I'm going to assume this is satire
Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
281–290 of 358 posts
Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
You probably don't need Hadoop, and you probably don't need 10x engineers. > This also lets you take chances on engineers that weren’t “perfect” but had a lot of positives to offer. This is not true. An AS/HFA/Autistic person wouldn't survive very long at Netflix, because they biologically struggle with the goal-setting/performance review game. These individuals may have talents that are biologically unavailable to n…
I can personally confirm that there's at least one autistic person in a senior engineering role at Netflix.
n=1.
In addition, that individual is likely wasting mental resources gaming performance reviews, or their manager has identified their struggle and is protecting them from the ceremony. Systematically, Netflix is not equipped to deal with them.
Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#283We used this a couple times at Sandstorm back in the day. At the end of the interview the candidate would play Factorio cooperatively with the team for a while. I think it is remarkably effective at identifying the kinds of skills and personality traits that a software engineer actually needs to have in day-to-day work. You can find out if someone is self-directed, how fast they work, whether they produce clean desig…
I've honestly simplified my approach to interviewing over the last few years and I'm pretty happy with the results. I just have a conversation and ask them to tell me about a favorite code project they've worked on. Could be school project, previous job, whatever. And just let them talk about it. I'll prod for more detail if I need to give a little nudge. Ask about problems they solved when doing it, etc. The _only_…
This.
I was a hiring manager for 25 years, and this was exactly what I did.
I made very, very few mistakes, and actually had some pleasant surprises.
Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#284I do not want to live in a timeline where Factorio becomes the new Leetcode, please God
Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Netflix model makes a ton of sense, but doesn't apply to most other companies, bc Netflix is a unique case. They pay top of market, all cash. They have massive name recognition and obvious longevity. Probably most uniquely - they only hire senior people who have a track record of experience they can look at. When you're a startup that nobody's heard of, half your engineers are going to be junior, and half your co…
Start ups need different kind of people than big companies. With a startup the biggest mistake someone can make is not moving fast enough, and the startup dies. In a big company the code base always gets too big, so a person who works slower, but is able to improve the code base while shrinking it is worth more than a person who finishes fast, but blows up or slows down the code base. Interviews have to search for th…
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Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#286We used this a couple times at Sandstorm back in the day. At the end of the interview the candidate would play Factorio cooperatively with the team for a while. I think it is remarkably effective at identifying the kinds of skills and personality traits that a software engineer actually needs to have in day-to-day work. You can find out if someone is self-directed, how fast they work, whether they produce clean desig…
so, you've pointed 7 flawed existing approaches as the reason to come up with and use an 8th one. At least those 7 have actual connection to programming. Your 8th one has only imaginary indirect connection only through your internal interpretation. It is just like those box-building/etc. games they play at Scrum training which have nothing in common with reality.
And many flaws in the 7 aren't intrinsic flaws, instead it is flaws of the wrong "one size fits all" application:
> Looking at past work experience misses brilliant junior programmers coming out of college.
yeah, don't use that as negative for junior programmers coming out of college.
>Take-home assignments bias towards people who have lots of free time, and still don't really tell you how that person works with others.
the same, if candidate prefers that way - let them, if not - use other approach
etc.
Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#287The problem with this is that a lot of it is actually learned skills. So someone with experience in the game or other games that are similar has a big advantage. Including the people judging noobs who already know strategies for layout etc.
Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#288We used this a couple times at Sandstorm back in the day. At the end of the interview the candidate would play Factorio cooperatively with the team for a while. I think it is remarkably effective at identifying the kinds of skills and personality traits that a software engineer actually needs to have in day-to-day work. You can find out if someone is self-directed, how fast they work, whether they produce clean desig…
> * Don't even think about using ML for this, that doesn't solve biases, it just hides them in a black box.
Can you clarify: what is "ML" here? "Machine learning", ML the language, MatLab, "machine language" (a.k.a. assembly), Matt LeBlanc? I'm out of ideas...
Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#289We used this a couple times at Sandstorm back in the day. At the end of the interview the candidate would play Factorio cooperatively with the team for a while. I think it is remarkably effective at identifying the kinds of skills and personality traits that a software engineer actually needs to have in day-to-day work. You can find out if someone is self-directed, how fast they work, whether they produce clean desig…
I think the answer is that it takes time to get to know someone and their skills. There is no quick simple test. You can give them multiple tests over time if you want.
I think that if you have money for recruiting then you can screen with an initial test, then pay them for a few hours or days of additional tests. And then ideally there is a contracting period that is an additional test but on a real project.
Re: Technical interview methods pale in comparison to playing Factorio with someone
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hire quickly and fire quickly with a generous severance. That’s the only method that I’ve seen works effectively. Netflix does more with 2000 engineers that companies with 10-20x that. This also lets you take chances on engineers that weren’t “perfect” but had a lot of positives to offer.
> hire quickly and fire quickly This kind of mentality is not conducive to a well-functioning nation with people who have dependents and need stability.
Only when the pay doesn't compensate for the instability, which in Netflix's case, is a lot. You could work two months and have enough saved to last you an year.