On Thu, Mar 02, 2017 at 02:22:34PM +1000, James A. Donald wrote:
On 3/2/2017 1:00 PM, Razer wrote:
A number of programmers have taken it Twitter to bring it to everyone's, but particularly recruiter's, attention about the grueling interview process in their field that relies heavily on technical questions.
David Heinemeier Hansson, a well-known programmer and the creator of the popular Ruby on Rails coding framework, started it when he tweeted, "Hello, my name is David. I would fail to write bubble sort on a whiteboard. I look code up on the internet all the time. I don't do riddles." Another coder added, "Hello, my name is Tim. I'm a lead at Google with over 30 years coding experience and I need to look up how to get length of a python string." Another coder chimed in, "Hello my name is Mike, I'm a GDE and lead at NY Times, I don't know what np complete means. Should I?"
A feature story on The Outline adds:
This interview style, widely used by major tech companies including Google and Amazon, typically pits candidates against a whiteboard without access to reference material -- a scenario working programmers say is demoralizing and an unrealistic test of actual ability. People spend weeks preparing for this process, afraid that the interviewer will quiz them on the one obscure algorithm they haven't studied. "
A cottage industry has emerged that reminds us uncomfortably of SAT prep," Karla Monterroso, VP of programs for Code2040, an organization for black and Latino techies, wrote in a critique of the whiteboard interview. [...] This means companies tend to favor recent computer science grads from top-tier schools who have had time to cram; in other words, it doesn't help diversify the field with women, older people, and people of color.
With links: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/17/03/01/1643251/programmers-are-confe...
I have not studied any of these things since forever and a day, but I can still pass all of them, and anyone who cannot, should not be hired.
I think the last time I read what a bubble sort was, or had to think about a bubble sort, was when I read Knuth, more decades ago than I care to admit, and yet I can do a bubble sort off the top of my head on a whiteboard.
Attempts to sidestep with (e.g.) "Oh, bubble sort's not a good example, what I should have said was ..." in 3 .. 2 ..
If companies have a lot of people who could not pass these tests, or could not pass them without cramming, they should fire a lot of people.
Now there's an idea! Snap computer science drills by your employer ... Microsoft used to cull the bottom x% (20%?) of their workforce each year or so, and this might be a way to be 'politically correct' about that process of culling ... "We might not have secure employees, but at least they all damn well know their np- from their turing- completes :D