Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

Post by stolsvik » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 8:07 AM UTC

enjo wrote: post #205

tomc1985 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had me until, "it's a really good signal when they pull out their phone and add it to a to-do list." Because it's just one of many possible courses of action for staying organized. For all you know the guy added it to his to-do list on his way to the car, or maybe he employs some other mechanic. While you could argue that an interview is a showboating environment where one is expected to signal certain desireable…

It's a signal. It's not a binary yes/no, there are many observations we're making throughout the interview. This is just one, and the to-do list isn't the only correct answer. Asking me to email those details to them is another possible right answer. Writing a note in a notebook is fine. The key thing to remember here is that we're asking this very much in the middle of the interview, and I just want to see that they…

Post by stolsvik » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 8:23 AM UTC

morgante wrote: post #194

jacalata wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article >In 2006, at the 82 schools rated “most competitive” by Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges, 14 percent of American undergraduates came from the poorer half of the nation That doesn't sound like 'tons'.

14 percent is still thousands of students. Equating elite universities with privileged upbringings is stereotyping. Like most stereotypes, it's grounded in truth but also unfair I worked really hard to be able to get into an elite university and to get the scholarships to pay for it. When people automatically assume that my education means my family is wealthy, it discounts the enormous amount of work which I (and ot…

Post by enjo » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 8:33 AM UTC

stolsvik wrote: post #211

enjo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a signal. It's not a binary yes/no, there are many observations we're making throughout the interview. This is just one, and the to-do list isn't the only correct answer. Asking me to email those details to them is another possible right answer. Writing a note in a notebook is fine. The key thing to remember here is that we're asking this very much in the middle of the interview, and I just want to see that they…

I would not have written that down, but I can assure you that I would remember to send you whatever you asked: An interview setting is very special, and tend to get hyper focus. I wouldn't go out from there wondering the typical "man, that was intense - wonder how it went??", and then forget to send you those things you asked! Unless your request was very specific and strange ("send me the completed k3-45 and t9807 f…

Post by thecrazyone » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 8:49 AM UTC

ashwinaj wrote: post #99

hcatlin wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure this happens, yes. But, that's not what's going on here, IMHO. Asking a person to traverse and modify a linked-list (a very common problem) or to implement a B-tree are not 'tech outside their job' Most of these interviews are more like math problems than anything a practical developer would encounter. Shit, if these interviews were "What do you think of node?" or "What is Go's concurrency model?" I think ex…

> Asking a person to traverse and modify a linked-list (a very common problem) or to implement a B-tree are not 'tech outside their job' No. No one in their daily jobs implements a linked list or B-Tree. There are predefined libraries in the languages or a user created library that people use. Do you really think every person in the company has his/her own version of a linked list in the same code base? This is a fal…

Post by thecrazyone » Thu, Dec 29, 2016, 8:54 AM UTC

enjo wrote: post #205

tomc1985 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had me until, "it's a really good signal when they pull out their phone and add it to a to-do list." Because it's just one of many possible courses of action for staying organized. For all you know the guy added it to his to-do list on his way to the car, or maybe he employs some other mechanic. While you could argue that an interview is a showboating environment where one is expected to signal certain desireable…

It's a signal. It's not a binary yes/no, there are many observations we're making throughout the interview. This is just one, and the to-do list isn't the only correct answer. Asking me to email those details to them is another possible right answer. Writing a note in a notebook is fine. The key thing to remember here is that we're asking this very much in the middle of the interview, and I just want to see that they…