Interviewing questions...
-
Marc Clifton wrote: Education is useless. Ignore education. I think that is surely only paritally true. I'd be a little pissed if you're telling me my last three years of hard work in Cambridge getting a respectable degree were worthless....! -- Andrew.
I have hired and will hire a person who is self taught for a programming or other technial position over a university educated person every time. Self taught people have developed and show exactly the kind of skills that are necessary in the world today which is adaptability, continuous self learning, pesonal interest in the subject, experience in the real world doing all sorts of unusual things that give them all that knowledge that is the 80% part of what you actually need to know to get by in life and work. On average, a younger person straight out of university is all but unemployable in my not so humble opinion. Once they've seasoned themselves in the real world for a while lost that sense of entitlement that the world owes them etc then they may be an interesting person with some actually useful skills worth hiring and working with but until then I'll let someone else go through that process first.
"In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office." - Ambrose Bierce
-
I have hired and will hire a person who is self taught for a programming or other technial position over a university educated person every time. Self taught people have developed and show exactly the kind of skills that are necessary in the world today which is adaptability, continuous self learning, pesonal interest in the subject, experience in the real world doing all sorts of unusual things that give them all that knowledge that is the 80% part of what you actually need to know to get by in life and work. On average, a younger person straight out of university is all but unemployable in my not so humble opinion. Once they've seasoned themselves in the real world for a while lost that sense of entitlement that the world owes them etc then they may be an interesting person with some actually useful skills worth hiring and working with but until then I'll let someone else go through that process first.
"In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office." - Ambrose Bierce
I have to disagree with you - I feel that is an incredibly unfair position to take. There are many bright graduates out there who could beat the socks off an average seasoned developer any day. My course is not a programming course. Of the three years I have been here, I have completed two major projects and attended only a single, 16 lecture course that is directly about programming. The rest of the lecture courses are theoretical, discussing areas such as the theory of types, econmics and law, business, graphics, natural language processing and information retrieval, compilation, information theory, systems modelling.. .the list goes on. None of these have ever lectured me on how to write a program - in fact the university expects us to be able to master that ourselves because we are supposedly bright enough to. I have seen horrendous work by paid devlopers who have guzzled money and made absolute messes of systems in the various temping jobs I did in the summer of my first year to earn a spare bit of cash. I have been interested in computing since I was six, and have programmed since not much older than that - my most acclaimed CP article (beginner's guide to pointers) was written when I was 16 - so don't you think it's a little harsh to exclude me from your consideration simply because I have (or will have soon) a degree, when I might have turned out to be the best person for the job? I agree that many grads are not great, don't understand programming and just bumble along, but that can equally apply to those who were self taught; a person should be judged by their merits and capabilities, not by your generlatisation that a degree makes a bad programmer. -- Andrew.
-
It doesn't matter how much you interview a person, you'll never really know this person. Be prepared to make a mistake and correct it quickly. Matt Gullett wrote: The bottom line is that I want a talented developer who can bring something to the company beyond just writing code. I need someone who can offer good conceptual ideas, read between the lines, and build software systems that really deliver. I'd be surprised if you wrote: "I want someone stupid. Someone who don't think, and just code anything that seems to work, no matter how buggy it is.". What you want is actually what we all want. And it's hard to detect a good person in an interview. I'm hiring now (BTW, if you are Brazilian and in São Paulo, contact me), and I usually read around 100 CVs to make around 10 interviews. Of those, typically 3 or 4 seem good enough for the job and are probably willing to accept what we have to offer. Of all people we hired, 30% were mistakes. I see dead pixels Yes, even I am blogging now!
Daniel Turini wrote: Of all people we hired, 30% were mistakes. That's very high for here (UK). Is it typical for Brazil ? The tigress is here :-D
-
Daniel Turini wrote: Of all people we hired, 30% were mistakes. That's very high for here (UK). Is it typical for Brazil ? The tigress is here :-D
Trollslayer wrote: That's very high for here (UK). Is it typical for Brazil ? Kind of. We hire only really good programmers and senior programmers, the ammount of knowledge we need to assess in an interview is huge, and this leads to more mistakes. When hiring junior programmers, this is much easier, and the success rate is much higher, but we chose to have a very small team, with very good people and high salaries. In this situation, we expect a lot more from the people who work here. I see dead pixels Yes, even I am blogging now!
-
It doesn't matter how much you interview a person, you'll never really know this person. Be prepared to make a mistake and correct it quickly. Matt Gullett wrote: The bottom line is that I want a talented developer who can bring something to the company beyond just writing code. I need someone who can offer good conceptual ideas, read between the lines, and build software systems that really deliver. I'd be surprised if you wrote: "I want someone stupid. Someone who don't think, and just code anything that seems to work, no matter how buggy it is.". What you want is actually what we all want. And it's hard to detect a good person in an interview. I'm hiring now (BTW, if you are Brazilian and in São Paulo, contact me), and I usually read around 100 CVs to make around 10 interviews. Of those, typically 3 or 4 seem good enough for the job and are probably willing to accept what we have to offer. Of all people we hired, 30% were mistakes. I see dead pixels Yes, even I am blogging now!
Daniel Turini wrote: Of all people we hired, 30% were mistakes. Yours or theirs? :-D[
My articles and software tools
-
I have to disagree with you - I feel that is an incredibly unfair position to take. There are many bright graduates out there who could beat the socks off an average seasoned developer any day. My course is not a programming course. Of the three years I have been here, I have completed two major projects and attended only a single, 16 lecture course that is directly about programming. The rest of the lecture courses are theoretical, discussing areas such as the theory of types, econmics and law, business, graphics, natural language processing and information retrieval, compilation, information theory, systems modelling.. .the list goes on. None of these have ever lectured me on how to write a program - in fact the university expects us to be able to master that ourselves because we are supposedly bright enough to. I have seen horrendous work by paid devlopers who have guzzled money and made absolute messes of systems in the various temping jobs I did in the summer of my first year to earn a spare bit of cash. I have been interested in computing since I was six, and have programmed since not much older than that - my most acclaimed CP article (beginner's guide to pointers) was written when I was 16 - so don't you think it's a little harsh to exclude me from your consideration simply because I have (or will have soon) a degree, when I might have turned out to be the best person for the job? I agree that many grads are not great, don't understand programming and just bumble along, but that can equally apply to those who were self taught; a person should be judged by their merits and capabilities, not by your generlatisation that a degree makes a bad programmer. -- Andrew.
I think the difference, and one that John would recognise, is that your CV would show all of that ability. I've seen a lot of people myself that briefly list technologies someone heard a bit about whilst at university and then milk their degree for all they can. You can normally spot them as they start with the words "I have a degree in ... and I have experience with ..." and not vice versa. Your pitch should exclusively be based on your skills and abilities with your qualifications taking a follow up role.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flickrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
-
Daniel Turini wrote: Of all people we hired, 30% were mistakes. Yours or theirs? :-D[
My articles and software tools
Xiangyang Liu wrote: Yours or theirs? I believe both. Some people seem to forget that they should be looking for a good job, not simply looking for a job. I believe (and I do prefer candidates that seem to think this way) that it's the interviewee obligation to ask as many questions as possible to find if the job is right for them, too. Even if some soccer team would be crazy enough to hire me, I'd not accept working as a professional soccer player, because I'm a lousy player. I see dead pixels Yes, even I am blogging now!
-
I am looking to hire a developer so that I can double my team size to 2. I am responsible for finding, interviewing and ultimately hiring/managing this person. I have read many of the suggestions on this site, and others, regarding best strategies for interviewing/hiring, but I have some questions. The position is more than just coding, it is a true developer position. I want a person who can gather the requirements, design the system, work with the internal users and ultimately write the code. The bottom line is that I want a talented developer who can bring something to the company beyond just writing code. I need someone who can offer good conceptual ideas, read between the lines, and build software systems that really deliver. I have looked at 20-50 resumes and I really haven't seen a resume that just jumps out as outstanding. This is the first time I have been through this process, so I am concerned I am trying to read too much into this. So... How do you screen resumes for talent, not just education and experience? What questions do you ask, on the phone/in person to try and draw out the applicant and understand his/her talents? How succesful are you at drawing them out? What are some good ways to get an applicant to reveal his/her conceptual viewpoint, problem solving strategies, etc? Thanks, Matt Gullett
Matt Gullett wrote: How do you screen resumes for talent, When we bring a candidate for an interview, we ask them to make a presentation about a recent meaningful project they worked on (omitting any proprietary or confidential details). This has proved very helpful in allowing us to gauge the person's depth of knowledge and maturity as a developer. /ravi My new year's resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | Freeware | Music ravib@ravib.com