
Interviews on Skype: Test candidates using a real-time code editor over Skype. - abzaloid
https://www.skype.com/interviews/
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naturalgradient
While this looks like a well developed feature, I despise the concept of
coding in a phone interview too much to not worry about this enabling more of
it just because it's more convenient.

Especially for research-heavy positions, the amount of nonsense exercises
really makes or breaks a company impression for me.

case 1) Have a serious technical conversations with questions testing my
understanding, asking about my projects, ideas and interests.

case 2) 3 minutes of smalltalk while the interviewer reads out some points
from my CV so I can repeat them back. Then 'alright, let's do a coding
exercise'. Learn nothing about the team, their process, their vision in the
phone rounds.

~~~
acangiano
At IBM, I review hundreds of resumes and interview dozens of candidates each
year (mostly students or new graduates). I used to ask tough algorithmic
questions, require a small coding assignment, etc. I no longer do that.

Today, I have technical conversations like you describe. I don't need you to
remember that 415 is Unsupported Media Type. But I need you to be able to
discuss how REST works, the difference between 400s and 500s error codes, and
maybe even REST vs GraphQL advantages and tradeoffs, if you mention the latter
on your resume.

Occasionally I get a surprised "This was so nice. I was expecting a coding
interview". It was a coding interview, just not the kind the candidate is used
to.

You can look up specific answers on Google, but you can't quickly google your
way out of a conceptual discussion, your involvement with past projects,
technologies that excite you, etc.

Generally speaking, I can tell within 5 minutes who is a great candidate.

Luck might have played a part, but I have not had a single bad hire with this
method so far. In fairness, I'm selective with the candidates I decide to
interview, from usually large pools. For these, I also tend to review code
they've written in the past if they specify a GitHub account on their resume.

~~~
audessuscest
Same. Hired 12 developers so far with this method and I made only one mistake,
others are all great developers.

~~~
necrodome
What does "the mistake" look like?

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coob
You can't always easily tell when someone is going to be a pain to work with
on an interpersonal level.

~~~
hobarrera
I've seen places (well, one place) that have "team meetings". You just have an
informal group talk with a few members of the team, and just usually reveals a
lot -- to both sides!

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shock
> Calling capabilities are only supported on Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.

Feels like I'm back in time a decade. I don't understand why other browsers
are not supported: are they using non-standard features? I can't imagine what
those would be. WebRTC is supported by every browser nowadays.

~~~
mustacheemperor
Probably ORTC (O is for "object), a similar but different tech Microsoft is
pushing.

~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
Then why Chrome?

~~~
mustacheemperor
Microsoft isn't the only company involved in ORTC, so chrome supports it as
well. Most of the industry just hasn't adopted it yet, it's much less mature
than webrtc at this state but may supplant it someday.

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usaphp
Why can't you just share screen and use an already familiar editor instead of
this gimmick?

~~~
drdaeman
I think screen sharing isn't really optimized for text legibility - it's still
the same video calls, just using screen capture instead of webcam as a source.

When I've shown some code over Skype, I had to change fonts size to pretty
large to make sure it was comfortable to read.

Also, bandwidth. Video streaming requires a lot.

~~~
erikbye
I don't have a legibility problem using TeamViewer, done a lot of pair
programming this way.

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hobarrera
These ideas are great on paper, but in real life, don't really work.

Most developers (especially senior ones) have their preferred
IDE/editors/tools/etc. Forcing them to use a custom one for an interview,
where they have to constantly fight memory muscle and work with a new tool is
likely to give unrealistic results.

Quick example (by no means the only one!): On vim insert mode, ctrl+w deletes
a word. On a browser, it closes the tab. It's really hard for me avoid memory
muscle jumping in and closing a tab. TBH, I simply _cannot_ code python on a
browser textfield, since I end up closing the tab sooner or later.

Screen sharing works great, and has really no drawbacks.

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dep_b
Well I would like to see some basics fixed like being able to talk to people
without having to restart the client. And screen sharing without crippling
performance of my laptop so my code still autocompletes while working together
with someone.

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newusertoday
OT : has anyone noticed that microsoft is adding features which were covered
by niche saas companies?[1] There is a similar tool that has recently been
introduced by microsoft for feedback form,automated mails and
chat(drift/intercom) that integrates with outlook.

[1][https://coderpad.io/](https://coderpad.io/) I liked the entreprenure who
developed coderpad, he gave a talk on youtube as well.

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jasonjei
This seems like a good option for hiring remote engineers. The reason I like
to call people to come in person for fizz buzz tests is to verify that they're
not collaborating with someone. With the simultaneous video chat and text
editor, you can examine one's thought process while preserving some integrity
of the interview process.

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chrisco255
One of the best experiences I've had is using HackerRank. They have a nice
code editor with a audio/video communication tool built-in. This is sort of
the reverse of that.

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chrisco255
I can see how this will be useful for screening tech candidates.

