4 ms·

My hypothesis (of what people want in an interview): Interviewer to engage in conversation with applicant about applicant's prior work in detail. If the appli

My hypothesis (of what people want in an interview): Interviewer to engage in conversation with applicant about applicant's prior work in detail. If the applicant can give sufficient explanations of systems/projects and the interviewer can ask appropriate probing questions and get sufficient responses to those questions from the applicant.. then the interview can be concluded positively. The crux of it, from the applicant point of view, is that they want to be believed and treated "professionally". Further it's "insulting" to be questioned about anything other than specific experiences. That's why you see objections to every sort of "objective" line of interview: sample projects - too much time, why am I coding for you for free? github/open source - I have hobbies outside of programming white boarding/google doc coding - not my environment for writing code. I need emacs with xyz keybindings or we're not going to make progress. algorithm problems solving - the job doesn't entail re-implementing hash tables, or sorting algorithms... The question(s) are not germane to the position etc etc etc

dahart 8y ago
> they want to be believed and treated "professionally". Further it's "insulting" to be questioned about anything other than specific experiences. Yeah, I agree; I have the same hypothesis that this is what people want. And it's a problem to assume and/or act like talking about anything other than specific coding experience is in any way insulting. That's not exactly a realistic expectation, nor is it a great attitude for getting hired. Personality, behavior, poise, attitude and communication skills are absolutely relevant to someone's ability to do their job on a team. If you can't think on your feet or answer a question without a computer in front of you, and you start getting angry, how will you behave in meetings? That behavior is precisely one of things I look for when I ask candidates to think on their feet. If someone assumes that being asked certain questions is "unprofessional", then that's a red flag and I'll be more careful before hiring someone like that. Now that I think about it, there's a bit of irony that if someone performs poorly on these kinds of questions, I'm likely to spend more time investigating that and asking more questions along those lines.
- Clubber 8y ago
  Ask your doctor to do a free diagnosis so you know he's for real. See where he instructs you to go.
  - dahart 8y ago
    Did you mean to reply to someone else? I appreciate the reply, but I’m confused about what you're responding to and what point you’re trying to make. I haven’t suggested or advocated anything about doing work for free. That said, this example doesn’t convince me of much. Doctors have to go though a full year (or more) of underpaid work (called residency), and worse, extremely long and on-call hours. They think programmers are pretty spoiled, at least the ones I know personally do. When I've complained to them about pulling 80 hour weeks in films & games (sometimes without overtime pay), I've gotten words back like "lazy" and "whiny". :P Doctors also have to do unpaid diagnoses when they interview for jobs, in order to prove they’re real. And they have to do unpaid diagnoses for their family and friends, just like we have to do IT for family & friends. If you want the job, you do need to demonstrate you’re capable of performing the job, no? What alternative are you suggesting?
  - erik_seaberg 8y ago
    Patients can't tell whether a doctor is competent or not. That's part of why they need verifiable credentials.

dahart 8y ago

> they want to be believed and treated "professionally". Further it's "insulting" to be questioned about anything other than specific experiences. Yeah, I agree; I have the same hypothesis that this is what people want. And it's a problem to assume and/or act like talking about anything other than specific coding experience is in any way insulting. That's not exactly a realistic expectation, nor is it a great attitude for getting hired. Personality, behavior, poise, attitude and communication skills are absolutely relevant to someone's ability to do their job on a team. If you can't think on your feet or answer a question without a computer in front of you, and you start getting angry, how will you behave in meetings? That behavior is precisely one of things I look for when I ask candidates to think on their feet. If someone assumes that being asked certain questions is "unprofessional", then that's a red flag and I'll be more careful before hiring someone like that. Now that I think about it, there's a bit of irony that if someone performs poorly on these kinds of questions, I'm likely to spend more time investigating that and asking more questions along those lines.

Clubber 8y ago
Ask your doctor to do a free diagnosis so you know he's for real. See where he instructs you to go.
- dahart 8y ago
  Did you mean to reply to someone else? I appreciate the reply, but I’m confused about what you're responding to and what point you’re trying to make. I haven’t suggested or advocated anything about doing work for free. That said, this example doesn’t convince me of much. Doctors have to go though a full year (or more) of underpaid work (called residency), and worse, extremely long and on-call hours. They think programmers are pretty spoiled, at least the ones I know personally do. When I've complained to them about pulling 80 hour weeks in films & games (sometimes without overtime pay), I've gotten words back like "lazy" and "whiny". :P Doctors also have to do unpaid diagnoses when they interview for jobs, in order to prove they’re real. And they have to do unpaid diagnoses for their family and friends, just like we have to do IT for family & friends. If you want the job, you do need to demonstrate you’re capable of performing the job, no? What alternative are you suggesting?
- erik_seaberg 8y ago
  Patients can't tell whether a doctor is competent or not. That's part of why they need verifiable credentials.