When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re selling

Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by ryanworl on Sunday January 20, 2019 @08:13PM (#18956773)

Microsoft and Google do not collectively hire that many people and are not who I am talking about. “Brain-teaser” type questions are explicitly not work-sample tests and, yes, have no correlation with job performance.

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by jonathankoren on Monday January 21, 2019 @12:12AM (#18957816)

The number of people that they collectively hire is irrelevant. They have an outsized influence on interview practices industry wide.

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by Consultant32452 on Monday January 21, 2019 @12:13AM (#18957825)

IQ does correlate with work performance, and SAT tests are IQ tests. Brain teasers are an attempt at seeing how well/quickly your brain works to solve problems, is a rudimentary IQ test.

The problem is that requiring IQ tests for employment introduces liability that employers do not want.

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by jonathankoren on Monday January 21, 2019 @01:28AM (#18958128)

No. None of this is true.

Neither IQ nor SAT scores correlate with job performance. SAT scores were requested at Google for years. Explicit aptitude tests have been used in the past, and continue to be used. They are quite legal, as long as they are used for their intend use.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theemploymentbeat/2014/03/07/em...

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/too...

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by Consultant32452 on Monday January 21, 2019 @01:17PM (#18962220)

IQ is the best predictor of worker performance:

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-your-iq-strongly-influen...

SAT is an IQ test:

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/12/04/why-should-...

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by jonathankoren on Monday January 21, 2019 @03:27PM (#18963325)

Allow me to provide a link from the NY Times article your shared.

The TL;DNR: Nuh-uh!

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/12/04/why-should-...

In the future, you really shouldn't link to dueling articles in an opinion section. It makes this all too easy.

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by Consultant32452 on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @12:01AM (#18966103)

One of those opinions is from a professor of psychology, the other sells test prep services for a living.

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by mancerayder on Monday January 21, 2019 @01:36AM (#18958168)

SATs are IQ tests? A large portion is math, and the other written language, both taught disciplines. You obviously haven't taken a real IQ test, which is more abstract and has a large portion of spatial geometry type questions.

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by Consultant32452 on Monday January 21, 2019 @01:10PM (#18962164)

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/12/04/why-should-...

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by C1sc0cat on Monday January 21, 2019 @04:42AM (#18959065)

And isn't one large chunk of the SAT a written language test - that's gong to suck for dyslexic / neurodiverse candidates.

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Re:When hiring senior engineers, you’re not buying, you’re s... by coredog64 on Monday January 21, 2019 @08:48AM (#18960327)

At one point, MENSA would accept a high SAT score as a reasonable proxy for a high IQ.

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