What's so interesting about this experience it hits so many of the points I've been complaining about in my writing about hiring in the tech industry[0]:
- Giving trick questions that have an "insight" moment, instead of one that has multiple answers, even partial answers to build off of.
- Not letting the candidate pick the language they're comfortable with. The candidate may even know the language they're asked to code in, but if they haven't been working with it recently, an interview is not the right time to pick it up again.
- Making the candidate nervous, both by not being helpful and by watching over them with unnecessary scrutiny.
- Looking for flaws instead of strengths.
People, myself included, are always talking about these problems, but companies have so much inertia, they are not evolving fast enough to solve these problems. No wonder tech companies are filled with people who, while capable, often fit a particular mold, and why we end up in situations where products don't reflect the needs of the market (because the people working on those products aren't representative of the market).
i was slightly sleep deprived for an algo interview and the interviewer just pasted problems into coderpad and just said nothing, i might have solved it if the guy was friendly but the absolute silence made me hear time ticking in my sleep deprived state and i psyched myself out. I went home and answered both the questions pretty handily, but man the interviewer demeanor plays such a big role in interviews.
- Giving trick questions that have an "insight" moment, instead of one that has multiple answers, even partial answers to build off of.
- Not letting the candidate pick the language they're comfortable with. The candidate may even know the language they're asked to code in, but if they haven't been working with it recently, an interview is not the right time to pick it up again.
- Making the candidate nervous, both by not being helpful and by watching over them with unnecessary scrutiny.
- Looking for flaws instead of strengths.
People, myself included, are always talking about these problems, but companies have so much inertia, they are not evolving fast enough to solve these problems. No wonder tech companies are filled with people who, while capable, often fit a particular mold, and why we end up in situations where products don't reflect the needs of the market (because the people working on those products aren't representative of the market).
[0] https://hiringfor.tech/archive.html