4 ms·

They may not be great at differentiating the top from the very top but they are great at establishing a minimum qualification.

scarface74 7y ago
If 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 ago
  It 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 ago
    Most companies outside of the west coast/Silicon Valley bubble hire for specific needs/specific departments.
invalidOrTaken 7y ago
It'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 ago
  It 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.

4 ms·

They may not be great at differentiating the top from the very top but they are great at establishing a minimum qualification.

by seventhtiger 7y ago

scarface74 7y ago
If 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 ago
  It 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 ago
    Most companies outside of the west coast/Silicon Valley bubble hire for specific needs/specific departments.
invalidOrTaken 7y ago
It'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 ago
  It 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.