Hiring without whiteboards • Hacker News Board

vinhboy wrote: post #2

I think coderpad.io is the modern day equivalent of a whiteboard. It's nice that you get REPL and a keyboard, but the unnecessary pressure of being watched, critiqued, and timed are all there. My mind just goes completely blank whenever I am put in this scenario. Are we programming or defusing a bomb?

> unnecessary

I can't think of any way to do an interview without pressure. Pressure is unavoidable when someone's future job is on the line.

Re: Hiring without whiteboards

#25

Post by jonasvp » Wed, Mar 15, 2017, 7:41 AM UTC

I'm responsible for hiring developers at our company based in Berlin, Germany, and found it best to have a guided interview about the candidate's work experience and interesting problems that she/he solved. I never understood the whiteboard hazing/CS trivia that are so widely discussed on HN since it seems extremely disconnected from the actual work that's being done.

That said, I'm always surprised how many candidates cannot even point to one problem they worked on they found interesting or one solution that they're proud of.

We worked with an HR consultant to develop a interview guide in the form of certain questions that we make sure to hit during the interview in order to be able to compare between candidates and make an informed decision.

However, we're small and not in the US. Anyone have experience with other companies in Germany/Europe? How does the typical interview work over here?

Re: Hiring without whiteboards

#26

Post by r-s » Wed, Mar 15, 2017, 7:41 AM UTC

vinhboy wrote: post #2

I think coderpad.io is the modern day equivalent of a whiteboard. It's nice that you get REPL and a keyboard, but the unnecessary pressure of being watched, critiqued, and timed are all there. My mind just goes completely blank whenever I am put in this scenario. Are we programming or defusing a bomb?

I much prefer a whiteboard to these programs. Half the time I end up typing vim commands and appearing as if I can hardly type.

Re: Hiring without whiteboards

#27

Post by fsloth » Wed, Mar 15, 2017, 7:42 AM UTC

vinhboy wrote: post #2

I think coderpad.io is the modern day equivalent of a whiteboard. It's nice that you get REPL and a keyboard, but the unnecessary pressure of being watched, critiqued, and timed are all there. My mind just goes completely blank whenever I am put in this scenario. Are we programming or defusing a bomb?

A terminal does not replace a whiteboard. I know some force candidates to code on whiteboard but that's not what it's specifically good for. A person to person discussion with a white board is the best communications platform for conveying technical ideas, IMO. You need the whiteboard, so both of you can define symbols, then discuss the meaning of these symbols by pointing at them, drawing arrows from them, expanding them, etc. The symbols can include fragments of code, of course.

So, yes, if someone wants to force another person to code on a whiteboard then certainly, they can do better, but it's like asking someone to draw with an axe on the stone floor. Waste of good axe and floor.

Re: Hiring without whiteboards

#28

Post by ry_ry » Wed, Mar 15, 2017, 7:42 AM UTC

I'm seriously tempted to make one of our technical interview questions "you're creating a technical test for role XYZ, how would you structure it" and see what the candidates come up with!

Would be interesting tbh.

Re: Hiring without whiteboards

#29

Post by whatwasmypwd » Wed, Mar 15, 2017, 7:43 AM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #15

whatwasmypwd wrote: post #10

Is pair programming really that different from whiteboarding?

More specifically, I would say "interview pair programming" isn't really "pair programming." When pair programming, it's not one person evaluating the other, under an artificial time constraint.

Can you really have any other kind of pair programming in interview context?

Re: Hiring without whiteboards

#30

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 15, 2017, 7:43 AM UTC

ry_ry wrote: post #28

I'm seriously tempted to make one of our technical interview questions "you're creating a technical test for role XYZ, how would you structure it" and see what the candidates come up with! Would be interesting tbh.

[deleted]