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Idea stolen during an interview. What should I do?

29 points interviewwtf | 3 comments | 17 Oct 24 21:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.675s | source

Keeping this intentionally vague.

I interviewed with a series B company a couple of months ago. During the interview with the CTO I proposed a way that could effectively 3X their MAU. They were genuinely impressed by it, and stated they didn't think of that. Like it seemed natural, and I'm considered an expert in this field.

I ended up not getting the job, and not thinking much of it. Fast-forward a couple of months, and it's their new growth strategy. I got no credit for this, and not even a call back. Is there anything I can do?

1. pestatije ◴[17 Oct 24 21:27 UTC] No.41873986[source]▶
so they had a free consultancy session with an expert you say? maybe more...im not surprised, the hiring process in IT is broken, and i blame HR for this
replies(1): >>41874011 #
2. interviewwtf ◴[17 Oct 24 21:30 UTC] No.41874011[source]▶
I kinda feel like an idiot. But, I genuinely thought I was going to get the job. This is my passion, and I love talking about it. I just didn't think anyone would care.

Plus it's infuriating because I didn't get the job because I didn't know how to solve some random DP problem...

replies(1): >>41878962 #
3. thorin ◴[18 Oct 24 12:51 UTC] No.41878962[source]▶
Not sure if you're aware but it's not that uncommon for people to be interviewed when someone else already has the job, or they don't actually end up hiring. Maybe someone internal got the role and they still interviewed to meet HR requirements. So even if you did "the best interview ever" you're not guaranteed to get the job.

I remember going for an interview in London at the start of my career and all the candidates were in a room together beforehand talking and doing some group exercises. One of the candidates parents was best friends with the interviewer and knew several of the team and they weren't too shy about talking about it. It was pretty obvious she'd be the one getting the job!