> I think companies that break out of the leetcode habit are going to do well.
> There's a lot of great talent out there that's being passed over by these tests.
Agreed. And there's a lot of great talent that doesn't even want to try with some of these companies solely due to the hostile interview process.
I recently took a year off, and started interviewing in March. I spent a fair amount of time in fear of interviewing, doing LeetCode pushups and feeling miserable about my performance, and wondering if I could swing retirement rather than go through another fucking hazing ritual. Excuse my language.
I resolved up front not to submit to any kind of take-home test, proctoring software, or algorithmic nonsense unrelated to the actual job of shipping software. A polite "No thank you" was what I planned. But the plan was thwarted!
I was pleasantly surprised by the technical interviews I actually got. They were mostly nicely constrained problems that were real-world and not algorithmically nasty. One was a little unintended "collaboration" in the form of helping a senior dev debug their own "what is wrong with this code?" exercise (it probably went smoother for the next candidate they interviewed). In short, it was actually kind of fun.
I started a new dream job this week. At 61 this is no longer easy, but the company is enlightened enough to support me while I get up to speed, and it's fun to help mentor the folks just getting into the industry.
There are decent companies out there. Hopefully the terrible ones will start getting a clue.
Agreed. And there's a lot of great talent that doesn't even want to try with some of these companies solely due to the hostile interview process.