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Totally reasonable response. However, it seems like we're on an endless loop with this discussion. People talk about how they need technical interviews because
by geebee 8y ago
Totally reasonable response. However, it seems like we're on an endless loop with this discussion. People talk about how they need technical interviews because someone who looks good on paper can't code reverse string, or write a basic join. But here's the thing, absolutely none of my technical interviews have involved anything remotely this simple. They are "find all matching matching subtrees in a binary search tree", or "find all possible matrices with a negative determinant within an NxM matrix of arbitrary size", and it's supposed to be done in about 45 minutes, at the whiteboard.
Really, it's not fizz buzz or string reversal that causes people to re-study for their algorithms and data structures exam before an interview.
In many ways, I think this is similar to requiring that senior actuaries re-study integration by parts prior to every interview. They don't have to, because they have a proper exam that is widely accepted in their field. We don't. So instead, we are taken through full day whiteboard exams, under conditions of great secrecy, over and over, every time we interview.
- linkregister 8y agoThis is an excellent analogy. I've found that ability to complete esoteric algorithms problems has little relation to productivity in specialized subjects, as in network security.
- james_s_tayler 8y agoDid anyone stop to think that maybe, just maybe, in the allotted time there simply isn't enough bandwidth to accurately answer the question of whether the candidate can do the job and will be a good fit and that no matter what strategy you try that perhaps this is an optimization problem for which there is no good solution. Like this is it. As good as it gets. I actually think all this back and forth, chopping and changing, people arbitrarily weeding companies out, companies arbitrarily weeding people out is providing just the right amount of randomness for everyone to wind up somewhere. Hiring is mostly random.