Developer Job Interviews
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So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
I usually wait until the applicant is comfortable, and after a predetermined amount of time, have a co-worker open the door, and I shout, "NO DON'T SHOOT!" If the applicant jumps up and positions him/herself between me and the door in order to take the bullet in my stead, I hire them on the spot. You can't buy loyalty like that. :)
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997 -
- Determine your requirements accurately 2) Ask Interview questions related to your requirements 3) Don't get bent out of shape if someone is an expert in 1) and 2) but doesn't have secret sub requirement 86 4) Set your standards appropriately. Do you want a peon, a critical thinker, a team lead, etc. If you want a team lead and you want to micromanage that person, expect trouble. If you want a peon and task them with leading 6 people, expect trouble. 5) You get what you pay for 6) If you are not an expert don't expect to be able to identify experts 7) Extroverts interview a lot better than introverts but there is a 50/50 population split between the two. Also, there is a much higher percentage of programmers that are introverts than extroverts. If you find that all of your "candidates" are extroverts you may have a bias. 8) Be willing to fire whoever you hire in two weeks.
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
#6 is very good point.
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I usually wait until the applicant is comfortable, and after a predetermined amount of time, have a co-worker open the door, and I shout, "NO DON'T SHOOT!" If the applicant jumps up and positions him/herself between me and the door in order to take the bullet in my stead, I hire them on the spot. You can't buy loyalty like that. :)
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997That seems like a really good idea! :laugh:
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I hadn't read it before. Now I'm cleaning the keyboard and monitor of coffee spittle after reading:
I want my ER doctor to understand anatomy, even if all she has to do is put the computerized defibrillator nodes on my chest and push the big red button, and I want programmers to know programming down to the CPU level, even if Ruby on Rails does read your mind and build a complete Web 2.0 social collaborative networking site for you with three clicks of the mouse.MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
For me it is a tick-list * Do they have code samples * Do they have / can they send me examples of "Hobby" projects (often these are more technically proficient than client projects, or at least they will / should always be passionate about them) * Do they have examples of finished work (even if they were part of a team) * If they have worked in a team, what were their responsibilities (avoid floaters that "do a bit of everything") * Do they understand / could they quickly adopt the coding style I need them to * What experience do they have (years for language(s) & project size, it's no good hiring a 10-year PHP veteran to build you an OS) * Are their any specialties they posses (relating to programming) * Are they willing to learn * Are they a roll their-own (Can they name some popular libraries) * Are they dependent on a library (Likewise they should be able to code without putting XYZ dependency into every project, the term wordpress or drupal developer really incenses me!) * What do the existing group think of them * What are their goal and aspirations (again you need to be careful as some just want to make senior dev quickly and will meander through many businesses to do so) Pitfalls I have experienced * Jack of all trades (Recently I sat with a dev that told me his experience was in hardware design, software design, programming for any device and that he was better known in Japan than UK. Needless to say he fell down upon scrutiny of any one area by being vague and general or jargon-throwing, some words that did not even belong together) * Academically perfect, Business disaster (This basically relates to anyone that would suggest re-visiting client code (regardless of who wrote it) and perform months of work adjusting the architecture (NOTE: without functional reason) of code so that it better fit a text-book description or what they learned in college. If someone does this, but they seem an otherwise good candidate, just ask them for some research before making changes and double check with clients (NOTE: not benchmarks alone but solid, business focused research with a case study) ) I think that should cover it :)
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This can also help the candidate in the same way. I had to do something very similar in a job interview about 18 months ago. I could tell we weren't made for each other when his doubt about the C#
readonlykeyword actually existing threatened to boil over into a full blown row. He didn't believe me, didn't believe the VS compiler (claimed I'd installed something that extended the language) until I showed him: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/acdd6hb7%28v=vs.100%29.aspx[^] Then he came out with "oh, must be new then." -
So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
Also try pre-screening to weed out the liars. You can do online tests where the applicant has to write code in a web page, and the entire process is recorded for your viewing pleasure. http://www.interviewzen.com/[^]
I too dabbled in pacifism once.
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That is an amazing story! hahahaha that is so funny, I take it they did not get the Job?
It was 100% the other way round, I was the candidate. My interviewer couldn't believe my code compiled using readonly, I tried to show him the MSDN link, he accused me of installing something and got a bit irate. I had to commandeer the mouse to show him the link.
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So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
This impress me a lot Interviews Can Be a Terrible Way to Identify Good Programmers also other articles from same author worth reading too The Codist: All Articles Tagged 'jobs' From my personal experience: my favorite technical question was 'how much searchers are necessary to find a given element in sorted array with (1000, 2000, ... choose anything you want) elements?' if candidate answer immediately i hire him without more questions. Why? 1) he can analyze the requirements from free text and choose best algorithm - binary search 2) he understands how this algorithm really works 3) he knows powers of 2 - this means experience
www.codigi.net .NET touch screen GUI components suite
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So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
My own situation is a little off the axis of the bell curve. I'm typically allowed to hire only very recent graduates: i.e., no employment experience. And in my experience, anyone I hire will need to be completely retrained. Hard real-time software engineering is its own unique domain, in which most of the techniques a recent Computer Science graduate will have absorbed are not only irrelevant, but actually destructive.
So I ask no technical questions. Not one. Instead, I probe for two things:
- Strong general intelligence;
- Aggressiveness about new knowledge and new challenges.
It's worked out best when I've succeeded in getting the candidate to talk about himself, his particular interests -- inside and outside software -- and the things he does with his spare time. I've had a few misfires, but on average the results have been good.
However, an interviewer who takes this approach must be ready for this question from the candidate:
"Aren't you going to ask me any technical questions?"
The last time this happened, I'd been chatting with the candidate for a solid hour. We'd gotten quite a nice little fire going, but he was puzzled that I'd shown so little interest in probing the specifics of his skills. So I asked him a question I've saved up for such occasions:
"Assume there are Plutonians. Assume there are Elves. If the Elves were to attack Pluto without warning at 5 AM tomorrow, which side would you be on?"
The candidate's eyes went momentarily wide. Then he grinned and said, "Why would I need to choose a side? I don't see that it's any of my business at all!"
To which I replied, "How soon can you start?"
(This message is programming you in ways you cannot detect. Be afraid.)
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Have them code something that is exactly what they would be doing in the position, screw fizz buzz bop, whatever. My advice, once you determine someone to meet the competence level you expect, go on their personality, since you will probably spend more waking hours with them than your wife. Choose them like you are choosing a mate. Here's an analogy: Skills are like good looks and writing great code is the equivalent of being sexy, but a bad personality can make a mate, or in this case candidate, ugly. Do you want to spend 50 hours a week with a bitch/asshole just because they look good? Also, try to gauge if they are creepy. Is their outlook on life shitty? Can they at least hide that during the interview? Do they seem like they want the job? Or do are they only looking because they need a salary?
wizardzz wrote:
Do they seem like they want the job? Or do are they only looking because they need a salary?
I think that is the ticket right there. If a person has a good attitude, and is willing to learn, then even a basic level of competency is ok to start with. In an environment that is happy and engaging that person will grow and flourish. However we've all been in the position at one point or another where money becomes an issue. I know I have. I would have taken anything to get some money rolling in just to buy some more time to find the job I actually wanted. That will just lead to another job hunt later, with less than impressive results while at this one. Find a person that fits in and actually wants the job.
If it moves, compile it
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So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
I had to interview college interns for a previous job. My general policy was to only hire those with GPA's over 3.0, but one kid with a 2.7 wanted the job so bad (did his research, asked if he might get a chance to work with this and that technology) that I gave him a shot. One of the best interns we ever had. (The one kid with a 3.9 was the *worst*!!!) Bottom line - attitude is everything.
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So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
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So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
One of my main questions is, "What have you done outside of class or previous work requirements?" Essentially, do they program recreationally? Why is that important to me? It shows immediately to me if they are interested in learning more. I've worked with too many drones who did only what they were told, even when it was obvious what they were told to do was wrong. I want programmers who are bothering to learn something new on their own time because you never know when that outside skill will become applicable to the job. I'm basing that on my own experience. I experimented with interrupts when my employer thought it a waste of time. Later I had a job that required extensive use of interrupt driven code. But more recently, I was playing with a program that did graphics at home, and it just so happened a requirement for graphics came up and I was able to apply that knowledge to develop a system that saved the company $42,000 in initial cost and millions in operations. I want to have people on my team that may just have that knowledge that is outside our current requirements that can come in and save the day. If I think a candidate is worthwhile, I'll drag them back to my office for a one on one where we discuss programming in general. I don't ask about specific syntax, that changes too fast. I'm not looking to ask them tricky questions, like some I've had to deal with. I want to know if they are BSing me and if not, can I dream with them of what we could accomplish. Again, I'm not looking for drones, but I don't want BS artists either. How grounded are they in what it takes to get a product out the door? So far I've been very happy with the people I've hired, it's the ones that weren't hired going through this process that I am less enamored with.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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So, I've conducted job interviews in the past while I worked in the restaurant industry. I quite liked it, and I feel like I was very successful at finding good team members. Now, I have the opportunity to interview people for developer positions on my team. I've been reading a little about what makes a good interview for computer programmers, and I am wondering if anyone here in the lounge has any good advice for quickly and effectively determining whether or not a developer is 'worth his/her salt'. What works for you? Are there any pitfalls that you experienced that I should avoid? Thanks!
Ask them how they would go about making M&M's. There is no correct answer, of course; the point is to confuse and fluster them. Don't accept their first or second or third answer. Keep berating them about it. This should comprise the bulk of the interview. (Is anyone besides me old enough to remember this one? Still irks me!!)
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wizardzz wrote:
Do they seem like they want the job? Or do are they only looking because they need a salary?
I think that is the ticket right there. If a person has a good attitude, and is willing to learn, then even a basic level of competency is ok to start with. In an environment that is happy and engaging that person will grow and flourish. However we've all been in the position at one point or another where money becomes an issue. I know I have. I would have taken anything to get some money rolling in just to buy some more time to find the job I actually wanted. That will just lead to another job hunt later, with less than impressive results while at this one. Find a person that fits in and actually wants the job.
If it moves, compile it
loctrice wrote:
That will just lead to another job hunt later
Or maybe I could already like my job and just want a higher salary. So I would look for the same job elsewhere, but just for the money.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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loctrice wrote:
That will just lead to another job hunt later
Or maybe I could already like my job and just want a higher salary. So I would look for the same job elsewhere, but just for the money.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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It was 100% the other way round, I was the candidate. My interviewer couldn't believe my code compiled using readonly, I tried to show him the MSDN link, he accused me of installing something and got a bit irate. I had to commandeer the mouse to show him the link.
I guess the interviewer fits point #6 made by Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr.[^] :laugh:
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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I usually wait until the applicant is comfortable, and after a predetermined amount of time, have a co-worker open the door, and I shout, "NO DON'T SHOOT!" If the applicant jumps up and positions him/herself between me and the door in order to take the bullet in my stead, I hire them on the spot. You can't buy loyalty like that. :)
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997I'd probably say: "Don't shoot me, shoot him!"
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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Let them do a simple practical test. Like writing a web form with one text filed and one button that will update one field in some data table. You will be surprised how many of them cannot actually code AT ALL.
Yes, rely heavily on sample tests to write some well known coding. If they can't handle that, they are nubs and will end up slowing you down getting them up to speed in the current project. I also give them a test to see if they understand the code and can pickup on a feature in a current project. I evaluate their creative contributions to a feature with some basic questions. Also I ask them to bring examples of programs they have written themselves. All worthwhile developers have their own little projects they are working on. I look for completeness in their work, idea's they have for improvement and how they would go about it. I also evaluate their eagerness to get started and ability to work with a team. I think these things are extremely important.