Why do many IITians do dick measuring contest during interviews?

During a recent interview at a Pune-based startup, I encountered a problem statement that involved a rather uncommon custom data structure. The problem, summarized on one page with about 150 words, took me around 10 minutes to fully comprehend. I discussed my approach with the interviewer, proposing the use of a specific data structure tailored to the problem's requirements: `Element = pair<pair<int,int>, vector<int>>; `vector<Element> vp; However, despite my clarity, the interviewer insisted on using a HashMap. With just 20 minutes left, he abruptly requested a switch to HashMap and solving the problem. This change, coupled with the lengthy problem statement, led me to overlook two important edge cases, ultimately costing me the opportunity. “After checking his LinkedIn profile, I found that the interviewer was a 5-star coder on CodeChef. This suggests he was so confident in his approach that he was not ready to accept an alternative approach. His stubbornness and his ultimate preference for the HashMap cost me an opportunity.” PS: I am myself a competitive programmer with a rank under 100 in CodeChef long challenges.

I have heard/ read so many companies blindly hiring and promoting IITians to roles they are not suited for. Many young grads are given manager roles, and they know sh*t about people management. just push all work to juniors. How are Founders not able to see through this?

Seeing so many founders who doesn’t want to hire from IIT is just increasing and I fully support this. IITs are not the super smart people that they used to be. Now they are mostly test takers and that’s it with no innovation or anything. Using pedigree to get into jobs and raising funds are gone. IIT is not a sign for anything and the badge doesn’t matter anymore. Good luck to my friends who actually deserve it from IIT or not. I know there are actually great people who are in IIT but just don’t make IIT your entire personality.

Imagine this: You have spent weeks evaluating candidates for that open role. You have put them through every test, multiple interviews - you have dissected their skills, their experiences, and you’ve finally made your decision. You are now making THE offer. The candidate sits across from you - but instead of shaking your hand he/she leans forward and says "Just so you know, I’m not an IIT grad. Never went there" Now what? This candidate just cleared all your rounds, solved every problem, nailed every behavioral question. What do you do now??? Do you throw them out for lying? Do you punish them for tricking the system into shortlisting the resume and offering them? OR Do you pause for a second and ask yourself - did I just judge someones ability based on a checklist, or did I see their actual potential? Sure your system, your filters, your standards - they all got tricked. They made a joke out of it. And it should hurt. But wasn't the process you trust so much supposed to catch the lie? If the guy is sitting in front of you, with the skills and problem-solving mindset - tested by you and your people - the same someone you were willing to make an offer a minute ago - the same someone you went gaga over a minute ago - minus the degree is still the same guy. Right?? Then did the degree really matter? Sure, his approach might be unconventional, but isn’t the whole point of hiring to get the best talent? If he could game your system and still outperform others within your interviewing standards and assessment playground rules - doesn’t that say something about him? Would you honor his honesty at the last second? Or would you punish the trickery, even though you’ve just spent weeks proving he has what it takes? Would you now question your hiring standards? Would you realize you might be filtering out great candidates because they don’t fit the “mold” you’ve built? Or do you still choose to stay stuck on the labels and shiny credentials? Here’s the real question: Did your system just fail… or did it actually work? What if the candidate rubbed it in your face and said - "And those companies on my resume? Never worked there either” Would that hurt your ego even more? your pride? So many ... Trust me SOOOOO MANYYYYY others have you missed out on opportunities because they didn’t have the RIGHT school, the RIGHT companies on their resume? So if a candidate - does exactly this - Is he/she any wrong - to shake up your system? Some of the boldest moves I know comes from a place of desperation. They come from a place of nothing more to lose So again - I got to ask - what would you do in this situation if you were hiring? PS: SocialExperiment No. 1 - I am thinking of publishing more of these - What do you think?

The stupidity and arrogance of some leaders in some companies to use colleges as filter criteria for what is clearly irrelevant for the role. Mostly these idiots end up fucking up company after company creating these neo-casteist groups sucking off and living off each other. This identity based hiring is the start of corporate politics. I still don’t understand how difficult it is for fucking idiots to understand that while hiring for most roles you have to encourage diverse backgrounds at the start of the process to help you hire the right candidate for the long term, specially in a startup. PS I’m not against preferring candidates from certain colleges if it’s relevant. What i do hate is this herd behaviour of trying to hire only from your alumni the moment you are given leadership roles. It must be such shitty experience to work under idiots like these if you are not from their alumni colleges because their biases play into all evaluations they do about their teams.

I am actively giving interviews these days and one common pattern i see for big tech like MSF or WAlmart or golman, tesco Even if you soln is fine and completed you might rejected for Coding problems due to - you solved too quickly - you solved but took time and used some debugging - You solved but you didn’t knew the other way interviewer have seen - Fully observation based, code running is must - somehow your interviewer is smart then you you’ll be rejected for sure. ( here smart is subjective***) Pls comment out your experience!!

Hot take: IITians are nothing but a cesspool of entitled bunch who think they are elite. An outdated classist notion of them being successful, whoever filters on the IIT tag will lead their company to utter annihilation.

Recently, I gave an interview at this early startup in Bangalore. It consisted of 5 rounds. - The first four rounds were technical, design, and assignment rounds which went well. I answered all the questions fairly well and the interviewer was happy knowing the answer. - The fifth round was with the CEO - Now this was the turning point. He was more concerned about my personal situation. He asked questions like, where I live, where is my hometown, if WFO is okay for me (I was working remotely in my current company ), and where is your dad ( I said he was no more and that turned off the CEO of a company), how will you keep my mother in BLR, why your mom not living with your siblings?. And I was like "WTF man".the only technical question he asked -> "Have you ever hacked a system in your recent days?". 😂😂 After wasting more than 14 hours in the process I received a rejection mail without any feedback. Message to recruiter - if you are more concerned about the personal situation of the candidate, please conduct a preliminary round for that.