[deadgrey19]

Being asked to write yet another depth first search implementation (honestly, 5/5 interviews at a large corporation were the same question) that any second year student can do is humiliating when your daily bread is building complex distributed systems. I still did it, because (unlike the writer) I understand that you do need to establish a baseline. As I've said, I've sat on the other side of the table, asked the humiliating question and seen the candidate fail miserably. It's a necessary evil, but it's still humiliating.

A less humiliating but still valuable interview (IMHO) is a systems design question. It should still be a whiteboard exercise, but it's a better test of problem solving and engineering skills. I don't seriously begin any system work without first doing the very same thing on a whiteboard myself. It's a useful on the job skill and a useful way to test skills of communication and collaboration in describing the solution.

With respect, if you're putting your employees to work on "crapy little side project's" for a month, either the projects are not crappy and have potentially large impact on the firm, or, you're wasting valuable resources.

[AnimalMuppet]

The "side projects" are large impact for the firm (either defensive or offensive, that is, either "save the day" or opening new opportunities), but they can still be well beneath the talent/skill level of the programmer assigned to it. If the programmer is going to feel humiliated by that, then we probably don't have time for that programmer.

[deadgrey19]

IMHO, a good manager would communicate the importance of the project along with the spec of the project. "Because I said so, so do it" is not a good strategy for highly skilled, highly competent, highly intelligent people. The "why" is every bit as important as the "what". Presumably you wouldn't "waste" a good programmer on a simple task if it wasn't important. Similarly a good programmer would understand that business priorities means that some projects are complex and interesting, some are important and boring.

As an employee, if the manager is not a skilled communicator, it's not the sort of place I want to work for. As a manager, if the employee is cannot understand business priorities, it's not the sort of employee that I want.