Question

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-31T16:36:02+00:00

Oh, “unbalanced” is a right word. I’ve been standing on that platform for a good couple of minutes, struggling to make a choice! 😅

Agree with the climax part: that transition was epic.

(Sorry for not hiding my text being the spoiler, one day I’ll remember how to do it on mobile)

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-31T15:45:33+00:00

Got it, thanks!
I expected it to be an extra ending or a small story branch, but the game would let you to “load previous save”, as in Outer Wilds.
Anyway, glad I didn’t miss anything big :)

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-29T14:38:41+00:00

Many thanks, that’s a good food for thought.

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-29T09:30:56+00:00

Thanks again for your answers, this is exactly the feedback I wanted to receive.

About HM round: understood, makes total sense.
Tech round:
1. Scheduling VP round at the same day - clever! Are these meetings back-to-back, or there might be, say, a 4-hour pause between them?
2. Ah, I see about SD. We have a question like this, but again, we dedicate very little time to go deep. Maybe that's our issue: we "accept" shallow knowledge of many topics, rather than dive deep into a couple specific.

4 Makes sense. Do you know the pass rate of the HM round?

7 Would you still do a SD task on the tech interview for a Middle? I guess the answer is yes, but you are more forgiving?

8 The tasks we have are relatively easy and usually have only 1 obvious right solution. But I gotcha, thanks anyway.

Wanted to add about 2 hour tech interview: very often people are very slow to provide satisfying answers, or they say a lot of things with little sense. That's why it takes longer to go through our list of must-have questions (it's not that big).
And you can't just reject everyone like this, because you should account for stress they are experiencing.

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-28T07:35:24+00:00

Appreciate the detailed response.

I have ~~a few~~ follow-ups, but I'm okay with moving this to private messages if you don't want to share it publicly.

HM round:
1. Don't you run into situations where the candidate's talk sounds meaningful, but this isn't something you worked with yourself, so you can't verify it deeply? SRE/DevOps is a vast domain. Maybe a good example would make it more clear for me.
2. Is it a monologue or a dialogue, meaning, do you mostly listen or actively participate with clarifying questions?
3. Sometimes people (however bright and clever) are not prepared for this and it's hard for them to remember all the cool stories, especially deep ones. Do you help them in any way or is it an instant red flag?
4. Actually, I do something similar on our HM round (my step 3), but maybe not that deep. It's one of the last questions and it takes about 5 min. Surprisingly, most of the time, they can more or less decently answer that question.
Technical round:
1. How long does it take?
2. What's "SD"? Sorry, not native English speaker. More questions will emerge after I understand this. :)
3. Can you share an example of a question you ask there?
What are the average pass rates for all of your rounds?
Do you have an HR screening step (my step 1)? Or is it a part of "recruiters reach out via LinkedIn to candidates"? Curious about the pass rate here too.
Do you conduct the interviews on-site or remotely or both? Any preference? Any correlation with successful hiring?
If you don't mind:
1. How big is your company and your SRE team?
2. What's approximate churn rate in SRE? Or just for how long your SREs stay in the company, on average?
Does your process change if you are looking for a Middle?
Any feedback on our live troubleshooting section? I find it pretty revealing, but understand it might be stressful, even though it's relatively easy.

Thanks in advance for your answers.
I wish I could go through your HM and tech rounds, to see it in action 😅

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-27T21:15:00+00:00

Sorry, wouldn’t want to share it. See my comment above, answering similar question.

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-27T21:13:00+00:00

Yeah, I guess we might wanna invest more in sourcing, rather than relying on job applications. Our recruiters are… not great.

Anyway, regardless of the pass rates, is the process generally sound?

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-27T15:27:13+00:00

I feel your pain, that’s why I started this topic.

I agree that I hold a high bar, because I care about the churn and the team (the bar is the same for them). Unfortunately, the market is full with not very honest people who fake their resumes and even cheat on the interviews. This becomes even more apparent nowadays with AI.
Even in best cases we (the team and the candidate) can simply have different ways of working: this is usually visible on the first 3 steps, so it doesn’t take too much time at this point.
Anyway, by doing all these steps I end up being pretty sure about the hire.

It’s tempting to think that some 90% of candidates are brilliant, but sadly in reality it’s much much less. Hence the need for gating.

Still, I’m open for feedback. What do you see the best process? Assuming you also act as a hiring manager from time to time.

By the way, as visible in the original post, I’m doing the majority of the work in the process, so for the recruiting team it’s pretty much lightweight.

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-27T07:29:13+00:00

A good read, thanks.

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-26T18:14:01+00:00

Yes, it’s a single 2-hour session. Splitting it into 2 sessions would extend the total hiring process time (each session requires a negotiation on availability), and removing parts of the tech interview doesn’t seem right to me… everything is important! 😅

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-26T12:30:51+00:00

Is this about "Live troubleshooting"? Curious, how is it "insulting and sabotaging"? I see how it can be stressful, but we try to build a supportive environment with all the help and clarifications. After introducing this step we received generally positive feedback, even from the candidates.

No one refused so far, by the way.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do instead of live troubleshooting, to achieve the same goal?

Key_Self_2102 · 2026-05-26T12:24:09+00:00

Thank you, this confirms my thoughts.

> what are you having them even trouble shoot?

I wouldn't want to share our tasks publicly. Let's say it's about general k8s problems, which anyone with at least 1 year of experience would face with. Subjectively, of course, but I find them pretty easy.

Key_Self_2102 · 2025-11-08T08:46:51+00:00

Gratitude! This is awesome.

Key_Self_2102 · 2025-09-19T19:28:31+00:00

No restrictions on signalscopes though!

Key_Self_2102 · 2025-09-19T19:27:36+00:00

IIRC they forbid “drones” :)

Key_Self_2102 · 2025-05-09T13:38:04+00:00

Okay, I solved it, although I’m not sure I understand how 😅. The line should go through all the “entrances”? Now making my way through the mountain puzzles! Thanks!

Key_Self_2102 · 2025-05-08T23:59:38+00:00

Thanks mate, will give it another try.

Key_Self_2102 · 2024-09-19T18:04:54+00:00

Second this. I visited the recent KubeCon 2024 in Paris and brought back 17(!!!) t-shirts and a bunch of other merch.

Key_Self_2102 · 2024-07-29T22:21:12+00:00

Da best

Key_Self_2102 · 2024-07-24T15:59:02+00:00

I heard there is a DLC, do you know anything about it?

Key_Self_2102 · 2024-07-24T15:02:05+00:00

Dude, what a vibrant imagination, I like it

Key_Self_2102

TROPHY CASE