Re:How I Interview
by mixmastamyk on Friday December 18, 2015 @02:17PM
(#10760337)
Two way street... assuming the guy was legit and confident, he'd have other offers lined up, and your company may have been the loser.
I for one commend "whiteboard refusers."
Maybe so. We use whiteboarding as a jumping off point for discussion, not to implement trees or graph traversals. It is usually apparent within a few minutes if the candidate knows their stuff, and we move deeper. Additionally, there is always going to be an onboarding period, where the new hire is learning how our team does things. We spend a lot of time communicating and drawing out ideas on whiteboards. We need to see if you can communicate clearly. Saying "naa, I don't whiteboard" is NOT a good start. In all likelihood this person would be a bad fit.
Re:How I Interview
by mixmastamyk on Friday December 18, 2015 @04:54PM
(#10761245)
Yes, the key is whiteboards are for diagrams, not coding.
1. People can't just take two weeks off to go code for another company.
2. With so many other candidates out there, a company is typically not going to bother with an "eccentric" who refuses to interview. (not saying you are eccentric, just that's how you'll appear next to the other 100 traditional "interview me I need a job!" applicants)
I've seen #2 play out in real life. Company interviewed a guy who refused to do any code on a whiteboard, even simple fizzbuzzy stuff, pointing to his multi-decade resume full of big name companies and high-profile projects as proof that he's good. The company's response was basically "OK, there's the door".