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>I.e. they are not playing the anthem of Cambodia on a toy recorder in order to be hired as a death metal band drummer. Think about it this way: they are not p

>I.e. they are not playing the anthem of Cambodia on a toy recorder in order to be hired as a death metal band drummer. Think about it this way: they are not playing a full playlist on an actual stage with a soundcheck and live audience either. Compared to the real gig they are performing a smaller task in an artificially simplified environment. It is actually very similar to a coding interview. People often forget that puzzles are not a thing into itself, it's a tool for discovering candidate's style and a springboard for further discussion. I'm not interested in a solution itself as much as in an ability to discuss it, explain it & improve it -- because those are the things that are being done in a workplace on a daily basis.

pandaman 10y ago
People also forget the goal of the hiring process - finding somebody who can get the work done. I am in the game industry and, luckily, not everybody is doing whiteboard coding and puzzles here, but, out of my anecdotal experience, studios that do it also release pretty crappy games. It could be that springboarding discussion is not selecting very good programmers. It could also be that the management who enforces these practices is not competent to run the studio. I cannot tell either way, just my experience.
- TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
  You can flip this around. Do you want to work for a company that does what everyone else does without a clear well-defined rationale for it, or do you want to work for a company that has a deep understanding of what it needs from its employees, and has worked out the most efficient way to get it? Good companies run a continuous improvement cycle on hiring practices. Bad companies do the same shit over and over and make the same mistakes again and again. So I would be surprised if poor hiring didn't correlate with poor results in other areas.
- wanderer2323 10y ago
  Out of curiosity, what do the studios that don't release crappy games do?
  - pandaman 10y ago
    Math and general CS (in the sense of "What is IEEE representation of 1.f?" not "The difference between Red-Black and B- trees?") questions. Past experience questions.
collyw 10y ago
Why are so many of them given as take home / pre interview screens then?

pandaman 10y ago

People also forget the goal of the hiring process - finding somebody who can get the work done. I am in the game industry and, luckily, not everybody is doing whiteboard coding and puzzles here, but, out of my anecdotal experience, studios that do it also release pretty crappy games. It could be that springboarding discussion is not selecting very good programmers. It could also be that the management who enforces these practices is not competent to run the studio. I cannot tell either way, just my experience.

TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
You can flip this around. Do you want to work for a company that does what everyone else does without a clear well-defined rationale for it, or do you want to work for a company that has a deep understanding of what it needs from its employees, and has worked out the most efficient way to get it? Good companies run a continuous improvement cycle on hiring practices. Bad companies do the same shit over and over and make the same mistakes again and again. So I would be surprised if poor hiring didn't correlate with poor results in other areas.
wanderer2323 10y ago
Out of curiosity, what do the studios that don't release crappy games do?
- pandaman 10y ago
  Math and general CS (in the sense of "What is IEEE representation of 1.f?" not "The difference between Red-Black and B- trees?") questions. Past experience questions.

collyw 10y ago

Why are so many of them given as take home / pre interview screens then?