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Not OP, but FizzBuzz interview questions are famous for eliminating significant numbers of applicants. I've learned that once you're in a large and complex cor
by seventhtiger 7y ago
Not OP, but FizzBuzz interview questions are famous for eliminating significant numbers of applicants.
I've learned that once you're in a large and complex corporate structure, judging your value becomes difficult. In every job I've been I've found professional slackers who truly optimize to do the minimum. They can send all the right value signals while they keep their true lack of value hidden behind a complex maze.
The only way I can think of to minimize them is to set up high barriers of entry that require on the spot proof of ability: coding tests and programming problems. Everything else can be and has been bulshitted through.
- scarface74 7y agoAlgorithmic Coding tests and programming problems don’t tell you too much about whether they can translate business rules into code or their ability to work in complex code bases.
- seventhtiger 7y agoThey may not be great at differentiating the top from the very top but they are great at establishing a minimum qualification.
- scarface74 7y agoIf you are writing software - like most developers are - where the complexity is knowing the business process, how much good does it do to test whether the developer can reverse a binary tree on the whiteboard?
- seventhtiger 7y agoIt doesn't have to emulate the work process as long as it is a good proxy. It doesn't have to do anything with what you do as work, as long as the correlation between them is strong enough. Might as well be an IQ test or logic puzzle but they have their own problems. Many companies hire people before they decide their position. So your job tasks might wildly different.
- scarface74 7y agoMost companies outside of the west coast/Silicon Valley bubble hire for specific needs/specific departments.
- invalidOrTaken 7y agoIt's important that this be a minimal qualification...the temptation is equate "can solve harder algo problems on the spot=brings more value," but that's not a great signal, and according it too much reverence overshadows other important traits (knowing which problems to solve ranking high among them)
- seventhtiger 7y agoIt doesn't matter. I've read and heard many accounts of college admission officers and hiring managers who say that among the top 30%, it is essentially random. They don't know how or even need to differentiate between the 30%, 20%, and 10%. So what it comes down to is selecting a random differentiator that can stand up against nepotism (objective and measurable), legal scrutiny (fair), audits (easy to comply with) and so on. Essentially everyone who answers those questions reasonably well passes. But the one who answered best gets hired because at that point we don't even have a good differentiating signal.