> You do know we hired people to do engineering jobs for many decades before the industry started cargo culting what they observed a handful of Silicon Valley mega-companies doing.

Very much this. I worry that those relatively new to this industry may now only have seen the leetcode-style interview disfunction madness and get the impression it's the only way.

Absolutely not! It's not how it used to be, it's not how it needs to be. I was closing in on 20 years into my career before ever hearing about this type of whiteboard algorithm memorization-style interview. It's common now, but it's not really normal and shouldn't be.

I for one take no part in that charade. I interview a lot of people and have never done a whiteboard algorithm dump question and never will.

I don't hire people to memorize algorithms from a book and write them on whiteboards all day, so I'm not going to interview for that irrelevant skill.

I'll read your resume and let's have a chat about projects you've worked on and what you'd like to work on.