Interviews with no technical questions? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Pack34
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 03:10:52 pm
content: I've been having a run with these recently. Once you have some experience under your belt, do the technical questions and grilling tend to stop? I'm used to multiple tech screens with theory related questions, take home assignments and 6-hour white board interviews. Now that I'm more experienced that seems to have gone away.Is this normal? Being "sold" jobs instead of intensely selling myself.I'm taking this as a red flag for the position. Should I be?

author: andyturk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 03:21:04 pm
content: I had one of those last week, and it was very weird. Maybe it's an age thing? Young folks don't want to go up against a greybeard 1-on-1?

author: Pack34
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 03:27:08 pm
content: Quote from: andyturk on August 03, 2014, 03:21:04 pmI'm not even a greybeard. I've only been out of college for four years. I can't but compare it to my experience interviewing with Apple. The whole thing seemed to last four months. Had engineering assignments, grilled over the phone multiple times, six hour white board, etc. That experience wasn't even unique for me.I'm just worried about getting involved with a fly-by-night company. Being thrown into a one-man team to push out a product and getting laid off afterward.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 03:31:51 pm
content: What's the nature of the job? Is it a design engineer's position?Even if you do end up as the one-and-only hardware engineer, it's good experience that'll help you get a better job next time.

author: Pack34
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 03:40:31 pm
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on August 03, 2014, 03:31:51 pmIt's design, mixed signal embedded. My concern is that I would be leaving a full time design position. BUT, I'm specifically looking to get additional experience. I do not want to stagnate and I'm doing a good amount of tech duty on top of engineering at my current job

author: sunnyhighway
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 04:11:07 pm
content: Quote from: Pack34 on August 03, 2014, 03:10:52 pmI see the same thing happening. It doesn't seem to be correlated to request and demand as I would have expected.What I do see is, that companies are trying to sketch an accurate picture about themselves. Think about company culture, career possibilities and what they expect you to be capable of and what not.Most of them are trying to sketch a reasonable honest picture as they try to mitigate the risk of you running away if this picture is incorrect. This seems to be often the case in smaller companies (< 40~50 employees)Larger companies seem to sketch a picture of themselves and the job which is more beautified than honest. The most extreme form is called "phish-and-bait".What I also noticed by asking questions about how they make money and what makes them stand out of the crowd of competitors, you can figure out if they see you as a fee earner or overhead.If the answer is "fee earner" they are more likely to try to sell themselves to you, because they see you as an asset which they hate to lose in the short term.On the other hand, a well written resume, which suits their needs almost perfectly, can have the same effect.