4 ms·

That sounds to me like fight or flight response. Happens to me sometimes, and when it does I can’t code worth a damn, in spite of having a decade and a half of

That sounds to me like fight or flight response. Happens to me sometimes, and when it does I can’t code worth a damn, in spite of having a decade and a half of experience on the top projects at some of the top companies in the industry. This, in fact, happened to me the first time I interviewed with Google: I bombed that pretty spectacularly. The second time I applied I already had a couple of very generous offers elsewhere, so I didn’t care as much and was less nervous during my interviews, so I passed.

monksy 8y ago
I did that with the google phone screen. It didn't help that the interview really took a "well that's interesting" approach and basically killed the interview.
TheGRS 8y ago
Hence the take home interview. At least at the last company I worked at we began doing these because we could tell that the stress was filtering out some otherwise decent candidates. At least that was one of the reasons, it also gave us a chance to talk about technical solutions the candidate produced in a more stress-free way.
- Clubber 8y ago
  So you decided to filter out good candidates in a new way; the take home test.
  - TheGRS 8y ago
    I don't think this assertion that the technical interview is inherently filtering out great candidates is being very honest (you responded similarly to another comment of mine the same way). One quality being tested is "can you try to do the thing that we're asking for?" That's a measurement in competence and the willingness to get something done. If said candidate is saying "this test is ridiculous and a waste of my time!" then my common sense instinct will say that they're probably not a great fit even if they're the greatest programmer in the world. At least on the take homes I've issued they shouldn't be taking more than a few hours. These stories about creating applications that take 3 days are certainly problems and recruiters need to lighten up a little, but I don't think the take home is inherently flawed just by its existence.
    - monocasa 8y ago
      Most senior devs have a family, value work/life balance, and currently have another job. I don't expect them to take their work home past 5 while they're working with me, so why should I expect them to do that before I'm even paying them?
      - TheGRS 8y ago
        Personally I think it'd be fine to e-mail back and say "sorry I don't have time to work on this with my current schedule, could I do an in-person interview instead?" That's me though, I would hope the rest of the industry is willing to work with people. Even just the response to the e-mail would tell me that they're competent enough to know their time management and that they have limited bandwidth. At some point you need to make a sacrifice of time though. Even if your hotel and plane ticket are being paid for to fly out to the place of business, you need to take that time off to go in for the interview. I'd prefer to do a lot of that at home personally.
        monocasa 8y ago
        > Personally I think it'd be fine to e-mail back and say "sorry I don't have time to work on this with my current schedule, could I do an in-person interview instead?" What happens instead is that you just don't ever hear back from candidate.
        TheGRS 8y ago
        Sure, but there's only so much responsibility one can take for this stuff. Presumably there are other candidates willing to respond.
      - kmkemp 8y ago
        Almost too obvious solution: do an initial phone chat to filter qualified candidates into a small pool and then pay your final round of candidates a nice rate to complete a take home project. Bonus points if you can make it something that you can actually use at your company.
  - wolco 8y ago
    at least the take home test is similiar to a real world issue. Tons of issues with it but it's better than the live code remotely (live coding on paper somehow clicks well for me)
- throwaway84742 8y ago
  Yeah, I’d vastly prefer that, but it should take no more than a couple of hours, not days. In fact we use a 1-hour take home to screen candidates, with great results. The assignment is pretty simple, but you can’t find a solution on the internet. We have found this to be way more effective than a phone screen (which we also do, to let the candidate also ask questions early on).
gnarcoregrizz 8y ago
I take a small dose of a benzodiazepine before interviewing. It helps filter out the noise/stress to let me concentrate when I'm under the gun.
dblohm7 8y ago
Agreed. I suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and the environment of the technical interview immediately throws me into a fight-or-flight state. I've never applied to Google and I never will, because it would be nearly impossible for me to perform in one of their interviews.
- peoplewindow 8y ago
  When I interviewed at Google it was 2006 and they had a reputation for rejecting nearly everyone. I was still a student! So I rocked up to the interviews calm as calm could be because I didn't believe for even a second that I'd actually get the job and really, the whole thing seemed like an entertaining and potentially interesting mistake. But I did get the job. No expectations? No stress!

monksy 8y ago

I did that with the google phone screen. It didn't help that the interview really took a "well that's interesting" approach and basically killed the interview.

TheGRS 8y ago

Hence the take home interview. At least at the last company I worked at we began doing these because we could tell that the stress was filtering out some otherwise decent candidates. At least that was one of the reasons, it also gave us a chance to talk about technical solutions the candidate produced in a more stress-free way.

Clubber 8y ago
So you decided to filter out good candidates in a new way; the take home test.
- TheGRS 8y ago
  I don't think this assertion that the technical interview is inherently filtering out great candidates is being very honest (you responded similarly to another comment of mine the same way). One quality being tested is "can you try to do the thing that we're asking for?" That's a measurement in competence and the willingness to get something done. If said candidate is saying "this test is ridiculous and a waste of my time!" then my common sense instinct will say that they're probably not a great fit even if they're the greatest programmer in the world. At least on the take homes I've issued they shouldn't be taking more than a few hours. These stories about creating applications that take 3 days are certainly problems and recruiters need to lighten up a little, but I don't think the take home is inherently flawed just by its existence.
  - monocasa 8y ago
    Most senior devs have a family, value work/life balance, and currently have another job. I don't expect them to take their work home past 5 while they're working with me, so why should I expect them to do that before I'm even paying them?
    - TheGRS 8y ago
      Personally I think it'd be fine to e-mail back and say "sorry I don't have time to work on this with my current schedule, could I do an in-person interview instead?" That's me though, I would hope the rest of the industry is willing to work with people. Even just the response to the e-mail would tell me that they're competent enough to know their time management and that they have limited bandwidth. At some point you need to make a sacrifice of time though. Even if your hotel and plane ticket are being paid for to fly out to the place of business, you need to take that time off to go in for the interview. I'd prefer to do a lot of that at home personally.
      - monocasa 8y ago
        > Personally I think it'd be fine to e-mail back and say "sorry I don't have time to work on this with my current schedule, could I do an in-person interview instead?" What happens instead is that you just don't ever hear back from candidate.
        TheGRS 8y ago
        Sure, but there's only so much responsibility one can take for this stuff. Presumably there are other candidates willing to respond.
    - kmkemp 8y ago
      Almost too obvious solution: do an initial phone chat to filter qualified candidates into a small pool and then pay your final round of candidates a nice rate to complete a take home project. Bonus points if you can make it something that you can actually use at your company.
- wolco 8y ago
  at least the take home test is similiar to a real world issue. Tons of issues with it but it's better than the live code remotely (live coding on paper somehow clicks well for me)
throwaway84742 8y ago
Yeah, I’d vastly prefer that, but it should take no more than a couple of hours, not days. In fact we use a 1-hour take home to screen candidates, with great results. The assignment is pretty simple, but you can’t find a solution on the internet. We have found this to be way more effective than a phone screen (which we also do, to let the candidate also ask questions early on).

gnarcoregrizz 8y ago

I take a small dose of a benzodiazepine before interviewing. It helps filter out the noise/stress to let me concentrate when I'm under the gun.

dblohm7 8y ago

Agreed. I suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and the environment of the technical interview immediately throws me into a fight-or-flight state. I've never applied to Google and I never will, because it would be nearly impossible for me to perform in one of their interviews.

peoplewindow 8y ago
When I interviewed at Google it was 2006 and they had a reputation for rejecting nearly everyone. I was still a student! So I rocked up to the interviews calm as calm could be because I didn't believe for even a second that I'd actually get the job and really, the whole thing seemed like an entertaining and potentially interesting mistake. But I did get the job. No expectations? No stress!