Software Engineering Interviews
I’ve been speaking with a number of friends regarding this topic lately, and felt like sharing my opinion on the matter.
A friend pointed me to Steve Yegge’s phone screen post and I agree that it’s a great list of topics and questions to weed people out over the phone. My single biggest take away from this post however is not the interview content, but the point Steve makes several times. You’re looking for a TOTAL VACUUM in any particular area, not someones ability to answer these questions perfectly semantically and syntactically over the phone. Interviewees are nervous, it’s not easy to answer technical questions over the phone regardless, and the whole point is to quickly pass/fail people so you spend more time on the right candidates. I’ve given and received a number of phone screens and in person interviews over the years, and there’s always been too much focus on the specifics, even with these kinds of questions. If a candidate shows the appropriate knowledge generally, has a strong history by some provable metric (I’m fond of portfolios with public code), and has historically been increasingly monetarily rewarded in their profession year after year, they’re probably a pretty good technical fit. At that point, the focus should be more on the cultural and team fit in my opinion.
In my opinion, if during a phone screen a candidate has a general idea or approach that shows the requisite knowledge devoid of said vacuum, MOVE ON to your next question, or pass the candidate to the next stage. You’re not learning anything valuable about them by continuing to grill them on some specific question, which is usually a pointless computer science exercise anyway. This has no bearing on their ability to actually do their job. It only shows they can play the game and cram CS knowledge in their brain in the exact way our industry is so fond of interviewing for.
Software industry, there are good ways of weeding people out for certain, but remember the purpose. For the love of the bit gods, stop interviewing people and placing such high value on things that can be googled in 5s or less.