5 ms·

> “really easy interview and we just talked about my experience and projects“ This is what interviewing is like in 99% of other sectors, even engineering. You

> “really easy interview and we just talked about my experience and projects“ This is what interviewing is like in 99% of other sectors, even engineering. You might be asked some competency based questions at a larger organisation but the whole “dance like a monkey in a high pressure environment while we watch” whiteboard/coding test feels like cruel and unusual punishment to me that is nothing like the job of actually programming.

AstralStorm 8y ago
It is testing for people who can solve the below 5 percent of real problems under immense pressure. Even development crunch does not work like these tests. The trouble is, the skillet to do so is not actually overlapping with the one needed for prolonged deep or repetitive work. So you end up hiring either fresh heads from such pressuring environments, super geniuses (yeah right) or people who learned to pass and game these tests.
IshKebab 8y ago
That's not true. I've interviewed for many engineering jobs and lots of them involved solving puzzle-like problems on a whiteboard.
- simonbarker87 8y ago
  Are you US based? It may be a cultural thing as I have nevered heard of any engineers (and I know a good few dozen) who have had to do anything like that.
  - freehunter 8y ago
    It's not even a culturally US-based thing. If anything, it might be the culture of some specific places in the US, likely places where programmers are dime-a-dozen and you can afford to exclude good people because great people are applying too. In the Midwest or Appalachia or most places in the South and most places in the prairie, companies are just glad someone is applying. I have absolutely no hard evidence to back this up other than anecdotes from my network of colleagues, but the only places I've ever heard of doing programming challenges during an interview is the kind of places where programmers collect en masse. SV, Seattle, Austin, NYC, Boston, the places where when you post a CS job, you expect thousands of qualified candidates to apply.
- elbrian 8y ago
  Your anecdotal experience differing from OP's does not make what he said inherently untrue.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
michaelt 8y ago
the whole “dance like a monkey in a high pressure environment while we watch” whiteboard/coding test feels like cruel and unusual punishment to me When I was a teenager I attended a group interview for a retail job, and we were put into groups and told to design a TV advert for the retailer then act it out in front of the other interviewees. Of course my group decided to do a song. Once you've been inoculated by having to sing in front of a room of 30 people, whiteboard coding in front of 2 people feels downright respectful and dignified :)
JustSomeNobody 8y ago
It's a hazing ritual. Let's call it what it is.

AstralStorm 8y ago

It is testing for people who can solve the below 5 percent of real problems under immense pressure. Even development crunch does not work like these tests. The trouble is, the skillet to do so is not actually overlapping with the one needed for prolonged deep or repetitive work. So you end up hiring either fresh heads from such pressuring environments, super geniuses (yeah right) or people who learned to pass and game these tests.

IshKebab 8y ago

That's not true. I've interviewed for many engineering jobs and lots of them involved solving puzzle-like problems on a whiteboard.

simonbarker87 8y ago
Are you US based? It may be a cultural thing as I have nevered heard of any engineers (and I know a good few dozen) who have had to do anything like that.
- freehunter 8y ago
  It's not even a culturally US-based thing. If anything, it might be the culture of some specific places in the US, likely places where programmers are dime-a-dozen and you can afford to exclude good people because great people are applying too. In the Midwest or Appalachia or most places in the South and most places in the prairie, companies are just glad someone is applying. I have absolutely no hard evidence to back this up other than anecdotes from my network of colleagues, but the only places I've ever heard of doing programming challenges during an interview is the kind of places where programmers collect en masse. SV, Seattle, Austin, NYC, Boston, the places where when you post a CS job, you expect thousands of qualified candidates to apply.
elbrian 8y ago
Your anecdotal experience differing from OP's does not make what he said inherently untrue.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

michaelt 8y ago

the whole “dance like a monkey in a high pressure environment while we watch” whiteboard/coding test feels like cruel and unusual punishment to me When I was a teenager I attended a group interview for a retail job, and we were put into groups and told to design a TV advert for the retailer then act it out in front of the other interviewees. Of course my group decided to do a song. Once you've been inoculated by having to sing in front of a room of 30 people, whiteboard coding in front of 2 people feels downright respectful and dignified :)

JustSomeNobody 8y ago

It's a hazing ritual. Let's call it what it is.