If I can't write code during an interview, neither can I coordinate a staged release of a fix I just wrote during a 3 AM outage. That shouldn't have happened but sometimes it does; pressure isn't always artificial.
Indeed. But if I find out that a company never does 3AM fixes, or death marches, then I know their management is damn great. And I really want to work for them!
It depends what your company does. Where I work we write CAD/CAM software which gets released roughly twice a year. It is pretty inconceivable that a 3AM fix would be necessary. Even 0 day security flaws in the software (pretty unlikely since there isn't any need for network connectivity) really shouldn't be fixed at 3 am, they can wait 12 hours and be handled under less stress and tiredness.
