
Ask HN: Non-developers, how are your job interviews like? - enrmarc
We all know how they are for developers: programming challenges (Fizzbuzz, homework, whiteboard coding, etc.), examples of your work (GitHub, side projects, blog, etc.), questions like &quot;what is the hardest challenge you have had to overcome and how did you approach it?&quot;, they ask you about something and they expect you to get excited talking about it... and the usual behavioural questions.
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smilesnd
Hiring manager "Can you pass a background check?" Me "Yep" hiring manager "Can
you pass a piss test?" Me "Yep". Was really the only questions I been asked
during interviews before becoming a programmer.

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xiaoma
Was it a government job?

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smilesnd
UPS moving a box from right to left. If you are moving boxes left to right you
either in the wrong spot in the warehouse or just doing it wrong.

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punchclockhero
Interview for the last job I held (back office agent at a call center):

Foreign language test with grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension and mock
customer service email sections followed by a most ordinary interview in
English (some chatting to break the ice and salary discussion at the end) Very
efficient process. Other similar businesses interviewed the same only with
just the mock email instead of a comprehensive language test.

Last interview so far (tech support at a small VoIP software company):

Take what is colloquially referred to as the "retard test" (company is proudly
unPC) which included general trivia like "First person in space" (some
applicant apparently answered with Louis Armstrong), a middle school level
math word problem and some brainteasers (thank you, Professor Layton) followed
by some very intense technical grilling scaled to my self reported knowledge
level (I admitted domestic level networking knowledge and got quizzed on the
most common settings of a consumer router). That was followed by even more
intense culture fit questions to find out if I can thrive in the company's
peculiar environment (got referred so I knew in advance what it's like to work
there, but still I found it a bit too prying) Unlike the call centers, the
tech company interviewers were very distrustful and pretty much expected to
not find a word of truth on my resume.

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I_am_neo
It's mostly a peacocking competition, unless you have certain non-technical
skills, or an 'in' already.

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tunap
This is what I have experienced the last few months. The interviewer checks
off boxes in their notes as you successfully utter the current "buzzwords"
they are looking for. I didn:t notice the connection until I had 2
interviewers & the guy pulling for me gave me a wink or thumbs up when his
associate paused to make a mark on his notepad. Afterward, my guy affirmed I
hit the right topics. Sadly, I didn`t make the cut as I was asking for a
"livable" wage which exceeded their professed "competitive" offering.

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id122015
If I get the job through a friend, the interview does not matter. If I apply
to a job and I dont have a friend there, the interview does not matter.

I heard you dont use other skills than the ones learnt in the first 6 years of
school to work in a bank or in HR.

They only call me to interview when I have to lift heavy bricks on a
construction site.

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punchclockhero
Wish I had friends like yours, mine only get me interviews.

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BlackjackCF
I can only speak from experience from when I was fresh out of college with an
English degree and trying to get a job for... literally anything under the sun
related to marketing, communications, or copywriting.

The interview honestly doesn't matter. You're also lucky if you even get a
call back for an interview. Usually, there's so many people who look just like
you on paper that your resume and cover letter almost instantly get thrown
into the trash.

When you do get called up - it's usually just a lucky break. Most people are
fairly personable. Any number of factors can affect your interview and whether
or not you're selected. I just happened to get a lucky break the first time I
got a job as a marketing intern... and it was just because the person
interviewing me also went to the same alma mater as me.

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xiaoma
Language majors, like philosophy, psychology or math majors have some very
core skills that are useful in a lot of pursuits but not enough to clear the
hiring bar in much of anything unless you're from a top school or have an
advanced degree.

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BlackjackCF
Pretty much. There's a reason why I work as a SRE now.

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auxym
Junior Mechanical Engineer (aka EIT) here. Interviews are pretty... standard I
guess? Nothing like the interviews I read about on HN.

Most of the time is spent discussion my past projects, both technical and less
technical aspects, like conflicts in team work and what not. Since I'm
recently out of school, those projects are mainly a major design project I was
a part of in undergrad (designing building a desert orienteering buggy from
the ground up in 2 years), my master's research project, and coops (5) I did
in undergrad.

Sometimes, especially if there is an HR person in the room, I'll be asked the
really cliché interview questions, like name your 3 worst weaknesses. I hate
that, it's a bullshit question, and (I hope) they very well know everyone will
give them bullshit answers with the straightest face they can.

Exactly once I've been asked to solve relatively trivial mechanical
(statics&dynamics) problems on a piece of paper. Honestly, I normally enjoy it
when I get to write down FBDs and work out those kinds of problems. But it was
the first I was asked to do it with an interviewer watching over my shoulder,
and that was much harder than I thought. I totally choked up under pressure,
and could only barely finish 70% of one of two problems. I feel for you devs
now.

Funnily enough, in that same interview, there was a later part with an HR
lady, that went well enough I think, until at the end she asked me asked the
movie I thought was the funniest I ever saw. Sort of stressed and exhausted
from the previous 3 hours of interviewing, not being a huge fan of comedies in
general, and having recently re-watched Fargo, I went on about Coen Brothers
movies, and how I think there is something hilarious about how trivial
misunderstandings escalate into ridiculously life changing outcomes for every
character.

Apparently she'd never heard of any of those films, and I'm not good at
communicating my enjoyment of George Clooney's fuck machine in Burn After
Reading. Didn't get that job, not sure if it was that or the paper problems
that sank me.

(just kidding, I definitely did _not_ bring up a fuck machine in a job
interview, but I might have went on a bit much about Fargo, which she intially
confused with Argo)

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julie1
Daily movers: be on time at 7am.

Next day 7am: get into the truck, don't forget to sign the daily contract,
pays is monthly at the end of the month. Come tomorrow at 7am, if you did your
job correctly you will have another contract.

