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Principal Engineer from huge gaming company here. White board coding interview are testing only one thing: how well candidate is prepared for it. And here what

Principal Engineer from huge gaming company here. White board coding interview are testing only one thing: how well candidate is prepared for it. And here what is wrong with it: The assumption that candidate should spend his/her valuable time preparing for someone's assessment is arrogant. I do understand why Google and Facebook do it (the do other arrogant things), they assume you want to work for them so much you will study to make the cut. So, they track bunch of metrics, which makes THEIR life easier. They have baselines, calibrations, and other things you never have in the real life. Hilarious part is that they are both risk averse (better to not hire a good candidate than hire a bad one) and using brood-force approach (they will interview you endless number of time). And if you are not prepared - you will most probably fail, unless you are really good at it or lucky. So, why should I prepare for Google's or someone's else interview? I have a interesting and very busy job, I just don't have time for this. I have commitments to my team to work on real products, not on fake problems from Cracking Google Coding Interview. Just think how absurd it is? So, starting from 6 month ago I: 1) Tell recruiters upfront I will not be spending a minute preparing for their interview process 2) I decline coding on the whiteboard. High level designs are fine, writing code - no, no exceptions 3) And the most important, I stopped asking candidates to code on the white board. The most important skill of the software engineer is (IMO): ability to keep complex problems in context for long time (not 5 boxes and months), ability to manipulate them and ability to convince others that you idea is worth pursuing.

balls187 8y ago
> So, why should I prepare for Google's or someone's else interview? Because you want the job? Everyone is busy, that's a terrible excuse not to brush up on your interview skills. By the tone of your post, my sense is that prior to your recent epiphany you weren't very kind to candidates who you interviewed.
- LaserToy 8y ago
  Do I? There are a lot of great companies, why should I waste time on Google? Working there is not as fancy as you think. >> Everyone is busy, that's a terrible excuse not to brush up on your interview skills. I believe that their approach is arrogant, they just don't value candidates time. I have a confession to make, I spent some time at Google. And after I left I was interviewing people using their approach and I regret it now. P/S/ When you interview for a company, you actually taking more risk that the company (talking about folks who are headhunted into interviews). If it doesn't work out, you will be out searching for a job, you career growth may be slowed down. And what is the company risk?
  - balls187 8y ago
    > Do I? There are a lot of great companies, why should I waste time on Google? Working there is not as fancy as you think. I'm definitely confused. You don't want to waste time preparing for an interview, but you will waste time interviewing at a company for a job you don't want? Yes, there are lots of companies hiring. But in my experience, in preparing for one software interview, you're preparing for others as well. I interviewed at Dropbox, Amazon, Valve, and Indeed, within a span of a few weeks, and the prep work (Cracking the Coding Interview) was applicable to all.
    - mountainofdeath 8y ago
      What LaserToy is saying is that it's not just a little preparation; a few hours here and there. There are people who turn it into a literal hobby and do nothing else. If grinding through competitive programming questions is your idea of fun, then do it. Not everyone has interest in spending 2+ hours a day for a month to prepare.
      - balls187 8y ago
        That point I get, people may not enjoy prepping for an interview. That's different than asking "Why should I prepare for a job?" If you want the job, you'll put in the effort to prepare, regardless of your feelings on the process. That sacrifice (2 hours a day for a month) is minor in the grand scheme of things. Granted to the OP's point, Google probably isn't worth it. But that's a value decision each candidate has to make for themselves. I'm preparing for my brown belt in Krav Maga. The test is 6 1/2 hour grueling physical exam that includes a comprehensive test of all the material from the previous 4 belts. Not only that, we're the first group eligible to test, so the instructor wants to set the standard with us. Not everyone wants to put themselves through that hell. But those that do will put in the effort to be ready come test time.
stevenwoo 8y ago
How do you interview candidates for your company?
- LaserToy 8y ago
  I would talk about candidates experience, try to find some project he/she are proud of and dive deeper. I might ask to write some code, but it is not going to be CS exam and it will be in real IDE. I might ask a design question. At the end of the day I need to answer 1 main question: "are you passionate about what you do or it is just 9-5 work"? Cause if you are you will be able to learn new things, and if you don't - knowledge of merge sort not going to save you.
jcbrand 8y ago
Brute-force, not brood-force. Do you work for Blizzard? ;)
- LaserToy 8y ago
  Heh, right :) Nope, they too far from SF
kamaal 8y ago
>>The assumption that candidate should spend his/her valuable time preparing for someone's assessment is arrogant. Plus, if some one has to 'prepare' for an interview that is supposed to test people's capabilities to do 'everyday' jobs, then you are hiring the wrongest possible people out there.

balls187 8y ago

> So, why should I prepare for Google's or someone's else interview? Because you want the job? Everyone is busy, that's a terrible excuse not to brush up on your interview skills. By the tone of your post, my sense is that prior to your recent epiphany you weren't very kind to candidates who you interviewed.

LaserToy 8y ago
Do I? There are a lot of great companies, why should I waste time on Google? Working there is not as fancy as you think. >> Everyone is busy, that's a terrible excuse not to brush up on your interview skills. I believe that their approach is arrogant, they just don't value candidates time. I have a confession to make, I spent some time at Google. And after I left I was interviewing people using their approach and I regret it now. P/S/ When you interview for a company, you actually taking more risk that the company (talking about folks who are headhunted into interviews). If it doesn't work out, you will be out searching for a job, you career growth may be slowed down. And what is the company risk?
- balls187 8y ago
  > Do I? There are a lot of great companies, why should I waste time on Google? Working there is not as fancy as you think. I'm definitely confused. You don't want to waste time preparing for an interview, but you will waste time interviewing at a company for a job you don't want? Yes, there are lots of companies hiring. But in my experience, in preparing for one software interview, you're preparing for others as well. I interviewed at Dropbox, Amazon, Valve, and Indeed, within a span of a few weeks, and the prep work (Cracking the Coding Interview) was applicable to all.
  - mountainofdeath 8y ago
    What LaserToy is saying is that it's not just a little preparation; a few hours here and there. There are people who turn it into a literal hobby and do nothing else. If grinding through competitive programming questions is your idea of fun, then do it. Not everyone has interest in spending 2+ hours a day for a month to prepare.
    - balls187 8y ago
      That point I get, people may not enjoy prepping for an interview. That's different than asking "Why should I prepare for a job?" If you want the job, you'll put in the effort to prepare, regardless of your feelings on the process. That sacrifice (2 hours a day for a month) is minor in the grand scheme of things. Granted to the OP's point, Google probably isn't worth it. But that's a value decision each candidate has to make for themselves. I'm preparing for my brown belt in Krav Maga. The test is 6 1/2 hour grueling physical exam that includes a comprehensive test of all the material from the previous 4 belts. Not only that, we're the first group eligible to test, so the instructor wants to set the standard with us. Not everyone wants to put themselves through that hell. But those that do will put in the effort to be ready come test time.

stevenwoo 8y ago

How do you interview candidates for your company?

LaserToy 8y ago
I would talk about candidates experience, try to find some project he/she are proud of and dive deeper. I might ask to write some code, but it is not going to be CS exam and it will be in real IDE. I might ask a design question. At the end of the day I need to answer 1 main question: "are you passionate about what you do or it is just 9-5 work"? Cause if you are you will be able to learn new things, and if you don't - knowledge of merge sort not going to save you.

jcbrand 8y ago

Brute-force, not brood-force. Do you work for Blizzard? ;)

LaserToy 8y ago
Heh, right :) Nope, they too far from SF

kamaal 8y ago

>>The assumption that candidate should spend his/her valuable time preparing for someone's assessment is arrogant. Plus, if some one has to 'prepare' for an interview that is supposed to test people's capabilities to do 'everyday' jobs, then you are hiring the wrongest possible people out there.