I have to agree with you. I hire a lot. And initially I tried all these really hard interview type questions or questions that I expected that somehow they would have a good answer to. I also knew some very good developers that had terrible looking resumes (they just didn't know how to write a good one), and weren't particularly good at interviews. I also noticed that I scared away good candidates.
The reality is that being able to answer questions really isn't a measure of how they'll do in their job.
So I went back to basics. A favorite question of mine in interviews is "Write a program that will print the numbers from 1 to 10". Its trivially easy, but it filters out people who I definitely don't want to hire. The other thing I put a lot of weight on is references. Since we live in a place where lots of people know each other I see who gets vouched for and who doesn't, and who likes the work the person has done. I understand that nationwide that may be harder to do though.
Then I just talk to them and make sure we'll get along. And see that they've learned relatively new things recently.
I've fired very few people in the last 15 years. So I guess my technique works. The main reason I've fired people is that I feel they aren't growing as they should, or that they have caused problems. But as I said its very rare. And our attrition is also very very low.
I think a lot of companies have gotten out of hand with their technical interviews and they are making the process needlessly expensive for themselves. Recently I witnessed how they were interviewing someone I knew for traditional engineering positions. I was shocked to find out how non-technical the interviews were. And yet the engineering world isn't collapsing is it.
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
I have to agree with you. I hire a lot. And initially I tried all these really hard interview type questions or questions that I expected that somehow they would have a good answer to. I also knew some very good developers that had terrible looking resumes (they just didn't know how to write a good one), and weren't particularly good at interviews. I also noticed that I scared away good candidates.
The reality is that being able to answer questions really isn't a measure of how they'll do in their job.
So I went back to basics. A favorite question of mine in interviews is "Write a program that will print the numbers from 1 to 10". Its trivially easy, but it filters out people who I definitely don't want to hire. The other thing I put a lot of weight on is references. Since we live in a place where lots of people know each other I see who gets vouched for and who doesn't, and who likes the work the person has done. I understand that nationwide that may be harder to do though.
Then I just talk to them and make sure we'll get along. And see that they've learned relatively new things recently.
I've fired very few people in the last 15 years. So I guess my technique works. The main reason I've fired people is that I feel they aren't growing as they should, or that they have caused problems. But as I said its very rare. And our attrition is also very very low.
I think a lot of companies have gotten out of hand with their technical interviews and they are making the process needlessly expensive for themselves. Recently I witnessed how they were interviewing someone I knew for traditional engineering positions. I was shocked to find out how non-technical the interviews were. And yet the engineering world isn't collapsing is it.