Clojurians Log v2

See also #jobs-discuss (in case you didn't know that existed). And congrats on getting an interview at a Clojure company!

Thanks! I wish it went differently… But at least I learned that tech interviews are not my strong suite. And I have to change the way I prep for them.

I think the tech interview is just broken. Because they don't reflect how you normally work, and they're something you can study for to prepare. In 30+ years as a hiring manager, I have only given one "tech interview" that expected folks to code etc in real time in front of an audience -- and that was because the company absolutely insisted on it. So I suggested they make all their existing developers take the "test" portion... which they thought was a great idea... until nearly all of their junior developers (and even some mid-level developers) failed the test. Which I expected. I knew the test wasn't a good measure of ability for jobs in that company.

Since then, I've never given a "coding test" in an interview, nor a take-home challenge. Neither are good indicators of ability in a development team. But that's what most of the industry does, unfortunately 😞

> So I suggested they make all their existing developers take the “test” portion... LOL, this is gold xd I agree that tech interviews are broken, and it’s pretty RNG based. But what’s the solution in your opinion. Or how do you run the hirings. 👀

I found the podcast you talk about this topic. Gonna listen it now to repair my absolutely obliterated ego a bit haha

> they thought was a great idea... until nearly all of their junior developers (and even some mid-level developers) failed the test. now what do they do? fire them? firing people is hard. Let's just keep interviewing broken, I guess

@gtrak Well, my point (to them) was their test was broken and not a good measure of ability, given that they'd hired all those folks previously (without the test) and were happy with their work. My hope was that they'd stop using that test.

(I left shortly after that so I don't know what they ended up doing)

I agree with all this, and I don't know how to do it right, but something like: • Did they really do all the things their resume says? • Are they they thoughtful? • Can they ship things? • Are they interviewing for the right level? ◦ Would they take an offer for the level you think they are? ◦ What have they done independently? We the industry should stop trying to make everything objective? A lot of it isn't.

FWIW, this mindmap is my interview "plan" -- I start on the top-right and go down that side first: essentially soft skills about working in teams and what they like/dislike about various types of projects; then I go to the top-left and go down that side. I want to hear how they communicate around all these topics and I'll often say "Oh, that's interesting, tell me more about that!" as a way to drill down into details. I can usually get folks pretty relaxed early on and they tell me all sorts of stuff about how they work and what they really know. I'll also have their resume/CV on hand use a few pieces of that as prompts at the appropriate place in that initial right-side conversations.