3 ms·

Sure, it's unlikely someone will be totally clueless who can talk the ins and outs of a project. Let me put it another way. If we put all the engineers I've ma

Sure, it's unlikely someone will be totally clueless who can talk the ins and outs of a project. Let me put it another way. If we put all the engineers I've managed/lead throughout the years through your interview process, you would probably filter out the one or two who were bad, but you would not always select the strongest engineers. You'd select the strong engineers who were confident, gregarious, and articulate, and leave out the ones who are humble, shy, embarassed by their accents, not used to bragging about themselves or articulating the details of past projects. Talking about those things is a learned skill just like writing on a whitebaord. Hence why good companeis that do whiteboarding interviews also have traditional rounds. You want to give candidates multiple avenues to shine.

malvosenior 7y ago
Not at all! My job as a skilled manager is to look beyond people who are outgoing and help people who are shy get comfortable during the interview. I've become very good at this and have trained other managers to do the same. A casual conversation where someone is purposefully trying to put you at ease is going to be more effective at seeing someone's true skill over a whiteboard every time. There are also a bunch of very senior people that won't play interview games at all. Especially when they're an internal referral. If I refer someone to get hired, I make absolute sure that they are not put through a technical hazing ringer. I've seen senior people who were heavily recruited walk the instant they're put into "the process" under the very sound logic of: "You wanted me to work here, so why are you making this difficult?"