I will not do a tech interview • Hacker News Board

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#321

Post by fieldforceapp » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 7:56 PM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #22

> I politely suggest that a short contract job might be the best option for a company to evaluate a senior developer I like the twist of doing the contract off site on the developers own time. Every time I see someone on hacker news saying, "we've solved the interview problem. We just require every new hire to give up their old job and contract with us for a week to see if they are a good fit", I often wonder about t…

Left a comment above, but thought I'd ask again... anyone have any experience with GroupTalent [1] which seems to enable this type of small-contract-as-an-interview process?

[1] https://grouptalent.com/welcome/

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#322

Post by jimmaswell » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 7:56 PM UTC

bigtunacan wrote: post #236

ap22213 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is weird. I would definitely fail your interview. Yet, at the same time, I've shipped over a dozen products, dozens of releases, consistently, to hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people. I have a solid track record of clean, bug-free, efficient code. In 14 years of development, I've never had a bad review, and I've consistently ranked on the 'A-track' at all companies that I have worked for. I have low…

You have to look at the candidate's overall performance in the interview; not the answer to a single question. Describing a closure is actually a great example of something many great software developers WON'T know based upon their prior domain experience. A strong Java or old school C/C++ programmer (yes I know C++11 has closures) may actually be an excellent candidate, but have no idea what a closure is. I would ex…

I can get anything I need to done in JS and I have no idea what a closure is. I've even written an emulator in it.

Took me a little while reading to figure out what it is. Apparently it's just using vatiables in a lambda that are from a scope higher than it. I do that all the time, I just didn't know it had a special name. To be fair, I didn't know JS could do lambdas. I've only used them in C# and possibly Python.

Well, I guess it's like a closure when you use functions as methods in objects in JS, since they can be defined with this.MyMethod = function(){...} which can then access the object's stuff.

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#323

Post by nvarsj » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 7:56 PM UTC

geebee wrote: post #150

One good thing about reading/browsing HN is that you can get an impression of the ideas that are starting to emerge. One thing that seems to be emerging now is that people are rethinking the grueling technical interview process. There was a huge emphasis on avoiding false positives in the interview process - largely because a single bad hire can do great damage to a software development team. But people seem to be le…

I can identify with your post. Now that I have small kids (1 and 3), I find the job search especially time consuming, precisely because of the need to prepare my "exam ready memory" and whiteboard coding skills. It's biased towards new grads and single 20 year olds, like many things in our industry.

On the bright side, in my most recent job search, I've noticed this type of interview style has become a lot less common. It still happens at the big SV firms (for example, I spent an entire hour phone interview doing multiple algo code problems and not once asked about my experience), but I think the smaller companies avoid it.

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#324

Post by Glyptodon » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 7:59 PM UTC

I wish all interviews were done this way. It solves so many problems with the traditional coding interview process.

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#325

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 8:00 PM UTC

tmoertel wrote: post #274

clavalle wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be a negotiation but it is a very asymmetrical one. That by itself might be the root cause of a lot of the anxiety.

True. But it's not nearly so asymmetrical as most people seem to believe. Most interviewers aren't great at interviewing and know it. They're usually open – surprisingly open – to changes that will help them conduct a more reliable interview.

Upvoted for this remark.

If I'm interviewing you, it means that we already think you are worth talking to. I don't want to waste either my time or yours. If what I'm asking you to do makes you uncomfortable, TELL ME! I can think of the last two people I interviewed who gave me a series of immediate "I don't know..." answers to a bunch of questions. They're happily (I hope!) working here now because we changed the interviews to go down productive paths to find out what they do know instead of beating our heads against a wall!

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#326

Post by zura » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 8:00 PM UTC

TeeWEE wrote: post #4

Well, I need to interview candidates because I need to know if they are up for the job when systems breaks. If a table query fails because it needs a btree index due to range searches, I want the candidate to know how a btree index works and why it fixes the issue. Also If somebody cant tell me the difference between http udp and tcp, its a no hire for me. So for me, I really want to interview somebody before he can…

Believe me, your DBA or the person who writes queries doesn't need to know how exactly B-tree index works. Or even "B-tree" term. Just being aware about indexes and knowing when and where to add it would be sufficient.

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#327

Post by hderms » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 8:01 PM UTC

gregors wrote: post #241

geebee wrote: post #150

One good thing about reading/browsing HN is that you can get an impression of the ideas that are starting to emerge. One thing that seems to be emerging now is that people are rethinking the grueling technical interview process. There was a huge emphasis on avoiding false positives in the interview process - largely because a single bad hire can do great damage to a software development team. But people seem to be le…

"I was asked to code a singleton" This interview is over!

require 'singleton'; class Foo; include Singleton; end

Can I have money now?

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#328

Post by leetrout » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 8:02 PM UTC

foobarbazqux wrote: post #28

Can we please put the name of the author in the title of Medium posts? Ike Ellis: I will not do your tech interview

This is interesting and made me think--apologies for being OT.

You request this because you can't tell from the URL, yes? Do you have some authors you'd have a greater desire to read?

I just got my invite to Medium and on some research saw where a notable dev (who's name slips my mind) was moving off then platform for a few reasons and I believe the URLs was one of them.

Now seeing your request I am thinking this is an interesting situation where it sort of levels the playing field (or could cheapen the experience) since you don't know who you're going to read based on the Medium URL.

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#329

Post by VladRussian2 » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 8:04 PM UTC

lfuller wrote: post #194

VladRussian2 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I realize that it can be hard to understand without having experienced interview anxiety yourself, but it is an entirely different environment. my point isn't about denying interview anxiety existence (i suffer from it myself), and it has solid science foundation - speed of dopamine removal once your system is flushed with it. Some people have it faster, some slower. The former ones are great performers in acute sho…

I understand where you're coming from, but I disagree that this is a matter of individuals' responses to stress in general. I know that in my case there is nothing else I have ever experienced that can trigger a stress response equivalent or even similar to what I experience during an interview. It is irrational, but it is entirely separate to anything I could experience through professional work. It is not the quest…

from your descriptions it sounds pretty much like my situation.

>I actually find that I work quite well under high-stress and high-stakes work environments

not getting the stress and being able to manage it is 2 different things. Couple jobs ago we had real clients with real problems, and it happened pretty naturally that i became the top "firefighter" that is brought in when support, escalated support, services/solutions, related development, etc.. exhausted their options and various executives on both sides are having sparks out their tailpipes - one may call this a high-stress and high-stakes environment, yet i just wasn't getting any stress, to me it was a simple 2 step algorithm : 1. forward me your AWR report (and this is instructions on getting it) 2. this is your root cause, config changes, emergency patch, etc... Simple, familiar, no stress (which i can't manage as i just get paralized/stuporred by it, like, in particular, in many interview situations)

Re: I will not do a tech interview

#330

Post by Swannie » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 8:06 PM UTC

misiti3780 wrote: post #16

I have passed a bunch of job interviews in the past - but I feel the exact same away and hire this way these days. I really do not see the point of brainteasers or white board coding questions if you have a budget where you can just pay out a contract like this. Also, I believe there was an article posted here a few weeks back that indicated Google's brainteasers did not lead to quality candidates - I know I am cherr…

Right. Most "brain teaser" technical interviews are just an oral test. We all know that passing a test is hugely different from productive work.

I don't understand why technical interviews are not more oriented to "how would you design X? Ok, what objects? What interfaces? How does that work, explain like I'm your 10yr old nephew? Ok, pseudo code that part. What are challenges with it? Have you coded similar things? Tell me about one. How would you do it different now? How would you convince me that it's worth refactoring? How about if I was your peer and I told you your idea was the worst thing I'd ever heard? Ok, now assume I'm working for you, and it's my second week, explain how to write your new design from scratch, and what some gotchas I should avoid are?"

We all know that green field coding is a rarity, and most time is spent writing/running tests, refactoring, bug squashing, design writing, code reviewing, team managing (always at least upwards and sideways). Most of this is still "technical", but seems to be overlooked with endless stupid brain teasers. I know what Knuth volumes are, I know what google is, and I know my basic algorithms. Most people don't need to have memorised how to implement random algorithm x.