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from the prove-Fermat's-last-theorem-using-only-a-protractor-and-straight-edge dept.
Saw this discussion on Reddit, and thought it might be of interest here, too (as such things perennially are):
I've been a successful software engineer for 10 years at various startups and small businesses. I do a lot of contracting on the side too. I've recently had cause to start looking for work again.
What the hell is up with these interview questions? They don't really have much to do with the ins and outs of clean code, architecture or collaboration. I had hoped they'd stop with this bullshit already. There's a lot of companies that promise 'No whiteboard interviews' like Triplebyte, only for that to be a complete and total lie.
They're more like annoying riddles I'd find in an Sierra adventure game or D&D. I'm just not very good at these types of 'riddle questions'. I know they always wind up having to do with binary trees, graph algorithms or something like that, but the dress-up and time constraints are unrealistically stressful.
I honestly wasn't very good at these questions when I'd graduated and I'm still not good at them now. How screwed am I? Are companies willing to hire based on projects and seeing live code?
I'm always careful to speak with my employers and convince them to write a 'portfolio' clause in my contract that allows me to keep code for the purpose of seeking further employment.
I really don't want to spend 3 months of my life learning how to solve riddles just to get another job.
I also suck at these kinds of questions, despite having designed and written a lot of software and systems. What say you, Soylentils, are these kinds of interview questions necessary to find good software engineers?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday March 08 2017, @12:19AM (5 children)
Or, maybe they're just smarter than you are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:10AM
Nope. Because I don't work in IT.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:28PM (3 children)
There is a strange bit of insight in there, in that it can be a cultural test.
So if you're interviewing at a H1B place, among the Asians, saving face is extremely important and honesty is way down on the list, I mean its nice but its way down there in their cultural priority list. At a "old white guy" place its usually the other way around and a little humility asking questions and showing a desire to learn is cool, for goodness sakes don't tell an obvious lie, and you always do what you said you'd do as if your old drill instructor is looking at you, would this guy make a good apprentice or soldier type thing?
So H1B company interview asks to prove P=NP and the cultural fit answer is to nod your head in a guru like manner while saying yes I know all about that, we studied that at IIT (everyone from India went to IIT, most are lying of course and know american HR won't check international references), no problem, this will be an easy task to do the needful, but I will have to email the correct answer to you tomorrow, OK? Needless to say no answer is ever emailed and the next day you act like the conversation never happened.
So white guy company interview asks to prove P=NP and the cultural fit answer is something like fleshing out the details and talking strategy and being reasonably humble while admitting you have no idea how to do it but am willing to learn and put in the sweat to get it right and lets cooperatively work on a team and hey boss I respect your advice and experience on this topic and stuff like that.
The wrong answer at both companies is going all "Leon from Bladerunner".
The closest thing I did to flipping out in an interview was getting REALLY pissed off they basically lied on the phone and in the job description so I was like F all these people F this company F this interview process F wasting one of my vacation days to meet these liars F it all, so I stopped being serious and started flirting with the HR girl who pretty much giggled and poker-faced it, I was a lot younger back then and I think if we were at a bar rather than a job interview it might have worked out, she was reacting better than some girls where things did work out, but whatever. No I didn't get a date. My lines were awful. I remember the old guy VP of engineering or whatever he was, snickering at my bad lines. The only bad line I remember specifically was the stupid HR question about explaining how you identified and resolved a difficult personnel problem so as you can guess I went down the path of meeting a beautiful and smart woman at a job interview and as for solving it is she busy tonight?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:23PM (2 children)
That's a good story. The only time I intentionally blew an interview was with the CIA. They spent the whole day running me through scenarios designed to see how well you can think on your feet, how well you can keep your composure when you're surprised, etc. Basically stupid mind games all day, all of which were terribly transparent and whose solutions were painfully obvious. The dumpy, over-the-hill thirty-something woman who was interviewing me claimed to be the head of the Europe Station, and started flirting with me the more I sailed through the scenarios, throwing little French phrases and exclamations into her patter with tosses of her hair. It was so ridiculous that when we arrived at the end I decided to fuck with her and see how well she kept her composure in the face of an unexpected turn of events. She asked me if I had any questions, and I asked her what she would say to the people who say the CIA is nothing more than a pack of mindless bureaucrats running around pushing paper and competing with each other for the butchest lingo. Well, she did not keep her composure. Three months later I saw her picture in the New York Times, in Russian custody for spying.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:07PM (1 child)
That's interesting, my experience with the feds WRT security clearance decades ago was they continued to ask the same dumb questions over and over.
I later read that WRT lie detectors people who try to beat the test, memorize their cover story so well they never make a mistake, but casual stuff that is true and isn't a cover story will have minor small variation.
So they ask like 20 times who your five closest friends were in high school and you give the same five every time because you're sick of the question that sounds like a fake memorized answer, whereas if you'd randomly insert and remove a girlfriend or two they'd accept that as true and leave you alone and clear you.
For older people security clearance is all about addiction and credit problems which is sort of easy duty for them, but for kids all they can work with is finding out if you hung out with the druggies or the commies. I think it took me like six months to get cleared and be deployable.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Saturday March 11 2017, @02:41PM
i will repeat my one experience with so-called 'lie detectors' along while back...
had some buddies who were lying, scamming, corner-cutting salesdroid types... (but great guys ! 8^)
they went to work at radio shack after 'passing' (?) lie detector tests (NO WAY they told the truth), and asked if i wanted a job there...
needed a job, went to take the test, and answer as honestly and completely as i can, about everything...
guy asked whether i had ever used cocaine (which i had tried a couple times a decade or so previous, never was in to it, period), and then kept asking if i had used it recently/currently (which i had NOT in any way, shape or form), and i kept saying no, because -duh- that was the dog honest truth...
long boring story short, was told i didn't pass the test, didn't get the job...
so, sociopathic-lite salesdroids who i have no doubt were stealing radio shack blind, got through their 'filter', while an honest, non-drug abusing (these guys were HUGE druggies, MOST ESPECIALLY including coke), potentially 'good' employee got screwed over...
i am sure that is the one and only time that has happened...