[capt_slow]

I interviewed with Apple before. Was contacted by a recruiter, who scheduled a phone interview with a hiring manager. The first phrase from the call was

I didnt get a chance to look at your resume before this call

The guy was totally uninterested, but the recruiter at least turned me down a few days later.

I agree that HR will screen out better candidates for no good reason, because they (HR) are not actually in the field. I once saw HR decline a guy because he was proficient in Windows Server and the job wanted "Windows".

[Whostheboss]

Originally Posted by Maestro

First I am very surprise they even let you know they were not interested. Most company can not be bother to let you know.

Apple would have been a good choose if it was possibility. I kind of surprise they asked you to type out a program. I have an EE background and I never had anyone ask me to design a circuit on the spot. They is conceptional types of conversation but never actually show you in real time.

Google is not necessarily a good place to work. I heard they just burn people out. Yeah people like it due to all the freebies they through at them. In the long run it is not worth it. Amazon I heard is the same way as well.

When you get calls like that, before you take the interview I would specially ask them what the job is for and what is expected. I seen places ask questions which have no bearing on what you can actually do how it relates to the job you being asked to do. google is famous for the stupid questions just to see how you respond.

I personally have taken over bad interviews and turned it around on them and told them what I can do for them and why they should hire me. My people have not idea how to interview someone. By the way Apple was one of them and I worked for them back in the late 80's early 90's. They first turn me down and I came back and told them they made a mistake and the finally agreed.

They are asking me to type codes probably because they want to know if i'm an actual coder or if i'm lying on my resume.

They ask questions like create a structural variable type, do this, do that and do this to it. To be honest, i don't think this is a good way to test and hire people. At the startup company, during my interview the guy asked me how would i design and write the code for a dice game in Las Vegas... Like c'mon dude seriously?

Like i mentioned earlier, i'm not the god-father of coding but i've written some really complicated and advanced software. I learn and adapt quick. I can even tell that the people asking me these questions don't even know the answer, they probably Googled it just before they called me.

[UncleWede]

My Dilbert calendar for today was this very thing:

"At Google, we're encouraged to spend 20% of our time developing our own ideas"

"How many hours per week do you work?"

"About 60."

"It sounds better when you don't do the math."

[Whostheboss]

Originally Posted by capt_slow

I interviewed with Apple before. Was contacted by a recruiter, who scheduled a phone interview with a hiring manager. The first phrase from the call was



The guy was totally uninterested, but the recruiter at least turned me down a few days later.

I agree that HR will screen out better candidates for no good reason, because they (HR) are not actually in the field. I once saw HR decline a guy because he was proficient in Windows Server and the job wanted "Windows".

That's how the Google guy was, he had no clue nor did he even have any interest. He was just tired and wanted to go home. He sounded like he was reading from a scripted paper. His accent was really bad. His voice tone was like "this fcker is not gonna pass this interview so i'll fail him and move on to the next fcker"

The Apple guy called me 3hrs late from our scheduled time because he 'thought' i meant 5PM PST when i clearly wrote 5PM EST.
He was actually a cool kid.

But to be honest, most of the stuff they ask during interviews are never used at the job. I have programmed iPhones lots of times. I currently have an App on the AppStore, i'm waiting for some contracts to clear before i begin advertising it.

[Whostheboss]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

My Dilbert calendar for today was this very thing:

"At Google, we're encouraged to spend 20% of our time developing our own ideas"

"How many hours per week do you work?"

"About 60."

"It sounds better when you don't do the math."

Hahaha, When i worked at Sikorsky, it was scary seeing all the employes walk around like zombies because of 55+ hours a week. Hell to the no i will never over work myself for someone else.

The motto these companies use are:
"Hire them young"
"Burn them out"
"Replace them"

[MrPrena]

I don't know about the lower management or entry level job, but big companies usually hire body language and behavioral analysts to analyze you even before the interview.

If they need you, you can accidentally spill the coffee during interview+being 5min late to an interview, and get a job.
If they don't need you, you basically do everything what the specific group needs, and can't find a job.

Dell and microsoft uses little different tactics.
Dell used that typical janitorial bait on me. Janitors or receptionists making huge mistake on you, and trying to see the reaction and replies.
COME ON! I wasn't born yesterday.

I've heard that MSFT takes people out to eat on 3rd interview for entry level job with their potential teamnate and PM. lol

Genentech (prior to Roche M&A), they let 6-7 entry level Researcher or RA level interviewees on a same room for 30 minutes prior to interview and hear what they say.

What I do is just read news paper while I wait. Some companies might think it is time efficiently used. Some companies think I am really cocky. Not all company philosophy and HR analyze the people same.

Personally, I would not work at companies like AAPL or GOOG. I don't want to work 75+hr/week for 28%.... (never mind)

[dreamingat30fps]

The real question is... how the hell do you live on less than $140k?

[Whostheboss]

Originally Posted by MrPrena

I don't know about the lower management or entry level job, but big companies usually hire body language and behavioral analysts to analyze you even before the interview.

If they need you, you can accidentally spill the coffee during interview+being 5min late to an interview, and get a job.
If they don't need you, you basically do everything what the specific group needs, and can't find a job.

Dell and microsoft uses little different tactics.
Dell used that typical janitorial bait on me. Janitors or receptionists making huge mistake on you, and trying to see the reaction and replies.
COME ON! I wasn't born yesterday.

I've heard that MSFT takes people out to eat on 3rd interview for entry level job with their potential teamnate and PM. lol

Genentech (prior to Roche M&A), they let 6-7 entry level Researcher or RA level interviewees on a same room for 30 minutes prior to interview and hear what they say.

What I do is just read news paper while I wait. Some companies might think it is time efficiently used. Some companies think I am really cocky. Not all company philosophy and HR analyze the people same.

Personally, I would not work at companies like AAPL or GOOG. I don't want to work 75+hr/week for 28%.... (never mind)

The Apple and Google ones were over the phone so they couldn't really judge my body language. The startup company maybe but i always try to blend in as much as possible.

Originally Posted by dreamingat30fps

The real question is... how the hell do you live on less than $140k?

I really don't know how i do it dude!

[NickyC]

In this awful economy with dim job prospects for the vast majority of Americans, be very happy you have what you've got OP and not a job that starts with "Hi may I help you".

[f30nynj]

Been in this scenario 3.5 years ago.

-google
-Facebook
-Education startup in SFO
-Cisco
-hedge fund(employed here)

I made to final round on each of the interviews and then flunked. And when I got an offer from last one a unheard hedge fund, I accepted it. I wasn't sure if finance was firms but the pay was better & stress was zero(at least here).

Life takes you in a roller-coaster, just grasp the handrails & enjoy it. I always loved a small company where responsibilities are more but wanted to try these big ones but guess I don't belong there. I blame it on Karma.

[Nkc]

Shocking week indeed. Hang in there buddy. To me, that sounded like an excellent experience.

[grimlock]

Originally Posted by squishy

Friendly advice: proper grammar makes your opinion seem more credible.

When did Squishy become the forum dick?

[PSUSMU]

No offense - that was a pretty overly dramatic post for not getting a job offer. I've interviewed with Google, Amazon Web Services, etc. (Amazon was the most difficult). It's kinda cool to say you interviewed with them, but then you realize you're not as good as you look on paper and move on. The interview experience is good though for learning your weaknesses and what you need to improve on.

[Whostheboss]

Originally Posted by NickyC

In this awful economy with dim job prospects for the vast majority of Americans, be very happy you have what you've got OP and not a job that starts with "Hi may I help you".

Lol i know that feeling, i worked Customer service during college years.

Originally Posted by f30nynj

Been in this scenario 3.5 years ago.

-google
-Facebook
-Education startup in SFO
-Cisco
-hedge fund(employed here)

I made to final round on each of the interviews and then flunked. And when I got an offer from last one a unheard hedge fund, I accepted it. I wasn't sure if finance was firms but the pay was better & stress was zero(at least here).

Life takes you in a roller-coaster, just grasp the handrails & enjoy it. I always loved a small company where responsibilities are more but wanted to try these big ones but guess I don't belong there. I blame it on Karma.

Oh damn! You made it to the final rounds? That's even worse than my story. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.
My current job gives me more responsibilities and i enjoy doing the work and seeing peoples reaction when they use something i built, the stress here is very very low.
I was just trying to see for i can earn a little more because we all know there's no perfect job, the downfall to my current job is that i'm not making as much as i would like. I make enough for my lifestyle but it never hurts to add a few $'s in my life.

Originally Posted by Nkc

Shocking week indeed. Hang in there buddy. To me, that sounded like an excellent experience.

Trust me it is. I'm a complete different person now. I've learned so much both technical and social. I now know how much i'm worth and where i stand in life.

[Whostheboss]

Originally Posted by PSUSMU

No offense - that was a pretty overly dramatic post for not getting a job offer. I've interviewed with Google, Amazon Web Services, etc. (Amazon was the most difficult). It's kinda cool to say you interviewed with them, but then you realize you're not as good as you look on paper and move on. The interview experience is good though for learning your weaknesses and what you need to improve on.

What made it dramatic is the fact that all these happened in 1 week.

[Templar]

Originally Posted by Maestro

First I am very surprise...

Originally Posted by squishy

Friendly advice: proper grammar makes your opinion seem more credible.

[Kwando]

If you enjoy where you work now then no you didn't really lose anything, just gained some eye-opening interview experience.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by Whostheboss

Trust me it is. I'm a complete different person now. I've learned so much both technical and social. I now know how much i'm worth and where i stand in life.

You're worth far more than what a few bloodsucking companies tell you. Don't ever let not landing a job bring you down. Many of these jobs are already prefilled and companies just go through the motion of interviews to make it seem like a job is available. A lot of people don't know this practice exists, but it does.

[NemesisX]

Originally Posted by Maestro

First I am very surprise they even let you know they were not interested. Most company can not be bother to let you know.

Apple would have been a good choose if it was possibility. I kind of surprise they asked you to type out a program. I have an EE background and I never had anyone ask me to design a circuit on the spot. They is conceptional types of conversation but never actually show you in real time.

Google is not necessarily a good place to work. I heard they just burn people out. Yeah people like it due to all the freebies they through at them. In the long run it is not worth it. Amazon I heard is the same way as well.

When you get calls like that, before you take the interview I would specially ask them what the job is for and what is expected. I seen places ask questions which have no bearing on what you can actually do how it relates to the job you being asked to do. google is famous for the stupid questions just to see how you respond.

I personally have taken over bad interviews and turned it around on them and told them what I can do for them and why they should hire me. My people have not idea how to interview someone. By the way Apple was one of them and I worked for them back in the late 80's early 90's. They first turn me down and I came back and told them they made a mistake and the finally agreed.

You must be joking. Typing out programs in your language of choice is standard fare for software engineering jobs, especially at places like Apple and Google. At bare minimum you might be able to get away with just writing out pseudocode, but even that looks bad because the problems are meant to be solvable in full within 10 or 15 minutes by a competent programmer.

[P1]

Never say never, but I doubt I'd ever want to work for companies like Facebook, Google or Apple. Just the thought...

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by NemesisX

You must be joking. Typing out programs in your language of choice is standard fare for software engineering jobs, especially at places like Apple and Google. At bare minimum you might be able to get away with just writing out pseudocode, but even that looks bad because the problems are meant to be solvable in full within 10 or 15 minutes by a competent programmer.

As being and EE I have done my fair share of programming, and I've been asked how I did something, and explain how I wrote code to do something, the kinds of challenges I ran into and how it ended up working. That alone mean more than asking someone to punch out some code.

As a person who has works at some of the top tech companies and being on more interviews than I like to remember as well as hiring a large number of engineers in my career I would argue asking someone to write some code does not mean a thing.

But if all they are expecting you to write code and nothing else then it may not be worth investing time doing a true behavioral interviews.

[Nkc]

Originally Posted by P1et

Never say never, but I doubt I'd ever want to work for companies like Facebook, Google or Apple. Just the thought...

Work for them? Meh, I'd prefer to own them and have them work for me.