I suspect all large company interview systems are about ensuring you have a large sunk cost of effort in the ‘debit’ column so that you’ll be pleased to accept substandard terms if you get to the end point.
Much the same as the student degree systems with its non-defaultable loans designed to keep you firmly in the rat race with no time to question whether three hour commutes and twelve hour days are a sensible way to organise a society.
The singular most useful skill anybody can master in IT or any other profession is the ability to write off a loss and not let it worry you.
> I suspect all large company interview systems are about ensuring you have a large sunk cost of effort in the ‘debit’ column so that you’ll be pleased to accept substandard terms if you get to the end point.
I believe this is part of why the technical interview gauntlet has slowly become the norm and persists, is it's usefulness for that, although I don't think it's consciously happening, just a side benefit that those that hire are picking up on subconsciously.
I know that if I'm unable to answer one of their question in an interview I have a hard to escape feeling of "They don't think I'm their ideal candidate" and then even if it does get to the point where they want to extend an offer my brain doesn't want to fight too hard to negotiate a better offer, because "what if they think I was just barely adequate and I ask for way too much?"
It's the wrong feeling to have, but I think it's inherent in human psychology. I think this type of interview process is (intentionally or not) manipulative and reminds me of pickup artist "culture", where they will 'neg' women to cause them to feel bad about themselves, weaken their confidence, and lower their standards.
If you struggled with answering things that you should encounter on a regular basis at your current job, then it's mostly on you (and I have not prepared well and done that before as well for some interviews, like not really be able to talk about projects I worked on when I first started the job because we've done so much other totally different crap since then and I haven't thought about it at all for a year or two). But if you're expected to refresh a 4-year degree + rebecome an expert of every single technology stack you've ever worked on professionally every time you want to find a new job in the hopes that whatever random questions they ask you will be the right things you studied and have fresh in your head, then I think there's mostly bad reasons why this has become the norm.
I also think that since this process helps select for fresh graduates who don't have any idea of their worth, have few responsibilities, no extracurricular hobbies, and are willing to put in an insane amount of time and effort in order to prove themselves is another big reason why this has become the norm.
Much the same as the student degree systems with its non-defaultable loans designed to keep you firmly in the rat race with no time to question whether three hour commutes and twelve hour days are a sensible way to organise a society.
The singular most useful skill anybody can master in IT or any other profession is the ability to write off a loss and not let it worry you.