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How Should You Interview a Programmer?
phamlen asks: "Having hired several programmers who haven't worked out, I'm wondering if other people have better success with interviewing techniques. Usually we have a two 'technical interviews' and a final interview. The technical interviews tend to be a combination of specific technical questions ('Is friendship inherited? How would you find out?') and algorithmic ('Given the numbers from 1-10 missing one number, how do you find the missing number?'). In addition, we essentially try to interview for: intelligence/performance. technical skills (algorithmic, etc.), and team compatibility. Unfortunately, we've been burned a couple of times by people whose performance didn't measure up to what we expected from the interviews. So I'm wondering if other people wanted to share their interviewing tricks - how do you find out if someone is a good programmer?" Surprisingly enough, we've done a series of these, so if you are interested in similar questions for sysadmins,
network engineers, or the one who will follow in your footsteps, then we've got it covered. We've also covered core IT questions as well. What special ways do you have of evaluating potential coders? How well have they worked out?
...if they answer "42", then hire them.
"Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
--Tom Schulman
Interviewer: Who won the superbowl last year?
Programmer:
Interviewer: What do you do for fun outside of work?
Programmer:
Interviewer: Hmm. What do you look for in a woman?
Programmer:
Interviewer: Great then, one last thing we need to check...
Programmer:
Interviewer: Ok then, see you Monday.
Casca
If you're interviewing the programmer, you somehow got pushed up to management and are screwed already. :)
-JDF
How were you able to be so poetic yet completely vague all in one sentence like that?
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
..for the most part. Most programmers with some sort of qualification can get your jobs done, unless your jobs require some amazing degree of skill. I probably couldn't write you out a bug free Quicksort first try, but I could certainly implement it in a real project.
And to be honest, most projects don't require skills nearly that nebulous. How many projects today are: get the data off the screen, validate it, then create the invoice.
The bigger question is whether they'll actually work hard on their jobs, or just play on SlashDot all day. And I don't know how to interview for that (and obviously neither do my employers).
.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Some example questions would be.
Which compiler do you prefer?
Complete the sequence. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64
Are the voices in your head loud enough to disturb your coworkers?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
He just got promoted to management.
Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.
Well, 10 minutes later, the president came back in the room, and there was a web browser displaying his creation -- a single sentence, "Hi Tim, I wrote a web page" in bold and italics. Up on the screen were other web browsers containing internet searches about basic HTML, as well as the output of "view source" from one of our web pages.
Three years later, this guy is still with us, by far the best customer service manager we've ever had.
I guess the point is, give the person a puzzle that you know that they have no idea how to solve, and give them the resources to figure out how to solve it, and see what they do.
- In Capitalist America, law violates YOU!
I usually ask if they contribute to open source. Then, if they answer affirmatively, I tell them they can telecommute, give them a design spec document, and give myself a bonus for saving 100 percent on salary!
I don't have anything against vegeterians either </in our "How to cover up a typo" series> ;))
[humor]
It is obvious that anyone with hiring expertise, such as human resource specialists, can most effectively hire potential candidates by insuring that they have MCSE (Microsoft) or Red Hat (Linux) certifications.
This removes the requirement for the interviewer to ask intelligent questions, and for the interviewee to provide intelligent answers, streamlining the entire interview process completely.
After all, how else is an interviewer going to be able to BS a potential candidate into believing they know what they are asking about, and how else is a potential candidate going to BS an interviewer that they know what they are talking about?
As Microsoft and Apple have been pushing for on the desktop for years now, it is time we removed the expertise and knowledge from the entire process altogether, thereby "enabling" and "facilitating" the hiring process.
[/humor]
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
"I'd buy puppies for orphans"
You MONSTER! Do you know how much it costs to care for and feed a puppy? And you'd inflict this financial burden on poor orphans?
You're sick SICK SICK!!!
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
They do crossword puzzles.
With a pen, not a pencil.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
I interviewed for a position as Sysadmin once. They asked me how I'd troubleshoot the Blue Screen of Death. My response was "I'd ask Clippy".
Didn't get the job, though.
"Derp de derp."
Having hired several programmers who haven't worked out...
... or showered, or shaved...
1.
2. For myself, having hired several
bodybuilders who haven't programmed...
Considered harmful.