I had an interview with [Redacted] Games a little bit before Christmas that I think was just about the worst interview that I've ever had. Well, maybe the interview for the Fulbright Scholarship was worse, but in that case I was totally unprepared for what was going to happen, so it's not really even comparable.
Anyway, the guy who was interviewing me apparently used to be a pretty big developer -- and apparently wrote a chapter in one of the most famous Ruby on Rails books? -- but I guess is now more of a manager(?). He got a business certificate from U Penn, whatever that means. Anyway, when I sent my resume and short bio to them, apparently they wrote back a few minutes later, "This guy looks fucking legit." So we're starting off with the assumption that I am probably pretty close to what they're looking for given that reaction.
For some background, [Redacted] Games is a company that makes exactly one game, [Name of game], and therefore should probably be called [Redacted] Game. They were interviewing me to work on the developer operations team, which basically means that they have so many computer programmers working for them that they're now hiring a meta-layer of computer programmers to make life easier for that original line of computer programmers. But the point is that it's a programming gig.
Anyway, the first question was like, "Do you know what [Redacted] Games does?" Yes, you make [Name of game]. I think that's your only game. It should be called [Redacted] Game. "Do you play [Name of game]?" And this is where things started to go downhill. No, of course I don't play [Name of game] because I know how to operate in the real world, so playing is a totally non-optimal use of my time. But of course, I just said, nah, I don't play it. "Do you play video games at all?" Again, the truth here is the same -- no, I don’t, because it's a tremendous waste of time. Also, did I mention that I work full-time and go to school full-time while playing on three hockey teams? Because I work full-time and go to school full-time while playing on three hockey teams. If you think I'm going to choose to spend my spare time staring at a screen any more than necessary, you're crazy. But anyway, "Not really. Well, sometimes I'll play something super casually, but I'm not really a gamer in a meaningful sense." (That's the wrong answer, by the way.)
From there it moved on to a bunch of bullshit. "Tell us about a time that you were criticized and responded well." Someone criticized my work and I read the docs. But my real reaction was, "Are you kidding me? Do I look like I'm 16 to you? You should ask me real questions." Then, "Tell us about a time that you criticized someone else and they didn't respond well." I told him about kids cheating in Cambodia, heh. "Tell us about a time when you criticized yourself." This question is so stupid. Nearly every human on Earth criticizes themselves all the time. I criticize myself when I forget to turn the heat off, or bump my leg on the table, or forget to text Yuge back. But you can't say that during an interview, so I mentioned having an imposter complex and getting a Master's degree to help alleviate the feeling.
Then more bullshit. He described the projects. "So if you had to figure out what the developers wanted to see on a dashboard like this, how would you do that?" Well, I'd ask someone whose job it is to figure that out, because I write code for a living and that's what I'm good at, not figuring out what developers want on a dashboard. "What do you think is interesting about this?" Well, it wasn't very interesting to be honest, which made it hard to answer, so I really had to fish. "Finding a way to measure the effectiveness and use of each service in a unified and maintainable way seems challenging." Well, it might be challenging, I think, but certainly not interesting. I don't think there was really anything elegant going on in this project.
Then yet more developer-specific bullshit. Do you go to hackathons? Do you contribute to the open source community? Again, keep in mind that I have been going to school full-time and working full-time since I became a professional developer so I really don't have a lot of free time, and the little I do have, I don't really want to spend doing slave labor so that my resume looks better. For those who don't know, hackathons are competitions where companies ask people to solve their problems in 24 hours (or 48) and then pay them a negligible fraction of what that solution saved them. Open source typically refers to bug fixes on open source projects so that you can tell an interviewer that you have open source contributions. I didn't mention CATNIP because I just forgot it, which was unfortunate, but I'm not sure it would have really made a difference anyway.
I really hate those questions. The question shouldn't be, "So do you do your job outside of your job? Like, you work 24/7, right? Like you're a developer and nothing else?" It should just be if you're good at your job when you do your job. I have better things to do outside of work other than work some more.
Anyway, then they asked me if I had questions. I asked some questions, though I could tell that it hadn't gone particularly well and was pretty frustrated about that. I think the frustration came from knowing that they first thought I was "fucking legit" and then proceeding to ask me a bunch of meaningless questions which I haven't geared my life towards answering well (i.e., playing video games, being a non-developer at work, doing work after I'm done work) without giving me a meaningful opportunity to explain why I might be good/useful for them.
Part of me wishes that I had called them out for that at the end. But also, by that point, I didn't really feel interested in working there anymore, and doing that definitely would have sealed the deal that I could not go there. I'm not sure that I want to work with people who judge others by those standards, anyway.
Peace out.
Anyway, the guy who was interviewing me apparently used to be a pretty big developer -- and apparently wrote a chapter in one of the most famous Ruby on Rails books? -- but I guess is now more of a manager(?). He got a business certificate from U Penn, whatever that means. Anyway, when I sent my resume and short bio to them, apparently they wrote back a few minutes later, "This guy looks fucking legit." So we're starting off with the assumption that I am probably pretty close to what they're looking for given that reaction.
For some background, [Redacted] Games is a company that makes exactly one game, [Name of game], and therefore should probably be called [Redacted] Game. They were interviewing me to work on the developer operations team, which basically means that they have so many computer programmers working for them that they're now hiring a meta-layer of computer programmers to make life easier for that original line of computer programmers. But the point is that it's a programming gig.
Anyway, the first question was like, "Do you know what [Redacted] Games does?" Yes, you make [Name of game]. I think that's your only game. It should be called [Redacted] Game. "Do you play [Name of game]?" And this is where things started to go downhill. No, of course I don't play [Name of game] because I know how to operate in the real world, so playing is a totally non-optimal use of my time. But of course, I just said, nah, I don't play it. "Do you play video games at all?" Again, the truth here is the same -- no, I don’t, because it's a tremendous waste of time. Also, did I mention that I work full-time and go to school full-time while playing on three hockey teams? Because I work full-time and go to school full-time while playing on three hockey teams. If you think I'm going to choose to spend my spare time staring at a screen any more than necessary, you're crazy. But anyway, "Not really. Well, sometimes I'll play something super casually, but I'm not really a gamer in a meaningful sense." (That's the wrong answer, by the way.)
From there it moved on to a bunch of bullshit. "Tell us about a time that you were criticized and responded well." Someone criticized my work and I read the docs. But my real reaction was, "Are you kidding me? Do I look like I'm 16 to you? You should ask me real questions." Then, "Tell us about a time that you criticized someone else and they didn't respond well." I told him about kids cheating in Cambodia, heh. "Tell us about a time when you criticized yourself." This question is so stupid. Nearly every human on Earth criticizes themselves all the time. I criticize myself when I forget to turn the heat off, or bump my leg on the table, or forget to text Yuge back. But you can't say that during an interview, so I mentioned having an imposter complex and getting a Master's degree to help alleviate the feeling.
Then more bullshit. He described the projects. "So if you had to figure out what the developers wanted to see on a dashboard like this, how would you do that?" Well, I'd ask someone whose job it is to figure that out, because I write code for a living and that's what I'm good at, not figuring out what developers want on a dashboard. "What do you think is interesting about this?" Well, it wasn't very interesting to be honest, which made it hard to answer, so I really had to fish. "Finding a way to measure the effectiveness and use of each service in a unified and maintainable way seems challenging." Well, it might be challenging, I think, but certainly not interesting. I don't think there was really anything elegant going on in this project.
Then yet more developer-specific bullshit. Do you go to hackathons? Do you contribute to the open source community? Again, keep in mind that I have been going to school full-time and working full-time since I became a professional developer so I really don't have a lot of free time, and the little I do have, I don't really want to spend doing slave labor so that my resume looks better. For those who don't know, hackathons are competitions where companies ask people to solve their problems in 24 hours (or 48) and then pay them a negligible fraction of what that solution saved them. Open source typically refers to bug fixes on open source projects so that you can tell an interviewer that you have open source contributions. I didn't mention CATNIP because I just forgot it, which was unfortunate, but I'm not sure it would have really made a difference anyway.
I really hate those questions. The question shouldn't be, "So do you do your job outside of your job? Like, you work 24/7, right? Like you're a developer and nothing else?" It should just be if you're good at your job when you do your job. I have better things to do outside of work other than work some more.
Anyway, then they asked me if I had questions. I asked some questions, though I could tell that it hadn't gone particularly well and was pretty frustrated about that. I think the frustration came from knowing that they first thought I was "fucking legit" and then proceeding to ask me a bunch of meaningless questions which I haven't geared my life towards answering well (i.e., playing video games, being a non-developer at work, doing work after I'm done work) without giving me a meaningful opportunity to explain why I might be good/useful for them.
Part of me wishes that I had called them out for that at the end. But also, by that point, I didn't really feel interested in working there anymore, and doing that definitely would have sealed the deal that I could not go there. I'm not sure that I want to work with people who judge others by those standards, anyway.
Peace out.
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