[db1024]

I recently interviewed at Google and one coding interview had the most adversarial interviewer that I've ever encountered. It started with the interviewer complaining that he was busy. Everything from the language I chose to each line I wrote received complaints. By time we got past the first question, I thought maybe this was actually a behavioral interview in disguise to see how I'd deal with adversarial coworkers.

I got an offer from them, but I declined without hesitation. I interviewed at Facebook and that process was great. At least one of my coding interviewers did read/skim my github code beforehand. Woo, keep it up!

[Benjammer]

A big part of dealing with adversarial co-workers is team structure and managerial support, how does a 1 on 1 conversation with someone you've never met even really test your ability to work with "difficult" people? It seems more like seeing how much bullshit you can put up with at that point (this is NOT the same to me as "dealing with an adversarial co-worker").

There's already a baseline of bullshit to deal with everywhere anyway, it's part of almost any job. If a company thinks there's so much bullshit and/or difficult people to deal with that they need to screen for it during interviews, that seems like a HUGE turnoff to me wanting to work there.

[vonmoltke]

It's the same as companies that purposely make interviews more stressful than they need to be "to see how you work under pressure". They fail to realize that not all stress is the same and that interview stress is different, in some cases very different, from on-the-job stress.

[bluetomcat]

I am very fed up with the whole "ability to work under pressure" expectation. Companies that emphasize this almost always have a totally broken work organization process.

At the end of the day, programmers are not emergency workers and need some rest and calmness to do their work efficiently.

[ChemicalWarfare]

That + the fact that no matter how strong the candidate is unless we're talking some well-known genius, the personal dynamics of the interview is the candidate wants something (the job) the interviewer "has" so it's skewed from the get go.

[Benjammer]

Yeah, totally agree.

Deadline stress more often involves doing research and making decisions quicker, and then putting in the effort to write the code in a more efficient manner to get it done on time.

Interview stress is more just like "Fuck, fuck, fuck, am I doing this the optimal way? Is my thought process here really stupid? Should I make an assumption/decision here or ask for clarification? Would they rather me be more thorough or more self-sustaining? Fuck, I have to do this in 10 minutes? And with no Google/SO?" etc...

[percept]

Impressive that you got the offer, then. Doesn't sound like it was "disguised" at all. ;)

I get the part about being busy and not devoting adequate time to reviewing a candidate's portfolio (though sometimes you're pulled in at the last minute), but I wouldn't take this out on someone--I'd hope we all remember what it's like being on the other side of the desk.

[jchendy]

I also recently interviewed at several major tech companies, and I agree that Facebook had by far the best process. The content of the technical questions was largely similar to everybody else, but Facebook really went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable throughout the whole process and took the time to understand who I am and how I can best contribute.