[darthvoldemort]

I have a VERY similar experience with my first job, except 10 years earlier.

My first job was in IT at a bank. I was working with Windows NT and a migration to Windows NT 4.0 across the entire company. I learned a hell of a lot about Windows NT but I knew I wanted to be a programmer. So every day after work, I would just program on my own, doing various projects.

After a year and a half, I interviewed for a programming job at another company. I 100% lied and said I was doing programming at the bank, but was able to pass the interview questions (this was mid-90s so they weren't anywhere as difficult as they are today). I got the job, and from then on I could label myself as an actual programmer.

[jermaustin1]

I've actually found that there are a lot of BIG companies now that will do a take-home "task" which are usually pretty easy to accomplish. They are wanting to make sure you can program something, not memorize leetcode interview questions.

A buddy of mine showed me a take home task from one of the FAANGs that was a 3 hour task, that would literally take only 30 minutes for most mid-level developers.

So hopefully that means that programmer interviews with leetcode and a bunch of algorithm-centric questions are becoming less and less popular.

[lovich]

I and a friend have just done the interview cycle this year and, anecdotally at least, it seems like most companies are giving the take home test _and_ leet code questions.

The average number of rounds I was going through was 10-11 and that was consistent through applying at companies via Hired, recruiters, and applying to jobs off of HN and StackOverflow.

The only job I applied to that had less than 5 rounds was a small business that wanted to hired a senior engineer to rebuild their Java 5 app entirely for 120k/yr and no benefits beyond healthcare and be in office several times a week.

It’s kinda made me dead to any complaints from software businesses about not being able to hire anyone. They are simultaneously forcing their employees to jump ship if they want a raise, trying to force people back into the office for seemingly no reason but to show they can, _and_ constantly raising the level of effort needed to even apply for their positions.

Anecdotally again, it’s gotten to the point where I know three engineers who’ve just dropped out of the industry entirely and they are all <30 and not financially independent. They’ve taken the extra money they saved from working tech and are now using it to get themselves into a position where they are doing _anything_ but work for a tech company.

At some point the industry is going to have to face the fact that it can’t scale anymore due to the jobs being antithetical to most people’s mental well being

[jermaustin1]

My next big move will likely be completely out of tech as well.

I'm not sure when I will do it, but I've been setting aside a little money every week to buy/take over my wife's grandpa's business (handcrafted furniture - they sell 50-90 pieces per month all on pen and paper and over the phone and personally deliver the products).

I'll probably work on automating most of the more laborious parts (rough cutting templated pieces is one of the biggest time sinks, the other is hand spraying finish), and recycle more of their waste either into more furniture products or into something like wood pellets for heating or cooking.

[lovich]

It’s completely flabbergasting how much the tech companies are doubling down on it. At first I was angry at them for making poor moves but the entire industry does and has done this for years, and now I’m just curious as to what I’m missing.

There seems to be some pathological need for employers to only hire AAA 100x employees who happen to know all the rigors of academic computer science and being top tier engineers who are perfectly pragmatic and can solve the toughest and most novel software issues. They then take these employees who manage to pass that bar and put them in charge of plumbing together crud apps for the next two years. I recently found out from friends that I am trying to get into the industry, that they are being subjected to a round on system design for distributed and scaleable systems for entry level positions. At least one of those companies I know won’t let entry level engineers even look at something bigger than method until they have a few months under their belt. I just wish I understood the disconnect between what employers and demanding in the interview process and what they actually demand for their job roles

[stormking]

I give this kind of "homework" to candidates where I'm unsure if they can actually write a working program. These candidates usually have a CS or engineering degree, but only some simulation, data science or machine learning projects from school on their resume.

I don't really care about style but they have to be able to produce a program that can be started, does its job for an arbitrary amount of time before being shutdown again and doesn't crash and burn on the first non-perfect input.

[amusedcyclist]

I have never heard of FAANG type companies doing take home tasks. Which position / location was he applying for ?

[sgerenser]

Amazon is the only FAANG I’ve had give a take home test (several years ago) and it was just an initial screener.