interviewing at a startup be like… (ft. Steven He)

– [Joma] This video is
sponsored by Current. They're hiring, so apply using my link. (clock ticking) – There is the light bulb in the closet. The closet door is closed. You cannot see if the
light bulb is on or off. Outside of the closet,
there are three switches. One of the switches
control the light bulb. You can flip the switches
however you'd like. What is the number of light
bulbs sold in the US each week? (tense music) – Um… (camera lens whirs) (camera lens whirs) Um, 50 million. (music booms) (pen clicks) (clock ticking) (pen scratching) (text booms) Oh yeah, um, ni hao? – So, uh, anyway, let's,
uh, start with some, with, uh, some coding questions
that we follow up with. Uh, some system design, okay? Great. Uh, so the first question, leh (interviewer speaks in foreign language) (interviewer laughs) (Da Wei chuckles awkwardly) – Yeah, um, sorry, um. I'm actually, I don't speak Mandarin. I'm Canto. (pen clicks) Yeah. (paper scraping) – (sighs) Okay. We, we, we start off with the first question then.

Uh, okay, create a class to find the medium in a data stream. Go, we don't have much time. – Um, okay, I guess what we can do is we can create an array and- – Too slow. – Um, okay, um, maybe
what we can do is, uh, instead of sorting, maybe we
can do it with insertions. – My grandmother run faster than you code. – Okay, okay. What if we create a HashMap, right? And then-
– Hash, hash. What, you eat too much hash brown? Your brain turned into potato. (pen thuds)
– (sighs) Okay. Fuck, um. Oh, oh, oh, wait. Okay, what if-
– Oh, sorry. Would you look at the time? Good luck with your,
your other interviews. It was okay meeting you. (sighs) Disappointment, just like my son. (clock ticking) So I'm sure you've heard
about our five principles and our 53 core values to our company.

(text booms) – Yeah. Su- sure. – Great, because you know culture is very important to our company. So I'm just gonna ask you one question. (ominous music)
If your parents were in a car crash and you could only save
one, who would you save and how does that reflect
our company values? – Um. (clock ticking) (interviewer laughing) (text thuds) – No way, what for real? Like really? Oh my God. You did not. What? Emotional damage, what the fuck is that? No, okay. (laughs) Lis, all right. Listen, man, I gotta, I gotta interview
this bozo right here, so. Yeah, yeah, I'll be
done, I'll be done later. Oh, w, why are you here again? (clock ticking) (text booming) (tense music) (clock ticking) (dramatic orchestral music) Da Wei, come. Let me show you something. 130 desks, 130 employees
by the end of the year. We've raised $100 million
at a 1.2 billion valuation.

– Yeah, congrats. I mean, you guys have a great product, great product market fit-
(CEO laughs) I mean… – Do you really believe my
company's worth $1 billion? – Well, yeah, I mean, you
have great user retention and- – It's all fairy dust. See all of this? Smoke
and mirrors, you know. It's slight of hand for the uninitiated. Well, sure, on paper
it's worth $1 billion, but none of this is ever
going to see the light of day and that's why we liquidate. – That's standard, right? You know, you either liquidate
for an IPO or an acquisition.

– Well, that's where you're wrong. See, you want to be on
the secondary market. The equity, the paper money,
the number on these screens, they're all for the investors. But we, we want hard cash, right? Say we lose this, where you wanna be? – Well, I mean, you know, you still have to please the investors. You can't just ignore them, right? (CEO scoffs) – Ah, it doesn't matter
what your company does. Hell, make a window blinds
company if you want. At the end of the day all the
people see are these numbers and if enough people believe
they are real they become real, 'cause they're addicted. So sell your house of cards while it still looks like a palace.

Da Wei, right? – Yeah, that's my legal name,
but you can call me Eric. Eric Wang. – Eric, welcome to the company. Enjoy the ride as much as you can. (dramatic orchestral music) – [Da Wei] Blinders upon trust. (dramatic orchestral music crescendos) (dramatic music fading) Eric Wang ended up interning
at this fairy dust company, but to make sure you
don't end up like him, let me tell you about a legit company with an actual great product, Current. Now obviously, this video's a parody, and their interview process
is nothing like that. Like a HashMap, maybe like- – Hash, what the hell? – They were nice enough to
let me film in their office and they fully funded
this video, so literally, this video wouldn't have
been possible without them. Current is currently
hiring a lot of engineers and they're based in New York city, so if you're looking, there you go. They just raised $220 million, tripling their valuation to 2.2 billion. They're growing extremely fast. They are a US fintech platform
with over 3 million users. If you're interested,
go to current.com/joma and apply to their job positions.

And who knows, maybe you'll see me around, because I do hang out at
their happy hour sometimes. Oh, and one more thing. There's actually an
extra interview sketch, an extended cut of this video, and bloopers that you can check out if you are a Vaxxed Doggo member. – Oh, he just slams a slipper and, and screams, "Emotional Damage." And people are into this? (scoffs) Jesus Christ,
young people nowadays. – And to learn more on how to
become a Vaxxed Doggo member, just join our Discord,
discord.gg/VaxxedDoggos and ask me there, because
I'm always on there. Anyways, secret scene. (announcer speaking faintly) (boots thud)
(wheels rattling) (suspenseful music) (bright orchestral music)
(man shushes).