6 ms·

Author went to college. Look at his questions from another angle. Would you hire a CS grad who couldn't answer the question "What's your favorite programming l

Author went to college. Look at his questions from another angle. Would you hire a CS grad who couldn't answer the question "What's your favorite programming language?" I think his example might be overly specific, but the answers the candidate gave would certainly be a red flag.

tptacek 14y ago
Yes. But then, we use a gamified version of a work-sample test, so I would know that despite the fact that the candidate doesn't really care about the difference between Python and Ruby, he can exploit blind SQL injection and reverse engineer a network protocol. Which is good, because the latter ability is predictive of success, and the former is predictive of lots of stupid unproductive arguments. This would be a nitpicking debate except that it gets to the heart of what makes the interview strategy in this article so dumb. There are lots of great programmers --- maybe some of the best --- who don't care all that much about language design or what language they'll be working in. There are, more importantly, a WHOLE MESS of programmers who can DEFINITELY talk your ears off about what the best language is... and then fail fizbuzz.
manicdee 14y ago
I wouldn't be interested in someone who has a "favourite programming language." That's just asking for someone who thinks they're clever for figuring out how to drive screws with a hammer.
DigitalSea 14y ago
I would rather hire a CS grad who couldn't answer the question, "What's your favorite programming language?" than someone who could. A decent CS grad wouldn't have a preference, there are different languages for different purposes depending on what you are trying to accomplish. There is no one language fits all language. I'd prefer a CS grad who has a vested interest and appreciation of multiple languages, wouldn't you? Why hire someone with a raging hard on for Java when you can hire someone with an appreciation for Java, Python and C++?
netfeed 14y ago
I don't really know what my favorite programming language is, i'm currently most efficient in perl and java, but that doesn't mean that they're my favorites. I've not found "the language" yet.
Shorel 14y ago
I can't. I'm always trying to choose between C++ and Lisp. Disclaimer: I don't know Haskell or any other pure FP languages.
dagw 14y ago
It depends if I'm hiring him to program or repair cars. If someone left college with a CS degree and a realization that he never wanted to write a line code ever again and got an apprenticeship as a welder instead, I wouldn't hold it against him if 6 years later he'd forgotten most of what he knew about programming. So this candidate partied his way through college and bluffed his way to a degree, what difference does that make if you're not hiring him to do anything related to his degree? I thought the prevailing notion here was that most of the stuff taught at college was largely pointless when compared to the hard-won knowledge gained in the trenches of the professional world.

tptacek 14y ago

Yes. But then, we use a gamified version of a work-sample test, so I would know that despite the fact that the candidate doesn't really care about the difference between Python and Ruby, he can exploit blind SQL injection and reverse engineer a network protocol. Which is good, because the latter ability is predictive of success, and the former is predictive of lots of stupid unproductive arguments. This would be a nitpicking debate except that it gets to the heart of what makes the interview strategy in this article so dumb. There are lots of great programmers --- maybe some of the best --- who don't care all that much about language design or what language they'll be working in. There are, more importantly, a WHOLE MESS of programmers who can DEFINITELY talk your ears off about what the best language is... and then fail fizbuzz.

manicdee 14y ago

I wouldn't be interested in someone who has a "favourite programming language." That's just asking for someone who thinks they're clever for figuring out how to drive screws with a hammer.

DigitalSea 14y ago

I would rather hire a CS grad who couldn't answer the question, "What's your favorite programming language?" than someone who could. A decent CS grad wouldn't have a preference, there are different languages for different purposes depending on what you are trying to accomplish. There is no one language fits all language. I'd prefer a CS grad who has a vested interest and appreciation of multiple languages, wouldn't you? Why hire someone with a raging hard on for Java when you can hire someone with an appreciation for Java, Python and C++?

netfeed 14y ago

I don't really know what my favorite programming language is, i'm currently most efficient in perl and java, but that doesn't mean that they're my favorites. I've not found "the language" yet.

Shorel 14y ago

I can't. I'm always trying to choose between C++ and Lisp. Disclaimer: I don't know Haskell or any other pure FP languages.

dagw 14y ago

It depends if I'm hiring him to program or repair cars. If someone left college with a CS degree and a realization that he never wanted to write a line code ever again and got an apprenticeship as a welder instead, I wouldn't hold it against him if 6 years later he'd forgotten most of what he knew about programming. So this candidate partied his way through college and bluffed his way to a degree, what difference does that make if you're not hiring him to do anything related to his degree? I thought the prevailing notion here was that most of the stuff taught at college was largely pointless when compared to the hard-won knowledge gained in the trenches of the professional world.