Alpha ChenSep 23, 2023

https://garrettdimon.com/journal/posts/live-coding-interviews

I think these are entirely reasonable objections to live coding interviews, but many of these don’t actually apply to the Labs pairing interview.

Which is by far the best type of interview I’ve ever experienced from either side, both as an interviewee in being able to show my skills and evaluate the company, as well as getting the most signal as an interviewer for whether someone would be a good coworker or not. I’m sure there were undoubtedly some false negatives, but I also don’t remember a single false positive in Seattle Labs, and we had some damn amazing hires in that office.

Live Coding Interviews

A quick exploration of the weaknesses of being over-reliant on live coding interviews.

GarrettDimon.com
Show threadLeftsaidtimSep 23, 2023

@alpha i regularly tell people the time I interviewed a candidate from Microsoft in an objective C project who had brought their own keyboard that they had assembled (or soldered?) themselves. Three-ish hours pairing with someone who on paper seemed too bizarre to work out.

Best interview I ever conducted. Great hire. Never would have known if we hadn’t sat down to write software together.

Show threadAlpha ChenSep 23, 2023
@Leftsaidtim Conducting interviews at Labs also firmly cemented the lack of signal that resumes provide.
Show threadLeftsaidtim
@alpha honestly I’m not sure when was last time I got value from reading a resume. Aside from perusing which companies they were so at they don’t need to explain everything to you when they introduce themselves
Sep 23, 2023 at 8:57pmWeb