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raminasi
Jan 25, 2005

a last drink with no ice

ADINSX posted:

Does anyone have experience with interview coaching? I see dumb ads on linkedin all the time like "Ex Googlers teach you to interview!!" but those seem like scams... The concept makes sense though, its a pretty artificial skill and I'm happy to learn it if it means my choice of jobs and more figs.

yeah just do a bunch of interviews, you'll get the exact same experience but you won't have to pay for the privilege. getting this practice is a great reason to interview for jobs you don't really want, especially if you're already unemployed (what else are you going to do with your time?)

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JawnV6
Jul 4, 2004

So hot ...
idk there's a lot of non-obvious stuff i've been coached on that i doubt i would've stumbled on through interview volume?

"tell me about yourself!" give yourself 30s, max. make it punchy, memorable, and cut yourself off before you bore them to death with minutia. they should want to know more

on those open ended questions just give a barrage of goofball conditions. the one I remember is "if you're in a boat and throw a rock overboard, what happens to the water line on the side of the boat?" and just listing off ridiculous assumptions that had to hold. you're assuming the boat is floating, the water is liquid, the rock is more dense than water, etc. etc.

that said I wouldn't pay for a coach

huhu
Feb 24, 2006

raminasi posted:

if this is workbridge associates run far, far away. they are worse than useless.

...or Jobspring Partners, or SEP, or or or...

Look up the agency's rating on Glassdoor for working there.

Ellie Crabcakes
Feb 1, 2008

Stop emailing my boyfriend Gay Crungus

raminasi posted:

if this is workbridge associates run far, far away. they are worse than useless.
If it's Workbridge, go to their office, leave a bag of dogshit in the reception area and leave.

Doom Mathematic
Sep 2, 2008

JawnV6 posted:

idk there's a lot of non-obvious stuff i've been coached on that i doubt i would've stumbled on through interview volume?

"tell me about yourself!" give yourself 30s, max. make it punchy, memorable, and cut yourself off before you bore them to death with minutia. they should want to know more

on those open ended questions just give a barrage of goofball conditions. the one I remember is "if you're in a boat and throw a rock overboard, what happens to the water line on the side of the boat?" and just listing off ridiculous assumptions that had to hold. you're assuming the boat is floating, the water is liquid, the rock is more dense than water, etc. etc.

that said I wouldn't pay for a coach

"Haha, I got you! The water line was actually an ice line!"

JawnV6
Jul 4, 2004

So hot ...

Doom Mathematic posted:

"Haha, I got you! The water line was actually an ice line!"
it was in the context of a post-silicon position where you're debugging marginal issues, so "maybe the cache blew up" was reasonable. for most software folks it required out-of-the-box thinking

ostensibly, that's what the question is looking for. the wrongest answer is digging your heels in, with all those unstated assumptions lurking about, and insisting on the one up/down answer that'd be on a physics test

that style has fallen out of favor but unstylish folks often have jobs with money, so

ADINSX
Sep 9, 2003

Wanna run with my crew huh? Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?

raminasi posted:

yeah just do a bunch of interviews, you'll get the exact same experience but you won't have to pay for the privilege. getting this practice is a great reason to interview for jobs you don't really want, especially if you're already unemployed (what else are you going to do with your time?)

I have a job; its actually an enormous pain in the rear end to schedule interviews since I'm trying not to let on that I'm interviewing and also continuing in my role as a team lead... (Uh i need to take a vacation day next uh, Tuesday... yep... just gonna take a little Tuesday vacation)

Some coaching after work would be perfect, but maybe that time would be better spent networking at meetups... ugh... if such a coach did exist I think it'd be a pretty good investment though. Even if it cost a couple of thousand dollars, if it results in one more offer letter, then I'm that much better off either negotiating a higher salary or picking the highest one.

edit: Oh I just remembered my local python group has mock interviews on monday... I should go to those, duh

Hunter2 Thompson
Feb 3, 2005

Ramrod XTreme

huhu posted:

...or Jobspring Partners, or SEP, or or or...

Look up the agency's rating on Glassdoor for working there.

oh, it's jobspring in downtown san jose

i am an unemployed so i'll just use it as an excuse to practice speaking to strangers cordially then get some jamaican food afterward at back a yard

to those who've interacted with agencies like these, how are they worse than useless? wasted time is no problem for me, but if it's something like they try to make me sign an agreement to only find jobs through them i'll just gtfo

Hunter2 Thompson fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Aug 25, 2018

Notorious b.s.d.
Jan 25, 2003

by Reene

meatpotato posted:

if it's something like they try to make me sign an agreement to only find jobs through them i'll just gtfo

well duh don't sign anything

raminasi
Jan 25, 2005

a last drink with no ice

meatpotato posted:

oh, it's jobspring in downtown san jose

i am an unemployed so i'll just use it as an excuse to practice speaking to strangers cordially then get some jamaican food afterward at back a yard

to those who've interacted with agencies like these, how are they worse than useless? wasted time is no problem for me, but if it's something like they try to make me sign an agreement to only find jobs through them i'll just gtfo

there's "wasted time" and then there's me doing phone screens and having the guy on the other end say "your experience sounds cool but it doesn't really have anything to do with this position" and me replying "well see that's what i thought," amicably saying goodbye, and then getting chewed out by the recruiter for rejecting the position for no reason. also they submitted me to one job that i think i would have liked and then never actually followed up with the company so it just kind of hung in limbo.

Hunter2 Thompson
Feb 3, 2005

Ramrod XTreme
that does suck, i'll definitely not put too much faith in them to find me a job

i had a bad experience with an in-house recruiter poorly matching my skills to a job last time i was looking, so it's definitely not just a third party only phenomenon

TimWinter
Mar 30, 2015

https://timsthebomb.com
Are shameless job postings welcome? I guess if you're here and want to work for DataRobot hit me up because we're hiring an insane number of engineers all of a sudden.

Ellie Crabcakes
Feb 1, 2008

Stop emailing my boyfriend Gay Crungus

meatpotato posted:

oh, it's jobspring in downtown san jose
Yeah, gently caress those guys too.

Triglav
Jun 2, 2007

IT IS HARAAM TO SEND SMILEY FACES THROUGH THE INTERNET
yospos referral link chain

ADINSX
Sep 9, 2003

Wanna run with my crew huh? Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?

TimWinter posted:

Are shameless job postings welcome? I guess if you're here and want to work for DataRobot hit me up because we're hiring an insane number of engineers all of a sudden.

looks neat but nothing in seattle :(

Fiedler
Jun 29, 2002

I, for one, welcome our new mouse overlords.

JawnV6 posted:

"tell me about yourself!" give yourself 30s, max. make it punchy, memorable, and cut yourself off before you bore them to death with minutia. they should want to know more

this is one of the questions for which you should have a practiced answer. see also:
"why are you interested in my company/division/team?"
"why are you leaving your current job?"
"tell me about a project you did recently"
"tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone/your boss/a peer"
"tell me about a time you couldn't meet a deadline"
"tell me about a project that you're most proud of"
"tell me about a project that you're not proud of. what would you do differently today?"

if you do enough interviews you'll end up practicing the answer to these questions, so may as well do it now.

TimWinter
Mar 30, 2015

https://timsthebomb.com

ADINSX posted:

looks neat but nothing in seattle :(

A) seattle is bad
B) Like 45% of our engineers are remote so YMMV


edit: I'm just angry because a good friend of mine moved to Seattle literally this morning. I'm sure Seatte is ok for other people's friends though.

TimWinter fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Aug 26, 2018

Mahatma Goonsay
Jun 6, 2007
Yum

TimWinter posted:

Are shameless job postings welcome? I guess if you're here and want to work for DataRobot hit me up because we're hiring an insane number of engineers all of a sudden.

woah the boston local would be a pretty nice location for me. need any terrible front end people?

Mahatma Goonsay
Jun 6, 2007
Yum
unrelated question, would it be stupid to apply to a job at a company that just recently got bought out by amazon? i fear getting hired and then immediately fired when amazon fully takes over.

Symbolic Butt
Mar 22, 2009

(_!_)
Buglord

Symbolic Butt posted:

this company is paying for me to fly and interview with them, for the first time in my life I'll see what's the deal with airplane traveling :woop:

an update to this is that I met the office dog. that was a legit nice dog. I understand now why people like dogs

Notorious b.s.d.
Jan 25, 2003

by Reene

Mahatma Goonsay posted:

unrelated question, would it be stupid to apply to a job at a company that just recently got bought out by amazon? i fear getting hired and then immediately fired when amazon fully takes over.

it's probably stupid but not for that reason

amazon presumably didn't buy the company to fire everyone

Hunter2 Thompson
Feb 3, 2005

Ramrod XTreme
oh hell yeah i got a call back for the tv show casting agency

im gonna be a techie extra for a few days

TimWinter
Mar 30, 2015

https://timsthebomb.com

Mahatma Goonsay posted:

woah the boston local would be a pretty nice location for me. need any terrible front end people?

Your resume is going out to the frontend guys on Monday, thanks for the PM.

Mahatma Goonsay
Jun 6, 2007
Yum

TimWinter posted:

Your resume is going out to the frontend guys on Monday, thanks for the PM.

thanks!

Hunter2 Thompson
Feb 3, 2005

Ramrod XTreme
"what is you greatest accomplishment" is such a terrible question

i've accomplished nothing in my career except avoiding being fired

ADINSX
Sep 9, 2003

Wanna run with my crew huh? Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?

meatpotato posted:

"what is you greatest accomplishment" is such a terrible question

i've accomplished nothing in my career except avoiding being fired

well see it'd weed you out if you answered it honestly like that :p

ADINSX
Sep 9, 2003

Wanna run with my crew huh? Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?

My greatest accomplishment? Probably the smiles I get when I delight users with bespoke algorithms that address their every issue without them even knowing.

FMguru
Sep 10, 2003

peed on;
sexually

ADINSX posted:

My greatest accomplishment? Probably the smiles I get when I delight users with bespoke algorithms that address their every issue without them even knowing.
interviewer: *leaning forward* tell me more

Achmed Jones
Oct 16, 2004



surely you’ve done _something_ you’re proud of? if not you should get a hobby!

Sapozhnik
Jan 2, 2005

Nap Ghost
i've wasted years of my life developing a clone server for a bunch of games and idk if i want to be waving that fact around when interviewing at a company whose primary thing is producing ip

PIZZA.BAT
Nov 12, 2016


:cheers:


ADINSX posted:

My greatest accomplishment? Probably the smiles I get when I delight users with bespoke algorithms that address their every issue without them even knowing.

this is legit a terrible answer and i hope this post is a joke. you genuinely should have a project that you're proud of and if you don't- at least have one you can pretend to be proud of

Hunter2 Thompson
Feb 3, 2005

Ramrod XTreme
i am ashamed of all the products i made exist in my work capacity

however i have some pride in some of the work i did on the shameful products, so i wrote about that (unfucking a production line in china) in the box on the web form for a job application i just submitted

however (Rex-Goliath), if you're talking about impressive personal projects, then ive never done anything in my life that im proud of that could get me a job

biggest projects recently: repaired a vintage Marantz stereo receiver but didn't finish learning CAD to 3d print broken plastic parts, so it's on a shelf even though the electronics work :/

took apart a vintage bmw, got it running, took it apart again and it's been sitting in a garage for 10 years :/

Hunter2 Thompson
Feb 3, 2005

Ramrod XTreme
sorry about that, i need to get my poo poo together re: personal projects and hobbies

kind of a triggering issue for me i suppose

PIZZA.BAT
Nov 12, 2016


:cheers:


meatpotato posted:

however (Rex-Goliath), if you're talking about impressive personal projects,

i'm not, as i don't really have any impressive personal projects either. all my programming time goes into professional work and i leave my personal life to doing anything besides that like brewing beer or lifting heavy things

raminasi
Jan 25, 2005

a last drink with no ice
you don't necessarily need to have something sexy, my proudest professional accomplishment is a boring-rear end parsing library i wrote that's been chilling in prod for years without needing maintenance

Achmed Jones
Oct 16, 2004



meatpotato posted:


biggest projects recently: repaired a vintage Marantz stereo receiver but didn't finish learning CAD to 3d print broken plastic parts, so it's on a shelf even though the electronics work :/

took apart a vintage bmw, got it running, took it apart again and it's been sitting in a garage for 10 years :/

those are both dope and are the kind of thing I want to hear about in interviews, especially if the alternative is yet another crud app or similar

unfucking a production line is p sweet though, you chose correctly imo

Achmed Jones
Oct 16, 2004



if somebody asks me a question like that, it’s like ok I guess we’re gonna talk about toddler jones or ms jones or my research from grad school, but programming-related stuff is gonna come in at like #4 at best

admittedly this doesn’t work at all for filling in a form, but in person it seems fine 🤷‍♀️

ADINSX
Sep 9, 2003

Wanna run with my crew huh? Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?

Rex-Goliath posted:

this is legit a terrible answer and i hope this post is a joke. you genuinely should have a project that you're proud of and if you don't- at least have one you can pretend to be proud of

:thejoke:

yes I have projects I'm proud of, the post was meant as a parody of what interviewers want to hear

Notorious b.s.d.
Jan 25, 2003

by Reene
i don't have any projects i am proud of

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Notorious b.s.d.
Jan 25, 2003

by Reene
i have been doing this for almost twenty years and i have nothing to show for it but a pile of money

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