I can't answer a single question in an interview without getting sweatily nervous. I suffer from telephobia so I screw dearly all phone interviews. I dress awkwardly and they know it, having to shave for the interview is a total emotional pain. I can't code without having google always open in a tab. So why should I go to an interview that doesn't allow me to google the answers?
This is why you never end up hiring good developers
21–30 of 55 posts
Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#22Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#23Hiring the right people is a hard problem. The standard approaches, hiring software developers on the basis of code scribbled on white-boards or a series of narrow technical questions, are bad. Instead, I favor three different approaches, depending on the level of the position: We should hire new grads based on internship performance. We should hire senior developers based of their records of design, implementation,…
>We should hire mid-tier developers based on code review, typically based on open-source code. What about developers who push non-polished projects to GitHub? Can the candidate specify which project you're reviewing?
Sure. If they want me to review specific projects or even specific files, that's fine. I understand there is quite a bit of code out there that is truly experimental, and therefore not up to production standards.
It's also OK for the candidate to tell me that the reviewed code has some problems, which lets us discuss what should be done to fix it.
Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#24I can't answer a single question in an interview without getting sweatily nervous. I suffer from telephobia so I screw dearly all phone interviews. I dress awkwardly and they know it, having to shave for the interview is a total emotional pain. I can't code without having google always open in a tab. So why should I go to an interview that doesn't allow me to google the answers?
Next time, set a mind-frame of doing the interview for the experience of the moment, to realize that it's okay - that the universe is still here and nothing has changed, rather than for getting the job.
As a matter of the course, know full well that you are not getting the job. Even if you don't fumble it, know that you'll refuse their offer.
The point is that interview does not matter at all to you.
Go in fully knowing that you are not seeking anything, nor trying to prove anything, nor trying to make some statement about it all. Put this all in your mind, and everything else out.
If done and practiced, this should take you out of your obsessive introspective... To the point of laughing about it all when you walk out - after not being able to answer a single question because it was all over your head and experience level!
Later on, you'll be able to go even further by putting yourself into a buyers inner perceptive (you're shopping for the right employer), rather than a sellers inner perspective (you're selling yourself to an employer).
* As always, this is easier said than done, and will require at least a few minutes of meditation every day.
Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#25Interview questions often have less to do with the candidate than they have to do with the interviewer.
Meaning: It's either a superiority thing, a desire to impress, or just plainly covering up for lack of real interview skills.
Gauge a candidate's skill set by asking open ended general overview questions like "Tell me about SCM branching and what advantages they provide" or "Tell me about a time you might have encountered a race condition". What the answer is isn't nearly as important as _how_ they answer it.
Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#26I can't answer a single question in an interview without getting sweatily nervous. I suffer from telephobia so I screw dearly all phone interviews. I dress awkwardly and they know it, having to shave for the interview is a total emotional pain. I can't code without having google always open in a tab. So why should I go to an interview that doesn't allow me to google the answers?
Next time, set a mind-frame of doing the interview for the experience of the moment, to realize that it's okay - that the universe is still here and nothing has changed, rather than for getting the job. As a matter of the course, know full well that you are not getting the job. Even if you don't fumble it, know that you'll refuse their offer. The point is that interview does not matter at all to you. Go in fully know…
My uncle once told me something that has helped me be way less nervous at interviews. He said "Don't go in thinking you need them, go in the interview thinking they need you". Just before an interview I repeat this sentence once, seems to take pressure off my chest.
Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#27In the best interview I had, the interviewer started by saying, "Just talk" with a friendly smile. I was taken aback, and it eased the tension I was feeling. I started talking about my experience, and he took an active interest and branched off his questions based on the things I had done. He asked intelligent questions that made his compentency clear. I was able to volly back and forth with him until my competency b…
That might work for you, which is great when it happens, but I personally can't do that... I can't just sit and talk.
Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#28My approach is basically a mix between a conversation and a mini-work experience.
At any point we have dozens of problems we need fixed or new features implemented. So after some pleasantries the question is, so we have X problem how would you go about fixing it? We want to implement Y feature, where would you look for implementations we can integrate or would you build from scratch and why?
etc...
I also have people play this game and see how they work through the challenges:
Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#29Fizzbizz? Naah. What you want to do is something more like Minesweep. You go, "Mr. or Mrs. Candidate-Person, we're designing a Minesweep game. You've probably played it before. Here are the rules if you need clarifications. I'm handling the front-end, you write something for the backend." It doesn't matter the programming language they go for or the precise implementation they choose to any one of a number of issues.…
The idea of the FizzBuzz is that a lot of candidates are so bad at programming that can't even program FizzBuzz. So you can filter them early and don't lose you time. It's not designed to distinguish between the good and very good candidates.
Re: This is why you never end up hiring good developers
#30I can't answer a single question in an interview without getting sweatily nervous. I suffer from telephobia so I screw dearly all phone interviews. I dress awkwardly and they know it, having to shave for the interview is a total emotional pain. I can't code without having google always open in a tab. So why should I go to an interview that doesn't allow me to google the answers?
I go into interviews with another mindset. I think that I'm going to get relatively nice problems that I can try to solve without real-world consequences, and that is always fun. I also think that I'm going to meet people who code and possibly do the job I'd like to do, so I really can't wait to meet them. All in all, I treat is as a mini-vacation where I meet people I like and I talk about things I like. Whether I get the job or not is absolutely indifferent to me, I'm just in for a good time.