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I've been through many, many tech interviews during my 25-year career, and not one of them has been objective. I have always been hired based on whatever opini

I've been through many, many tech interviews during my 25-year career, and not one of them has been objective. I have always been hired based on whatever opinion the interviewer formed about me within the first minute of meeting me. The rest of each interview has always been a drawn-out, cumbersome attempt for them to justify their initial, subjective decision. In my experience and opinion, software engineers are some of the world's most incompetent buffoons at interviewing; myself included.

meric 11y ago
There has been times when we've made a subjective decision to hire someone based on a first minute impression, and later changed our minds due to the interviews when we found out the candidate was not nearly as technically competent has we had hoped for the position.
- collyw 11y ago
  Based on what out of interest? A 3 hour coding challenge? Whiteboard excersice?
  - meric 11y ago
    Asking for an example of good code the programmer had written previously and bringing it in and asking them to explain what they thought was good about it. Sometimes this can tell you the programmer is being too clever / not clever enough. E.g. when they override javascript prototype classes for the sake of succinctness, or going too far the other way when they repeat some boilerplate code excessively. You could ask them questions about why they did things that way, and see if they can provide a good reason, or they just didn't think deeply about the code they picked to show us.
    - dev360 11y ago
      I prefer this style of interview to the 'quiz' oriented style which revolve around the interviewers ego 90% of the time.
    - innocentoldguy 11y ago
      I too prefer this style of interviewing. I don't ask people to do whiteboard questions or solve puzzles anymore. I just ask for a portfolio of their work (like intelligent people in almost every other industry do).
ivraatiems 11y ago
How do you know this is what happened?

meric 11y ago

There has been times when we've made a subjective decision to hire someone based on a first minute impression, and later changed our minds due to the interviews when we found out the candidate was not nearly as technically competent has we had hoped for the position.

collyw 11y ago
Based on what out of interest? A 3 hour coding challenge? Whiteboard excersice?
- meric 11y ago
  Asking for an example of good code the programmer had written previously and bringing it in and asking them to explain what they thought was good about it. Sometimes this can tell you the programmer is being too clever / not clever enough. E.g. when they override javascript prototype classes for the sake of succinctness, or going too far the other way when they repeat some boilerplate code excessively. You could ask them questions about why they did things that way, and see if they can provide a good reason, or they just didn't think deeply about the code they picked to show us.
  - dev360 11y ago
    I prefer this style of interview to the 'quiz' oriented style which revolve around the interviewers ego 90% of the time.
  - innocentoldguy 11y ago
    I too prefer this style of interviewing. I don't ask people to do whiteboard questions or solve puzzles anymore. I just ask for a portfolio of their work (like intelligent people in almost every other industry do).

ivraatiems 11y ago

How do you know this is what happened?