CONFESS! Programmers Are Confessing Their Coding Sins!

oshwm oshwm at openmailbox.org
Wed Mar 1 23:11:00 PST 2017


On 2 March 2017 04:22:34 GMT+00:00, "James A. Donald" <jamesd at echeque.com> 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-confessing-their-coding-sins-to-protest-a-broken-job-interview-process
>
>
>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.
>
>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.

I'd take someone with good imagination who has to look up fine details over someone who has a photographic memory and no imagination any day.


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