6 ms·

This! All my experience in trying to hire developers has been wading through an endless stream of people who were just useless. Me: I want to represent a 2d g

by LandR 3mo ago

This! All my experience in trying to hire developers has been wading through an endless stream of people who were just useless. Me: I want to represent a 2d grid, what data structure should we use? Them: A string? This was someone applying for senior engineer. Others I've had filled their CV with SQL related acronyms. But couldn't explain what a foreign key was and then stubbornly insisted that at their current corp they would never ever use foreign keys in their SQL database! I've had senior engineer when asked how to check if we had a 2d array with an item at x,y tell me if anything is on the same column or row, they couldn't do it, couldn't even verbalise how to approach it. "Web Developers" who didn't know the difference between GET and POST. Web Developers that have never heard of PUT or what it would be used for.

bandrami 3mo ago
I have a question I usually ask which is "How would you convert a Julian yyyy-ddd date string to a military yyyy-mm-dd date string?" (I explain how a Julian date works if they aren't familiar with it.) The answer that almost guarantees I'll hire you is "there's got to be a library function for that, so I look in the manual". Almost as good is somebody whiteboarding how they'd convert ddd to mm-dd (and then account for leap years, etc.) I get a disturbing number of people who say things like "I would communicate with the person asking for this to see what they're really intending blah blah" My favorite answer was on a phone interview where he just hung up and wouldn't answer when we called back.
- nkrisc 3mo ago
  > I get a disturbing number of people who say things like "I would communicate with the person asking for this to see what they're really intending blah blah" Sounds like they know this question is a “gotcha” question but just misinterpreted which direction you were going with it. Some will ask a question like this expecting you to treat it like a puzzle and outline how you’d solve it as-is; others ask it as a way to probe how you’ll deal with strange or misguided requests (the case you noted as disturbing); and others yet will ask it to see how you’d practically solve it (your intention). Seems like a bad interview question without context regarding kind of answer you’re looking for.
  - bandrami 3mo ago
    No, it's a pretty good interview question because it tells me if somebody's instinct is to reinvent the wheel or not. What I didn't expect was how many people couldn't say how a wheel even works.
    - firmretention 3mo ago
      People are not generally answering interview questions based on instinct, but rather based on what they think the interviewer wants to hear to get the job. I would have interpreted this is as a leetcode style algo question and started by treating it as such, even though IRL my first instinct would be "get a lib that does it". Awful, awful strategy.
      - bluGill 3mo ago
        It appears that either answer would be accepted, and so I'm fine with it. If it really is there is one correct answer then I'm against this. This feels like a problem where a good enough solution can be done in the time of an interview if you do it by hand (though if anyone knows about dates they will expect there is a lifetime of fixing special cases left if you don't use the library) I prefer fizz-buzz as a question because it is obvious there isn't a library. It is also a problem you should be able to do in an interview. It has enough weirdness that there is no best answer, despite having several workable paths you could try.
        bandrami 3mo ago
        I mean, any answer is "accepted" in the sense that the whole point is to let me see how you think about solving simple problems. What has been distressing is seeing the number of applicants who can't even try, when it's the trying I want to see.
        bluGill 3mo ago
        It is shocking how often there is one acceptable correct answer and they don't care about the approach to solving problems only the score in a pass fail way.
- rightbyte 3mo ago
  > My favorite answer was on a phone interview where he just hung up and wouldn't answer when we called back. Heh ... yeah well I wish I had it to do that. However, you are asking gotcha questions.
  - bandrami 3mo ago
    If "I want to see your instincts towards solving a problem" is a "gotcha" then we should just draw lots to hire people.
    - rightbyte 3mo ago
      I unironically not as a joke think that rolling a dice after vetting candidate credentials is about as good as most recruiting policies or better. To much bias for players. Like talk to the person abit to avoid obvious toxic people and then fact check the credentials. So yeah draw lots. Guessing right on whether you want a practical response for the gotcha or for them to solve the puzzle adds no value to the process.

by LandR 3mo ago

bandrami 3mo ago

I have a question I usually ask which is "How would you convert a Julian yyyy-ddd date string to a military yyyy-mm-dd date string?" (I explain how a Julian date works if they aren't familiar with it.) The answer that almost guarantees I'll hire you is "there's got to be a library function for that, so I look in the manual". Almost as good is somebody whiteboarding how they'd convert ddd to mm-dd (and then account for leap years, etc.) I get a disturbing number of people who say things like "I would communicate with the person asking for this to see what they're really intending blah blah" My favorite answer was on a phone interview where he just hung up and wouldn't answer when we called back.

nkrisc 3mo ago
> I get a disturbing number of people who say things like "I would communicate with the person asking for this to see what they're really intending blah blah" Sounds like they know this question is a “gotcha” question but just misinterpreted which direction you were going with it. Some will ask a question like this expecting you to treat it like a puzzle and outline how you’d solve it as-is; others ask it as a way to probe how you’ll deal with strange or misguided requests (the case you noted as disturbing); and others yet will ask it to see how you’d practically solve it (your intention). Seems like a bad interview question without context regarding kind of answer you’re looking for.
- bandrami 3mo ago
  No, it's a pretty good interview question because it tells me if somebody's instinct is to reinvent the wheel or not. What I didn't expect was how many people couldn't say how a wheel even works.
  - firmretention 3mo ago
    People are not generally answering interview questions based on instinct, but rather based on what they think the interviewer wants to hear to get the job. I would have interpreted this is as a leetcode style algo question and started by treating it as such, even though IRL my first instinct would be "get a lib that does it". Awful, awful strategy.
    - bluGill 3mo ago
      It appears that either answer would be accepted, and so I'm fine with it. If it really is there is one correct answer then I'm against this. This feels like a problem where a good enough solution can be done in the time of an interview if you do it by hand (though if anyone knows about dates they will expect there is a lifetime of fixing special cases left if you don't use the library) I prefer fizz-buzz as a question because it is obvious there isn't a library. It is also a problem you should be able to do in an interview. It has enough weirdness that there is no best answer, despite having several workable paths you could try.
      - bandrami 3mo ago
        I mean, any answer is "accepted" in the sense that the whole point is to let me see how you think about solving simple problems. What has been distressing is seeing the number of applicants who can't even try, when it's the trying I want to see.
        bluGill 3mo ago
        It is shocking how often there is one acceptable correct answer and they don't care about the approach to solving problems only the score in a pass fail way.
rightbyte 3mo ago
> My favorite answer was on a phone interview where he just hung up and wouldn't answer when we called back. Heh ... yeah well I wish I had it to do that. However, you are asking gotcha questions.
- bandrami 3mo ago
  If "I want to see your instincts towards solving a problem" is a "gotcha" then we should just draw lots to hire people.
  - rightbyte 3mo ago
    I unironically not as a joke think that rolling a dice after vetting candidate credentials is about as good as most recruiting policies or better. To much bias for players. Like talk to the person abit to avoid obvious toxic people and then fact check the credentials. So yeah draw lots. Guessing right on whether you want a practical response for the gotcha or for them to solve the puzzle adds no value to the process.