Monday, March 26, 2012

On Epic Conclusions

I turned down my offer to Epic today, and they asked for a survey response as to why. I think it sums up my feelings towards it, albeit focusing on the negative, but it's a good way for me to get out how I felt about some aspects of being there.

When asked what they could have done differently about the interview process/experience:

I felt like I was assessed in every possible direction and every possible way, almost to an excess. I took a 3-hour test before visiting, took another, shorter one on the trip, was surprised by a "pop-quiz" near the end, and took a long personality profile. Also, while in the end I received the offer anyway, I was told I would have to give my SAT scores, which I did not remember during the phone interview weeks before.

You guys obviously have this down to a science when hiring so many people each year, but it's just so much assessment. If you pressed the SAT score thing, I would have objected. How relevant could that possibly be, especially after being interviewed and assessed in twelve other ways throughout the day?!

Maybe this is how companies hiring a lot do it, but it left me with a negative impression.

The scale of hiring also gave me a negative impression. 1000 in a year is impressive, but it also made me feel quite insignificant. Having my own office, eventually, is a gesture, and I understand the buildings are made to prevent that feeling, but it truly felt overwhelming. When I first realized that I was one of thirty people for THAT DAY being considered, I was stunned.

When asked what they could have done differently:

I don't think the interview process was the biggest obstacle to me joining up, but having fewer assessments would have made the experience more enjoyable. If I could name one, simple thing, it would be to remove the pop-quiz before the HR interview. It felt deceptive and, frankly, rude.

Overall, however, it might simply be that your company culture and celebration of many people and huge growth works for certain people that aren't me. Your campus is incredible, you hire talented people, you make something absolutely moving the industry into a new age. Perhaps my "overwhelming" is another person's "exhilarating".

Saturday, March 3, 2012

On Leaving /r/atheism

Potentially. Maybe I'll get a response. This is a message I sent to the moderators of /r/atheism:

Lack of moderation leads to weak content and comments

I'm unsubscribing for this reason. I've been viewing /r/atheism since I joined Reddit 2 years ago, and I've always been defending it from people who call it a massive circlejerk. I do believe there are a great many people who wish to have interesting conversations and posts, but they are drowned out by the larger number that do not. You choose by allowing this lame content to arise to bring the subreddit to the lowest common denominator.

I don't like the idea that atheists, whom we consider intellectuals, need moderation in this regard, but I find it necessary to keep the integrity of the subreddit. If that's what you want. If it's not, then I'll be gone. I'm sure you don't care, I mean, "who is this guy, anyway?" But consider me representative of many others.