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If I was a hiring manager with the actual time to do this I think what I would likely do is come up with a series of thought experiments and some actual technic

If I was a hiring manager with the actual time to do this I think what I would likely do is come up with a series of thought experiments and some actual technical tests for the candidate. Probably I would try to pick things that I did not (off the top of my head) know the answer to and exactly how to do it. And then I might try to go through with the candidate and see their thought process through the whole thing while also volunteering some of my thought process to try to solve it together. The point would not even be to try to necessarily solve the problem itself - more just to see how I got along with them. Of course some people might freeze up when asked to do this, but I think that happens in any higher pressure interview environment. And if I do not know the solution off the top of my head either and am obviously even struggling in some parts myself I think that takes a ton of the pressure off of them to be a wizard that can solve it in the moment.

garyjlin 5y ago
This makes a ton of sense to me. Seeing how you solve a difficult problem with someone collaboratively is a great insight on how you'll continue working together, because that's exactly what you'll be doing. It's also very valuable to see how someone receives suggestions or criticism and how they respond. We'd actually like to build a lot of these concepts into Litebulb, ie: responding to code review requests? As an add-on, an interesting question one of our clients asks as a conversation starter is "what's the most technically complex project you've ever worked on?". This question sets up the space such that the candidate is the expert (since they've already worked on it), and it almost becomes a session where the candidate teaches the interviewer.
- phibz 5y ago
  What matters most to me as a hiring manager is your ability to think critically. There's so much to know, and so many different permutations with how those things can present themselves that I'm not hiring you to know the answer every time. I'm hiring you to figure it out.

garyjlin 5y ago

This makes a ton of sense to me. Seeing how you solve a difficult problem with someone collaboratively is a great insight on how you'll continue working together, because that's exactly what you'll be doing. It's also very valuable to see how someone receives suggestions or criticism and how they respond. We'd actually like to build a lot of these concepts into Litebulb, ie: responding to code review requests? As an add-on, an interesting question one of our clients asks as a conversation starter is "what's the most technically complex project you've ever worked on?". This question sets up the space such that the candidate is the expert (since they've already worked on it), and it almost becomes a session where the candidate teaches the interviewer.

phibz 5y ago
What matters most to me as a hiring manager is your ability to think critically. There's so much to know, and so many different permutations with how those things can present themselves that I'm not hiring you to know the answer every time. I'm hiring you to figure it out.