Hacker News Reader

Comment by SaberTail | Hacker News Reader

I've walked out of an interview when the employee doing it took a phone call in the middle of it. It was so rude and disrespectful.

I once got a whiteboarding problem and proposed a solution, and the interviewer gave me a flat out "that's not the one I had in mind". I'd already asked clarifying questions and thought my proposal was reasonable in light of the constraints as I understood them. After a few minutes of trying to play mind reader, I asked, "Is there some constraint or requirement I'm missing?" and they said no. I retrospect, I should have walked out on that one, too. I still have no idea what they wanted from me. Communication goes both ways.

View on HN

Oh, I've played that game.

Did a round of interviews for staff engineer at Catawiki that felt more like trying to guess the right words than actual problem solving.

But I get it. People get dragged into the process, usually without compensation. And it's much easier and safer to reject than to accept.

The tragedy is that everyone knows that the approach isn't working, I haven't met a single person who thinks SWE hiring is working; but we still seem unable do fix it.

So many interviewers fall into the old xkcd “communicating poorly then acting smug when you’re misunderstood is not cleverness”.

https://xkcd.com/169/

> I once got a whiteboarding problem and proposed a solution, and the interviewer gave me a flat out "that's not the one I had in mind"

Oh jeez. The impatient, combative side of me would want to respond, "so you're not open to other people's ideas, or open to the possibility that your approaches may not be the only good possibilities?"

A more diplomatic response might be, "can you tell me what you think about my approach is unworkable or at least suboptimal?" I think your question about a possible missing constraint/requirement was a good one. Actually, I think after asking that question and getting no reasonable responses, my original combative response seems a bit more appropriate...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com