491–500 of 1001 posts
The company I currently work at has very few employees, and each new hire is a big cost. If a new employee does not work out, that can be a major dent in the budget. We still haven't figured out a great way to interview, and we are open to new ideas, as we have had hires who looked great on resume/interview who did not end up working out.
Our industry's hiring practices are absolutely obnoxious. In an ideal world, you could trust someone's resume. e.g. "I've written large production programs in C." Ok, great, so then clearly this person knows C so there should be no need to dissect code or run them thru some linked list algorithm and see if they know how to use pointers correctly. Yet, we do. Ok, then what about open source contributions (if they have…
Our vigorous interview culture also allows us to not be as credentialist & elitist about what school you've went to. As a result, someone can get a job a google without having to have gone to a top ten comp sci school, like you would have to with law or business.
That said, I would also reject homework assignments, as long as I can afford it. If they want it, companies should pay for it.
Multistage interviews are also a big turn off. Imagine going on a date, and your date saying "I just need to try yet another date to see if I like you" multiple times.
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As someone who does a lot of interviewing, I tone down the technical stuff as the experience and responsibility level increases. I think a lot of the annoyances you mention still make sense for an entry level position, because there are a lot of folks who actually can't write code who apply for those jobs. For candidates with many years of experience, obviously they can and have been writing software effectively, so…
> For candidates with many years of experience When I was younger, I often wondered how it was that New Senior Guy was totally incapable of actually programming, but very good at handwaving and bullshitting, and being patronizing. Now I know how those people got hired. Thanks.
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Then the other option is to do a small take home test. Are you ok with that?
The other option is to check references, do credential checks, and simple bullshit screens during interviews, like every other professional interview. Literally every other profession has this challenge! Programmers are unique only in their seeming inability to realize that they are not unique. Accountants are not asked to solve double-entry accounting whiteboard problems. Finance professionals are not given take-hom…
Our industry's hiring practices are absolutely obnoxious. In an ideal world, you could trust someone's resume. e.g. "I've written large production programs in C." Ok, great, so then clearly this person knows C so there should be no need to dissect code or run them thru some linked list algorithm and see if they know how to use pointers correctly. Yet, we do. Ok, then what about open source contributions (if they have…
I think if they can talk you through some code its more relevant than if it was written by them or not. Maintenance of other peoples code is usually more difficult than understanding what you wrote yourself. The best interview I had from a technical perspective was when I was asked to bring in my laptop with some of my code. , talk a bit about it and add a quick feature. No pressure as I knew the code and the framewo…
This is true. Often the types of things that folks look for though are nuances and style that come through with what someone writes. Do they have comments in their code? What standards are they following? Do they have test cases? How well do they handle exceptions? Etc.
The structure and accoutrement that comes along with code / work product can be quite telling.
The above being said I'd say what you did in the "best interview" was very appropriate as well. What I've generally seen out there is a "homework assignment" is often a one size fits all as an attempt to eliminate qualitative bias ...
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But what if you're looking to hire people who go outside sometimes and can talk to people and can write code too? Or should that be illegal?
It's not like you forego the in-person interview and don't learn what you can from that. The point is, by including a take-home portion of the technical interview you can get a better sense of the individual's technical abilities. If, in addition to what seems to be a technically competent individual, you find they don't perform well in-person, then you take that data and weigh it against where your priorities lie fo…
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I'm not sure its just the recruiting side. We're seeing some concerning positions in the market: 1. Expectation of long work hours (Frequent and short deadlines due to agile) 2. Micromanagment being the standard (agile) 3. Terrible environments (open desk/office) 4. Removal of vacation time (unlimited PTO means you have no vacation days)
I'll use this as an opportunity to vent about agile. It promises developers a larger voice, but in my experience, it heavily favors management and product management types, since they are usually the ones in control of the ticketing/tracking systems. They aren't under the sprint deadlines that developers are, so they are able to better organize and build their cases for what gets done. Even if developers can build a…
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I used to hate it, but have now performed enough interviews of supposedly senior devs with decades of experience. I've literally seen someone who did firmware for the space shuttle grind for 45 minutes on fizz buzz without making progress. Like, I'd they struggle for ten minutes or so, I take a step back and say "Ok, screw syntax, let's just vaguely talk about what needs to happen and mock up some pseudo code.". Even…
I agree w/ you here. And I think a lot of people have some personal experiences encountering this kind of situation. It seems baffling, right? And yet, you have to really wonder ... what did that person do writing firmware for the space shuttle? Did they really do that? Or did they somehow lose their mind after they left and now couldn't do a simple set of modulus operations on a FizzBuzz test? How can that happen? E…
Plus the pressure of someone staring at you.
Then you feel stupid for not answering straight away.
The you get self conscious and start doubting yourself.
What was the question again?
I don't think there is anything especially unusual about it at all.