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> Saying that these questions are forbidden just because you are sometimes tired of doing them strikes me as unreasonable. You know what's unreasonable? Inter
by RandoHolmes 6y ago
> Saying that these questions are forbidden just because you are sometimes tired of doing them strikes me as unreasonable.
You know what's unreasonable? Interviewing a bricklayer and asking them to describe how they lay bricks over the phone. And this is why your comparison to singing is hugely flawed. The phone is literally designed for carrying and hearing voices, not for more complex things.
You act as if it's literally impossible to figure out if someone can code unless you're trying to do it over the phone.
> This line from your comment is interesting to me though: "I've seen people actively be wrong in what they're looking for, as in technically wrong and therefore I failed". I frequently ask questions where I expect the candidate to want to clarifications or challenge what I'm saying.
I once had someone ask me what _type_ was returned from a controller in asp.net MVC, and when I gave the technically correct response this person told me I was wrong, a view is returned, then immediately ended the call. The number of times I've seen stuff like this happen is way too high.
But more than that, I want to address the attitude in that last point. This is a _HUGE_ problem with interviewers. They often come to conclusions they ought not come to based upon the circumstances. And the defenseless interviewee's are left trying to suss out hidden requirements like "expects them to ask clarifying questions". Interviewee's come in and have to try and navigate these byzantine, hidden requirements. And the question is, why do interviewers have hidden requirements like this? Because they know if they're _HONEST_ and communicate what they're looking for, the candidate will give it to them. That by itself should be a wake up call that interview's are hostile and un-real.
I'm just in a position in my career that I have the leverage to refuse to play those games. If you do something like that, you fundamentally have no clue how to actually hire people, and I refuse to bring any value to you or your company.
- martythemaniak 6y agoHonestly, have neither of you heard of coderpad? My screens are like the GGP's question, except both I am the candidate are on the phone and on coderpad. Coderpad even had voice and video calls now. The candidate is free to Google, to use the repl, to use any language, etc. If the candidates wants, they can just share their screen in their own environment. But asking a candidate for 30-50 lines of code is completely normal.
- RandoHolmes 6y agoYou act as if it's on the person interviewing to set something like that up...
- andrewflnr 6y agoNo they're not, you're both talking past each other. You're talking about phone-only interviews, but I don't think ALittleLight is even seeing it because that's such an obviously stupid idea it couldn't possibly be what you're talking about, so they think you're complaining about having to code.
- RandoHolmes 6y agoI've literally had people ask me these types of questions while on the phone. And I "fail" on purpose because I won't attempt them. That's the point. The fact that the internet exists and the interviewer could have used an online utility doesn't change my responsibility in that equation, that's just nuts.
- ALittleLight 6y agoYeah, we use a tool like this. I agree it would be crazy to ask someone to code by voice over the phone, I assumed it was given that we were using a tool that let them write and share code.