Tech Interview Torture Chamber • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#21

Post by Apocryphon » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:37 PM UTC

polishTar wrote: post #15

spcelzrd wrote: post #5

We all agree the tech interviews are broken. I suspect that the next trend in tech interviews will be worse in just a slightly different way. We got rid of the "Why are manholes round?" questions, now we have live coding tests.

Do we though? What if the current system is the least bad option out of a set of much worse alternatives?

Maybe we should try a few more options before deciding that we're in the best of all solutions.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#22

Post by CriticalSection » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:40 PM UTC

tetrep wrote: post #9

> Always start off by asking the candidate, "Is this still a good time?" Is there a better way to ask this? It would be relatively awkward for the candidate to bring up on their own, so it seems like a good idea to make sure nothing unexpected has occurred since the call was planned. > Alright, that's enough chit chat. Curtly prod them to submit to the interrogation. Assuming it's still good to have the call, why wou…

I agree. Phone tech interviews are usually low level screens to see if the candidate has the minimum technical chops to come on board. Short and sweet is what I prefer, especially since I'm usually doing the phone interview on a lunch break and would like to have some time to actually wolf down my lunch.

Collaborative code editors are an unpleasant modern addition to the interview process. Plus I'm usually writing the code in another window before transcribing it to the collaborative window, usually leaving the person on the other end of the call to wonder if I disappeared. I tend to pass these things though.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#23

Post by georgemcbay » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:40 PM UTC

Don't forget to treat everyone the same on the technical questions, whether they are a new grad with no professional experience or a 20 year veteran with a proven (and easily verifiable via references) track record of success. Make sure they all run the gauntlet!

Bonus points for grilling open source developers who wrote some critically important tool your company depends upon, and/or are the person who literally "wrote the book" on the technology you expect them to use.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#24

Post by rajathagasthya » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:41 PM UTC

> When the candidate eventually offers a solution and asks for validation, fan the flames of their inner doubt by being non-committal and hesitant. "Yeah, that's sort of right, I guess that's good enough. Uh oh, looks like we're out of time! Do you have any questions?"

I had a good laugh at this. It's too accurate :)

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#25

Post by zzzcpan » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:42 PM UTC

polishTar wrote: post #15

spcelzrd wrote: post #5

We all agree the tech interviews are broken. I suspect that the next trend in tech interviews will be worse in just a slightly different way. We got rid of the "Why are manholes round?" questions, now we have live coding tests.

Do we though? What if the current system is the least bad option out of a set of much worse alternatives?

Before oversupply of programmers simply talking to people for a few minutes was good enough to determine their competence.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#26

Post by palakchokshi » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:46 PM UTC

The one I love is when they ask questions that are completely unrelated to what the position is for. e.g. I applied to a startup company that sold used cars online for a senior web dev position. Their junior dev asked me about a maze solving algorithm.

I knew the VP of engineering through one of my contacts and sent him an email asking him how a maze solving algorithm relates to web development. To his credit the VP apologized and set up another interview albeit with an even more junior developer who asked about finding loops in a linked list.

sigh

Thankfully I didn't take the job because the company shut down recently.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#27

Post by king_magic » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:46 PM UTC

I read through maybe 10 paragraphs, but the author's toxic style was just too much for me. Spoiler alert: this person sounds like someone I would never hire on attitude alone, which reeks of "entitled, sarcastic brat".

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#28

Post by lj3 » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:48 PM UTC

Step 1: Use Taleo.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#29

Post by harryh » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:49 PM UTC

georgemcbay wrote: post #23

Don't forget to treat everyone the same on the technical questions, whether they are a new grad with no professional experience or a 20 year veteran with a proven (and easily verifiable via references) track record of success. Make sure they all run the gauntlet! Bonus points for grilling open source developers who wrote some critically important tool your company depends upon, and/or are the person who literally "wr…

I am, almost, a 20 year industry veteran. I have no problem being asked to run the gauntlet. I'm happy for a chance to demonstrate my skills. Candidates that expect some sort of preferential treatment due to the number of years they have been working arouse my suspicions.

Re: Tech Interview Torture Chamber

#30

Post by VladKovac » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:49 PM UTC

One thing I found out from interviewing a lot (for junior-ish positions) was that dynamic programming questions are actually your friend. Since it's a "hard topic" they give you a relatively easy one that can be solved using brute force recursion with memoization slapped on top so it takes like 5-10 mins and looks super impressive.