
Ask HN: 9+ hours too long for interview process? - victorhugo31337
I&#x27;m interested in a Senior Software Engineer position with Cisco&#x2F;Meraki, or at least I was until I was told the interview process would last 9+ hours and would include algorithmic heavy questions. The position is for a Senior Platform Engineer:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;meraki.cisco.com&#x2F;jobs#50444<p>I&#x27;m discouraged because I know the position doesn&#x27;t require heavy knowledge or use of algorithms--mostly board bring-up and device driver work.  I know this because I have 11+ years of experience doing the same job, 5 of those years working for the very same Cisco.<p>My question is, what&#x27;s the deal?  It seems like the interview process is more of a pissing contest more than anything else. How is someone who works full-time and has a family have time to go over algorithms from graduate school that I know I will never use for this position?
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Spoom
Cynical alternative: The job is meant exclusively for H1B candidates, and the
posting is just so they can say they had no qualified locals.

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spicyj
Why would they prefer H1B candidates?

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brianwawok
Cheaper. Common H1B rate is 30-70% of the green card rate.

If you few IT as expense centers not innovators.. i.e. we make a lot of money,
but we need IT people to build our business people some reports.. why not hire
the cheaper guys?

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WorldMaker
It certainly ignores a lot of human productivity studies that indicate people
rarely work at full manual labor productivity past 8 hours and full creative
work productivity (including problem solving and often socialization skills)
past 4 hours.

It certainly may be the case that they actually are interested in seeing
interviewees past such points in a somewhat controlled environment.

Such "gauntlet" interviews seem common among large technology companies and
while I think some of it is a semi-intentional attempt to push interviewers to
limits to see how they react, I think it's also just as much "everybody else
does it" and that continual momentum of existing interview processes. Which is
precisely how such hazing processes in organizations get normalized and their
problems ignored over the long term. (Yes, pushing someone to the limits of
their productivity is strenuous activity and the very definition of hazing.)

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JSeymourATL
> Such "gauntlet" interviews seem common among large technology companies...

True - the bigger the company, the dumber they are. And HR flunkies need to
justify their existence somehow.

The only possible way to short-circuit the process is to connect directly with
the hiring executive. Assuming you can reach a conceptual agreement that you'd
be an ideal match for the role; he 'may' have the decision authority to
dispense with all the formalities. Surprisingly, even these titular Big Shots
don't have the same level of actual power you'd find in smaller, more nimble
companies.

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sharemywin
I wouldn't worry about the BS interview. I would imagine at some point they'll
talk about thing things you've accomplished and it's important to show
confidence and get through the parts of interview you know don't matter that
much. If they hire some kid out of college versus someone with experience who
tells them they can get up to speed quickly and do the job. Good luck too
them. If someone does well on both more power to them, but unlikely. I kept
pointing out I could look it up on the internet in 2 seconds.

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fao_
This seems like they're selecting for candidiates that will tolerate a job
that is perpetual crunch-time.

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rgovind
May be ask them to split interview into two days. I have done it before and I
don't think it negatively impacted anything.

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testing15
It seems they are looking for candidates who can work for long hours and under
pressure.

