Sorry to hear about the poor experience you have been having in the interviews. Here's a story of mine to share with you that might ease your mind a little bit:
I officially started my career at Bosch and have been working there for 1.5 years, so I still consider myself a fresher/junior dev. But since the day I joined, I have been working independently with a team of all foreigners (Austrians, Germans, and Indians), communicate only with my second language, which is English, and even without much guidance and mentoring from the seniors, since it is an organizational thing/management problem, everybody has to take care of the topics they are assigned. I didn't hate it, but in contrast, I appreciated it due to the fact that I could advance both in mind and skills much faster than most of my colleagues.
But one day, my Product Owner (Austrian) wanted to expand the team and employ another guy like me, so he discussed it with my manager (Vietnamese). Then my manager approached me and asked for the skillsets required for handling the topics as I am doing, and here comes the problem. After providing him the skill list (of course, the skill list is practical, no fancy sh*t, just enough to handle my topics), he developed a recruitment plan with HR and organize the interviews for the other seniors who have no direct connection to my work or topics. And so far, 2 candidates have been rejected, one of whom has 2+ years of exp, for the reasons they're not qualified from the tech interviewing round.
Of course, I'm not criticizing them since I'm just a junior dev, and there's rarely a case where one could get involved in the interviewing process, but since apparently, I'm the only one who knows best about my work, they should have at least share with me the content they would interview, so that I may have feedback or improvement. Instead, I highly suspect they went way above the skill list I provided for a perfect candidate and rejected them. So from my point of view, this could also be one of the many reasons.
Thank you for sharing such an insightful story into your experience. I can't imagine juggling English amidst many other whom I am sure is their second language as well. English is not an easy language to speak and understand. Multiple team members trying to communicate would surely be challenging. Your English is fantastic. Bravo!!
I feel your pain, I do seem to think that HR teams really lose focus on the right skills. The interview I had today, I was recruited for the interview. Someone dropped the ball. I highly doubt the company would hire me. It was a bad interview. It wasn't matched to my skill sets at all.
I know a lot of companies don't like asking people to work for free. I wish companies would go with a simple project. Simple concept. 48 hour turn around. Discuss the code base decisions. I feel that you would get a better view of a developer skill set in that manner and have a visual proof of example. If someone cheated and copied a YouTube video. It would be evident very quickly.
All the best, hope you get the team mate you deserve!!
Your simple project with 48hour turn-around is exactly how i find the junior developers for my teams lately. I work on the projects i hire for and i need candidates that can hit the ground running.
After a 15-30min video screening, i present the mini project, normally a subset of an application we currently work on. This way i also dont have to go ahead and solve it since it has already been done and reviewed by the team. Then, when the candidate comes back 48hours later, the team can see how the candidate (hopefully) solved it, we will have them run through their solution and then throw a new quick challenge that builds on it so we can see them live code. This whole process has been the most efficient not only for me to understand if they'll be a good fit technically, but also how they talk through problems and bounce ideas. Communication is key in a software team. Even when a candidate doesn't do as great, they walk away knowing what they have to work on IF this is the type of job they want to pursue. I've even had some people tell me after the project is sent that "this isn't the type of work they're best at or what they're looking for" so it saves us both time in the end.
That’s an interview process that I would love to work through. Yeah, it’s work on free time. However, coding doesn’t cost anything except time. As a developer I like new challenges and working through new ideas. Doing challenges like this also keep my skill sets sharp I don’t see it as free work.
As well, no one knows the code base better than the person who coded it. You know why you did certain things. You know how the arrays and functions connect. You’re looking at a solved challenge. Now, when you ask me a question about why I chose a certain method. I know the answer.
I love the idea of live coding on that same project I worked on. I know where everything is. It’s great that you present it as a team communication challenge.
Thank you for being a good interview process.
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Sorry to hear about the poor experience you have been having in the interviews. Here's a story of mine to share with you that might ease your mind a little bit:
I officially started my career at Bosch and have been working there for 1.5 years, so I still consider myself a fresher/junior dev. But since the day I joined, I have been working independently with a team of all foreigners (Austrians, Germans, and Indians), communicate only with my second language, which is English, and even without much guidance and mentoring from the seniors, since it is an organizational thing/management problem, everybody has to take care of the topics they are assigned. I didn't hate it, but in contrast, I appreciated it due to the fact that I could advance both in mind and skills much faster than most of my colleagues.
But one day, my Product Owner (Austrian) wanted to expand the team and employ another guy like me, so he discussed it with my manager (Vietnamese). Then my manager approached me and asked for the skillsets required for handling the topics as I am doing, and here comes the problem. After providing him the skill list (of course, the skill list is practical, no fancy sh*t, just enough to handle my topics), he developed a recruitment plan with HR and organize the interviews for the other seniors who have no direct connection to my work or topics. And so far, 2 candidates have been rejected, one of whom has 2+ years of exp, for the reasons they're not qualified from the tech interviewing round.
Of course, I'm not criticizing them since I'm just a junior dev, and there's rarely a case where one could get involved in the interviewing process, but since apparently, I'm the only one who knows best about my work, they should have at least share with me the content they would interview, so that I may have feedback or improvement. Instead, I highly suspect they went way above the skill list I provided for a perfect candidate and rejected them. So from my point of view, this could also be one of the many reasons.
Thank you for sharing such an insightful story into your experience. I can't imagine juggling English amidst many other whom I am sure is their second language as well. English is not an easy language to speak and understand. Multiple team members trying to communicate would surely be challenging. Your English is fantastic. Bravo!!
I feel your pain, I do seem to think that HR teams really lose focus on the right skills. The interview I had today, I was recruited for the interview. Someone dropped the ball. I highly doubt the company would hire me. It was a bad interview. It wasn't matched to my skill sets at all.
I know a lot of companies don't like asking people to work for free. I wish companies would go with a simple project. Simple concept. 48 hour turn around. Discuss the code base decisions. I feel that you would get a better view of a developer skill set in that manner and have a visual proof of example. If someone cheated and copied a YouTube video. It would be evident very quickly.
All the best, hope you get the team mate you deserve!!
Yep, that's exactly how the hiring should be done. Thank you and I wish you the best in your job hunting.
Your simple project with 48hour turn-around is exactly how i find the junior developers for my teams lately. I work on the projects i hire for and i need candidates that can hit the ground running.
After a 15-30min video screening, i present the mini project, normally a subset of an application we currently work on. This way i also dont have to go ahead and solve it since it has already been done and reviewed by the team. Then, when the candidate comes back 48hours later, the team can see how the candidate (hopefully) solved it, we will have them run through their solution and then throw a new quick challenge that builds on it so we can see them live code. This whole process has been the most efficient not only for me to understand if they'll be a good fit technically, but also how they talk through problems and bounce ideas. Communication is key in a software team. Even when a candidate doesn't do as great, they walk away knowing what they have to work on IF this is the type of job they want to pursue. I've even had some people tell me after the project is sent that "this isn't the type of work they're best at or what they're looking for" so it saves us both time in the end.
That’s an interview process that I would love to work through. Yeah, it’s work on free time. However, coding doesn’t cost anything except time. As a developer I like new challenges and working through new ideas. Doing challenges like this also keep my skill sets sharp I don’t see it as free work.
As well, no one knows the code base better than the person who coded it. You know why you did certain things. You know how the arrays and functions connect. You’re looking at a solved challenge. Now, when you ask me a question about why I chose a certain method. I know the answer.
I love the idea of live coding on that same project I worked on. I know where everything is. It’s great that you present it as a team communication challenge.
Thank you for being a good interview process.