3 ms·

That's true but then companies would have a problem where too many people still look qualified after going through rounds of interviews. If a given company has

That's true but then companies would have a problem where too many people still look qualified after going through rounds of interviews. If a given company has a lot of people who want to work for it then it makes sense for that company to have people attempt very challenging programming exercises so that the org can filter the applicant pool down to the number of positions they have open. These companies have the luxury of being able to have hiring processes that turn away perfectly good applicants that couldn't pass their tests (false negatives).

deadmutex 6y ago
> it makes sense for that company to have people attempt very challenging programming exercises Perhaps. I would also encourage companies to look past programming ability, and consider things like work ethic etc. I would argue that once you can do the job, reliably showing up and working hard every day has a lot of impact.
- phenkdo 6y ago
  I feel that is a false dichotomy: programming ability is strongly correlated with work ethic.
  - luckylion 6y ago
    Has that been studied? It doesn't match my experience, I saw them pretty unrelated.
- ksk 6y ago
  You are 100% correct. As a manager I would love to test for work ethic, honesty, being a team-player, etc. The problem is I can only infer those qualities based on signals that are inherently noisy. The only way you really know of those qualities is by working with them over a period of time. A solution to this is to hire through your network, especially via someone who has worked with the candidate. But that certainly limits your pool.
zinckiwi 6y ago
> too many people still look qualified after going through rounds of interviews Maybe we're not as special as we think and not just a few mythical uberengineers are qualified to do the take-something-from-here-and-put-it-there coding that is 90% of the field...
mandeepj 6y ago
> That's true but then companies would have a problem where too many people still look qualified after going through rounds of interviews. Be ready for a surprise. Almost anyone who can spend 3-6 months on solving every single problem at LeetCode\HackerRank can crack these so called high caliber interviews. Unfortunately, a lot of us deny to take that route

deadmutex 6y ago

> it makes sense for that company to have people attempt very challenging programming exercises Perhaps. I would also encourage companies to look past programming ability, and consider things like work ethic etc. I would argue that once you can do the job, reliably showing up and working hard every day has a lot of impact.

phenkdo 6y ago
I feel that is a false dichotomy: programming ability is strongly correlated with work ethic.
- luckylion 6y ago
  Has that been studied? It doesn't match my experience, I saw them pretty unrelated.
ksk 6y ago
You are 100% correct. As a manager I would love to test for work ethic, honesty, being a team-player, etc. The problem is I can only infer those qualities based on signals that are inherently noisy. The only way you really know of those qualities is by working with them over a period of time. A solution to this is to hire through your network, especially via someone who has worked with the candidate. But that certainly limits your pool.

zinckiwi 6y ago

> too many people still look qualified after going through rounds of interviews Maybe we're not as special as we think and not just a few mythical uberengineers are qualified to do the take-something-from-here-and-put-it-there coding that is 90% of the field...

mandeepj 6y ago

> That's true but then companies would have a problem where too many people still look qualified after going through rounds of interviews. Be ready for a surprise. Almost anyone who can spend 3-6 months on solving every single problem at LeetCode\HackerRank can crack these so called high caliber interviews. Unfortunately, a lot of us deny to take that route