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Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

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Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it just means taking the input as an integer and then separating out the “ones place”and “tens place” using integer division and modulo operator. E.g., ones = number % 10 tens = number // 10 do_print = (ones + tens) == 10

That's what my solution after the parsing would be. OP mentioned reading from a file, which you would only be able to use after string conversion to ints.

Maybe they didin't calculated the digits, like this:

if toInt(number) % 10 != 0

  print number  
else

  print number + "(" + number[0] + "," + number[1] + ")"

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#142
Recruiting outcomes are essentially random.

Once you truly understand that then you can relax.

If you get the job, you get it. If you don’t then you don’t.

Roll of the dice. Means nothing.

I went to a job interview recently and the feedback from the recruiter was I couldn’t explain the (many) projects I’d built.

My recollection was I wasn’t asked, in a 30 minute interview that started late.

My lifetime of software development skills and experience was judged in minutes to be inadequate. Roll of the dice.

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#143
post #58

Interview Question: “Show me how to reverse a linked list.” Position : Backend AI Engineer

Step 1: Train an LLM...

I'm giddy that the glib article from 7 years back has finally become reality: https://joelgrus.com/2016/05/23/fizz-buzz-in-tensorflow/

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#144
post #137
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet developers go through the most ludicrous interviewing processes, having to prove time and time again that they have enough technical skills, while having 10 years of experience in their CV :^)

People can and do lie about their experience and skills on their resumes.

Use reference checks, like every other industry does.

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did recruiting for Full Stack developers for a number of years. I only gave two programming problems, one to be completed before an initial phone screen and one to be completed in the first part of the interview. Myself and another team member worked on the questions, and we gave them to the team. Everyone was able to complete the exercises in a reasonable period of time, so we knew they weren't going to be too cha…

Looks like I'd fail your pre-screen test. What's the "mathematical" solution if you're not allowed to convert strings to ints? Ascii math?

I think hahamrfunnyguy must have meant "convert the numbers to strings" - that's the only way I can make sense of it. quiz.txt must contain code, not sample data.

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is high demand and not enough to fill the roles or you’re able to go almost anywhere… then sure it’s bidirectional. But the majority of people it’s one sided. They don’t have the option to challenge the interviewer. They need the job, the income, and cannot risk getting rejected by appearing picky.

But that's why the best time to interview for a job is when you are already employed and are not really looking for anything new. I did so many interviews without any intention of ever accepting the offer, it would be almost comical. But, it's great practice for when I actually want a new job, and refusing offers always massage my ego.

If the modern process didn’t involve so much leetcode and insane amounts of highly tuned preparation - I’d agree this would be reasonable. However, it takes most candidates that I know over 100 hours of prep to even pass most technical screens after they’ve had a job for a couple years. The regular occurrence being nights and weekends for a quarter then interviewing aggressively for the next quarter. (While still studying of course)

Maybe different in your roles or part of the world but in SV - it’s brutal.

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#147

The interview process is a great filter for the candidates as well to understand if the company/team/manager is in one way or another, insane. The interview process exposes company culture in one way or another. Things to watch for as a candidate: * Is the process oddly impersonal with lots of gates to make it through before even talking to the team who is hiring? Red flags - MBTI personality tests. Extremely hard te…

You pretty much described my last interviewing experience from one end to the other

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it tell you?

I believe the intention is that it tells you they’ll make a modification without checking if it is necessary first. Some kind of impulsiveness. Although, it seems pretty silly to me.

I think it is more like doing things from habit vs from first principles. Maybe they just learn how to do things once and then repeat them blindly. Not sure it’s a good test but I think that is the intent.

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#149

The interview process is a great filter for the candidates as well to understand if the company/team/manager is in one way or another, insane. The interview process exposes company culture in one way or another. Things to watch for as a candidate: * Is the process oddly impersonal with lots of gates to make it through before even talking to the team who is hiring? Red flags - MBTI personality tests. Extremely hard te…

You pretty much described my last interviewing experience from one end to the other

The red flags above were compiled over 20 years of interviewing but honestly it's gotten worse and most of it was the last 10 years. In fact, 80% of the above was experienced in my last job search cycle.

I've managed to avoid leetcode/hackerrank due to my industry/niche/seniority, but orgs manage to invent their own BS.

Re: Stop eliminating good candidates by asking them the wrong questions

#150
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

more relevant in States. rest of the world isn't as obsessed with managing their egos

I see you've never been to Europe then, or just don't realize how worse it is there? I'd rather take the "ego management" of the US than the crazy rigid hierarchies in Europe. At least you can take credit for your own work, which is better than never being able to get into management (say, become a "cadre" in France) just because you didn't go to a certain school, no matter how good you are or how much experience you…

grew up, living and working in Europe. no opinions on France though. somewhat bad experience working with Germans, somewhat good experience working with British. but the cultural differences that of States is something completely else - I feel like I'm expected to chant "team team team" 24/7. mix in prevalent religiousness, strong opinions on racism I know near nothing about and it's just never ending crawl through the minefield. all is not lost though - I dig the rooting for underdog attitude.
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