Re:Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software s...
by michaelt on Thursday July 16, 2020 @08:25AM
(#23858258)
> Give me a Mac and I'll spend half of the time asking you how to do X on a Mac
I worked at a place that got around this by giving the candidate a choice of their own laptop, a Windows laptop, a Mac laptop, and an Ubuntu laptop. Half a dozen different IDEs on each.
Of course, you have to find someone to take on the glamorous job of keeping track of all the laptops, and wiping them between candidates...
> Do you really have to test for the ability to use tools instead of the ability of reasoning? A whiteboard doesn't seem bad for that.
It depends: If you're a big believer in test-driven development, red-green-refactor, clear naming and good code structure, test coverage, use of version control - you don't tend to see those in whiteboard coding.
I worked at a place that got around this by giving the candidate a choice of their own laptop, a Windows laptop, a Mac laptop, and an Ubuntu laptop. Half a dozen different IDEs on each.
Of course, you have to find someone to take on the glamorous job of keeping track of all the laptops, and wiping them between candidates...
> Do you really have to test for the ability to use tools instead of the ability of reasoning? A whiteboard doesn't seem bad for that.
It depends: If you're a big believer in test-driven development, red-green-refactor, clear naming and good code structure, test coverage, use of version control - you don't tend to see those in whiteboard coding.