The Product Engineer
Was hoping this would be about hiring, because I've been thinking a lot recently about how shitty hiring is for these people.I've been interviewed for a lot of these ostensibly "product" positions this year. A lot of it has to do with the company not even understanding what they're hiring for. Initial screeners would be all about product, product, product, but then they'd give me a new grad programming trivia test about rearranging chars in a string. Such a weird mismatch of aspirations vs. reality on the interviewer's part, and, most importantly, I've never come away from these interviews feeling the interviewer has a solid understanding of what I might bring to the table.I'd push more for it before leaving the interview, but by that point the interview itself has soured me on the company overall.I think this is exacerbated in the startup world in particular, because even "straight technological" roles in a sub-10 person team will inevitably include a ton of product decisions throughout the course of fast-paced development, and I worry too many startups focus on these type of algorithmic hiring tests being some sort of qualifier for these people when it's not.