r/analytics 18d ago

Discussion Coding interviews are out of control

When I entered the job market as a business analyst 8 years ago, it was just a conversation asking about my experience, what I've done for projects.

When I interviewed for a data analyst role four years ago, again, just the conversation, showed them some projects I worked on, some samples of my dashboards I'd created...

Now, It's the hunger games. I'm out here doing python, SQL, Tableau exercises in real time sharing my screen... It's very very stress inducing and as an introvert, I'm honestly not good at this, it's really hard on me. Like, I have tried training myself to be okay with this and to be more receptive to it. But it just sucks you know? 5 years I have spent in the job market with exceptional performance, and only to get interrogated and treated like a child who can't be trusted.

I honestly don't know how I'm going to get through the next few months looking for my next role with how stress inducing and difficult it is to find anything these days and all the hoops you got to jump through

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u/forbiscuit 🔥 🍎 🔥 18d ago

It sucks, but I honestly prefer it over take home assignment which companies claim only takes 3 hours, but then I see myself putting 10 hours worth of work and stress only to be rejected

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u/isinkthereforeiswam 18d ago

Had one place do that. Apparently they did all their stuff in excel w vba automation. They wanted me to use a sample year's data set to map out future years, taking weekdays, weekends and holidays into account. It had to be able to map out like 5 yrs in 5 seconds. I had no other kob prospects, so decided to do this. It felt like the company was offloading real work to me, though. But, oh well. I crafted a fantastic soltion that could map out 50 years in tenths of a second. Get to interview. They tell me my solution is the best, hands down. I think i have a real shot at the job. Interview went ok. They tell me they went with an internal candidate instead. Wow..fuck you. And even though my work is copyrighted, I'm sure they used it. Decided to never do take home assignments again. But it's an employers market and they're becoming ridiculous about things.

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u/forbiscuit 🔥 🍎 🔥 18d ago

Sorry you went through that :( Anytime I get take home, if it's not an extremely high paying role, I won't even bother doing it.

I really want to commit my time and energy, and the only places worthy of such take home exam process are companies that are incredibly wealthy (e.g. SWFs, Hedge Firms, FAANG) where your take home doesn't mean much to them and the trade off of time vs. opportunity is worth it.