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So many "hiring is broken" stories lately. I sympathize. Interviewing is typically not fun. However, I'd like y'all to consider the problem from the other si

So many "hiring is broken" stories lately. I sympathize. Interviewing is typically not fun. However, I'd like y'all to consider the problem from the other side of the table. I conduct a lot of technical interviews. I desperately want to avoid bad hires. How do I avoid the bad hires? It's a really hard problem and there are consequences from both false positive and false negative signals. Google asks "big-O" type questions not because they're shibboleths or useless trivia. It's practical knowledge in an environment where things often have to scale up to absurd degrees. Most candidates haven't had experience in that kind of environment, so interviewers are looking for signs of aptitude. Knowing which kinds of algorithms can scale up is a sign of that aptitude for those kinds of problems. Lately, I've been asking more questions from the domain of what I call "programming in the small" -- the kinds of things that crop up when actually writing or reviewing or debugging code. I do this because I've learned that the ability to construct an airtight Boolean predicate expression to test for a well-defined condition is a survival skill for good programmers. If you're a good candidate, then I'm sincerely sorry that I waste some time (for both of us!) talking with you about some basic stuff rather than having a more interesting technical conversation.

bluetomcat 11y ago
Google probably needs algorithmically savvy people, but that is surely not the case with most of the companies asking similar questions. If a company developing CRUD apps asks me to reverse a linked list, it is a sign to me that they are clueless. If I have provided a GitHub account with some interesting code, then sure as hell I have demonstrated that I am able to compose "airtight" boolean expressions. Just like I have to be informed about your company before interviewing, take your time to inform yourself about me.
- ubernostrum 11y ago
  Google probably needs algorithmically savvy people, but that is surely not the case with most of the companies asking similar questions. If a company developing CRUD apps asks me to reverse a linked list, it is a sign to me that they are clueless. The amusing thing about this is, from what I can tell, Google actually only needs a small number of people with the deep knowledge. Much of the work there still involves things like "developing CRUD apps", just on top of the platforms and infrastructure the smaller group developed for it. Which led to a characterization I once heard from an ex-Googler of the company as a place where "they hire top CS Ph.Ds to do incredibly boring code-monkey work".

bluetomcat 11y ago

Google probably needs algorithmically savvy people, but that is surely not the case with most of the companies asking similar questions. If a company developing CRUD apps asks me to reverse a linked list, it is a sign to me that they are clueless. If I have provided a GitHub account with some interesting code, then sure as hell I have demonstrated that I am able to compose "airtight" boolean expressions. Just like I have to be informed about your company before interviewing, take your time to inform yourself about me.

ubernostrum 11y ago
Google probably needs algorithmically savvy people, but that is surely not the case with most of the companies asking similar questions. If a company developing CRUD apps asks me to reverse a linked list, it is a sign to me that they are clueless. The amusing thing about this is, from what I can tell, Google actually only needs a small number of people with the deep knowledge. Much of the work there still involves things like "developing CRUD apps", just on top of the platforms and infrastructure the smaller group developed for it. Which led to a characterization I once heard from an ex-Googler of the company as a place where "they hire top CS Ph.Ds to do incredibly boring code-monkey work".