I received a cold call from a Lyft recruiter recently for a senior machine learning position. I asked why they were reaching out to me and the recruiter mentioned that it’s an especially hard time to locate experienced machine learning candidates, they don’t have enough applicants.

I said I was interested in interviewing but that I would only agree to a process that evaluates me based on my previous work history, and not any onsite or takehome coding projects, system design questions or whiteboard coding questions.

The recruiter said she would run it by the manager, but thought it would not be possible, and a few days later I got a rejection email.

I understand takehome and whiteboard coding of course, but why not system design questions?

I dunno.. flip side to this is that you could name your own price basically.

Not really though. If your price is working in a quiet, private office with a door that shuts, or having humane treatment when you’re being interviewed, then it seems nobody would pay it.

Let’s take their word for it that they are desperate for a machine learning engineer. Then it suggests they care more about mandating workspace conditions (since financial cost even to provide thousands of workers with private offices in dense urban areas is not a realistic excuse not to do it) or trivia during interviews than about business needs.

This is such an important observation. Claims of limited talent pool don't align with reality. If demand were truly inelastic, companies would negotiate.

In some cases I do think there is a limited talent pool. Unwillingness to negotiate in those cases usually means the company would rather simply suffer along with worse business outcomes, or try to invest in a totally different area of work, than to accept they are at a negotiating disadvantage and that it may be the case that painful company culture changes have to be made (like giving some people private offices and not others).

“The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent,” seems apt for this.