
During a Technical Interview, Ask – Why Is This Position Available? - kakakiki
https://csswizardry.com/2019/04/tips-for-technical-interviews/
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spacemanmatt
Maybe, if you don't care whether you get an offer or not. This is an exercise
in gift-horse dentistry for people who need the work.

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magnetic
There's a few common sense recommendations, but I think I wouldn't recommend
the part on white boarding:

> When the whiteboarding task starts, make a quip or light joke along the
> lines of Oh, wow. I hope you provide full-time staff with computers—I don’t
> like the idea of typing up my handwritten code at home on an evening!.
> Something like this should help to make the situation a little easier, while
> also gently pressing home the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.

I wouldn't do that. It will highlight your discomfort with the task even
though you haven't even started on it. The whiteboard work can go well or not
so well. You don't know how it will go, so there is no upside to leaving a
negative impression right off the bat. It could actually influence how the
interviewer will perceive your performance at the white board.

I also don't see what benefit you can derive from hinting at the
ridiculousness of the task that the interviewer is asking you to perform. I
doubt the interviewer is suddenly going to say: "yeah it's ridiculous, let's
skip the coding part".

> Next, before you begin, forewarn them that this is an uncomfortable
> environment in which to ‘write code’; tell them that you intend to annotate
> any knowledge gaps as you go, thus demonstrating that you know you need to
> look into something a little further, but also that you have a vague idea of
> what that something else is.

They already know it's an uncomfortable environment. This "forewarning" can
easily be interpreted as you making excuses before you've even started. Don't
tell them you'll annotate knowledge gaps as you go: just do it _if_ you
encounter a knowledge gap.

> Don’t ask if you can write pseudo code: tell them that’s how you’re going to
> approach the task. Regain some of the power.

"No sir, we want to see actual code, not pseudo-code."

I think you're actually be doing yourself a disservice by strong-arming pseudo
code, as it projects discomfort with actual coding.

Pseudo-code is equivalent to describing the algorithm: for that, you can draw
some diagrams and explain the algorithm verbally. It makes sense to get an ack
from the interviewer before going into the actual code: "That's how I plan to
tackle this. Does it make sense to you?".

Trying to "regain power" from the interviewer may work on junior interviewers,
but most senior people won't let you get away with it, and it can easily
backfire.

At this point you've already sent 3 signals that you are quite uncomfortable
with writing code, before you've even started!

My suggested alternative: act confident. When the interviewer tells you you're
about to get to the white boarding part of the interview, just say "let's do
it!" with enthusiasm, take a good breath, and pretend you're at the board with
a colleague trying to work out a problem. Good luck!

~~~
probinso
whiteboarding is such an interesting cultural issue. I'm only surprised how
resistant Developers are to this skill. the best developers I know can think
on a whiteboard in a group.

it's not an everyday task, but it's a very good measure of communication
skills.

syntax may not be as important, but it is a measure of your Comfort Inn on
language or system. asking any Junior developer to be syntax correct I would
find inappropriate appropriate, but for a language specific expert I do not
see this as a high bar

