Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nowherebeen 1453 days ago
What I have seen is that many interviewers are actually subjective. I've had interviews which I passed and then to be told I was rejected without explanation. I knew I failed though because 1 of the interviewers didn't like me. This interview process is really a facade to not get sued. 9/10 of the team may like you, but it only takes 1. And from my experience, its usually the ones with lower EQ that make face-value assumptions about a person they are interviewing. You have no recourse to fight for your role because of the power dynamics of the interview process. They will simply say they don't want to hire false positives.
3 comments
lesuorac 1453 days ago
Not sure which FAANG does 10 interviews but anecdotally I've seen people get hired with 2 out of the 5 ratings being negative (i.e. no-hire).

Depending on where you live you likely have a legal right to the interviewer's written feedback. I've never tried it (US) but I've heard of many other people (US) that were successful but you probably need to know w/e relevant law it is as I assume by default you won't get it.

link
nowherebeen 1453 days ago
> Depending on where you live you likely have a legal right to the interviewer's written feedback.

That's a sure fire way to get blacklist from a company. No US company likes to deal with high maintenance candidates/ employees. The risk is too high to just move on and let it go. The best course of action is usually to come back in 6 months to a year and interview with another team.

link
brianwawok 1453 days ago
Is the alternative that the bosses pushes ahead and hires people that have objections? Then the team risks losing a known good member who quits for spite, for a maybe good new hire.

I think respecting a red flag of any member of a team to stop a hire is a good practice.

link
nowherebeen 1453 days ago
That assumes all interviewers are a) good members and b) good interviewers.

I have encountered my fair share of bad interviewers. You don't even need to take my word, go on Blind and read all the horror stories from both the interviewer and interviewee.

I think the statement to be too generalized and doesn't address the power dynamics of the interview process. You assume they are good judges of character from a 60 minute interview.

link
warrenm 1453 days ago
>many interviewers are actually subjective

all interviewers are subjective - it's part and parcel of the process...which is why you need to excise the trivia questions from the process

link