Current Events > Email literally said the interview is between 5-6 hours. wtf...

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God I hate software developer interviews soooo much. They're all trash. Gotta waste 6 hours of my day only to get rejected from 1 out of 10 dudes who's having a bad day, I can't wait.

What happens in those interviews?

In the higher ed industry we have 6-hour interviews but that includes a tour of the campus, lunch with the Dean or President, student panels and interviews with students, and sometimes a class lecture or workshop presentation.

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I've been to lengthy interviews. They usually have you take a lot of tests and interviews with 2-3 different people, with a lot of waiting time in between.

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Zanzenburger posted...

What happens in those interviews?

In the higher ed industry we have 6-hour interviews but that includes a tour of the campus, lunch with the Dean or President, student panels and interviews with students, and sometimes a class lecture or workshop presentation.

Usually lots and lots of tests.
A friend of mine interviewed at Google and was given a whiteboard and a marker to write a very difficult custom bit of code to solve a problem. He had 3 hours and felt it still wasn't enough time to write it all out.
He was also informed that it had to run and work, then they'd judge him in terms of elegance and style. If it didn't run, automatic fail.

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yeah my interview for this IT job was about 3 hours with like 5 different people.

thank fuck i got it

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Zanzenburger posted...

What happens in those interviews?

In the higher ed industry we have 6-hour interviews but that includes a tour of the campus, lunch with the Dean or President, student panels and interviews with students, and sometimes a class lecture or workshop presentation.

I'm about to find out real soon in an upcoming email. But if it's anything like the other 4 hour interviews I took, it's probably an hour interview about my background with HR, an hour with the team lead about my resume and projects I've worked on, one hour with the tech lead on some system design, one hour with some senior developer with code designs and object-oriented programming, and an hour or two with some other random developers about coding shitty random algorithms that no one uses.

Pray I never have to do that. I'm in Cyber Security, so I can't really think of a scenario I'd even need to do a 5+ hour interview.

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better get paid lmfao its almost a full work day

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There really should be a stipend for long ass interviews. That's money off my paycheck from my current job unless you get me on the weekends

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NatsuSama posted...

Pray I never have to do that. I'm in Cyber Security, so I can't really think of a scenario I'd even need to do a 5+ hour interview.

From what I hear the really long interviews in the Cybsec field are for the experts that basically design the actual security systems and have the top certs in the field.

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I've had like 3 or 4 tooling engineer interviews go for 6+ hours. It's basically talking about the same thing to 5-6 different people. Extremely mentally taxing.

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The_Hat posted...

Usually lots and lots of tests.
A friend of mine interviewed at Google and was given a whiteboard and a marker to write a very difficult custom bit of code to solve a problem. He had 3 hours and felt it still wasn't enough time to write it all out.
He was also informed that it had to run and work, then they'd judge him in terms of elegance and style. If it didn't run, automatic fail.

...Did he get the job?

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NinjaWarrior455 posted...

From what I hear the really long interviews in the Cybsec field are for the experts that basically design the actual security systems and have the top certs in the field.

Here's hoping I never have to do this.

I'd definitely feel some type of way to go through a 4+ hour interview and not even get the job. Hell, the very thought of having to put on a show for people that long sounds dreadful.

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I think ours is still about 5 hours, two 90 minute tech problems and then 2 one hour standard talk type interviews, one of which was typically lunch and was a sell meeting.

I have a real job and don't even spend that much time working.

NatsuSama posted...

Here's hoping I never have to do this.

I'd definitely feel some type of way to go through a 4+ hour interview and not even get the job. Hell, the very thought of having to put on a show for people that long sounds dreadful.

I was once flown to a state on the other side of the country for a 2-day interview, which included dinner with the hiring manager, a stay at a hotel, and a full day of meetings, presentations, and conversations. I had to take two days off of work for this and spend all that time travelling in a plane as well.

Three days later I get a call saying I didn't get the job.

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Zanzenburger posted...

I was once flown to a state on the other side of the country for a 2-day interview, which included dinner with the hiring manager, a stay at a hotel, and a full day of meetings, presentations, and conversations. I had to take two days off of work for this and spend all that time travelling in a plane as well.

Three days later I get a call saying I didn't get the job.

Wtf would anybody do all this fluff? I get you're trying to find a good fit for your company, but this extreme. If I was the hiring manager I wouldn't want to "hangout" with somebody for hours on end. You can get most information from a person just in 30 minutes if you know how to ask the right questions.

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The_Hat posted...

A friend of mine interviewed at Google and was given a whiteboard and a marker to write a very difficult custom bit of code to solve a problem. He had 3 hours and felt it still wasn't enough time to write it all out.

Yep, and since Google does it, every other company follows the same process. The problem is usually nothing you'll receive during the job, there's a time constraint, there's added pressure of some dude watching everything you type, and you got to hope that the interviewer is on a good day. Although I definitely had interviews where I messed up, I also had interviewers that I had a hard time understanding the other person, some that weren't paying attention, and some that love interrupting you when you explain your thoughts. I had one that wasn't familiar with the programming language I was using in terms of syntax, but felt obligated to constantly write some code while explaining things. I wouldn't mind that if there wasn't like an hour limit, with him taking up a good chunk of it. It's a random roulette.

ModLogic posted...

better get paid lmfao its almost a full work day

That ain't gonna happen. Fortunately my current company is decent with work times. You just need to put your 8 hours, but it can be done at almost any time of the day. I might wake up early and do my 8, then have the interview afterwards. Bad thing is I hope my brain won't be fried by then.

E_S_M_Z posted...

...Did he get the job?

Nope.
He passed all the tests and got a second and third interview and still didn't get it.
He said it was a good experience though.

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@NatsuSama posted...

Pray I never have to do that. I'm in Cyber Security, so I can't really think of a scenario I'd even need to do a 5+ hour interview.

what is cybersec like? I'm studying business info systems and undergrad rn and my college has a 1 year cybersecurity master's program that seems interesting

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The longest interview I ever had was one hour... for a dish washer position.
Didn't help that female manager was drop dead gorgeous...


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I had an interview just to operate a machine that lasted 8 hours.

First there was a test. Without passing that first you're done. Then a round table meeting with 7 people. Then being showed around the place. Then they interrogated me some more. And I mean interrogated. I felt like a terrorist.

And they still didn't hire me lol. It was a super creepy joint anyway. Looked like some horror movie shit. At least they were nice enough to send an email to let me know. I spent like 4 hours doing the USPS test and stuff and didn't hear shit back from those assholes.

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BIueJay posted...

God I hate software developer interviews soooo much. They're all trash. Gotta waste 6 hours of my day only to get rejected from 1 out of 10 dudes who's having a bad day, I can't wait.

You gotta stop thinking about the worst case scenario dude. Just prepare and do your best.

I've never had a 6hr panel interview, but I did have many 2-3 hr ones.

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Arcanine2009 posted...

You gotta stop thinking about the worst case scenario dude. Just prepare and do your best.

I've never had a 6hr panel interview, but I did have many 2-3 hr ones.

I'm good. I got rejected by a bunch, so my mindset already is already on point. This is just the longest one I've seen.

"here is actual problem we have, please solve it for us for free"

"sure thing"

"ok we may not hire you but thanks for the free work"

Shit, us Accountants interviews normally last 30 min max normally. I feel for you guys doing these long ass "interviews".

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LeoRavus posted...

I had an interview just to operate a machine that lasted 8 hours.

First there was a test. Without passing that first you're done. Then a round table meeting with 7 people. Then being showed around the place. Then they interrogated me some more. And I mean interrogated. I felt like a terrorist.

And they still didn't hire me lol. It was a super creepy joint anyway. Looked like some horror movie shit. At least they were nice enough to send an email to let me know. I spent like 4 hours doing the USPS test and stuff and didn't hear shit back from those assholes.

Gotta treat these like dating.
You were too available.

LeoRavus posted...

I had an interview just to operate a machine that lasted 8 hours.

First there was a test. Without passing that first you're done. Then a round table meeting with 7 people. Then being showed around the place. Then they interrogated me some more. And I mean interrogated. I felt like a terrorist.

And they still didn't hire me lol. It was a super creepy joint anyway. Looked like some horror movie shit. At least they were nice enough to send an email to let me know. I spent like 4 hours doing the USPS test and stuff and didn't hear shit back from those assholes.

It should be illegal to not get paid for this type of shit

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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

It should be illegal to not get paid for this type of shit

why? he agreed to do it

tbh if you have self-respect and aren't starving and they say come in for 6 hour interview, just tell them to shove it and good luck for them to find anyone to fill that job

Prestoff posted...

Shit, us Accountants interviews normally last 30 min max normally. I feel for you guys doing these long ass "interviews".

lol, I'm an accountant nd my job interview was basically "Hi. You went to school? Can you do accounting? You don't mind traveling to clients? Are you not a douchebag? Cool, see you Monday."

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WingsOfGood posted...

why? he agreed to do it

tbh if you have self-respect and aren't starving and they say come in for 6 hour interview, just tell them to shove it and good luck for them to find anyone to fill that job

True, but if this is supposed to be normal in that industry, he may not have a choice.

That's a whole fucking workday bro. Can't imagine if I had to take work at a paying job off for that shit just to not get hired

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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

True, but if this is supposed to be normal in that industry, he may not have a choice.

It isn't tbh

I did six hours of interviews plus two half hour screens for an Amazon job last month. The last four interviews were over two days. Between the length, the preparation, and the difficulty of the questions, I was set back for like a week at my actual job. they called the next day to let me know they passed.

This wasn't even for a developer or managerial job btw.

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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

It should be illegal to not get paid for this type of shit

I was thinking I should have gotten a little something to compensate my time spent there.

It was the most ridiculous interview process I've ever seen. I basically had to take an SAT before they'd even talk to me. Then they took turns asking questions and writing down everything I said. I froze up a couple times because it felt so uncomfortable; they were all staring at their notebooks waiting for me to talk. Then the tour of that nightmare place took forever.

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berlyman101 posted...

I did six hours of interviews plus two half hour screens for an Amazon job last month. The last four interviews were over two days. Between the length, the preparation, and the difficulty of the questions, I was set back for like a week at my actual job. they called the next day to let me know they passed.

This wasn't even for a developer or managerial job btw.

amazon isn't known for treating their employees with dignity and respect so that makes alot of sense

It's to weed out slackers

sLaCkEr408___RJ posted...

It's to weed out slackers

yet I am employed ?

WingsOfGood posted...

yet I am employed ?

Idk who you are. I'm responding to the OP

E_S_M_Z posted...

lol, I'm an accountant nd my job interview was basically "Hi. You went to school? Can you do accounting? You don't mind traveling to clients? Are you not a douchebag? Cool, see you Monday."

That was kind of mines in a nutshell. The other annoying question was "what's the biggest problem you faced at your previous work place and how did you solve it?" Otherwise it a piece of cake lol.

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WingsOfGood posted...

amazon isn't known for treating their employees with dignity and respect so that makes alot of sense

I've read that their dev positions are pretty bad too. Something like managers are forced to fire at least 6% of their employees every year, no matter what. Not to mention the 60 hour work weeks and a lot of 24/7 on-call weeks.

Prestoff posted...

That was kind of mines in a nutshell. The other annoying question was "what's the biggest problem you faced at your previous work place and how did you solve it?" Otherwise it a piece of cake lol.

Ah yes, those generic questions like "Tell me a time when you punched an employee in the face. Oh what's that? You don't have a specific story to share? What a shame. brb silently deducting points".

BIueJay posted...

I've read that their dev positions are pretty bad too. Something like managers are forced to fire at least 6% of their employees every year, no matter what. Not to mention the 60 hour work weeks and a lot of 24/7 on-call weeks.

amazon is a shit tier company and the pay does not mitigate this

but some people see dollar signs and will still not heed this

BIueJay posted...

Ah yes, those generic questions like "Tell me a time when you punched an employee in the face. Oh what's that? You don't have a specific story to share? What a shame. brb silently deducting points".

Amazon has four of these per one hour interview. They're all based on their leadership principles. My recruiter told me to have 16 available to spread out over four interviews and I was struggling to stay focused by the end of them.

WingsOfGood posted...

amazon is a shit tier company and the pay does not mitigate this

but some people see dollar signs and will still not heed this

Usually yes, but it's a big enough company to where you can find a cushy job if you're good and lucky.

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This is why I imagine the best job is to be a specialist/expert at a company where not a lot of people know your area rather than working within the core competency

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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

True, but if this is supposed to be normal in that industry, he may not have a choice.

That's a whole fucking workday bro. Can't imagine if I had to take work at a paying job off for that shit just to not get hired

I can see it looking weird from the outside, but for people in the industry already, full-time jobs are typically salary, often have 3 weeks or more PTO and work-time is flex so you could just make it up. the biggest set back is that you didn't get whatever work you might have been planning to do done, but financially, most won't even notice.

berlyman101 posted...

Amazon has four of these per one hour interview. They're all based on their leadership principles. My recruiter told me to have 16 available to spread out over four interviews and I was struggling to stay focused by the end of them.

Oh I know about those. I interviewed with them just when covid started. Got to the final rounds, recruiter said the team was unsure if I would be a good fit but would let me know. A couple of days later I got the rejection call.

So much misinformation coming from irrational hate on big companies lol..

Anyway, I do agree long interviews are pretty tiring for everyone involved. Not just you as the candidate. Also agree that regardless of the company, it just luck to have actually good people interview you that know what they are doing.

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