Thank you for this article. I too am basically shell shocked from whiteboarding interviews and I'm certain it's the reason I hang around the jobs I have longer than I should. There were a ton of things in the article that resonated with me, and I'm glad that you have said them.
I've never had to do live coding in an interview, fortunately not a common thing in Norway, but interview processes have still annoyed me a lot. It's more common to be given a small task before the interview, most often to show a basic knowledge of API's and data structures, should spend about 2-3h on it. They'll say it's just to show you know the basics and to give you something to talk about in the interview. Sounds fair enough, and definitely a lot better than memorizing a bunch of algorithms.
Of course when I get to the interview they start nit-picking the code. "You hardcoded the amount of cards in a deck? And you didn't write loads of tests on this quick demo?". It's also fun to be judged by programmers that have only done OOP when you make a frontend demo, they seem shocked that someone would program without the use of classes.
What annoyed me the most though was that I got the impression we were pretty much ranked by those task, even though we we're told it's just to have a starting point at the interview, and they have absolutely no control over how much time each candidate spent on them. I deliberately did not polish my code because I was worried it would give them the impression I'd spent more time on it than we were suppose to. And they of course ranked those who used frontend last. It also bugs me that they put so much weight on it when I've completed far more challenging tasks during my studies.
I also don't get the argument some people made that testing live coding skills was necessary to disclose people that we're not qualified. Compared to almost every other profession programming must be one of the easiest ones to reveal people that aren't qualified.
This is a really well written article, thank you very much.
Also, fun fact: I thought you were transfem the whole time. Funny that I was wrong. I'm glad that you're now coming out and moving on with your life, as a better happier you :)
Coding interviews are the nail in the coffin for me, and have completely put me off of trying to get a software engineering job. I think one of the worst part of coding interviews is not knowing whether or not studying and getting good at them will even be worth it still, given how competitive it feels just trying to get an engineering job. I really can't bring myself to work on such an obscure skill that used to mainly be a thing for FAANG as far as I know...
I decided to just pivot to another field within tech, because that part of the interview process is enough to make me not want to even reach out to recruiters. I'd rather get asked technical questions in an actual back and forth conversation, than have to solve an algorithm in front of an audience. I've been in an interview that was a panel of 5 guys in a zoom call with me, asking me different technical questions... it was a little intimidating. Yet I'd still prefer THAT over the whiteboarding.
The coding interview process has genuinely killed my drive to keep trying, even though I HAVE the skill to code already. To be honest, I think I'll end up happier for it. I would rather work in another technical field that's more reasonable with its hiring practices than this one.
Thank you for writing this article, Cain. It's definitely my favorite one on this subject.
Nice Article!
I hope someday you see the future you want as a reality.
In my case, I don’t care about being a dev anymore. I guess my light just went out
Thank you for this article. I too am basically shell shocked from whiteboarding interviews and I'm certain it's the reason I hang around the jobs I have longer than I should. There were a ton of things in the article that resonated with me, and I'm glad that you have said them.
I've never had to do live coding in an interview, fortunately not a common thing in Norway, but interview processes have still annoyed me a lot. It's more common to be given a small task before the interview, most often to show a basic knowledge of API's and data structures, should spend about 2-3h on it. They'll say it's just to show you know the basics and to give you something to talk about in the interview. Sounds fair enough, and definitely a lot better than memorizing a bunch of algorithms.
Of course when I get to the interview they start nit-picking the code. "You hardcoded the amount of cards in a deck? And you didn't write loads of tests on this quick demo?". It's also fun to be judged by programmers that have only done OOP when you make a frontend demo, they seem shocked that someone would program without the use of classes.
What annoyed me the most though was that I got the impression we were pretty much ranked by those task, even though we we're told it's just to have a starting point at the interview, and they have absolutely no control over how much time each candidate spent on them. I deliberately did not polish my code because I was worried it would give them the impression I'd spent more time on it than we were suppose to. And they of course ranked those who used frontend last. It also bugs me that they put so much weight on it when I've completed far more challenging tasks during my studies.
I also don't get the argument some people made that testing live coding skills was necessary to disclose people that we're not qualified. Compared to almost every other profession programming must be one of the easiest ones to reveal people that aren't qualified.
I like how 1xer vs 10xer doesn't imply any difference in skill, only on how they're viewed by founders and managers.
fucking hell this was beautiful, cain, thank you
This is a really well written article, thank you very much.
Also, fun fact: I thought you were transfem the whole time. Funny that I was wrong. I'm glad that you're now coming out and moving on with your life, as a better happier you :)
Coding interviews are the nail in the coffin for me, and have completely put me off of trying to get a software engineering job. I think one of the worst part of coding interviews is not knowing whether or not studying and getting good at them will even be worth it still, given how competitive it feels just trying to get an engineering job. I really can't bring myself to work on such an obscure skill that used to mainly be a thing for FAANG as far as I know...
I decided to just pivot to another field within tech, because that part of the interview process is enough to make me not want to even reach out to recruiters. I'd rather get asked technical questions in an actual back and forth conversation, than have to solve an algorithm in front of an audience. I've been in an interview that was a panel of 5 guys in a zoom call with me, asking me different technical questions... it was a little intimidating. Yet I'd still prefer THAT over the whiteboarding.
The coding interview process has genuinely killed my drive to keep trying, even though I HAVE the skill to code already. To be honest, I think I'll end up happier for it. I would rather work in another technical field that's more reasonable with its hiring practices than this one.
Thank you for writing this article, Cain. It's definitely my favorite one on this subject.
This is wonderful. Do you have any recommendations on how to go about selecting for 1X developers when hiring?
as a fellow 1xer what a great piece