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i've been working remotely for tech companies based on the east coast for the past 10 years so even though i live in northern CA, i never really had to interact with bay area tech until last month apparently your technical knowledge, certifications, years of experience or security clearance mean nothing and it's all about how you 'fit into their culture' that line came up a lot in interviews, we want to make sure the candidate 'fits into our culture' here granted i only did about 10-15 interviews and got 2 offers from that batch, but the one i accepted was a medium sized company but established (no fly by night startup) after three 1 hour interviews, i got asked maybe 2-3 actual tech related questions is this normal out here? is it more important that i'll be riding the company segway into the ball pit at regular intervals and participating in the daily hug exchange than actually being able to do the work? maybe i overhyped myself and was ready for Google/Apple level questioning where i had to build my own enigma machine from used pinball parts maybe im super jaded and thought it laughable to be told by a company who's been around maybe 5 years "we want you to feel like you can retire from here"
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Jun 7, 2016 19:27
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culture fits are often more important than pure technical skills because a nerd who doesn't work well w/ others is a waste of resources. that's true at any company, it just happens that the default culture in SF is techbro
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Jun 7, 2016 19:34
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why did you decide to stop working remote?
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Jun 7, 2016 19:34
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also if you aren't into SF culture why in the world would you apply for a SF job.
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Jun 7, 2016 19:34
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the best way to culture fit is to be willing to work for prestige not pay
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Jun 7, 2016 19:36
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BooLoo posted:why did you decide to stop working remote? when i was single, working from home was great, because after work i'd rush out and spend all day outside doing poo poo around town, an excuse to get out of the house because that's where work was waiting now that i'm married, my wife has a stressful job and wants to relax at home after work, feel like we're on two different schedules sometimes sometimes i literally don't leave the house for 2-3 days and it gets me stir crazy Shaggar posted:also if you aren't into SF culture why in the world would you apply for a SF job. i'm a pretty agreeable guy socially, i'll get along with whoever as long as the work is interesting, i just found the interviews odd, like i was being groomed for an invitation to their fancy exclusive club and not so much for an actual tech job
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Jun 7, 2016 19:48
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Triglav posted:the best way to culture fit is to be willing to work for prestige not pay this came up too "if another company came to you with a competing offer, what would it take for you to leave?" naturally i gave the boilerplate answer about loyalty being more important money, and i felt like if the company invested time/money in me i should return the favor, yadda yadda which i know they loved but i never signed a non-compete agreement and i'm still an at-will employee so... the reality is money talks, and maybe im old school but prestige doesn't pay the bills i do pro-bono work on contract for non-profits on my own time to feel good about myself, full time work needs to make sure i can pay my rent
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Jun 7, 2016 19:52
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Ben Murphy posted:this came up too "if another company came to you with a competing offer, what would it take for you to leave?" I'm with you here, I don't want to work somewhere that's looking for a believer, I want to work somewhere looking for a professional.
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Jun 7, 2016 20:05
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I'm a posting professional.
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Jun 7, 2016 20:34
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We hired someone who isn't a culture fit and hoo boy am I not overlooking that quality ever again
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Jun 8, 2016 01:17
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i am doing interview rounds and it fuckin sucks. i am getting asked all tech questions though, including one SF company (i am in NYC) i am flying out to this week. blah blah blah graph sort trie the tree and hash your potatoes within 30 minutes and youre a genius, if not yer garbage. on the flip side from my experience most places way undervalue culture fit or misinterpret it. we have some of those people who are interview rockstars. one we pushed out after 2 years and that person had not delivered one single loving thing and probably made a ton of money. and we still have a handful of them around (not a startup). a lot of people think culture fit is 'do i wanna drink a beer with this dude? would he be my Bro?' but it's more like 'is this person not a total piece of freeloading poo poo? do they have a sense of professionalism and are able to at least feeblely communicate with other human beings?'
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Jun 8, 2016 03:17
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good communication skills are part of our culture
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Jun 8, 2016 03:25
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Infinotize posted:i am doing interview rounds and it fuckin sucks. i am getting asked all tech questions though, including one SF company (i am in NYC) i am flying out to this week. blah blah blah graph sort trie the tree and hash your potatoes within 30 minutes and youre a genius, if not yer garbage. Yeah we totally had a dude who interviewed extremely well and could not accomplish a single thing, would constantly ask others for help for the most basic programming tasks. He had no interpersonal skills and was just in general a terrible person to work with I'll let you guess where he was from
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Jun 8, 2016 03:57
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BiohazrD posted:Yeah we totally had a dude who interviewed extremely well and could not accomplish a single thing, would constantly ask others for help for the most basic programming tasks. He had no interpersonal skills and was just in general a terrible person to work with turn your monitor on lol
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Jun 8, 2016 04:02
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BiohazrD posted:Yeah we totally had a dude who interviewed extremely well and could not accomplish a single thing, would constantly ask others for help for the most basic programming tasks. He had no interpersonal skills and was just in general a terrible person to work with yospos?
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Jun 8, 2016 11:16
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Infinotize posted:on the flip side from my experience most places way undervalue culture fit or misinterpret it. we have some of those people who are interview rockstars. one we pushed out after 2 years and that person had not delivered one single loving thing and probably made a ton of money. and we still have a handful of them around (not a startup). a lot of people think culture fit is 'do i wanna drink a beer with this dude? would he be my Bro?' but it's more like 'is this person not a total piece of freeloading poo poo? do they have a sense of professionalism and are able to at least feeblely communicate with other human beings?' yeah our "culture fit" here is basically "can you go to an expensed lunch with the team and be a decent human being (i.e. not a sexist/racist shithead or otherwise a total rear end in a top hat)" plus "are you willing to live in this city". the latter turns out to be somewhat important as we are not located in a major metro area, more of a mid-sized city, and typically recruit from outside the city. like, you can find everything you need here, but if you want good nightlife without having to drive for an hour and a half or like being able to walk everywhere then you probably are gonna leave in a year or two for SF or NYC or something
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Jun 8, 2016 17:36
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Shaggar posted:also if you aren't into SF culture why in the world would you apply for a SF job. stoooopid amounts of skrilla, my man
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Jun 8, 2016 18:02
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akadajet posted:yospos?
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Jun 8, 2016 18:03
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H.P. Hovercraft posted:stoooopid amounts of skrilla, my man yeah but you also have to spend a shitload on housing. idk if its worth it.
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Jun 8, 2016 18:06
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Shaggar posted:yeah but you also have to spend a shitload on housing. idk if its worth it. it's cool oakland is solving this problem
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Jun 8, 2016 18:10
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lol
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Jun 8, 2016 18:13
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even if tiny homes was a good idea tiny apartments/dorms makes infinitely more sense.
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Jun 8, 2016 18:14
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living in a house smaller than a parking space is just so cute tho
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Jun 8, 2016 18:17
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my first house was an 1880's shotgun house built for meatpacking workers. funny how what goes around comes around
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Jun 8, 2016 19:23
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Jun 9, 2016 11:09
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Tiny housers are the worst. I don't really understand where the cult came from
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Jun 9, 2016 12:48
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Wikipedia claims a tiny house is one under 46sq meters, which honestly isn't that small? It's bigger than my current flat which is very comfortable (and would be way more expensive if there was only one unit on the land instead of four). Perhaps it's a bunch of suburbans who are disappointed with their mcmansions
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Jun 9, 2016 12:53
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well they can't rent an apartment that's what poors do
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Jun 9, 2016 13:57
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pointsofdata posted:Tiny housers are the worst. I don't really understand where the cult came from tiny houses appear to be at the junction of social pressure to buy a house by a certain age and millenial wages
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Jun 9, 2016 14:30
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mobile home is better value proposition, though I suppose tiny home is ostensibly mobile. funny that tiny homes which are sold are loving expensive vs what you could build yourself. maybe if your home is just somewhere you sleep, and you're cool with never having a family or possessions. living in a yurt would be a better idea e. $79,000 for a "bespoke luxury tiny house" lmao
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Jun 9, 2016 17:50
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pointsofdata posted:Wikipedia claims a tiny house is one under 46sq meters, which honestly isn't that small? It's bigger than my current flat which is very comfortable (and would be way more expensive if there was only one unit on the land instead of four). Perhaps it's a bunch of suburbans who are disappointed with their mcmansions tiny houses seem to attract goofy hipsters who think that 4+ people can live comfortably in them
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Jun 9, 2016 17:51
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land costs are probably the most significant thing. tiny homes are super inefficient and not a good idea. small units in large dense structures are a better idea
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Jun 9, 2016 17:55
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here let me just go buy a tiny sliver of property for my tiny house and get tiny little utility connections and pay for tiny garbage and recycling pickup or i can do like most tiny house owners seem to do and just plop it down on property that family or friends already own and not have electricity or running water or a toilet that flushes it's basically the new "living above someone's garage" like so much fonzie
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Jun 9, 2016 17:57
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tiny houses are how millenials are dealing with the fact that they can't afford poo poo. So they made 'tiny houses' hip. See also 'not owning a car' and 'taking staycations' and 'living at home cause they love it' and 'waiting to have kids/get married' and and all the other cheap poo poo millenials were forced to do because they're debt laden and can't find work. Basically, everything in this report from goldman sachs can be answered with 'because they can't afford it' http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/pages/millennials/ 
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Jun 9, 2016 18:36
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there are few universally recognized best practices for hiring. every company is a shitshow of unconscious bias, uninformed decsions, and dealing with stacks of people who outright lie. cargo culting the interview process of a large and successful company is common. "just fill out this multiple choice questionaire and then copy everything from your resume into this online form before you can apply" google is a textbook example of doing things wrong in interviewing but they still get copied. it is unusual to focus on culture fit first when interviewing but maybe these companies have a harder time finding someone that fits the culture than someone who has the technical skills. maybe they put themselves in the interviewees shoes and don't want to waste time on technical questions like fizzbuzz. or the people who are good at doing the technical interviews are busy or don't like interviewing. or the "ceo" read that it was a good idea on hacker news and there is no good reason for it. a lot of these terrible hiring practices work for unintended reasons and are unlikely to change. sunk cost means you are more likely to accept their offer the longer you have spent interviewing. you have a limited amount of information as to what companies will pay, how much time they will waste interviewing you, and if they are a good place to work. when you are working with a recruiter remember the business is the real client and you are the product. they will outright lie about everything to get you to interview and accept an offer. it is not uncommon for recruiters to reword your resume, stripping out all your contact details and changing everything else.
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Jun 9, 2016 20:01
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i think a thread with the funniest recruiting emails would be pretty good. uber recruiter posted:...
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Jun 10, 2016 00:56
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Fuzzy Mammal posted:i think a thread with the funniest recruiting emails would be pretty good. 
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Jun 10, 2016 01:17
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cultural fit can mean anything from you not being a bipolar weirdo that can't function with others to not being cool with gay jokes from the bros. it varies by company. but if a company doesn't ask technical questions for most of the interview, I would be very worried. and I'm not talking about questions designed to prove that the interviewer is smart because he already knows the answer to some trick question, because those are useless. the questions should show your ability to apply basic concepts necessary to your job, and possibly drill down and see how far you can take it.
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Jun 10, 2016 07:20
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Optimus_Rhyme posted:tiny houses are how millenials are dealing with the fact that they can't afford poo poo. So they made 'tiny houses' hip. See also 'not owning a car' and 'taking staycations' and 'living at home cause they love it' and 'waiting to have kids/get married' and and all the other cheap poo poo millenials were forced to do because they're debt laden and can't find work. the fact that people still try to assert that today's 36 year olds and 16 year olds are remotely similar or should be in the same generation is comical
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Jun 10, 2016 07:52
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Is this the sv culture thread now? Because: http://uk.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-ritz-sneakers-paul-graham-london-not-a-startup-hub-2016-6/?r=US&IR=T quote:Sam Altman, the famous Silicon Valley-based tech venture capitalist, was asked to leave a bar at The Ritzbecause he was wearing sneakers.
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Jun 10, 2016 07:53
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