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Actually, I just finished a couple of weeks of interviews looking for a new job. I actually found that a lot of time I would talk through my solution to their w
by jdbernard 9y ago
Actually, I just finished a couple of weeks of interviews looking for a new job. I actually found that a lot of time I would talk through my solution to their whiteboard problem and by the time I'd talked it through--really just planning for myself before writing it out--they wouldn't wait for me to write it out. I'd explained it with enough clarity that actually writing it out would have just been a waste of time.
- sillysaurus3 9y agoIn other words, we've set up pipelines that reward those who can talk well, rather than those who can do well. That might be an unfair characterization. But only just.
- jdbernard 9y agoA different characterization is that we are looking for those that think well. Both talking and code on whiteboards are only proxies for that, and neither are completely reliable proxies. But really, if someone can describe the detailed psuedocode for an algorithm and explain its runtime characteristics, are you going to make them write out what they have just said? Personally, I think the talking is a lot more valuable than the whiteboard. I rarely have to hand-write complete algorithm on a whiteboard, but I regularly need to communicate technical ideas accurately and succinctly. That's what I'm really trying to demonstrate anyways: of course I can code, but I can also organize my thoughts well and communicate them clearly to others.