I had never heard of this set up a project interview test. Sounds stressful and awkward but
For me, it would possibly be preferred to algorithms because one of my strengths is reasoning about technologies. In group projects and when working with friends, I naturally take the pragmatic setup role.
Algorithms, on the other hand, I struggle with because even tonight at dinner my sister was trying to remember what word describes toxins moving up the food chain, something we learned 10 years ago.
Before she could finish her thought I was blurting out bio-magnification!
It made me think why do I remember some things so well and others really do go in one ear and out the other.
I know to an interviewer it may seem like they're testing if we have knowledge that will be applicable to the job at hand but to me, it feels arbitrary.
I am adaptable. I am not a textbook.
When I am on the other end of that table, I will have already asked for a portfolio of sorts: school work, personal projects, anything that you want to represent you.
I will spend some arbitrary amount of time finding code snippets that are problematic or interesting and I will ask you to speak to them.
I feel that will be enough to know whether or not I want you on my team.
> When I am on the other end of that table, I will have already asked for a portfolio of sorts: school work, personal projects, anything that you want to represent you.
> I will spend some arbitrary amount of time finding code snippets that are problematic or interesting and I will ask you to speak to them.
> I feel that will be enough to know whether or not I want you on my team.
I like your approach but wonder if I would be successful if looked at through that lens—I have looked back at code written a couple years ago and was surprised to find that I was the author and would definitely be unable to speak to my choices then (though I could probably speak to how I'd do it differently now, which might be a useful signal in the interview).
Yes! That's what I'm getting at. It seems like technical interviews as I've experienced them (Microsoft being the biggest name I've tried so far) are knowledge based stress tests.
This doesn't make sense to me because once I become comfortable in a group, immediate stress isn't an issue anymore (background stress yes but that's another beast entirely).
I don't preform well while stressed, to the point that I pass out in acutely anxiety producing situations.
My test (which is really just more of a traditional behavioral interview) is looking for how you introspect and reason about design decisions that you've made in the past.
Something that I value in teammates over anything else.
It's a glimpse into how they will respond if I do have to ask them about why they did this or that in a merge request.
If you can reason about why you chose a foo over a bar 4 years ago then I'll feel pretty confident that you can speak to the decisions you made last week.
My thoughts will likely change as I get more industry experience but this is a good milestone for me to look back to.
It's not always easy to remember how it felt presenting your first programming project or landing your first technical interview. Or worse how it felt just before that stressful event.
We all have a tendency to think wow I guess I was so anxious over nothing. Is this what keeps the status quo in place ? Hindsight bias
For me, it would possibly be preferred to algorithms because one of my strengths is reasoning about technologies. In group projects and when working with friends, I naturally take the pragmatic setup role.
Algorithms, on the other hand, I struggle with because even tonight at dinner my sister was trying to remember what word describes toxins moving up the food chain, something we learned 10 years ago.
Before she could finish her thought I was blurting out bio-magnification!
It made me think why do I remember some things so well and others really do go in one ear and out the other.
I know to an interviewer it may seem like they're testing if we have knowledge that will be applicable to the job at hand but to me, it feels arbitrary.
I am adaptable. I am not a textbook.
When I am on the other end of that table, I will have already asked for a portfolio of sorts: school work, personal projects, anything that you want to represent you.
I will spend some arbitrary amount of time finding code snippets that are problematic or interesting and I will ask you to speak to them.
I feel that will be enough to know whether or not I want you on my team.