30 years in industry and I've gotten rejected because "I didn't pass the programmer test"... what a joke! The question they wanted me to code up was never once necessary in 30 years of programming. duh... And they put me into an unfamiliar environment; IDE and System, with three guys watching (no collaboration) to do it.
Besides, the way I code today is to first go to StackOverflow whenever I have any questions and start from there. To create something from scratch is 1980's technology.
The best thing to come out of that was not to be invited to work with them. I think "show me your code chops" interviews are ridiculous.
I wholly agree with you. I have 30+ years of software development experience. Throughout I would classify the best and highly skilled developers I've met to be non-chatty. Brilliant people! Some prefer to locked themselves in a darkened room with their headsets on with a soothing, bubbling fish tank in the background. They will fail this soft of interview. Do a Google search for the article "Developers rise against whiteboard interviews" and what David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the creator of Ruby on Rails said.
I failed an interview a month ago. I learned a tremendously important lesson though: interviewers tend to ask meaningful questions. There were 4 interviewers asking me Angularistic questions. They all had papers in front of them. I had a mind block. I know my stuff. The "how" wasn't satisfactory to them. They insisted on "so..what you call it? What do you call tat term? or What do you call that life-cycle?" Who cares!!!x10 A switch went off in my mind: "All interview I do from now on I AM the interviewer. I'm the one who knows what I can do. I'm evaluating you. Just because you're seeking to hire me doesn't mean you're the best interviewer. You have a requirement and I am here to fulfill it."
I'd like to see interviewers put their stupid papers and notes away and talk. Interviewees can't bring in notes or search Google/SO. When I started programming in the 80s we never had these linting tools and intellisense to guide us. In 1990 when I was a freelance developer I once spent 3 days hunting down a compilation error in a desktop application. How could your problem-solving interview-technique tackle that one?
All this talk about how you interview is simple Applied opinion. It's not even a golden rule because there are lots of holes in all interview processes. It's not even a science. I've literally seen, before my VERY eyes, interviewers who laugh at candidates after interviewing them and how they fail miserably. They would laugh about the content of some resumes: "What? This is not even a skill, etc". None could deter them to treat them as themselves. We all want a better world. The questions are: what does that world look like? How are we going to get there? What are you willing to give up, ergo, your way (opinion) to achieve it?
30 years in industry and I've gotten rejected because "I didn't pass the programmer test"... what a joke! The question they wanted me to code up was never once necessary in 30 years of programming. duh... And they put me into an unfamiliar environment; IDE and System, with three guys watching (no collaboration) to do it.
Besides, the way I code today is to first go to StackOverflow whenever I have any questions and start from there. To create something from scratch is 1980's technology.
The best thing to come out of that was not to be invited to work with them. I think "show me your code chops" interviews are ridiculous.
So what's the solution? Are you going to brush up on today's tech interview questions etc...?
The solution is to not interview with those requiring coding tests. Why? They are saying we don't believe your resume.
I wholly agree with you. I have 30+ years of software development experience. Throughout I would classify the best and highly skilled developers I've met to be non-chatty. Brilliant people! Some prefer to locked themselves in a darkened room with their headsets on with a soothing, bubbling fish tank in the background. They will fail this soft of interview. Do a Google search for the article "Developers rise against whiteboard interviews" and what David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the creator of Ruby on Rails said.
I failed an interview a month ago. I learned a tremendously important lesson though: interviewers tend to ask meaningful questions. There were 4 interviewers asking me Angularistic questions. They all had papers in front of them. I had a mind block. I know my stuff. The "how" wasn't satisfactory to them. They insisted on "so..what you call it? What do you call tat term? or What do you call that life-cycle?" Who cares!!!x10 A switch went off in my mind: "All interview I do from now on I AM the interviewer. I'm the one who knows what I can do. I'm evaluating you. Just because you're seeking to hire me doesn't mean you're the best interviewer. You have a requirement and I am here to fulfill it."
I'd like to see interviewers put their stupid papers and notes away and talk. Interviewees can't bring in notes or search Google/SO. When I started programming in the 80s we never had these linting tools and intellisense to guide us. In 1990 when I was a freelance developer I once spent 3 days hunting down a compilation error in a desktop application. How could your problem-solving interview-technique tackle that one?
All this talk about how you interview is simple Applied opinion. It's not even a golden rule because there are lots of holes in all interview processes. It's not even a science. I've literally seen, before my VERY eyes, interviewers who laugh at candidates after interviewing them and how they fail miserably. They would laugh about the content of some resumes: "What? This is not even a skill, etc". None could deter them to treat them as themselves. We all want a better world. The questions are: what does that world look like? How are we going to get there? What are you willing to give up, ergo, your way (opinion) to achieve it?
There are plenty of bad interviews and bad interviewers in this industry. I strive not to follow bad practices.