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Interviewing for Intelligence

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Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#21

Post by junkilo »

dmor wrote: post #12
changdizzle wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have the same question - i could have sworn just the other month when the betapunch post came out referly was still the referral tracking system

Referly CEO here - We've been headed in this direction for awhile, but just crossed over (with the new tagline) about a week ago. An in-depth blog post from me about the change and our new direction, plus a ton of stuff we learned, is forthcoming - probably this weekend if I can sit down for a few hours and knock it out. I'd really appreciate any feedback you have on the new experience, both as a reader and as a cont…

lean ninjas at work.

Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#22

Post by grandalf »

dmor wrote: post #12
changdizzle wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have the same question - i could have sworn just the other month when the betapunch post came out referly was still the referral tracking system

Referly CEO here - We've been headed in this direction for awhile, but just crossed over (with the new tagline) about a week ago. An in-depth blog post from me about the change and our new direction, plus a ton of stuff we learned, is forthcoming - probably this weekend if I can sit down for a few hours and knock it out. I'd really appreciate any feedback you have on the new experience, both as a reader and as a cont…

I'm curious about how YC and your other investors influenced the pivot. Did you get good advice? What was the dialog like? Was code refactoring involved? Did this change your marketing strategy?

Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#23

Post by JailhouseRodeo »

mvanveen wrote: post #20
kevin_morrill wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the question I was referring to, I don't care if they can implement a hash table. I just want them to recognize that when they compare using a hash table to other alternatives, that looking up items in a hash table has a performance cost. I agree it would be sort of silly to ask an open ended question and then hold it against a candidate when they don't talk about something as if they're supposed to read your mind…

Hi kevin, First of all, thanks for replying! I think without more view of the forest, as it were, I'm finding difficult as a reader to understand the type of analysis you're hoping to get out of your interviewees. Would you agree that one interpretation of your thesis is to have interviewees be able to adress the "why" behind a given implementation? Your reply suggests that it's not the implementation specifics that…

I think the author was trying to show us how smart he was, not only in areas of codez (intimate knowledge of hash table) but also in areas of businessing (something called 'liquidity trap'). We should all hold him in high regard, because he only hires A players and had kicked many non-hashtable saavy B players (180+ in all) to the curb.

Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#24

Post by saosebastiao »

This is confusion of intelligence and knowledge. I don't know how a hash function works...but that is a reflection of my experience, not my intelligence. I did not study to be a computer scientist...but I sure as hell can optimize your supply chain.

Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#25

Post by orangethirty »

I interview for maturity, discipline, and honesty. My codebase is made to be maintainable by most programmer. I dont include any magic and make sure that it is understandable. But I don't interview for intelligence. Because intelligence without the three factors I look for does not mean a thing.

Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#26

Post by fellytone84 »

I agree with the value you place in intelligence and like how you qualify your essay as a discussion, but in perspective, your methods are simply imprecise and as you said, anecdotal.

You humorously contrast your essay to a "randomized clinical trial," but to be matter-of-fact, these trials exist: IQ tests or their politically acceptable stand-in, the SAT.

I guess what I'm asking is this: what's stopping you from requesting something like the SAT even if it's only for curiosity's sake?

Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#27

Post by khitchdee »

epoxyhockey wrote: post #11
entangld wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a weird balance that people are looking for confidence and intelligence at the same time. Some intelligent people are humble about the subjects they lack expertise in. Doesn't looking for confidence carries a risk of finding people who sound better than they are?

I agree. If I am asked a question outside of my domain of expertise, I'm not going to BS around it. I will say that I don't know and start asking questions so that I can learn the topic. If you want someone to BS answers all day long, then you're hiring for a CEO.

Each one of your employees should fit the bill for future CEO. I see that as the point for hiring smart employees. It's someone who will pick up your stuff and run with it in directions you might not have thought about.

Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#28

Post by justin »

"You’re looking for people who are 1) smart and 2) get things done"

Number 2 is a lot harder to determine than number 1 in my experience. You can determine if someone is a good programmer by having good programmers ask them increasingly challenging programming questions. The hard part is figuring out if they are an effective and productive employee.

Re: Interviewing for Intelligence

#29

Post by fyi80 »

junkilo wrote: post #14
mvanveen wrote: post #4

> It's surprising to me how many candidates explain these algorithms' performance as if the hash table was a magic black box that instantly works. Here they've lost the tree for the forest! They know what hash table is, at least at a high level, but forget that it has specific implications. A lot of advice I've read about interviewing suggests that a candidate should leave answers open and provide room for the interv…

The whole "forest = knowing how a hastable works" is interesting! I'm trying to ascertain if the author's forest is a tree. I think there's good and evil in that statement. Good being that its groovy if you love what you do are curious. Evil in that he could be optimizing the wrong thing. Does every great software engineer have the inner workings of every data structure committed to memory? (I don't)

If they aren't committed to memory, performance is far worse, as fetching from disk is 10-1000x slower.
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