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Ugh, just let people choose their tech interview. - If they have public code, talk about that. Maybe ask them to add a feature onto THEIR code. - If they have

Ugh, just let people choose their tech interview. - If they have public code, talk about that. Maybe ask them to add a feature onto THEIR code. - If they have no code, give them the option of take-home work or a whiteboard test or a live coding session. - If they have no code and don't want to do a take-home or whiteboard or live coding session, and you are both senior level, then just talk about work. It should be pretty clear whether they'll be a fit. - If they have no code, don't want to do a take-home or whiteboard or live coding session, and are NOT senior level, you should probably pass. People will probably feel better and do better in the interview when they feel they can have a choice in how they are examined because they can plan to show their strengths. The only downside is that with this is it becomes a bit more difficult to track how well your interviews go with a grading rubric or something.

k__ 11y ago
Often I ask myself, why do employers set up the interview? I mean, both parties want something. The best interviews I had (now I'm freelancing so I don't have to do them anymore) were when the employer had no idea how to interview. They asked me what I did and what they do and told me what they want from me. I asked them how they work and what they have to offer. The moment they tried to set up some interviewing process, with special questions asked by people with no technical skills and strange tests, everything went downhill...
- bluetomcat 11y ago
  I've been to some of the most honest interviews when a small tech team needs a new member with a slightly different expertise to theirs. Like, "we implemented a major part of our system, but we need someone to help us in this or that regard". It makes a ton of a difference in terms of mutual respect and friendliness.
vitd 11y ago
Yeah, I concur. There are a million other ways to test someone's knowledge. Rather than having them write a merge sort (for example), giving them one that either doesn't work or is suboptimal is a much better way to assess their abilities. (Or maybe pick something more real-world than a merge sort since nobody writes their own sorts anymore.) But you get to see how they deal with existing code, how good they are at debugging, and things like that. Those skills are probably going to be used more than writing new stuff from scratch anyway.

k__ 11y ago

Often I ask myself, why do employers set up the interview? I mean, both parties want something. The best interviews I had (now I'm freelancing so I don't have to do them anymore) were when the employer had no idea how to interview. They asked me what I did and what they do and told me what they want from me. I asked them how they work and what they have to offer. The moment they tried to set up some interviewing process, with special questions asked by people with no technical skills and strange tests, everything went downhill...

bluetomcat 11y ago
I've been to some of the most honest interviews when a small tech team needs a new member with a slightly different expertise to theirs. Like, "we implemented a major part of our system, but we need someone to help us in this or that regard". It makes a ton of a difference in terms of mutual respect and friendliness.

vitd 11y ago

Yeah, I concur. There are a million other ways to test someone's knowledge. Rather than having them write a merge sort (for example), giving them one that either doesn't work or is suboptimal is a much better way to assess their abilities. (Or maybe pick something more real-world than a merge sort since nobody writes their own sorts anymore.) But you get to see how they deal with existing code, how good they are at debugging, and things like that. Those skills are probably going to be used more than writing new stuff from scratch anyway.