4 ms·

Isn't that true for any language? Why are you hiring for language skills rather than problem solving aptitude and conceptual fundamentals?

by jreese 5y ago

dnautics 5y ago
> Why are you hiring for language skills rather than problem solving aptitude and conceptual fundamentals? All I'm saying is that signal to noise for the common tests you give for 'problem solving aptitude and conceptual fundamentals', is much lower when you are hiring for a python position. You think you're hiring for those things, but you're actually hiring for leetcode-optimizers. I mean, I'm not trying to do hire like that, and I think I have an interview that tries to test that effectively, but I have had to deal with the downstream effects of people who are doing hiring like this, and that has been a real problem for me.
- jreese 5y ago
  > when you are hiring for a python position If you instead hire for "engineering" positions, without caring about what languages the candidate knows, you can interview for their ability to solve practical programming exercises [1] in whatever language they are most familiar/comfortable with. Maybe this only works at FAANG-level hiring, but in these contexts, top tier candidates can get things done in any language, and that's really what matters, no? But more to your point, I've generally found candidates that pick Python (or Ruby/Perl/etc) can actually accomplish more–and therefore prove their capabilities–in the space of an interview simply because they're picking a more expressive language. Bad candidates will prove they are bad candidates no matter what language they choose. 1: Eg, reading/manipulating files, merging/filtering/sorting data, generating and processing multi-dimensional data structures, etc.
  - dnautics 5y ago
    I personally have an interview that essentially tests if you can produce well-organized code for a challenging algorithm that is persented as-is (the steps to the algorithm are provided, so no cleverness is necessary, you are dinged in my interview for using cleverness if it introduces errors). But, I do not control hiring for all people I have to work with.

Isn't that true for any language? Why are you hiring for language skills rather than problem solving aptitude and conceptual fundamentals?

by jreese 5y ago

Isn't that true for any language? Why are you hiring for language skills rather than problem solving aptitude and conceptual fundamentals?

dnautics 5y ago

> Why are you hiring for language skills rather than problem solving aptitude and conceptual fundamentals? All I'm saying is that signal to noise for the common tests you give for 'problem solving aptitude and conceptual fundamentals', is much lower when you are hiring for a python position. You think you're hiring for those things, but you're actually hiring for leetcode-optimizers. I mean, I'm not trying to do hire like that, and I think I have an interview that tries to test that effectively, but I have had to deal with the downstream effects of people who are doing hiring like this, and that has been a real problem for me.

jreese 5y ago
> when you are hiring for a python position If you instead hire for "engineering" positions, without caring about what languages the candidate knows, you can interview for their ability to solve practical programming exercises [1] in whatever language they are most familiar/comfortable with. Maybe this only works at FAANG-level hiring, but in these contexts, top tier candidates can get things done in any language, and that's really what matters, no? But more to your point, I've generally found candidates that pick Python (or Ruby/Perl/etc) can actually accomplish more–and therefore prove their capabilities–in the space of an interview simply because they're picking a more expressive language. Bad candidates will prove they are bad candidates no matter what language they choose. 1: Eg, reading/manipulating files, merging/filtering/sorting data, generating and processing multi-dimensional data structures, etc.
- dnautics 5y ago
  I personally have an interview that essentially tests if you can produce well-organized code for a challenging algorithm that is persented as-is (the steps to the algorithm are provided, so no cleverness is necessary, you are dinged in my interview for using cleverness if it introduces errors). But, I do not control hiring for all people I have to work with.