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from the boss-wants-to-see-how-you-handle-pressure? dept.
I recently applied for a job in Silicon Valley.
The recruiter had me take a battery of tests that measured my verbal, mathematical and visual aptitude. I'd guess it was a mini-IQ test; it wasn't a mini-MMPI. As a result of the tests I was invited to interview onsite.
At the end of the interview the manager declared that he wanted me to take some tests.
His tests were brain teasers he had downloaded from a random website. The brain teasers had nothing to do with the work I was interviewing for. He seemed to ignore the battery of sophisticated tests I had been subjected to, and to believe that he could do better.
What is the REAL purpose of using brain teasers during an employment interview?
Is it just to make the candidate feel stupid? Are any of these people qualified to interpret the results? Are any of them industrial psychologists? Or is this all about power and control?
Please advise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @04:13PM (7 children)
Whiteboard?!
WTF is standing around writing code by hand on a wall all day long? That's awkward and weird, and automatically takes up brainpower, enhancing the discomfort of being judged by people who are probably not that great themselves.
I don't know. There's something seriously wrong with the programming industry; no other profession involves this kind of ridiculousness—when did you last quiz an HVAC tech before hiring him to fix your furnace, which itself can be a very diagnostic, methodical job that requires real ingenuity both to figure out the problem and to insert the solution (often ad hoc).
Apprenticeships. That's what the programming industry needs. This whole "prove yourself in the moment" mentality is just plain dumb.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @04:26PM (6 children)
Maybe because programmers get paid (currently) much more than other low peons, so corps will care more. And the other peons are an especially critical kind of people, who may also had the displeasure of having a mishire on their team who got through the interview process.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @04:30PM (5 children)
There's a reason why technical trades (including the medical doctoring) ALL involves lengthy apprenticeship, followed by journeymanships, followed by certified mastery.
There's no fucking guessing.
"Man! These programmers are costly; let's find the right guys with.... in-the-moment, gotcha riddles and hand-written code!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @05:45PM (3 children)
Law too.
When will software developers/IT people organize and form a professional association?
It won't happen until we make it happen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @06:50PM (2 children)
Software and computer engineering are recognized engineering professions now, and you can take the exam and call yourself an engineer.
However, no employer is requiring such accreditation, so nobody bothers. It also requires jumping through any hoops the State may come up with for engineers, so interest from freelancers is rather subdued (nil?).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @08:12PM (1 child)
How do you think doctors and plumbers achieved what they achieved?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @12:52AM
Lobbying? To do that requires cooperation. Programmers however think that everyone by himself is the true master.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05 2018, @09:09PM
There's a few reasons for that, on the labor side, having such a program set up to certify potential employees cuts the supply significantly, but it also means that the value that you're bringing forth for a job application is somewhat less of a mystery. Sure, you get dumbass lawyers, teachers, doctors and others, but on the whole, people in these sorts of jobs tend to know what they're doing to at least the level demanded by the profession. You're much less likely to have a professionally trained doctor killing your patients than a random stranger that just shows up to a job interview, but interviews really well.