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This is exactly my worry when asked to do some 'real' work for a company I'm interviewing with. There are many unscrupulous companies out there so you have to

This is exactly my worry when asked to do some 'real' work for a company I'm interviewing with. There are many unscrupulous companies out there so you have to be careful. A better way might be to get the candidate to do a task that isn't on company todo list, but instead is something the candidate is interested in. That might even open up a few conversations about the candidate which may help the decision process. Just a thought anyway, no idea if that could actually work. I do know we need something other than the series of pointless brain-teaser style questions companies are asking these days.

StavrosK 13y ago
The best interviews I've done were ones where we just talked about what technologies we like, where we've used them, etc. You just know you're talking someone who enjoys development as much as you do, and you can share your experiences with stacks you haven't used, etc. My favorite was one (I think I was the one doing the interview) where we talked about CouchDB, its pitfalls, its strengths, etc (the other guy had used it somewhere), and it was just honest chat between two people with the same interests. We ended up hiring the guy and he was great. Much better than a "spend three hours implementing something we need and send it to us, and we'll never talk to you again" faux-interview.
- adrianhoward 13y ago
  The problem is that there are some people who are very, very good at bullshitting. They can talk the talk - but not walk the walk. I've had several occasions where somebody I was sure would ace the coding has fouled up badly. And not "little bit nervous" badly, but "wow - you have put significant effort into learning how to lie during an interview" badly. One was early in my career, when I didn't do coding tests, and they got hired. It was an expensive mistake. I've encountered enough of 'em to want to stop myself ever making that mistake again. Never hire a juggler without seeing them juggle (http://raganwald.com/2006/07/hiring-juggler_02.html http://raganwald.com/2006/07/hiring-juggler_02.html).
  - StavrosK 13y ago
    Sure, but there's a huge difference between a coding test and writing a CRUD app that's 99% chore, 1% knowledge. The interviewee can demonstrate their knowledge by writing a few simple views of a few lines each, for example.

StavrosK 13y ago

The best interviews I've done were ones where we just talked about what technologies we like, where we've used them, etc. You just know you're talking someone who enjoys development as much as you do, and you can share your experiences with stacks you haven't used, etc. My favorite was one (I think I was the one doing the interview) where we talked about CouchDB, its pitfalls, its strengths, etc (the other guy had used it somewhere), and it was just honest chat between two people with the same interests. We ended up hiring the guy and he was great. Much better than a "spend three hours implementing something we need and send it to us, and we'll never talk to you again" faux-interview.

adrianhoward 13y ago
The problem is that there are some people who are very, very good at bullshitting. They can talk the talk - but not walk the walk. I've had several occasions where somebody I was sure would ace the coding has fouled up badly. And not "little bit nervous" badly, but "wow - you have put significant effort into learning how to lie during an interview" badly. One was early in my career, when I didn't do coding tests, and they got hired. It was an expensive mistake. I've encountered enough of 'em to want to stop myself ever making that mistake again. Never hire a juggler without seeing them juggle (http://raganwald.com/2006/07/hiring-juggler_02.html http://raganwald.com/2006/07/hiring-juggler_02.html).
- StavrosK 13y ago
  Sure, but there's a huge difference between a coding test and writing a CRUD app that's 99% chore, 1% knowledge. The interviewee can demonstrate their knowledge by writing a few simple views of a few lines each, for example.