Re:People suck at technical interviews (2014)
by titzer on Friday June 10, 2016 @07:25AM
(#11875587)
> That is a useless statement unless they followed the rejected candidates for a few more years at least. Otherwise it's just a tautology: They suck because my favorite test says so (i.e. because I say so).
The same comment could apply to any rejection criteria. At my employer, we do have some data, since we do reinterview candidates after years in-between, especially if they are fresh from college. I can't speak for our organization but yes, basic programming hurdles do reliably weed out bad candidates. This is based on my experience of having done more than 150 technical interviews, all of which were balanced against the feedback of the other interviewers. Failing basic programming problems is a good predictor.
> But how many people who are good programmers and just suck a) under pressure, b) especially when surprised are falsely out-selected?
Any kind of test that is given to candidates has the same risk.
But, let's break it down. Do you want to interview candidates for programming positions and _not_ have them program in some form or fashion during an interview? IMO that's nuts.
The same comment could apply to any rejection criteria. At my employer, we do have some data, since we do reinterview candidates after years in-between, especially if they are fresh from college. I can't speak for our organization but yes, basic programming hurdles do reliably weed out bad candidates. This is based on my experience of having done more than 150 technical interviews, all of which were balanced against the feedback of the other interviewers. Failing basic programming problems is a good predictor.
> But how many people who are good programmers and just suck a) under pressure, b) especially when surprised are falsely out-selected?
Any kind of test that is given to candidates has the same risk.
But, let's break it down. Do you want to interview candidates for programming positions and _not_ have them program in some form or fashion during an interview? IMO that's nuts.