5 ms·
Very true. That said, sometimes they're basic skills. In one job a few back, I did a lot of resume-reading and phone screening. I used basic questions. A solid
by Kalium 6y ago
Very true.
That said, sometimes they're basic skills. In one job a few back, I did a lot of resume-reading and phone screening. I used basic questions. A solid 50% of screenees failed FizzBuzz.
Now, it's absolutely possible that many of these were just nerves. Not everyone handled interview tension well! But it strains credulity for me to accept that being nervous makes half of software engineers forget how to do a loop, conditional, and modulo.
- marcinzm 6y agoAs a note, that doesn't mean 50% of engineers lack the skill. Those lacking skills will interview the most so for any position the distribution will be biased towards them. For example, if 10% of people on the market lack skills but they interview at 9 times as many places (failing at each) then each company will see 50% of applicants lacking skills.
- Kalium 6y agoAlso true! That said, it continues to strain credulity that 50% of interviewees for engineering jobs suffer from forgetting the most fundamental of tools in the face of an interview. So I am led inescapably to the conclusion that there are indeed many people out there who only have skills on paper.
- newen 6y ago> that 50% of interviewees for engineering jobs... that in 50% of interviews for engineering jobs, the interviewees... Fixed to be more precise.
- _qulr 6y ago> But it strains credulity for me to accept that being nervous makes half of software engineers forget how to do a loop, conditional, and modulo. Which is more improbable, that programmers who tend to be socially awkward and work alone in front of a computer and are not stage performers get "stage fright" during interviews, or that people with many years of experience getting paid as a programmer can't do anything? To me, the latter strains credulity.
- Kalium 6y agoI've worked with enough people in both groups to have little difficulty believing either. More than once I've had an engineer on my team that we worked with by confining their work to somewhere where they couldn't do much damage.
- marcinzm 6y agoWasn't there a recent study that found that the main things modern interviews test for is lack of anxiety? And when you're told that your career rests on how perfectly you do in this interview and that any deviations from perfection will make you fail, is it any wonder people get anxious? I once almost failed the most common leetcode easy problem because my mind blanked and I implemented the wrong solution at first. Interviewer probably labeled me as someone with fake credentials as I didn't have time for their second problem as a result.