
Tech interview torture chamber - julian88888888
http://www.mattfriz.com/?r=1/#/outbursts/tech-interview-torture-chamber
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SingAlong
>> _Let them upload their resume, then force them to fill out an unbearably
redundant form containing identical information._

That sounds like JobVite.

During my recent job hunt: for a few places I applied to, I tried to find
company's CTO/engg-head on Twitter, asked them for their email & mailed them a
link to my pull-request to one of their opensource projects or stuff they use.
Best response rate I've had.

Sadly, when the process was passed on to the HRs. They delayed continuing the
process by weeks and I had already picked up a job at a place liked.

When being interviewed, I learnt a lot about what not to do as an interviewer.
When I've been interviewing people recently:

* looked at their previous work before the interview (GitHub/Behance/Dribbble usually shows their code & quality of work)

* had casual chats about their hobbies and projects

Infact, my co-workers may laugh this off. But a casual chat with people about
their work/hobbies/life, can tell a lot (interests, opinions, what-does-
he/she-want-out-of-the-job?, looks for problems?, self-learner?, can-debug?,
interesting hacks, etc). After all, we are going to spend a lot of time
together. So I try to become their new friend.

Ofcourse the above process is broken too. But atleast it is open-ended to
allow them to express what they know or are good at, instead of judging them
by what I know.

P.S: Never judge people by their past workplaces.

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tetonraven
Most important is to ignore a candidate's proven ability to deliver real
solutions and instead focus on contrived tests that bear no resemblance to the
actual work they'd be doing.

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dlgeek
> Keep them hydrated > Everyone that interacts with the candidate must offer a
> beverage or a trip to the bathroom as many times as possible throughout the
> day. Bladder manipulation is a powerful interrogation tactic.

There are all sorts of medical conditions or even just metabolisms that make
some people need to go for one or the other really often - as a candidate, it
can also be really scary/embarrassing to interrupt your interviewer to ask to
take care of these. And, interviewers generally don't communicate/schedule
these between each other to ensure it gets handled according to your schedule,
even if you only need a couple breaks.

It's far better to just have everyone ask; the candidate can politely refuse
if not needed, and everything continues on normally.

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ivank
Not sure why this disappeared from the HN homepage so quickly.

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kbart
_" Purge the room of erasers. This forces the candidate to erase with their
hands, reminding them that mistakes will be smeared all over them."_

Made my day, still laughing. Overall, still article is so funny, because
there's much true to it.

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agnivade
>Speaks with an accent so thick you could spread it on toast

I was rolling on the floor with laughter. Superb article !

