I applied online for a position for which I was a perfect match. I decided to try Netflix because they essentially pay cash.

I spoke with the hiring manager and got a good sense of what he wanted. We were on the same wavelength, as I have solved the exact same problems he was experiencing.

I was immediately granted a technical interview. The technical interview was basically a snippet of his code, with no explanation, and I was told to improve it—essentially, guess what he wanted with no information.

This was perhaps the worst technical interviewer I have ever had, second only to the one who didn't know what a perfect binary tree was.

The interviewer essentially presented code from their own "job bubble." This code was based on an obscure Java feature with virtually no explanation of its purpose.

The core of the question was: "How would you improve this?" The "this" referred to a Java feature that few people would know, and for which I was not prepared. The code contained four custom functions lacking any documentation or class files to describe them. The interviewer clearly assumed these functions could be understood solely by their names, which was not the case.

Clarifying questions were not helpful. Answers were typically "it's not like that" without any further explanation. The interviewer seemed to exist in their own technical world, expecting candidates to intuitively understand their code. They appeared untrained in interviewing, displaying a very amateurish approach. It felt like no candidate could have succeeded under these conditions.

This job has reportedly been advertised for over a year, which is shocking. My respect for Netflix diminished significantly after this interview. I suspect the recruiter was aware of the interviewer's ineffectiveness and suggested contacting them again if a better match arose.

I've lost all respect for Netflix as a result. I will pass on future opportunities. This experience contrasts sharply with interviews at companies like Google or Facebook, where the process is highly refined.