I've been hired 4 times and each time was a different experience.
First time as an intern. The interview was more about what would I be doing at work than anything else, as I was kind of hired through the university. As I did not have any professional experience either, the interview was more about my goals and if I was confident to meet them.
The second time I got hired I only did a Fizz-Buzz test (wiki.c2.com/?FizzBuzzTest) on a whiteboard. I would not even call this a coding challenge/whiteboarding interview, as the problem was really easy for me. We talked more about my previous work (as an intern) and again about goals. Also the fact that I studied at a particular university helped, as the interviewer also studied there.
Third time there was a take home coding challenge, and it was decisive, so I won't count it. The interesting part is that there was no other technical questions or feedback, just straight to the offer after delivering my code.
And the fourth time, again, no coding challenge at all. I had a call with the CTO and we just talked about goals, experience and so. This was for a senior/team lead position.
I am not sure what conclusions to take :-) Of course I've been rejected many times, this only counts the time I got hired.
Once I was interviewing for a company (who did not hire me) and I passed a coding challenge in a technology I don't even use (JavaScript) and then half way during the post-challenge interview they realized I did not have experience on JS, so they dropped me.
After that I always reject interviewing for companies that send coding challenges before speaking to the hiring managers. It is a huge deal breaker for me.
But honestly, on the other side, I had very good experiences hiring people based on their take home challenges. I like to ask my candidates to write a small single screen app that connects to an endpoint. I would probably not ask that to "distinguished" developers (like tech speakers, OS contributors, etc), but for the rest of candidates I really need to see how they work before giving my approval. And I know this contradicts my personal experience as interviewee.
Thanks for sharing, Miquel!
(As a side note: that's actually very interesting to learn about all interviewing experiences, not only about the ones in my question. Maybe I should post another question.)
I have a couple of questions for you, if you don't mind.
(A tongue-in-cheek question:) Why do you ask your candidates to complete an assignment if you wouldn't do it yourself? :)
What are you looking for in this assignment?
And why do you feel like you can't understand how they work if you talk with them, as opposed to an assignment?
Thank you in advance!
Why do you ask your candidates to complete an assignment if you wouldn't do it yourself? :)
Oh sorry for the misunderstanding. I have no problem in doing a take home exercise, but I won't do it if I don't speak with the hiring manager before and clarify questions. There's a trend I've seen a lot in which companies send you a coding challenge before even having a call with their candidates. To be clear: first let's have a call, then I can do the coding part. And I do the same with my candidates.
What are you looking for in this assignment?
On the code I basically look for cleanness, both in terms of architecture and code. And then I use it as starting point to have a conversation, why did you do something that way, what could be changed to do something else, etc. I ALWAYS give constructive feedback to my candidates.
And why do you feel like you can't understand how they work if you talk with them, as opposed to an assignment?
It is probably my own insecurity honestly. Hiring is a long process specially here in Germany where notice period can go up to three months, and I only get the chance to add more devs to my team very rarely, so I need to be really sure about who I get for my team.
I've been hired 4 times and each time was a different experience.
First time as an intern. The interview was more about what would I be doing at work than anything else, as I was kind of hired through the university. As I did not have any professional experience either, the interview was more about my goals and if I was confident to meet them.
The second time I got hired I only did a Fizz-Buzz test (wiki.c2.com/?FizzBuzzTest) on a whiteboard. I would not even call this a coding challenge/whiteboarding interview, as the problem was really easy for me. We talked more about my previous work (as an intern) and again about goals. Also the fact that I studied at a particular university helped, as the interviewer also studied there.
Third time there was a take home coding challenge, and it was decisive, so I won't count it. The interesting part is that there was no other technical questions or feedback, just straight to the offer after delivering my code.
And the fourth time, again, no coding challenge at all. I had a call with the CTO and we just talked about goals, experience and so. This was for a senior/team lead position.
I am not sure what conclusions to take :-) Of course I've been rejected many times, this only counts the time I got hired.
Once I was interviewing for a company (who did not hire me) and I passed a coding challenge in a technology I don't even use (JavaScript) and then half way during the post-challenge interview they realized I did not have experience on JS, so they dropped me.
After that I always reject interviewing for companies that send coding challenges before speaking to the hiring managers. It is a huge deal breaker for me.
But honestly, on the other side, I had very good experiences hiring people based on their take home challenges. I like to ask my candidates to write a small single screen app that connects to an endpoint. I would probably not ask that to "distinguished" developers (like tech speakers, OS contributors, etc), but for the rest of candidates I really need to see how they work before giving my approval. And I know this contradicts my personal experience as interviewee.
Thanks for sharing, Miquel!
(As a side note: that's actually very interesting to learn about all interviewing experiences, not only about the ones in my question. Maybe I should post another question.)
I have a couple of questions for you, if you don't mind.
(A tongue-in-cheek question:) Why do you ask your candidates to complete an assignment if you wouldn't do it yourself? :)
What are you looking for in this assignment?
And why do you feel like you can't understand how they work if you talk with them, as opposed to an assignment?
Thank you in advance!
Oh sorry for the misunderstanding. I have no problem in doing a take home exercise, but I won't do it if I don't speak with the hiring manager before and clarify questions. There's a trend I've seen a lot in which companies send you a coding challenge before even having a call with their candidates. To be clear: first let's have a call, then I can do the coding part. And I do the same with my candidates.
On the code I basically look for cleanness, both in terms of architecture and code. And then I use it as starting point to have a conversation, why did you do something that way, what could be changed to do something else, etc. I ALWAYS give constructive feedback to my candidates.
It is probably my own insecurity honestly. Hiring is a long process specially here in Germany where notice period can go up to three months, and I only get the chance to add more devs to my team very rarely, so I need to be really sure about who I get for my team.
Okay, sorry, I get it now. :)
Thank you for explaining. It is very interesting to see the situation from the hiring manager's point of view.