If this style of interviewing is so awful, then how do these companies have such great engineering teams?
(1) Companies like yours (Foursquare) hire conservatively to avoid false positives. You can afford to do this because...
(2) Great orgs have selection bias. You receive so many applications that you can afford to toss out all but the best. Put bluntly: only great devs make it to your office for an interview.
(3) Whiteboards are not the only test. We both know that, while Foursquare asks people to code on whiteboards, it isn't the only component of your interview. You vet people very heavily before inviting them in.
(4) This article addresses shitty whiteboard interviews. From what I recall, you guys don't have shitty whiteboard interviews.
I'll turn the question around, actually: can you point me to a great company who only hires people through whiteboard coding?
(1) Companies like yours (Foursquare) hire conservatively to avoid false positives. You can afford to do this because...
(2) Great orgs have selection bias. You receive so many applications that you can afford to toss out all but the best. Put bluntly: only great devs make it to your office for an interview.
(3) Whiteboards are not the only test. We both know that, while Foursquare asks people to code on whiteboards, it isn't the only component of your interview. You vet people very heavily before inviting them in.
(4) This article addresses shitty whiteboard interviews. From what I recall, you guys don't have shitty whiteboard interviews.
I'll turn the question around, actually: can you point me to a great company who only hires people through whiteboard coding?