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Hacking job interviews

mycareerstack.com

1–10 of 44 posts

Re: Hacking job interviews

#2
Personally I think that most of these questions are horrible and as somebody being interviewed, I'd be a little bit annoyed at a company trying to make me jump through hoops. I'm sure there are tons of developers that can sort arrays like there is no tomorrow, but sometimes I would like to work with people that can create software. People that write tests, are able to set up a sane build process, keep the clutter to a minimum and make nice APIs.

What I'm looking for in coders is passion. Ask people for their personal projects and let them talk about it! Ask for a Github account upfront and look at weather they commit fixes to other projects and show initiative, look at their personal toy projects, look at weather or not they're able to work with complete strangers and improve software just because they like doing it.

Some people might not have a Github account. But honestly, most of the people I like working with have one.

Re: Hacking job interviews

#3
post #2

Personally I think that most of these questions are horrible and as somebody being interviewed, I'd be a little bit annoyed at a company trying to make me jump through hoops. I'm sure there are tons of developers that can sort arrays like there is no tomorrow, but sometimes I would like to work with people that can create software. People that write tests, are able to set up a sane build process, keep the clutter to…

I've stopped a couple interviews mid-process when it became evident that the interviewer was going to focus on this sort of crap. Their shock is its own reward.

Re: Hacking job interviews

#4
> Sergey [Brin] nodded his agreement, then asked about my six months in Siberia, casually switching to Russian to see how much I had picked up. Finally, he leaned forward and fired his best shot, what he came to call "the hard question". "I'm going to give you five minutes," he announced. "When I come back, I want you to explain to me something complicated that I don't already know. He then rolled out of the room toward the snack area.

I looked at Cindy. "He's curious about everything," she said. "You can talk about a hobby, something technical, whatever you want. Just make sure that it's something you understand very well"...

I went to the whiteboard and furiously drew circles and squares and unleashed arrows like Legolas. I was nervous, but not very. Sergey bounced on a ball and asked questions that required me to make things up on the spot...

Later I found out that Sergey did this with everyone he interviewed. An hour wasted with an unqualified candidate wasn't a total loss if he gained insight into something new.

From "I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59" by Douglas Edwards, page 11

Re: Hacking job interviews

#5
what i feel personally is that many companies nowadays are asking these type of questions and this site has covered many topics well and is moderated. But this can be further improved by increasing user interaction.

Re: Hacking job interviews

#6
post #2

Personally I think that most of these questions are horrible and as somebody being interviewed, I'd be a little bit annoyed at a company trying to make me jump through hoops. I'm sure there are tons of developers that can sort arrays like there is no tomorrow, but sometimes I would like to work with people that can create software. People that write tests, are able to set up a sane build process, keep the clutter to…

I totally agree with you, that the recruitment process has been broken for long. But in recent days, start-ups such as,

www.githire.com, www.hackruiter.com are trying to solve this problem.

I hope to see more such startups in time to come!

Re: Hacking job interviews

#7
post #2

Personally I think that most of these questions are horrible and as somebody being interviewed, I'd be a little bit annoyed at a company trying to make me jump through hoops. I'm sure there are tons of developers that can sort arrays like there is no tomorrow, but sometimes I would like to work with people that can create software. People that write tests, are able to set up a sane build process, keep the clutter to…

I think each company has their own recruitment process, and it depends on the kind of job openings they have. I recently had my Google interview which was totally algorithmic. Despite of a number of projects and research papers in my resume, the interviewer did not ask me any questions pertaining to those projects.

But at the same time no way did it appear to me that the interviewer was not looking for passion in me. The questions that were asked from me probed whether I had the ability to respond to tricky problems, the ability to understand the intricacy of the problem and ability to respond.

At the same time the interviewer also tried to gauge my general skills, whether I would be able to contribute in a project or not. So I feel everybody has their own method of hiring. Particularly college graduates may not have github accounts to show that they have contributed to different projects. Sometimes I feel it is the only way to judge freshers in the sense they may not have a lot of projects to show, but they do have what it takes.

Re: Hacking job interviews

#8
post #5

what i feel personally is that many companies nowadays are asking these type of questions and this site has covered many topics well and is moderated. But this can be further improved by increasing user interaction.

What do you mean when you said "increasing user interaction" ?

Which features do you think are lacking in the site at the moment.. ?

Re: Hacking job interviews

#9
post #5

what i feel personally is that many companies nowadays are asking these type of questions and this site has covered many topics well and is moderated. But this can be further improved by increasing user interaction.

What do you mean when you said "increasing user interaction" ? Which features do you think are lacking in the site at the moment.. ?

i would love to see more number of users actively discussing challenging problems and the online compiler can be presented in a more intelligent way.

Re: Hacking job interviews

#10
post #3
post #2

Personally I think that most of these questions are horrible and as somebody being interviewed, I'd be a little bit annoyed at a company trying to make me jump through hoops. I'm sure there are tons of developers that can sort arrays like there is no tomorrow, but sometimes I would like to work with people that can create software. People that write tests, are able to set up a sane build process, keep the clutter to…

I've stopped a couple interviews mid-process when it became evident that the interviewer was going to focus on this sort of crap. Their shock is its own reward.

A bit overkill to leave a job opportunity you were interested in because of one interviewer's bad technique?
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