[mlthoughts2018]

People will tell you to practice, which is fine, but the bigger issue is that companies are being stupid by interviewing anyone this way, period.

By all means, practice is good for you. But also try looking for companies that don’t involve unrealistic time pressure combined with trivia-oriented tech questions. Your experience at your current employer proves such jobs exist, and indeed they exist at many types of companies with good job offers.

Just decline the ones that do use algorithm puzzles / whiteboard questions / etc., and include your constraints about how you will be evaluated just as you would include constraints about salary, insurance, job duties, etc.

You’re not interviewing to get out of the rain: it’s about getting what you want in exchange for providing value to the employer.

If part of what you want is to be treated with basic dignity and respect while being evaluated during an interview — something incompatible with trivia / hazing style interviews that are ubiquitous in the tech industry — then just own that choice, be proud of it and straightforward. Just politely tell interviewers it does not work for you, accept that you may need to opt out of a lot of interview pipelines, and you’ll find options better suited to you.

[JessicaTG]

> the bigger issue is that companies are being stupid by interviewing anyone this way, period.

I don't know about being stupid. I think it's an okay way to evaluate candidates, and as a person who does regularly interview people for engineering positions I see its value (I just get people to code a simple singly linked list with an insert and a find method). It's just unfortunate for a small minority like me that don't do well in situations such as these, particularly with the more difficult and involved problems.

> Just decline the ones that do use algorithm puzzles / whiteboard questions / etc., and include your constraints about how you will be evaluated just as you would include constraints about salary, insurance, job duties, etc.

> ...

> If part of what you want is to be treated with basic dignity and respect while being evaluated during an interview — something incompatible with trivia / hazing style interviews that are ubiquitous in the tech industry — then just own that choice, be proud of it and straightforward. Just politely tell interviewers it does not work for you, accept that you may need to opt out of a lot of interview pipelines, and you’ll find options better suited to you.

The thing is, I can't really do that. I want to move to America, in particular San Francisco, where I have absolutely no network I can reach out to like I do where I currently am. I can't imagine a situation where a company would forego a technical interview in a case like that, despite my work history or GitHub account

Thank you for taking the time to reply mlthoughts2018, I really appreciate it :-)

[mlthoughts2018]

It’s strange that you admit the interview technique doesn’t work well for people like you, yet you choose yourself to administer a similar technique and see “value” in it.

Why do you think you’re in the minority? Belief that whiteboard coding puzzle evaluations are broken is very widespread. Even many people who do not experience anxiety from the time pressure or “gotcha” nature of these interviews also see them as a scourge of the industry.

San Francisco is a large place with many companies. Better to find the ones that really fit your needs than to compromise yourself by trying to fit into an interview procedure that isn’t right for you.

Plus, since you mention you already have a job, it means you can take your time to filter out companies. No need to rush or apply pressure to yourself to hurry up and meet some interview standards... you can take a longer, careful search before relocating.

[JessicaTG]

That's fair. I recognise that it's quite hypocritical of me, but I don't really have a choice in the matter. :-( I've argued enough against the practice to reduce the problem from something that would take on average an hour to something that only takes 5-10 minutes at most, something that is taught and used extensively at universities around here. Thinking about it, no one has failed it at all.

For me, I do kind of need to rush. I'm transgender and not really in a safe environment to come out, and the time is fast approaching where it's near impossible to hide. Whereas overseas, where I do not know anybody, I can be myself. That is also why I also want to move to San Francisco in particular, it is very open and friendly.

[burfog]

I wouldn't call San Francisco open and friendly. Hacker News frequently has articles showing exactly the opposite.

Here, just 4 days ago, is an article about the city abusively forcing a person to build an undesirable house because a hostile neighbor wanted to cause trouble: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18695241

We've seen articles about violence too, for example in BART stations and against tech company buses.

[mlthoughts2018]

I appreciate the challenge of your situation and hope you are able to address the many simultaneous constraints you’re trying to satisfy. I submit that Hacker News may not be the right forum to handle the particular combination of details relevant for you, and indeed anonymous online forums in general might not be the best option. If you can consider other methods of seeking career guidance and assistance, it may offer better information for you.