Earlier quoted context omitted.
On an inverse scale, sure. Only the best coders have net-negative LOC/hour metrics.
This would end up with a lot of code golf.
Reaching the objective as efficiently as possible... yeah, sounds about right.
Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
51–60 of 129 posts
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#52Interviewing.io is a startup that does some research into candidate evaluation. To their credit, they have even posted research with negative results. http://blog.interviewing.io/posts/
I think reading 10-20 ancedotes is far more useful than an academic paper. After meeting my PhD professor. I stopped trusting academia for truth.
Academia's disconnect with practical things is amazing.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#53I doubt there’s been too much on software interviewing specifically but interviewing/candidate selection for jobs is a large part of personnel psychology. A recent meta-analysis of what they know is below. Basically general mental ability (g, IQ) is the single best predictor, work sample tests work well, structured interviews can increase the performance of IQ tests or work samples and unstructured interviews are a t…
Can't agree with this enough. The most consistent finding in industrial psychology is that general cognitive ability is by far the best predictor of job performance in virtually every role ever tested. Even jobs that don't seem cognitively demanding, like janitors or infantry. Higher IQ candidates almost universally do better, even if they start with much less experience. The takeaway as it applies to modern software…
I can't agree with this. High IQ can't be everything. Wouldn't this value experience and knowledge (like everything you learned in university) at zero?
Imo there are a lot of great/amazing and productive Software Engineers that wouldn't do well in a whiteboard algorithm interview. The people that tend to do well, are the ones that have a lot of practice with the kind of problems.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#54One thing I've been wondering for a long time when I see the quasi-sado-masochist relationship between engineers and hiring processes is: are bad hires that 1) costly, 2) frequent ? In my 12+ years career, I've worked with so-so engineers, but never truly bad ones that would ruin a project. And even the ones that weren't great, what damages did they really cause? I've seen many more companies failing because of a bad…
Yes, and these people: "bad product, bad sales strategies, bad market fit, bad business model" never get "tested" on anything during job interviews.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#55Interviewing.io is a startup that does some research into candidate evaluation. To their credit, they have even posted research with negative results. http://blog.interviewing.io/posts/
I had the opportunity to be in a small interviewing workshop with Aline, she really knows what shes doing and I believe the tech interviewing world would be a better place if more companies adjusted their process based on Alines/Interviewing.ios insights.
I don’t really see what’s special about their process other than the resume-blindness aspect. That’s been validated elsewhere by Triplebyte. Other than that one aspect, the process is exactly like your standard technical phone screen, except that you have to do a really easy Hackerrank problem to get invited to the platform.
If I am wrong here, someone please correct me.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think reading 10-20 ancedotes is far more useful than an academic paper. After meeting my PhD professor. I stopped trusting academia for truth.
Academia's disconnect with practical things is amazing.
Perfect example of a field were the quantification of performance killed all good intentions.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't agree with this enough. The most consistent finding in industrial psychology is that general cognitive ability is by far the best predictor of job performance in virtually every role ever tested. Even jobs that don't seem cognitively demanding, like janitors or infantry. Higher IQ candidates almost universally do better, even if they start with much less experience. The takeaway as it applies to modern software…
I can't agree with this. High IQ can't be everything. Wouldn't this value experience and knowledge (like everything you learned in university) at zero? Imo there are a lot of great/amazing and productive Software Engineers that wouldn't do well in a whiteboard algorithm interview. The people that tend to do well, are the ones that have a lot of practice with the kind of problems.
I read the parent as talking about narrow skill sets that a smart and motivated individual can pick up pretty quickly. If you're looking for a senior developer you probably don't want to hire someone who has never programmed even if they're widely acknowledged as really smart and an expert in ball bearing design.
And obviously applies in lots of areas. If I'm looking for someone to head up a digital marketing or marketing research initiative, someone whose only work experience is software development is probably not the best choice no matter how smart and motivated they are.
OTOH, as you get to the level where people are more managers than practitioners, their specific skill sets presumably start to make less of a difference.
Added: And, as peer noted, people do shift careers significantly all the time. I never really directly used my undergrad (or grad) engineering degrees all that much.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think reading 10-20 ancedotes is far more useful than an academic paper. After meeting my PhD professor. I stopped trusting academia for truth.
Academia's disconnect with practical things is amazing.
The dishonesty to "prove" something was shocking.
Now I skip the abstract and go straight to Data.
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the secret to being a 10X programmer is ":set tw=8" making your maximum line length 8 characters, forcing you be 10 times more productive than rival devs who're stuck at the old 80 character standard. Got it.
I think reading code deliniated into lines 8 characters code, written by somebody else, with no whitespace and single letter variable names is the punishment reserved in hell for the very worst of developers.
Also known as reading Arthur Whitney's code.[0]
Re: Ask HN: Has there been any academic research into software interviewing?
#60Interviewing.io is a startup that does some research into candidate evaluation. To their credit, they have even posted research with negative results. http://blog.interviewing.io/posts/
I think reading 10-20 ancedotes is far more useful than an academic paper. After meeting my PhD professor. I stopped trusting academia for truth.
I spent some time digging through academic research last year for a chapter of a book I was writing. There was some interesting work both relating directly to software development and collaboration and other topics more broadly. There was also a lot of unreadable crap that was pretty disconnected from the real world.