| We have a big app and need people who can come in and get up to speed very quickly. A solution to the interview problem that I've adopted over the last few years, to great success, is to conduct a 2 hour, 2 phase interview. - The first hour is spent having the candidates work through a problem in a sand boxed environment using the actual code base. - The second hour is spent recapping the work session, discussing their professional background, and general questions about other things they should know to be successful on our team. The coding test is designed to be solvable within the allotted time and without explicit knowledge of the business rules in the app and only requires an understanding of the actual technology they purport to have the required experience in. Running this test is a great way for us to understand what the candidate's skill level is and what problem solving approaches they use in a real-world scenario. They are free to talk about what they are doing (but is not required) and of course we offer guidance if they get stuck on something. Solving the test is NOT a pre-requisite for getting hired. In order to reduce anxiety for the candidate, I like to frame the test by telling them to imagine themselves as a short-order contractor who is coming in to help us with a problem that we are having a hard time solving ourselves. I find that this really helps. The feedback from the candidates for this testing style has always been positive, and I can tell you from post-hire experience, that it has helped us to bring some great developers on board. So far, there have been no false positives. In fact, it's so popular that other teams have either asked me to conduct their interviews or plan on adopting the same methodology for conducting theirs. If your struggling to get more consistency from your hiring approach, it might be worth a try. |