I think I got lucky. I landed a job at the first company I applied too about 6 months before graduating. I was asked only two technical questions neither required a white board. The first was about how to deal with a temperature sensor which was giving erratic readings. The other was about sorting arrays. Since then I have participated in about 5 interviews of other hopeful candidates. My company's approach to the interviewing process seems to be rather straight forward:
* Does the interviewee have a basic understanding of what we do?
* Does it seem as though they will fit well here?
* How do they deal with failure?
* Are they excited about working for us?
and the one thing that seems to be most important:
* If they don't know how to do something are they willing to put in the time to learn?
It seems to have served us well. I am always surprised when I read stories like this where candidates are turned away for not being able to build a quad-tree on a white board in 5 minuets whilst hanging upside down by their toes and repeating the alphabet backwards...
* Does the interviewee have a basic understanding of what we do? * Does it seem as though they will fit well here? * How do they deal with failure? * Are they excited about working for us?
and the one thing that seems to be most important:
* If they don't know how to do something are they willing to put in the time to learn?
It seems to have served us well. I am always surprised when I read stories like this where candidates are turned away for not being able to build a quad-tree on a white board in 5 minuets whilst hanging upside down by their toes and repeating the alphabet backwards...