Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Sunnyvale, California
April 1, 2014
Negative ExperienceNo Offer
Process
I applied online and was contacted via email to arrange a phone interview a few days later. The interview was hampered by frequent communication problems, but not because of the phone.
In fact, the interviewer spoke poor English and was very difficult to understand. When I mentioned I was having trouble understanding him, he would just repeat himself, which usually resulted in more broken English or total gibberish. After attempting to field a single technical question, I decided this was not a manager I could communicate with and ended the interview.
Also note, I was only informed of the need for a computer after the interview had started; we never got to the coding as I ended the interview early.
Questions
The most difficult part was understanding what the interviewer was saying.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 21 interview experiences for the Yahoo Senior Software Engineer role in Sunnyvale, California.
Success Rate
33%
Pass Rate
Yahoo's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in Sunnyvale, California is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive29%
Neutral29%
Negative43%
Candidates reported having negative feelings for Yahoo's Senior Software Engineer interview process in Sunnyvale, California.
Yahoo Work Experiences
3.0
Great company doing cutting-edge tech stuff. Beware of cut-throat politics and BS
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
Sunnyvale, California, United States
December 2, 2014
Pros: This is the company where I spent the 10 best years of my career so far. Lately (in the last 4 years or so), I could really see how Yahoo's aggressive bets on innovation really put them in the path to success, e.g.:
* Hadoop
* OpenStack
* HTML5
* Isomorphic / Single Page Apps.
Now I'm cheering for them from the sidelines, and I hope to see them succeed. I'm also grateful for a lot of the people that I got to interact with during my stay there, all the cool and new technologies that I got to work on/with, and all the things that I learned.
Cons: Once you end up in a team where either:
a) the manager doesn't like you, or there is just no chemistry between you and the manager,
or
b) the manager already has a chosen set of favorite people that they know really well and have strong trust relationships with (and getting a new manager like that could happen any day given the huge amount of re-orgs taking place over there all the time)...
it will be only a matter of time before you will start getting bad "QPR" ratings, with all the stress and reduced options (even moving to other positions becomes harder once you get a bad "grade") that that brings.
All this is too much stress and too little to gain, if you ask me, which is unfortunate given all the good things that the company has going for it.
4.0
Great place to work, as long as you set your expectations right
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Sunnyvale, California, United States
November 12, 2008
Pros: Fun atmosphere.
Smart co-workers.
Competitive pay.
Cons: Bureaucracy. It wasn't always like this, but as with any other company that's grown to be a career company, people stop pulling for each other for the greater good. Instead, they start building silos and domains. You just have to learn to navigate these, but once you're used to it, it's still a great place to work.
5.0
A great place to work
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Sunnyvale, California, United States
July 2, 2009
Pros: Great folks, can-do attitude, the salaries are great, lively environment, and a great location in California.
Cons: Bonuses are stingy. Teams do not always collaborate. It takes too much time to get other teams to do things right, which may impede your own progress. Data quality is highly buggy and takes too much time to figure out. There are too many migration projects and stale projects, and too little support on important projects. Product managers sometimes run the show into the ground.
- 3.0Great company doing cutting-edge tech stuff. Beware of cut-throat politics and BSSenior Software Engineer • Former EmployeeSunnyvale, California, United StatesDecember 2, 2014Pros: This is the company where I spent the 10 best years of my career so far. Lately (in the last 4 years or so), I could really see how Yahoo's aggressive bets on innovation really put them in the path to success, e.g.: * Hadoop * OpenStack * HTML5 * Isomorphic / Single Page Apps. Now I'm cheering for them from the sidelines, and I hope to see them succeed. I'm also grateful for a lot of the people that I got to interact with during my stay there, all the cool and new technologies that I got to work on/with, and all the things that I learned.Cons: Once you end up in a team where either: a) the manager doesn't like you, or there is just no chemistry between you and the manager, or b) the manager already has a chosen set of favorite people that they know really well and have strong trust relationships with (and getting a new manager like that could happen any day given the huge amount of re-orgs taking place over there all the time)... it will be only a matter of time before you will start getting bad "QPR" ratings, with all the stress and reduced options (even moving to other positions becomes harder once you get a bad "grade") that that brings. All this is too much stress and too little to gain, if you ask me, which is unfortunate given all the good things that the company has going for it.
- 4.0Great place to work, as long as you set your expectations rightSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeSunnyvale, California, United StatesNovember 12, 2008Pros: Fun atmosphere. Smart co-workers. Competitive pay.Cons: Bureaucracy. It wasn't always like this, but as with any other company that's grown to be a career company, people stop pulling for each other for the greater good. Instead, they start building silos and domains. You just have to learn to navigate these, but once you're used to it, it's still a great place to work.
- 5.0A great place to workSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeSunnyvale, California, United StatesJuly 2, 2009Pros: Great folks, can-do attitude, the salaries are great, lively environment, and a great location in California.Cons: Bonuses are stingy. Teams do not always collaborate. It takes too much time to get other teams to do things right, which may impede your own progress. Data quality is highly buggy and takes too much time to figure out. There are too many migration projects and stale projects, and too little support on important projects. Product managers sometimes run the show into the ground.
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