart people work in this places (often the ones who don't end up in FAANG because they can't whiteboard either). But they don't stay long and treat it as a stepping stone.
It's a bit unusual, but then most interviews are not very good ways of figuring out if the person will work out anyway, so perhaps it's a good sign? Or else they're desperate.
2 times I did an interview but CTOs new me upfront from either previous job or my public presentation so it was just a formality and in both cases they target to hire me upfront.
Hope this helps.
I got to know half+ of the company for almost a year before an offer came out
But the guy who hired me saw my skills