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.
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.