I signed up for a dedicated coaching program with interviewing.io and ended up getting a refund because I didnt think they were actually very good at coaching.<p>The platform seems like its mostly useful for people who are already good at technical interviews, or at least good at solving technical problems, and just need practice writing code in front of other people or in a live setting.<p>Has anyone used interviewing.io with good/great results?
I don't understand this. Why wouldn't you just practice by interviewing with random companies? If you are hired, just counteroffer with an absurd salary requirement. And if they accept, then congrats you don't need to practice interviewing anymore.
I actually made some friends over discord who ran mocks with me. Being a person who spent most of university partying rather than hanging out with the studious people, I didn't have much friends who had the same programming skill as I was.<p>Just look around, I'm sure you can find people with similar skill to run mocks with you (without having to go through some paid service that most likely employs desperate people ergo less qualified people). Plus, running the interviews yourself could be more valuable than going through one.
Coding interviews are the easiest interviews. There’s very little difference between the problems, and they usually don’t need a trick. Just discuss your solution before you start writing the code, and assuming you don’t get a jerk or completely blank, you’ll be fine. It’s the most objective of all the rounds. It’s literally just practice. The fact that it’s so paint by numbers, is probably one of the reasons why interview coaching focuses on it. Manufacture some demand, and you have a low effort company.<p>Technical design is a bit harder to prepare for, because it’s more about trying pattern match systems you know against the problem presented. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of high level case studies or design discussions.<p>The ones that are hardest to prepare for, and no doubt has sunk many a candidate are the softer interviews, particularly management interviews and cultural fit interviews. Those are a complete crapshoot. There’s probably stock answers to prepare, but the questions are pretty random. If you can figure out how to coach the those in 202X (as opposed to recycling 1965’s advice), then you’ve got something.
One thing I wish people leeny (who work with hiring managers) tell companies is that as people start hitting 35-40, they dont' have same motivation to solve a trick coding question in 40 min interview. I can demonstrate that I have all the knowledge to do the problem, but if you want me to write compilable (throwaway) code with absolutely no mistakes, you have to loose some candidates. As you age, solving one off puzzles is a nuisance.
I don't get why everyone seems so hung up on the interview.<p>Relax, talk about yourself, talk about what you've done.<p>I think doing things like this and from the thousands of Reddit posts about "the dreaded interview problem" only leads people to over think it and have worse anxiety and performance, not better.<p>The interview to my first job was just listening to my then-boss talk about the company for 30 minutes, the second was stonewalling while my boss grilled me to make sure I know what I said I know.<p>You're not going to be able to "train" for that just like you can't "train" for getting rejected for dating, you just have to learn social interactions and go do it a couple of times.<p>----<p>I did just remember my worst interview experience, where, after being jobless for a number of years (early on, mind. I'm still young) I applied for phone IT support. - the interviewers asked me to:<p>"describe the best vacation you had"<p>"I haven't really been on a vacation" (I haven't been working, poor family, etc)<p>"Ok describe the vacation you would like to have"<p>"... I literally don't want a vacation.. I am looking to find work." (Jobless.for.years. every day has been a mediocre vacation up until this point.)<p>"..... Ok just tell us a story about a vacation"<p>"....... Ok I suppose I'll go to Rome then? And uh... " <i>Draws blanks</i><p>You can't be prepared for interviews where the interviewers are shit, nor if they blindside you with questions like that.<p>You also might lose your ability to detect bullshit if you try.
I've watched some of the interviews they put up on youtube, but one thing I found lacking was an actual answer of "I would pass you, but maybe 20% of my peers wouldn't" vs. "This is a hard no for me at my current company, but previous companies you have a 50/50 shot".<p>Instead all the feedback seems like "you did good, but you should work on..."<p>Regarding the 'pay later' thing, I wonder if the term is too short? Let's say theoretically I sign up, completely and utterly bomb the first mock interview, and decide I need to spend 3 months doing hackerrank every weekend. Then I do another one, and i'm doing better, by the time I get the actual job the time period has expired?
I found Pramp to be useful, if you need practice with LeetCode style questions and explaining yourself to the interviewer, a peer in the same situation. It's free (technically you have to pay after the free interviews count, but being reviewed positively by the other interviewer gives you free interviews, so I've done 10 and still have free ones to spare). The participants skew junior but I still feel it's worthwhile.
Applied for their site a while back, but was put on hold because there were too many applicants. Have yet to get a response from them.
Meanwhile got the job I was looking for, without any mock interview sites.
Come on, this interview process is going too far... I think most of the people working in tech knows that the interview process is just plain silly, but we keep doing it because reasons...<p>And, the worst of it, it doesn't make any sense that for a senior role you get a code interview (or multiple), and then, if you don't pass it, they encourage you to re-apply in 6 months or a year...