[bcoates]

These essays make me think I don't understand why people are doing technical interviews. I give a (brief) technical question/coding question interview when I'm asked to, and I suspect it's the kind the author doesn't like. But all I'm looking for is:

If candidate lists lots of skills/experience, I do a self-assessment where I get them to claim that they're really good at something, then ask them to do something that requires bare-minimum skills in it. The idea is not that they need these skills to do the job, but that if you claim a CS degree, eight years work experience, and being a python expert, but you can't crack out a basic, non-trick whiteboard coding exercise blindfolded, something smells bad.

If a candidate doesn't have much experience, I'm trying to figure out just how green they are; low-experience candidates cover a huge range of skill all the way down to knowing literally nothing but a few buzzwords. If you don't know a language or a library or a technology I can teach you, but if you don't know anything it's going to be years before I can get anything shippable out of you.

I wish these weren't a major worry but the majority of people who come in the door (after a resume and phone screen!) don't pass.

What do those of you who are doing intensive whiteboard-coding interviews think you're getting out of it?