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If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

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Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#31

Post by mrfusion »

dagw wrote: post #15

On the flip side I recently interviewed for a programming position at a civil engineering company and at no point in the process did anybody ask any questions that would in any way test if I actually knew any of the things I claimed to know. The entire "programming" part of the interview was essentially: "We use quite a bit of python. I see from your CV you've used python". "Oh absolutely, I consider python the langu…

We all deserved to be treated with that kind of dignity.

I'm not sure where our industry went wrong. You'd never ask a doctor medical school trivia during an interview.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#32

Post by joekrill »

jordanpg wrote: post #20

When I read articles like this, I tend to assume that they are exaggerations written by people who feel burned because they didn't get the job they want and that the reason was unfair interview questions. In other words, I simply don't believe that interviewers are, as a group, so stupid that they regularly ask obscure Excel questions when they are plainly not relevant. To continue with the recruiting example, I susp…

I don't think anyone is suggesting what is written here _actually_ happened. The point is that you are correct -- most interviews are not so stupid as to ask obscure Excel questions that are not relevant. That just doesn't happen.

The point is that, for some reason, we put up with this kind of behaviour in software interviews, and no where else would it be considered reasonable.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#33

Post by dagw »

mrfusion wrote: post #31
dagw wrote: post #15

On the flip side I recently interviewed for a programming position at a civil engineering company and at no point in the process did anybody ask any questions that would in any way test if I actually knew any of the things I claimed to know. The entire "programming" part of the interview was essentially: "We use quite a bit of python. I see from your CV you've used python". "Oh absolutely, I consider python the langu…

We all deserved to be treated with that kind of dignity. I'm not sure where our industry went wrong. You'd never ask a doctor medical school trivia during an interview.

I don't know. If I was to get a new co-worker tomorrow I would hope that someone had checked that he had relevant skills beyond knowing that 'python' was a programming language and knowing how to sound overconfident in interviews.

And in the case of the doctor he'll have to have a verifiable degree from a verifiable university as well a verifiable several year long 'internship' from a reputable 'company' before you would even consider interviewing him.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#34

Post by dsacco »

dsr_ wrote: post #24

I am, now and on occasion, a hiring manager. Naturally, every freelance recruiter wants to be my friend. They often start cold calls with a description of a person's technical abilities, and then ask if I would be interested in interviewing that person. When that happens, I ask them to define one of the buzzwords that they have just used. "Could you tell me what 'big data' means?" or "What's the difference between AW…

Please, please share one of the funnier stories you have about grilling recruiters who didn't know the difference between AWS and GCE.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#36

Post by ubernostrum »

IceyEC wrote: post #3

Why are we suddenly inundated with "If companies interviewed * the way they interview programmers" posts?

Because sometimes people need to see the typical practices lampooned through another field's criteria before they can realize how far off the rails their own field has gotten.

See all the people who always pop up in interviewing threads to say that this crap really is necessary in order to test for knowledge of "fundamentals" (defined as a small set of algorithm questions that candidates now memorize the answers to out of books with little or no actual understanding, since all they have to do is regurgitate them, not understand them) and to weed out people who "can't code" (defined as people who haven't memorized the set of stock answers from the books).

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#37

Post by dagw »

creepydata wrote: post #26
shubb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are places where good technical recruiters earn substantially more than programmers - if they get 10% year salary (which I understand is not the highest number you might see), they only need ~1 successful placement a month to make reach parity.

Not only that but they may just enjoy recruiting more than they enjoy (or don't enjoy) programing.

The two recruiters I know basically did it has a mid life career switch.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#38

Post by whatever_dude »

justin_vanw wrote: post #22
jordanpg wrote: post #20

When I read articles like this, I tend to assume that they are exaggerations written by people who feel burned because they didn't get the job they want and that the reason was unfair interview questions. In other words, I simply don't believe that interviewers are, as a group, so stupid that they regularly ask obscure Excel questions when they are plainly not relevant. To continue with the recruiting example, I susp…

Yes I think you are right, buuuut... Lots of times the initial screen is done by someone totally non-technical, and they are asking questions from a sheet and judging whether you are saying what is in the answer field for their sheet. This is super stupid, but I have seen it, usually when some headhunting firm is deciding whether to add your resume to their database which they pull resume's from to send to clients. T…

Some recruiters/recruiter agencies can be pretty good though. I've had interactions with those that let me surprised at their skill and knowledge.

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#39

Post by dracodoc »

dudul wrote: post #29

Total rip off of the original post. What does it bring? The jokes are the same ( and sometimes lose their meaning in "translation")

Yes, almost byte by byte translation, and a bad one. The original is much better.

I guess this title is better aimed at audience though, since many people may not have interest on translation.

Strongly suggest people not read yet to read the original post https://medium.freecodecamp.com/welcome-to-the-software-inte...

Re: If companies interviewed tech recruiters the way they interview programmers

#40

Post by maxsilver »

jordanpg wrote: post #20

When I read articles like this, I tend to assume that they are exaggerations written by people who feel burned because they didn't get the job they want and that the reason was unfair interview questions. In other words, I simply don't believe that interviewers are, as a group, so stupid that they regularly ask obscure Excel questions when they are plainly not relevant. To continue with the recruiting example, I susp…

> In other words, I simply don't believe that interviewers are, as a group, so stupid that they regularly ask obscure Excel questions when they are plainly not relevant.

Sure. But I think the point of these constant articles is that interviewers are regularly asking obscure programming questions when they are plainly not relevant.

Programming managers are, apparently, so unsure of their own ability to hire other programmers, that they look up game show questions to grill their candidates with.

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