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Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

blog.interviewing.io

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Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#61

Post by kowdermeister »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #49
geebee wrote: post #14

Interesting bit on the MS degree. I followed the link, and I'm not quite as surprised that the correlation is poor, or even negative, given the way the data was collected and analyzed. Absolutely agree that some MS degrees are pretty much less rigorous cash cows by now, that allow students to skip the fundamentals such as data structures, operating systems, and compilers. However, many CS MS degrees actually do requi…

> Absolutely agree that some MS degrees are pretty much less rigorous cash cows by now, that allow students to skip the fundamentals such as data structures, operating systems, and compilers. At what point do we not consider operating systems and compilers "fundamental"? What percentage of CS/programming jobs require deep knowledge in these arenas?

It should be optional or advanced level. If you are a web developer for example OS and compilers are totally not important to get along and have a healthy career.

Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#62

Post by rfrey »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #49
geebee wrote: post #14

Interesting bit on the MS degree. I followed the link, and I'm not quite as surprised that the correlation is poor, or even negative, given the way the data was collected and analyzed. Absolutely agree that some MS degrees are pretty much less rigorous cash cows by now, that allow students to skip the fundamentals such as data structures, operating systems, and compilers. However, many CS MS degrees actually do requi…

> Absolutely agree that some MS degrees are pretty much less rigorous cash cows by now, that allow students to skip the fundamentals such as data structures, operating systems, and compilers. At what point do we not consider operating systems and compilers "fundamental"? What percentage of CS/programming jobs require deep knowledge in these arenas?

from Latin fundamentum "a foundation, ground-work; support; beginning." Whether these subjects are fundamental is totally detached from whether they are useful in a certain percentage of industry jobs.

I agree that knowing fundamentals is not that essential for a large number of programming jobs. They're still fundamentals though.

Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#63

Post by JamesBarney »

chewyshine wrote: post #24
jventura wrote: post #22

It was a very good reading, but I wonder how interviewing performance relates to job ("real") performance?

If the interviews are "structured", the correlation between interview performance and job performance is probably around .3 based on meta-analyses of research findings. If the interviews are "unstructured", the correlation will be within sampling error of zero.

Do you have a source for this?

I totally believe you, but I've been trying to find good empirical studies and authors to read on interviewing.

Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#64

Post by geebee »

JamesBarney wrote: post #42
geebee wrote: post #14

Interesting bit on the MS degree. I followed the link, and I'm not quite as surprised that the correlation is poor, or even negative, given the way the data was collected and analyzed. Absolutely agree that some MS degrees are pretty much less rigorous cash cows by now, that allow students to skip the fundamentals such as data structures, operating systems, and compilers. However, many CS MS degrees actually do requi…

What about the way she collected and analyzed the data caused the correlation to falsely be poor or negative?

Nothing! The author explicitely states that the data and analysis was not granular enough tp make distinction between the different kinds of MS degrees.

This leaves open the possibility rhat some categories of MS degrees might correlate positively, even though MS degrees overall correlate negatively.

Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#65

Post by adrenalinelol »

lintiness wrote: post #39

"I’m excited to see that what mattered way more than pedigree was the actions people took to better themselves." so a degree from a top school is not earned (nor are admissions i guess), but rather conferred at birth? i beg to differ. the commentary on the "disutility" masters degrees is even worse.

I don't think it's entirely that black and white. If an undergraduate degree from a tier 1 school didn't cost approx. a quarter of a million dollars, along with the fact that your "peers" with rich parents will have attended a private school + tutoring + usually had a decent home-life; these things stack up, you can't claim it's a level playing field. Of course you need to be smart to get there in the first place (in most cases). But it's a far cry from a pure meritocracy.

Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#66

Post by kimcheekumquat »

nickbauman wrote: post #40
chewyshine wrote: post #23

Top school is probably serving as a proxy for intelligence in this analysis...a well known predictor of both interview and actual job performance.

Top school is also serving as a proxy for wealth and privilege. Good grades are also a proxy for wealth. Kids who have rich parents get private tutoring.

Wealth also correlates with intelligence. Intelligence is mostly determined by genetics (studies show ~70% to 80%).

Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#67

Post by guntars »

kowdermeister wrote: post #61
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Absolutely agree that some MS degrees are pretty much less rigorous cash cows by now, that allow students to skip the fundamentals such as data structures, operating systems, and compilers. At what point do we not consider operating systems and compilers "fundamental"? What percentage of CS/programming jobs require deep knowledge in these arenas?

It should be optional or advanced level. If you are a web developer for example OS and compilers are totally not important to get along and have a healthy career.

I disagree, compilers are relevant to web development because of all the compiling and transpiling that a single source file goes through in large application development.

Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#68

Post by BOOSTERHIDROGEN »

fecak wrote: post #56

Thanks for writing this Aline. As a recruiter for almost 20 years, I wish I had access to all my data and then the time to compile it, and anecdotally I'd expect the finding about MOOCs would be similar. The most selective of my hiring clients over the years tended to stress intellectual curiosity as a leading criterion and factor in their hiring decisions, as they felt that trait had led to better outcomes (good hir…

Im not quite understand why recruiters asked books on reading list?

Re: Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews

#70

Post by lintiness »

adrenalinelol wrote: post #65
lintiness wrote: post #39

"I’m excited to see that what mattered way more than pedigree was the actions people took to better themselves." so a degree from a top school is not earned (nor are admissions i guess), but rather conferred at birth? i beg to differ. the commentary on the "disutility" masters degrees is even worse.

I don't think it's entirely that black and white. If an undergraduate degree from a tier 1 school didn't cost approx. a quarter of a million dollars, along with the fact that your "peers" with rich parents will have attended a private school + tutoring + usually had a decent home-life; these things stack up, you can't claim it's a level playing field. Of course you need to be smart to get there in the first place (in…

you've described a range and complex combination. the author of the piece stated -- almost word for word -- that degrees from top schools are not earned.
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