Sure, fix the coffee machine with one hand while completing the leet code questions with the other hand in the limited time available for the interview.
Interviewer: Candidate seemed distracted and jittery.
The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
41–50 of 53 posts
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The engineer in me would at least try to characterize the problem. It might be something simple! And to flip your argument around, if it’s something you can fix in a minute, it’s going to be more expensive to call someone else to do it. The engineer in me would report it to the office manager so they can deal with getting the right people to do it. We have fancy/expensive/complicated superautomatic coffee machines…
> I know nothing about how those things work. I also don't know if that machine is even owned by the company or if it's leased. Engineering is also about knowing stuff. If you don’t know these things about the appliances you use every day as part of your work routine, and it seems you can’t be bothered to even find out, that also speaks to what kind of candidate you’d be.
> If you don’t know these things about the appliances you use every day as part of your work routine
TIL the coffee machine is an essential part of my 'work routine'.
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#43I look forward to the next couple posts in this series: The Leaky Faucet Test and The Clogged Toilet Test.
I was hoping for the Office Fire Test.
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#44> Why not start by observing how they would react to a broken coffee machine? Because you’re not hiring someone to fix your coffee machine which can’t be fixed without knowing the insides of the specific model of that specific brand. I would offer to buy instant coffee at the local supermarket. What kind of bullshit trap is this? Do you really want to hire people by confusing and scaring them? It’s on the same level…
> Do you really want to hire people by confusing and scaring them?
A surprising number of startups do give me a frat house vibe, so . . . maybe?
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#45I really don't like these kind of silver-bullet "hey look I easily solved a complex problem" self-congratulatory posts. This feels like one of those things that should be openly explained as part of the culture instead of "guess our opinion". Anything else seems like reading the tea leaves that day to make hiring decisions. Anecdotally, I've had two opposite experiences just like this. In the first I was walking and…
So the CEO that stepped over the water didn't even tell anyone about the problem? That just seems wrong. Would this person call the cops if he saw burglars breaking into a neighbor's house? Some things are everyone's job to report even if someone else will clean it up.
Did anyone at the company with the guerilla design effort realize that there was a huge communication problem or did they just spank the guerillas?
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#46This sounds like some stupid dating test. "I'll only marry a man who takes initiative so I'll break something a see if he fixes it."
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#47I'd imagine that in almost every case that a candidate "passed" this test, they would eventually find themselves in a situation where a manager got control-freaky over them doing exactly that, and instead wanted the employee to do something else in the situation.
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#48Why don't we cut to the chase and just start hiring based on star sign? What a joke
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#49Broken coffee machine? That’s a SEV0. Declare an incident.
Re: The Coffee Machine Hiring Test
#50I thought I'd more or less seen most MBA nonsense around these days, but oh boy this is something else entirely. In order to assess a candidate, you're gonna think in your head "what do I think this person would do if the coffee machine broke down". You base your hiring decision for a person you just met and know more or less nothing about on what you made up in your head in a complete shower thought scenario.
I was worried at first that they used a broken coffee machine and had candidates make their own cup of coffee, and observed "how they handled the situation". If and only if they broke out a set of repair tools did they get invited back for a second round.
The imginary method outlined in the article might actually be worse.
They really could save a lot of time and effort by laying all the CVs out on the table and getting a Dowsing stick and using it to find the best candidate.