[taurath]

Maybe the coding interviews which have nothing to do with the job are the problem. I'd say if you're going to be tested on something you don't actually do, for a job you are qualified for, it is rational to have imposter syndrome.

Also just to add - many REALLY good engineers have some form of anxiety disorder, and the standard practice for an interview is to put them in a pressure cooker situation.

[twblalock]

I agree that many coding interviews don't test on-the-job skills. But pressure-cooker situations do happen on the job, e.g. production outages, major customers being affected by bugs and threatening to cancel, etc. It's not unrealistic to say that people who can't deal with that are unsuitable for many engineering positions.

[sho]

Well fair enough but I don't see the two qualities as being all that related.

"Oh my god, production is down! Quick, someone tell me, from memory, the solution to the N Queens problem!!"

[Humdeee]

"Production is down. Let's put our heads together to fix the problem!"

vs

(raspy voice) "Wanna play a game? You have 45 minutes to parse this html in assembly using only half a keyboard. Otherwise... you will not be able to feed your family. From us, at least."

I would absolutely watch SAW: The Software Interview

[alacombe]

> (raspy voice) "Wanna play a game? You have 45 minutes to parse this html in assembly using only half a keyboard. Otherwise... you will not be able to feed your family. From us, at least."

Don't forget about interrupting the candidate every 5 minutes to ask about the color of a blue moon, effectively preventing him to "get in the zone".

[rrauenza]

And if production is down, and you're the one under the most pressure, it's probably because you're the one who knows "production" the best.

[matte_black]

What tech company do I sign up for to get an interview like the one in Swordfish?

[rrauenza]

That kind of pressure isn't the same as interview pressure.

I've been in whiteboard coding interviews and in situations where "production is down" and they are very different kinds of pressure and expectations.

[BadCookie]

I agree. I handle work pressure well enough, but social anxiety is a completely different animal.

[rrauenza]

I'd call it performance anxiety / pressure vs work pressure.

[alacombe]

"Pressure cooker situations" are different than being asked to be an expert in IGBT transformer, have state of the art metallurgy knowledges, and have the flexibility of an olympic gymnast... for a welder position.

[tytytytytytytyt]

What questions are asked that are as divorced from being a software dev as olympic level flexibility is from being a welder? Or is this just a straw man argument?

[taurath]

Having a front end web developer/designer implement a b-tree from memory for example.

[tytytytytytytyt]

A b-tree or a binary tree? A b-tree doesn't even sound believable, unless there's other info you're not telling us.

[taurath]

I have been asked to write a matrix search robot (Ideal solution using A* algorithm) for a company that was doing CRUD education software apps, in which I was applying for a full stack position with plenty of experience building prod apps in their stack. I just looked them up and they shuttered about 12 months after the interview.

[t0mbstone]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-tree

[taurath]

Pressure cooker situations absolutely happen on the job, when you are on the same team and the goals are the same - completely different situation than sitting in a room, alone, across from a panel of people evaluating you personally and professionally. I thrive in the former as anyone I've ever worked with can tell you, and break down in the latter.

[pkaye]

This is why I tend to interview the candidate in things related to their past jobs. Sometimes they come from an different industry than what our company was involved in.

[emodendroket]

What would you do instead? Everybody knows interviews don't work that well but nobody has any better ideas.

[alacombe]

1) give a 3 day coding challenge to gauge the candidate real potential, and 2) hire fast, fire fast.

[scarface74]

I’m barely willing to take an online coding test for one job when I know historically for me, if I get submitted for 10 jobs by a recruiter, I’m likely to get three offers, take myself out of the running for 6, and only have one company that’s not interested. Why would I ever spend three days on a coding challenge.

And I’m a good test taker and interviewer.

[emodendroket]

Yeah, hour-long coding challenges and taking a day or two off of work are bad enough.

[alacombe]

we're probably not at the same pay-grade / level of specialization.

[emodendroket]

Who's going to consent to doing three _days_ of work?

[alacombe]

Most of the candidate of my past job who passed the initial non-technical interview with my former manager, over 2 years, that was probably a dozen people, leading to 3 hires.

[emodendroket]

Personally I think being willing to do such a thing is a sign of desperation.

[alacombe]

On the other side, it saved us from bad hires that would have been difficult to fire otherwise.