I’m Going to Apply for a “Big Tech” Job. Here’s My Fear
This isn’t about my fear of being found out as someone too junior to be allowed to even apply to a famous name company and laughed at in an interview.
No. This is about being exposed to people who have been able to pass the interview process.
A bit of Groucho Marx?
Groucho Marx famously said:
I refuse to join any club that would have me…
I think I might actually be a bit like that.
This is because I believe a broken process can lead to broken people.
I fear that FAANG companies and interview processes lead to less-than-desirable colleagues. I’ll give you a set of examples.
Here’s why I mean by that frankly confusing preamble here are my Interview FAANG fears.
Arrogance
I’m worried that the FAANG (MAANG or whatever it’s called now) interview process brings out the worst in employees. They start to feel superior to other developers as they’ve passed through several LeetCode challenges with top marks.
Space complexity? That’s a big O no.
This leads to them thinking they’re better than the rest of us. That they don’t struggle with caching data (they do) or naming (they do). Yet they come across as having those smug faces that the rest of us can’t stand.
Textbook knowledge
Should stay in the textbook. I know the slow-moving “move fast and break things” quoting slow-moving organization doesn’t recognize that textbook knowledge only takes you so far.
This brings me to:
Lack of social skills
If you prize people who can memorize trivia and complete toy problems (and spend upwards of three months studying to be able to do so) you exclude other behaviors. These are commonly social skills.
Don’t expect to have fun with these people after work.
The people you wished to avoid at school
Remember the group of arrogant people who thought they knew better than you who you knew as a child?
Now imagine being interviewed by them for a well-paid developer position. That isn’t something that I’d want to get into.
Study and join us!
Conclusion
Big tech? Big yawn that never seems to learn from its mistakes.
If you want my advice you’ll
treat people well
actually, set coding tasks that give the excellent a chance to shine
take a step back and review the process and make sure it delivers as intended
I’m sure you agree with me that will never happen.