[analog31]

This is an excellent point. I work at one of those companies. Actually, it qualifies as a tech company, but our main revenue source is not software. I think that the pace of work at a multidisciplinary company isn't as frenetic as a pure software shop, just because it can't be. And we don't conduct coding interviews.

I had a conversation with one of our developers recently. He could have been you. He told me that he had interviewed at the big software shops, and had flunked the coding interviews. Yet I know that he's a very bright and productive engineer, who is also a pleasure to work with. I asked him: After those interviews, would you really have wanted to work at one of those shops? He said that he wouldn't.

And I know that I wouldn't survive that atmosphere either. So you're in good company.