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by righthand 903 days ago
The job market is extremely rough right now. I was one of the first layoffs of this job drought which happened to me in December 2022. I took a sabbatical and now jumped back into the job search in August 2023. I get very few call backs/interviews and I’ve been developing software for 20 years.

I noticed companies are being excruciatingly picky during interviews. One interview for a senior position the interviewer kept interrupting me during coding and during my explanations to tell me how he would have answered the problem. It cut into the solution time.

Another company I was interviewed by someone who had only been in the industry for 3 years and at the company for 6 months and not a senior and told me I wasn’t qualified enough for a senior position because they couldn’t follow my explanation. Even after asking “does that answer your question?” I was also a referral from a former coworker who was also laid off.

I have an interview in two days that has two 1 hour coding interviews and a systems design interview and this was after I already completed a 1 hour technical screening.

I’ve even done a take home project that resulted in no interview so I have stopped interviewing with those companies as well.

I think a lot of younger people were promoted or weren’t laid off and now companies are feeling out how to hire people again, but the biggest barrier I am seeing is purely over interviewing candidates and looking for some tiny flaw in their responses.

Are you trying to hire me or just interview me?

2 comments

I hate take home projects, but with the hiring environment being what it is right now, I'm not sure we have the luxury of refusing to interview with companies just because we don't like their interview process.
I don’t think there are a lot of companies doing it anymore. I am starting to see companies screen via online code platforms (ex. Coderpad) more than take home projects. Which I don’t mind because the problems are 30mins-1hr. It’s the 5-8hr projects with no callback that is not worth it. If I successfully complete a project you better interview me, otherwise your company will be receiving a negative review.
> I was interviewed by someone who had only been in the industry for 3 years and at the company for 6 months and not a senior and told me I wasn’t qualified enough for a senior position because they couldn’t follow my explanation

I am glad I am not the only one this has ever happened to. I honestly felt bad for the junior being forced to fly solo and I was thankful I didn't get a callback because I can't imagine the kind of org that does this to the juniors and candidates.

It was just bizarre to get that as feedback from the hiring rep since I was a referral. The hiring rep knew I was experienced, the rest of the interviewers had nothing but good things to say. The hiring team has a weird “if one person votes no then it’s over for you” but no one could defend the logic of it: “most of us think the candidate is qualified except this junior dev”

That tells me the hiring team just votes on a candidate with 0 discussion. Indeed not a healthy work environment.