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0 pointsandrewflnr8y ago0 comments

So here's a crazy idea. What if the "interviewer" doesn't know the answer, and the problem is designed to be big enough to require both of you to solve it? That puts you and them on an equal basis in a more realistic scenario. Plus it helps calibrate the results by generating data on how existing employees perform.

Problems: the existing employee ends with even more latitude to wreck the interview. You need to ensure that the interviewee is taking the lead. You probably also need to record the whole thing for objective review by someone else, which you'll have to disclose, which could make it awkward again.

Ed: I've also heard of processes where you put multiple interviewees on a task together. That has some similar potential benefits.

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taurath8y ago

Sounds wonderful to me, but I think the “point” of the solo whiteboard experience is to reduce outside factors as much as possible. Of course that is really just a bit of a pipe dream since you’re hugely disadvantaging good coders with bad solo whiteboarding skills - pretending that interviews can be purely objective really does the process harm imo.

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