Do you believe that swe interview has become more tougher and competitive than other professions like sales/product management or any other non-tech professions ? No other industry makes professionals with years of highly paid experience prove they know their ABCs.
Yes, because it’s a demand and supply problem coupled with excessive competition. There are way too many relatively qualified engineers looking for a job so the competition for the same job is fierce. This allows companies to be choosy in terms of who they bring onboard. That coupled with the whole bar raiser concept of constantly raising the bar while the essential work that the engineers actually does remaining static has resulted in almost a right of passage for engineers to join a given company where the interview literally has nothing to do with what the person would actually do but rather trying to prove that they are better than everyone else that are being considered for the role. I keep telling folks on my team. Interviewing for a company is different than working for a company.
+1 for the bar raiser concept. The regular/authentic swe(s) are paying the price of over-crowding/ competition.
I have been actively interviewing and this is exactly how it feels It’s similar to the entrance exams in India and China
No other industry makes professionals with years of highly paid experience prove they know their ABCs.
This. I have seen other professionals navigate the job market with a lot more ease by selling their past experience(s), while the swe fellas are grinding lc even in their 40s.
I had a successful career at a top flight firm in a completely different industry before getting into tech. Coding challenge interviews are a mix of cargo cult, hazing, and total arbitrariness.
Absolutely. Google interviews for doctors. Zero questions on medical knowledge (the most “technical” question would be “tell me about an interesting case you had” or “challenging surgery” which is still kind of a ‘resume’ question). But 99% behavioral/motivation questions... I don’t get why it can’t be like that in tech. For new grads, fine, I understand it. But if I have a degree from a good school, 10 years of experience at a reputable company (with promotions etc), and good references, why do i have to solve coding problems? System Is totally broken. And what I also don’t get is why do we put up with this BS. Pretty sure a doctor would laugh and walk out if he got asked some detailed anatomy questions.
+1 . Value should/must be given to experience.
You only become a employable doctor after several years of specialisation study.
Try getting a tenured position at any top 50 university
Almost impossible now if you are born in the USA most faculties are packed with foreigners who see Americans as fat, dumb, lazy.
That was my point. There are many jobs that are much more competitive than swe. Even in tech itself try getting CTO job at a public company
How does this even come to a vote, lmao
Definitely looks like most people answering the survey and commenting are SWE :) I think your perspective is a little biased here... Have any of the people responding actually interviewed across all of these professions to compare? Most people with background in these positions fail the interviews in top tier companies... I happen to think engineering is one of the easier relative roles because you rarely compete for a specific position and you only need to meet a certain bar (sometimes a high bar), but you don't need to be the best in the interviews. Btw - there is a good reason why people with many years of experience as a swe still need to do a coding interview. It is very difficult to stay sharp and up to date in a long engineering career and what often happens to people is that they stop stretching themselves and stay in their comfort zone. This can make it harder for them to transfer their skills to another company and the difference between 10yoe for someone at their top of their game vs. someone slightly burned out is huge
it depends on the company. if you're a #1 tech company or offering compensation 2x-3x what you would get elsewhere then obviously you have to be selective because almost anyone would leave their current job for that. i can confirm plenty of places don't give difficult technical interviews or exams, most interviews are just conversational
Adobe, if the interview is merely conversational and/or easy, its also a red flag. It can very well be a biased interview wherein they might hire somebody who’s way cheaper or their own friends over more qualified candidate(s). I’d take a reasonably tough interview anyday over a super easy interview.
Culture fit is really important. After a certain level of experience your resume would speak for itself. But what might seem easy to you only few would pass.
I would say quants have to know more. Math knowledge + computer science.
True that. Been there, done that. The quants have to know the best of both worlds and yet their rewards have been significantly going down. In today’s world, its better to be a pure swe over a quantitative developer.
Which is why a number of quants I know moved over to big tech.
The thing that I hate sometimes isn’t that we get asked difficult questions or have to write code it’s that what’s being asked can sometimes be so different from what we ACTUALLY do on the job. Instead we have to spend months studying algorithms that may have no application to the type of work we are expected to do. It’s like hiring a surgeon based on their knowledge of what’s is or isn’t covered on healthcare plans. I could even get with targeted algorithm questions. Ones that are applicable to the types or programming we do. However it feels like we are sometimes expected to know ALL the algorithms even the ones we never use. It just feels like a major stress and timewaste. I’ve seen it lead to weird things too. People who are leetcode experts but struggle to build anything useable.
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Yes, except maybe Investment Banking which has pretty tough interviews too.