[deleted]
+1 for coderpad. Seems to be the best.
Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
21–30 of 50 posts
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#22While this looks like a well developed feature, I despise the concept of coding in a phone interview too much to not worry about this enabling more of it just because it's more convenient. Especially for research-heavy positions, the amount of nonsense exercises really makes or breaks a company impression for me. case 1) Have a serious technical conversations with questions testing my understanding, asking about my p…
At IBM, I review hundreds of resumes and interview dozens of candidates each year (mostly students or new graduates). I used to ask tough algorithmic questions, require a small coding assignment, etc. I no longer do that. Today, I have technical conversations like you describe. I don't need you to remember that 415 is Unsupported Media Type. But I need you to be able to discuss how REST works, the difference between…
Same. Hired 12 developers so far with this method and I made only one mistake, others are all great developers.
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Especially for research-heavy positions Sure. But if you're hiring general purpose noon-senior software engineers, live coding exercises separate the wheat and the chafe very quickly. Lots of people lie on resumes and are smooth talkers, but lack basic skills for their job. A coding exercise is a really fast way to find these. Then you can move on to more interesting things.
Yup, I don't enjoy coding interviews, but the number of people I've interviewed with ostensibly many years of programming experience who can't actually write some basic code with a for loop and a couple of variables makes me extremely hesitant to hire without a coding interview. If you haven't run across people like this yet, you simply haven't done enough interviews yet, or have somehow entered into an alternate fai…
I think the problem with this approach is you're actually selecting for a related skill that might have little to do with whether the candidate will be successful. Some people are very good at doing the work but don't perform well under "social" pressure, while others may be very good at dissecting a small thing in the interview context and yet be unable to follow through on a large, complex task. The company I work for solves that issue by combining front-end interviews with a homework project of reasonable scope, followed by a paid work-along day. It takes more time and investment than running through some coding exercises on the phone, but results in a more cohesive team because we know before we hire not only whether someone can do the work, but also whether they can do the work with us.
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#24> Calling capabilities are only supported on Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.
Feels like I'm back in time a decade. I don't understand why other browsers are not supported: are they using non-standard features? I can't imagine what those would be. WebRTC is supported by every browser nowadays.
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
At IBM, I review hundreds of resumes and interview dozens of candidates each year (mostly students or new graduates). I used to ask tough algorithmic questions, require a small coding assignment, etc. I no longer do that. Today, I have technical conversations like you describe. I don't need you to remember that 415 is Unsupported Media Type. But I need you to be able to discuss how REST works, the difference between…
Same. Hired 12 developers so far with this method and I made only one mistake, others are all great developers.
What does "the mistake" look like?
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. Real-time interviews are the worst of two worlds (emergency fast coding and live demonstration at the same time) and barely show anything about how one normally does things. E.g. in emergency coding I automatically assume I'll inevitably make mistakes due to haste, so I run a lot of sanity "is 1+1 still 2, do I remember that right?" checks. It helped me a few times when the servers were on fire and I needed to…
>E.g. in emergency coding I automatically assume I'll inevitably make mistakes due to haste, so I run a lot of sanity "is 1+1 still 2, do I remember that right?" checks. That's a great point. I've been in such emergency situations multiple times earlier in my career, when I was a system engineer (mainly Unix field support work) at a large hardware vendor. I used to do the same as what you say (double-check many thing…
Oh, I can only guess. A well run shop will have performance bonuses that the floor employees may depend on for vacation funding, college funding, or a down payment on a house. A shutdown like that can impact a weekly, quarterly or annual bonus severely. He may have inadvertently prevented someone from financing the house they wanted
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#27> Calling capabilities are only supported on Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. Feels like I'm back in time a decade. I don't understand why other browsers are not supported: are they using non-standard features? I can't imagine what those would be. WebRTC is supported by every browser nowadays.
Probably ORTC (O is for "object), a similar but different tech Microsoft is pushing.
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#28While this looks like a well developed feature, I despise the concept of coding in a phone interview too much to not worry about this enabling more of it just because it's more convenient. Especially for research-heavy positions, the amount of nonsense exercises really makes or breaks a company impression for me. case 1) Have a serious technical conversations with questions testing my understanding, asking about my p…
At IBM, I review hundreds of resumes and interview dozens of candidates each year (mostly students or new graduates). I used to ask tough algorithmic questions, require a small coding assignment, etc. I no longer do that. Today, I have technical conversations like you describe. I don't need you to remember that 415 is Unsupported Media Type. But I need you to be able to discuss how REST works, the difference between…
"Generally speaking, I can tell within 5 minutes who is a great candidate."
How do you validate that this is true?
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#29While this looks like a well developed feature, I despise the concept of coding in a phone interview too much to not worry about this enabling more of it just because it's more convenient. Especially for research-heavy positions, the amount of nonsense exercises really makes or breaks a company impression for me. case 1) Have a serious technical conversations with questions testing my understanding, asking about my p…
At IBM, I review hundreds of resumes and interview dozens of candidates each year (mostly students or new graduates). I used to ask tough algorithmic questions, require a small coding assignment, etc. I no longer do that. Today, I have technical conversations like you describe. I don't need you to remember that 415 is Unsupported Media Type. But I need you to be able to discuss how REST works, the difference between…
> In fairness, I'm selective with the candidates I decide to interview, from usually large pools.
I agree with your thoughts on interviewing, but the "real-time coding" session in my mind isn't part of the interview, it's part of the pre-interview screening process that you gloss over here.
Asking programmers to code tough problems on the phone or whiteboard is a good test of certain personality traits, but not a good test of programming skills. On the other hand, there are problems so simple that a decent programmer should consider them to be typing rather than coding, and I think they make perfectly decent initial screening tasks. FizzBuzz is the obvious example here, but I think it's too popular to be useful. I periodically hear from devs who say they get so nervous in interview situations that they can't program at all, but no type of screening is going to be perfect.
And I much prefer this kind of objective screening process to more subjective ones, which tend tend to devolve into "let's choose people with backgrounds similar to mine".
Re: Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype.
#30While this looks like a well developed feature, I despise the concept of coding in a phone interview too much to not worry about this enabling more of it just because it's more convenient. Especially for research-heavy positions, the amount of nonsense exercises really makes or breaks a company impression for me. case 1) Have a serious technical conversations with questions testing my understanding, asking about my p…
At IBM, I review hundreds of resumes and interview dozens of candidates each year (mostly students or new graduates). I used to ask tough algorithmic questions, require a small coding assignment, etc. I no longer do that. Today, I have technical conversations like you describe. I don't need you to remember that 415 is Unsupported Media Type. But I need you to be able to discuss how REST works, the difference between…
can I send you my resume ?