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> Note that "junior interviewers" are not necessarily junior, just junior as interviewers. Sure, but these are highly correlated. If you've been working in sta

> Note that "junior interviewers" are not necessarily junior, just junior as interviewers. Sure, but these are highly correlated. If you've been working in startups for a few years, you will have some experience in both coding and interviewing coders. Even most of the successful large companies are pretty good at cultivating interviewing skills among their employees. > Furthermore coding questions stop being quantifiable and objective as soon as you add in, "What feedback do you give, when, and how?" I would moderate that statement as "become less quantifiable and objective". They're still more objective than "tell me about the project you are most proud of" or (worst) "what is your biggest weakness?" (perfectionism, duh!). You can also control many of these factors by standardizing interviewer behavior. For example, "no feedback of any kind until the candidate writes a working solution", or working off a predefined set of hints.

btilly 8y ago
Sure, but these are highly correlated. If you've been working in startups for a few years, you will have some experience in both coding and interviewing coders. Even most of the successful large companies are pretty good at cultivating interviewing skills among their employees. I would put it the other way around. My experience is that most startups just put you in front of people and tell you to figure it out. People who have done that for a bit wind up with really bad interview habits because they never get corrected. My experience with large companies (Google and Amazon) has them giving interview training. I learned a lot more about interviewing from that than the informal practice that I got in startups.
- dunpeal 8y ago
  > My experience is that most startups just put you in front of people and tell you to figure it out. Some do, sure. And that's the difference between a startup and a regular company right there: that "figure it out" bit. You'll mess up and fumble and come up with crazy ideas, 95% of which are worse than what the established companies are doing. But you'll learn a ton along the way. It's messy and inefficient but that's how startups are. I personally learned a ton from hacking interviews at startups and all that "figuring it out". Also, guess what? All these sacred "FAANG interviews" that seem to have come down from the sky, etched on tablets? They were developed by Microsoft back when it was a startup, then evolved by various SV companies at their startup stage, too. The next great idea in interviewing also won't come from the thousands of engineers obediently marching to the tune of the same principles everyone is using, but from some startup trying something crazy and ambitious and miraculously getting it to work.

btilly 8y ago

Sure, but these are highly correlated. If you've been working in startups for a few years, you will have some experience in both coding and interviewing coders. Even most of the successful large companies are pretty good at cultivating interviewing skills among their employees. I would put it the other way around. My experience is that most startups just put you in front of people and tell you to figure it out. People who have done that for a bit wind up with really bad interview habits because they never get corrected. My experience with large companies (Google and Amazon) has them giving interview training. I learned a lot more about interviewing from that than the informal practice that I got in startups.

dunpeal 8y ago
> My experience is that most startups just put you in front of people and tell you to figure it out. Some do, sure. And that's the difference between a startup and a regular company right there: that "figure it out" bit. You'll mess up and fumble and come up with crazy ideas, 95% of which are worse than what the established companies are doing. But you'll learn a ton along the way. It's messy and inefficient but that's how startups are. I personally learned a ton from hacking interviews at startups and all that "figuring it out". Also, guess what? All these sacred "FAANG interviews" that seem to have come down from the sky, etched on tablets? They were developed by Microsoft back when it was a startup, then evolved by various SV companies at their startup stage, too. The next great idea in interviewing also won't come from the thousands of engineers obediently marching to the tune of the same principles everyone is using, but from some startup trying something crazy and ambitious and miraculously getting it to work.