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A comment on I'm a Google SWE that's coached 50 through the FAANG interview process. AMA. Parent comment

Re:I'm a Google SWE that's coached 50 through the FAANG inte... by blazespin on Saturday October 26, 2019 @05:09PM (#21366209)
To be completely honest, it's actually an intriguing idea. I wonder, assuming some basic level of competency, if you gave a candidate some completely orthogonal task unrelated to the career and they excelled at it (assuming no cheating), would they be a better hire than another candidate?

Maybe! Quite often success at work is determined by getting crap done that doesn't require the skills you trained for initially.

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Re:I'm a Google SWE that's coached 50 through the FAANG inte... by Terretta on Saturday October 26, 2019 @09:47PM (#21367420)
> if you gave a candidate some completely orthogonal task unrelated to the career and they excelled at it... would they be a better hire

This idea has been tried. It’s called college.

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Re:I'm a Google SWE that's coached 50 through the FAANG inte... by blazespin on Sunday October 27, 2019 @07:35PM (#21373177)
True enough, and it works to a certain degree I think.
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Re:I'm a Google SWE that's coached 50 through the FAANG inte... by wwweston on Saturday October 26, 2019 @05:45PM (#21366436)
This would also imply that there's probably fruitful hiring ground in picking from anyone inside your organization (where you have the most direct knowledge) who does their job well, no matter what it is.

I'm given to understand companies used to do this.

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Re:I'm a Google SWE that's coached 50 through the FAANG inte... by heavenlyblue on Saturday October 26, 2019 @05:39PM (#21366404)
Let’s take it to another level: the candidate realises that if they kill a current employee with the skills exactly matching theirs, would you hire them (assuming you can’t prove they killed the employee but it’s blatantly obvious) or would you think that’s unacceptable?
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Re:I'm a Google SWE that's coached 50 through the FAANG inte... by petjuh on Saturday October 26, 2019 @06:23PM (#21366628)
In Terry Pratchett's Assassins Guild they would hire them.
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Re:I'm a Google SWE that's coached 50 through the FAANG inte... by perl4ever on Saturday October 26, 2019 @08:32PM (#21367174)
I remember a book by Jim Cramer in which he told a story about how he was offered a job "if you go in that office and fire that guy, right now". He did, and was.
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