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Comment by siva7 | Hacker News Reader

Oh. I remember once applying for Canonical, and i found those high-school grade obsessed questions truly odd back then. After applying they ghosted me. In hindsight, the interview process seems to be matching the personality of their founder CEO, so very glad i'm not working there.

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I had the same experience. I even made the mistake of being honest: In HS I didn't care about computers and had poor academic performance. It wasn't until 6 years later I even knew what computer science was, and didn't look up until 11 years and a PhD later when I was writing software for NASA or managing robotics teams at FAANG/ startups. I got an immediate reject for a robotics SWE position. I'm trying to temper ego even now, but I was qualified for an interview.

sounds like you dodged a bullet.

You qualified for the interview, but did they qualify for you?

Tbh, to keep my ego in check, whenever i get rejected ghosted, or whatever, I just assume the company/interviewer is doing a perfect job for screening for the kind of candidates they want and need, and if I don't pass it means "there wasn't a fit", tbh if we were totally honest with myself, I don't fit well into most corporate cultures, and I should not care if they ask me questions I did not care enough to answer well in the first place.

A highschool performance question is not odd. It is meant to filter me out - that is perfect, because why would I want to waste my time on an interview in a company with this mentality, in the first place?

Of course this is the most sensible take - Seneca would be proud of this logic.

But it offends some folks world view to live with folks who hire based on signals like this, vs raw capability.

So, we come to this forum to kvetch.

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