3 ms·

One of the issues I have is with this style of interviewing, period. This has no relation to the way I actually work. I don't write production-quality enterpris

One of the issues I have is with this style of interviewing, period. This has no relation to the way I actually work. I don't write production-quality enterprise application software at a whiteboard in front of a group of judges. I don't hear the problem and immediately start writing code. Instead, I think the problem over, perhaps google around about it, perhaps discuss it with my colleagues. I spend more of my time as a developer planning, prototyping and designing solutions than writing code. If you think it through carefully first, you can write the code quickly in the end. Just not on a whiteboard in front of a group of critical judges.

jliptzin 13y ago
It really is kind of silly. I naively started interviewing this way, basically copying big G and others who do these kinds of interviews. The problem was I was filtering for the type of programmer who enjoys these discrete, quirky, contrived puzzles, not real engineers who understand resource constraints, writing production quality scalable software, and fierce debugging. Now I find a candidate whose work impresses me, put him on a project for 2 weeks, and hire at that point if we're happy. So much better.
- ep25 13y ago
  What do you offer a candidate to work for you for 2 weeks? I am assuming most of the candidates already have a fulltime job.
- jared314 13y ago
  The important thing to remember about the big G or MS style is, they have a massive stream of extremely qualified potential hires, who want to work there far more than the company needs them. The company needs an assembly line just to handle the large numbers of applicants. There is a classic anecdote about the manager who handled a large stack of resumes by randomly throwing half into the garbage, and remarking "I don't hire unlucky people"[1]. I can't find the original source, and it's probably not true, but it is closer to what they are doing than actually evaluating people for a job. [1] http://benpowell.org/i-dont-hire-unlucky-people/ http://benpowell.org/i-dont-hire-unlucky-people/

jliptzin 13y ago

It really is kind of silly. I naively started interviewing this way, basically copying big G and others who do these kinds of interviews. The problem was I was filtering for the type of programmer who enjoys these discrete, quirky, contrived puzzles, not real engineers who understand resource constraints, writing production quality scalable software, and fierce debugging. Now I find a candidate whose work impresses me, put him on a project for 2 weeks, and hire at that point if we're happy. So much better.

ep25 13y ago
What do you offer a candidate to work for you for 2 weeks? I am assuming most of the candidates already have a fulltime job.
jared314 13y ago
The important thing to remember about the big G or MS style is, they have a massive stream of extremely qualified potential hires, who want to work there far more than the company needs them. The company needs an assembly line just to handle the large numbers of applicants. There is a classic anecdote about the manager who handled a large stack of resumes by randomly throwing half into the garbage, and remarking "I don't hire unlucky people"[1]. I can't find the original source, and it's probably not true, but it is closer to what they are doing than actually evaluating people for a job. [1] http://benpowell.org/i-dont-hire-unlucky-people/ http://benpowell.org/i-dont-hire-unlucky-people/