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NB to all interviewers: this girl has knows how to solve problems efficiently, effectively, and in a manner appropriate to their role. I would not be pleased if

NB to all interviewers: this girl has knows how to solve problems efficiently, effectively, and in a manner appropriate to their role. I would not be pleased if my employee always tried to re-write what has been solved and perfected decades prior by someone smarter than her.

mquander 14y ago
Absolutely. That's why I paid my smart classmates to do all my take-home tests in school; it's an efficient, effective way to get the right answers! I don't know if you interview people, but I do, and it's hard. I try hard to come up with questions that probe people's knowledge in specific ways and help discriminate between large ranges of ability. It's fucked up to try to ruin the information I'm getting by cheating without telling me. If you hold the principled position that looking everything up during an interview is a reasonable way to demonstrate your competence, then you should come out and tell me that's what you're doing, so that I can make a decision which isn't based on lies of omission.
- hack_edu 14y ago
  Yeah, but I fired the last guy who billed me for that time he needed to re-discover the quadratic equation. An interview should evaluate the skills one needs for the job, not puzzles that make you feel smart. Were I interviewing someone, I would happily accept an answer something along the lines of "that's been solved already, I would use an existing library so I can move on and solve my real problem" with regard to bitwise operators.
  - endtime 14y ago
    The goal is obviously to figure out how good people will be at solving real problems. But it's not realistic, practical, or fair to come up with an unsolved problem for each interview.
- dfc 14y ago
  Looking up everything during an interview is a principled position? What principle are you standing up for? The right to google?
  - mquander 14y ago
    I'm replying to the parent, who seems to think it's principled in the sense that it is the best way to operate in the real world, therefore he will do it in an interview.

mquander 14y ago

Absolutely. That's why I paid my smart classmates to do all my take-home tests in school; it's an efficient, effective way to get the right answers! I don't know if you interview people, but I do, and it's hard. I try hard to come up with questions that probe people's knowledge in specific ways and help discriminate between large ranges of ability. It's fucked up to try to ruin the information I'm getting by cheating without telling me. If you hold the principled position that looking everything up during an interview is a reasonable way to demonstrate your competence, then you should come out and tell me that's what you're doing, so that I can make a decision which isn't based on lies of omission.

hack_edu 14y ago
Yeah, but I fired the last guy who billed me for that time he needed to re-discover the quadratic equation. An interview should evaluate the skills one needs for the job, not puzzles that make you feel smart. Were I interviewing someone, I would happily accept an answer something along the lines of "that's been solved already, I would use an existing library so I can move on and solve my real problem" with regard to bitwise operators.
- endtime 14y ago
  The goal is obviously to figure out how good people will be at solving real problems. But it's not realistic, practical, or fair to come up with an unsolved problem for each interview.
dfc 14y ago
Looking up everything during an interview is a principled position? What principle are you standing up for? The right to google?
- mquander 14y ago
  I'm replying to the parent, who seems to think it's principled in the sense that it is the best way to operate in the real world, therefore he will do it in an interview.