One of the few things that developers can agree on is that the interview process is terribly broken. There are ideas about how to fix it (links below) but the industry has yet to come to a consensus on a better way forward.
Many developers are particularly aggravated by the way some organizations insist on “academic” interview problems that test developers skill with algorithms and (big O) algorithmic analysis. The argument is that these types of problems are often irrelevant to the job, rewarding antiquated knowledge over practical skill, and are biased in favor of developers with more time and resources to spend on preparation.
Now, before we continue let me get this out of the way:
I agree with those arguments!
Programmer Strengths and Weaknesses
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Inspired by Rob Conery’s The Imposter’s Handbook, we take an introspective look at ourselves to find two weaknesses and one strength while Allen shows off his vocal prowess in song, Joe needs a list, and Michael is a dash. [Read more…]
Demystifying the Technical Interview through Practice
Like I mentioned in my post on Meetup and Codewars, I think the best way to prepare for a technical/whiteboard/programming interview is to practice. Sites like Codewars make this kind of practice easier than ever, but the pressure of having potential employers watching over your shoulder adds a whole other dimension.
Because of that, I wanted to experiment with “live coding” through practice problems, talking through my decisions as I went along. This ended up being more difficult than I had anticipated, even without the live audience.
Now that I’m wrapping up my little experiment, I wanted to share a few things that I learned along the way…
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Stack Overflow Salaries and Landing the Job
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This week on Coding Blocks, Allen says www as best he can, Joe eats the microphone, and Michael does something crazy as we discuss Stack Overflow’s Salary Calculator and our experiences in landing the job – what to do and what not to do.
