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Asked me to rate my skills in a list of 14 programming languages. Really? I'd love to know what they did with that data. It seems almost completely useless e

Asked me to rate my skills in a list of 14 programming languages. Really? I'd love to know what they did with that data. It seems almost completely useless except to say "Tim does not know any Javascript, indicated by his zero score on that."

rbright 16y ago
Well, one thing it means is don't bother asking Tim any Javascript questions during his interviews.
kapitalx 16y ago
I often ask a similar question such as "Your top 5 languages". It does not negatively affect the interviewee, it just helps me target my questions better. Though if you say that you are a 10 but perform at a 5, then who knows, it could affect you negatively as my expectations are set high at that point! :)
drtse4 16y ago
From what i remember you could rate from 0 to 5(or 4) but each level represented something, e.g. 0=no experience, 1=limited exp on personal projects, 2=good knowledge and used for "production" projects, etc... It was (few years ago) not just a simple (useless and subjective) rating about your knowledge of the subject.
esrauch 16y ago
I think the point is to get an idea for what your skills are to determine if any open positions would be a reasonable fit for you. Theres also the whole theory about what languages you know indicates what kind of person you are. Even if you are looking for a Java programmer, the guy who took the time to learn languages that weren't required in their class indicates they have drive to learn on their own. Obviously it's not a perfect metric, but it's not unreasonable to use it as an indicator. I'm sure they didn't come up with that question just for him, and I don't think its too unreasonable of a question as long as they don't weigh it too heavily.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Theres also the whole theory about what languages you know indicates what kind of person you are. Even if you are looking for a Java programmer, the guy who took the time to learn languages that weren't required in their class indicates they have drive to learn on their own. Not a fan of that indicator. I actually know quite a few mega-polyglots. They learn every langugage they can find. But I also know people who know a couple of languages pretty well, but spend their time learning other things. In my spare I rarely want to learn a new language. I'm much more interested in, how did this app solve problem XYZ. I spend a lot of time digging through code that solves problems. In some cases I have to learn a language to learn a solution, but I rarely just grab a book on esoteric language Z, but I know people who do. If you ran the NY Times would you hire people based on how many languages they spoke? It might be interesting, if that's their thing, but in general its no more useful than asking someone to rate themselves on how many operating systems they know well, how many different kinds of mice they've used, or how many text editors they're familiar with.
jimbokun 16y ago
Also, doesn't this fly in the face of Google's heavy reliance on internally developed tools? In my Google interviews, they made it clear I should just name a language I know to solve the problems on the white board, not because they particularly cared about the language, but because they wanted to see my thought process solving a problem in a real programming language. Of course, it had to be one of Google's "approved" languages, but I just thought that was so they could assign an interviewer who could assess the quality of the solution. When did they start caring about "X years experience in language Y" just like all the ignorant technology recruiters out there?
- mdwrigh2 16y ago
  Its not X years of experience in language Y, but rather rate your self from 1-10 on these 14 languages. They'll then pair you up with someone who knows the language you're working with well enough to understand the code in your interview. Also, I've always been told that for the people who rate themselves a 10 in a given language they'll occasionally pull out the big guns to interview (Gosling interviewing a Java developer?).
allyt 16y ago
It matches you with interviewers that know the languages you say you know well.
googInterviewee 16y ago
They don't ask applicants this. Given a list of 14 programming languages, they ask you to rank your best three for the purposes of conducting technical interviews.

rbright 16y ago

Well, one thing it means is don't bother asking Tim any Javascript questions during his interviews.

kapitalx 16y ago

I often ask a similar question such as "Your top 5 languages". It does not negatively affect the interviewee, it just helps me target my questions better. Though if you say that you are a 10 but perform at a 5, then who knows, it could affect you negatively as my expectations are set high at that point! :)

drtse4 16y ago

From what i remember you could rate from 0 to 5(or 4) but each level represented something, e.g. 0=no experience, 1=limited exp on personal projects, 2=good knowledge and used for "production" projects, etc... It was (few years ago) not just a simple (useless and subjective) rating about your knowledge of the subject.

esrauch 16y ago

I think the point is to get an idea for what your skills are to determine if any open positions would be a reasonable fit for you. Theres also the whole theory about what languages you know indicates what kind of person you are. Even if you are looking for a Java programmer, the guy who took the time to learn languages that weren't required in their class indicates they have drive to learn on their own. Obviously it's not a perfect metric, but it's not unreasonable to use it as an indicator. I'm sure they didn't come up with that question just for him, and I don't think its too unreasonable of a question as long as they don't weigh it too heavily.

kenjackson 16y ago
Theres also the whole theory about what languages you know indicates what kind of person you are. Even if you are looking for a Java programmer, the guy who took the time to learn languages that weren't required in their class indicates they have drive to learn on their own. Not a fan of that indicator. I actually know quite a few mega-polyglots. They learn every langugage they can find. But I also know people who know a couple of languages pretty well, but spend their time learning other things. In my spare I rarely want to learn a new language. I'm much more interested in, how did this app solve problem XYZ. I spend a lot of time digging through code that solves problems. In some cases I have to learn a language to learn a solution, but I rarely just grab a book on esoteric language Z, but I know people who do. If you ran the NY Times would you hire people based on how many languages they spoke? It might be interesting, if that's their thing, but in general its no more useful than asking someone to rate themselves on how many operating systems they know well, how many different kinds of mice they've used, or how many text editors they're familiar with.

jimbokun 16y ago

Also, doesn't this fly in the face of Google's heavy reliance on internally developed tools? In my Google interviews, they made it clear I should just name a language I know to solve the problems on the white board, not because they particularly cared about the language, but because they wanted to see my thought process solving a problem in a real programming language. Of course, it had to be one of Google's "approved" languages, but I just thought that was so they could assign an interviewer who could assess the quality of the solution. When did they start caring about "X years experience in language Y" just like all the ignorant technology recruiters out there?

mdwrigh2 16y ago
Its not X years of experience in language Y, but rather rate your self from 1-10 on these 14 languages. They'll then pair you up with someone who knows the language you're working with well enough to understand the code in your interview. Also, I've always been told that for the people who rate themselves a 10 in a given language they'll occasionally pull out the big guns to interview (Gosling interviewing a Java developer?).

allyt 16y ago

It matches you with interviewers that know the languages you say you know well.

googInterviewee 16y ago

They don't ask applicants this. Given a list of 14 programming languages, they ask you to rank your best three for the purposes of conducting technical interviews.