I’m usually OK with doing more than three calls after a recruiter call (which are ideally with a hiring manager, peer manager, and a prospective peer), but that is usually because I quite like getting a feel for company culture.
More than that is just silly and contrived (although I usually end up talking to a VP or similar these days on account of my seniority).
There are usually three major red flags that make me step away (or at least curb my expectations):
- Any kind of automated coding test (I have a GitHub profile and plenty of public code, plus HackerRank and the like can be gamed if you have enough free time)
- Whiteboard or live coding interviews (I find contrived discussions about algorithms stupid when I can reach into my actual, physical bookshelf to a well thumbed-through copy of Skiena, get a tested approach going and _then_ figure out how best to optimize things)
- When I am asked for compensation on the very first interview. I see it as culturally rude, and if they read through my CV at all and have a target for the role they are interviewing me for they should have already done the math.
But as I am edging towards 50, a lot of the above just doesn’t happen. Instead I have long, rambling conversations about company values, people culture, and even end up doing free corporate strategy consultations, in which I am obviously expected to utter the right buzzwords that fit the interviewers’ worldview.
I quite enjoy those conversations for the insights they provide into how completely broken some companies are - instead of getting down to brass tacks and discussing their challenges, many startups end up coming across as cargo culting FAANG concepts without addressing their actual pain points (how to grow, how to retain employees, how to actually deliver product, etc.).
Hear, Hear! For me it's when they put junior people doing interviews to senior roles. I get the point - not enough resources, culture check, etc - but at a certain level we're not even talking the same language or even working experience.
On the other hand, any Amazon interview has tons of people :)
regarding the last point, nowadays what I see is the opposite where candidates still struggle with getting a clear salary range before engaging into time wasting exercises.
More than that is just silly and contrived (although I usually end up talking to a VP or similar these days on account of my seniority).
There are usually three major red flags that make me step away (or at least curb my expectations):
- Any kind of automated coding test (I have a GitHub profile and plenty of public code, plus HackerRank and the like can be gamed if you have enough free time)
- Whiteboard or live coding interviews (I find contrived discussions about algorithms stupid when I can reach into my actual, physical bookshelf to a well thumbed-through copy of Skiena, get a tested approach going and _then_ figure out how best to optimize things)
- When I am asked for compensation on the very first interview. I see it as culturally rude, and if they read through my CV at all and have a target for the role they are interviewing me for they should have already done the math.
But as I am edging towards 50, a lot of the above just doesn’t happen. Instead I have long, rambling conversations about company values, people culture, and even end up doing free corporate strategy consultations, in which I am obviously expected to utter the right buzzwords that fit the interviewers’ worldview.
I quite enjoy those conversations for the insights they provide into how completely broken some companies are - instead of getting down to brass tacks and discussing their challenges, many startups end up coming across as cargo culting FAANG concepts without addressing their actual pain points (how to grow, how to retain employees, how to actually deliver product, etc.).