I don't agree with the author's (salesman's) conclusion. Most software engineers in a small company are going to do a lot of design. There won't be architects o

I don't agree with the author's (salesman's) conclusion. Most software engineers in a small company are going to do a lot of design. There won't be architects or principal engineers doing the design for you. The kind of "chef" you interview by asking to chop an onion or cook for a few days is not the type of chef you are probably going to ask to design the menu. You're not making the menu, it's an almost pure execution role. One of the things that can really set a great engineer apart is the ability to design elegant systems and manage complexity. You're likely not going to find that out coding with them for a few days unless you make sure to index for it. Ironically, bigger companies where much of the design is centralized would benefit from this approach much more. They can get a lot more out of a "grunt" engineer who does journeyman work and is careful about testing.