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Ask HN: Interview Process 2017 – You too are getting rejected?

3 points by cantpassstepone ↗ HN
I've been applying for jobs since early January and I keep getting rejected after the 1st or sometimes 2nd technical phone screen. I'll be honest by saying it took me a few weeks to warm up. I'm now super hot and on top of my game, but I'm still getting rejected. I have +10 years of experience in the field, worked for the most "prestigious" companies in the field, studied hard for the last month on CS and basic interview questions. Despite nailing most of my interviews, I'm still getting kicked out for no reasons! I can't pass the first phone screen! Again, I've switched jobs a few times in the past and landed gigs at the best companies. I'm honestly not Resume-over-rated... I took a year break and now I'm back on the market, what happened since last year?? I don't get it.

As I mentioned in another topic, I often get a 9/10 score on a technical phone screen. I got 10/10 sometimes but still got rejected. 1-2 years ago I would have had 10 offers by now. So my question is, am I the only one getting randomly rejected in 2017?

Thanks for any info!

4 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 21.9 ms ] thread
johnhenry
How do you know you're nailing most of your interviews? How do you know that you're getting these specific scores -- are the companies that reject you giving you a score afterwards? Which field are you in? Which companies do you consider "prestigious" (or if you can't name them specifically, what makes them so)? The answers to these questions could give us insight on your situation and help us help you better.
cantpassstepone
I've been interviewed many many times in my career. I switched jobs about 7 times always going through the standard hiring process. Looking for better opportunities and higher challenges. So, this is based on my knowledge and experience I'd say. It's subjective indeed, but I've interviewed candidates as well from junior to staff and I know when an interviewer is happy or not. Still subjective though.

prestigious = Google/FB etc.

Most of the questions I get lead to a "you know it" or "you don't know it" kind of answers. If you know it then you explain how it works. If not, I personally consider that a failure. Sometimes we go into edge cases, same scenario... you know when you give the right answer or if you doubt then it's a failure. In terms of coding challenges on a shared code collaboration tool, I would say that I come up with a working solution, on time, using a great approach. I might have failed one or 2 coding challenges (fail = needed a tip to move forward), but I knew right away I wouldn't count on these interviews. Some interviewers would verbally approve my solution, some would simply move on to the next question.

From what I've been doing in the past, this would easily move the process to the next step or onsite interview.

johnhenry
Have you considered looking for jobs that require more skill and pay more than what you got before? It sounds counterintuitive, but a while back, I was going through a lot of interviews and not getting hired. I then started looking for jobs that paid significantly more. These seemed more concerned about how I would preform on the job than how I would preform on some random irrelevant task that proves how much I studied for random irrelevant tasks. There could be a number of other hidden factors at work here and I can't guarantee that it will work, but if you are currently not getting paid, it's worth a shot.
throwaway020117
I am a developer back in the job market and find frustration with tech industry hiring as well.

I've read that a lot of passing these interviews is just preparedness through practice. If you ever want to schedule a mock interview with a fellow dev, shoot me an email: hn.forwards@mailhero.io ( ill send my resume )