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As someone who didn't major in CS, the technical interview is the reason I was able to get a job. I didn't have ton of professional experience, and I didn't hav

by thayne 7y ago

As someone who didn't major in CS, the technical interview is the reason I was able to get a job. I didn't have ton of professional experience, and I didn't have a degree in a directly relevant field. But in a technical interview, I could show that yes, I really did know how to code. I did have a "portfolio" of projects on Github, but it wasn't very large, and the most interesting project there were, well, too complicated for an interviewer to understand in short amount of time. And what about people who don't contribute to open source, either due to lack of time or desire? What do they have for a portfolio? Don't get me wrong, technical interviews certainly aren't perfect, and there are a lot of ways to improve them. But I think they should be improved by making them measure what an developer actually does, rather than removing them altogether. In fact, I would say that if accountants (or any other technical profession) aren't assessed on their technical ability as part of the interview process, maybe they should be.

mixmastamyk 7y ago
They are, on the job and let go when they can’t perform.
Cthulhu_ 7y ago
This is the shift that happened in the 8 or so years at my previous job as well. It's a consultancy company, and when I was hired there it was more of an experiment - a traineeship, if you will. Their hiring practices were basically a minimum of 5 or 8 years of professional experience. While I was there they shifted their hiring practices, focusing instead of merit and the results of a technical assignment and interview. We ended up hiring early 20-some year olds fresh out of college because they wrote great code and could explain it to us. I mean we've had some people that made a solution that sorta worked but couldn't really explain some of the work they did, or the underlying logic behind it. Some had great CVs (I mean that's the first check), but there wasn't any skill behind it.
ooobit2 7y ago
My mom is a CPA, SM in Tax, and won't take anyone onto her team if they can't look through a list of allocations and correctly answer whether they do or do not apply for Real Estate and Hospitality. She has had one person last more than three years on her team. But with 1/6th of the workforce of any other manager, her people have ranked top three annual billing and efficiency for the last 6 years. There are tests, but they're unconventional. And there are times I hear my mom pick up her office phone, call one of the firm's partners and say, "Stupid question. Would you allocate this to X or Y?" And then 40 minutes of heated debate over whether it will or won't cause a $300 penalty on a multi-million-dollar return. Maybe engineers need more unconventional tests?

by thayne 7y ago

mixmastamyk 7y ago

They are, on the job and let go when they can’t perform.

Cthulhu_ 7y ago

This is the shift that happened in the 8 or so years at my previous job as well. It's a consultancy company, and when I was hired there it was more of an experiment - a traineeship, if you will. Their hiring practices were basically a minimum of 5 or 8 years of professional experience. While I was there they shifted their hiring practices, focusing instead of merit and the results of a technical assignment and interview. We ended up hiring early 20-some year olds fresh out of college because they wrote great code and could explain it to us. I mean we've had some people that made a solution that sorta worked but couldn't really explain some of the work they did, or the underlying logic behind it. Some had great CVs (I mean that's the first check), but there wasn't any skill behind it.

ooobit2 7y ago

My mom is a CPA, SM in Tax, and won't take anyone onto her team if they can't look through a list of allocations and correctly answer whether they do or do not apply for Real Estate and Hospitality. She has had one person last more than three years on her team. But with 1/6th of the workforce of any other manager, her people have ranked top three annual billing and efficiency for the last 6 years. There are tests, but they're unconventional. And there are times I hear my mom pick up her office phone, call one of the firm's partners and say, "Stupid question. Would you allocate this to X or Y?" And then 40 minutes of heated debate over whether it will or won't cause a $300 penalty on a multi-million-dollar return. Maybe engineers need more unconventional tests?