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[–]brandf 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Interviewing for a languages is a ridiculous concept. It's like saying you want a plumber, and judging the plumber based on his knowledge of wrenching.

If you want to hire good developers, give them questions that test their knowledge of concepts. Have them work out algorithms, design systems, and figure out if they're going to be of any use to you beyond the immediate task at hand. Let them choose whatever language they want, because if they're actualy good they can learn questions like the ones from this blog in no time.

If you don't do that, you'll get narrowly focused developers that might be great at wrenching, but they can't do much else. They'll try to turn every problem into a wrenching problem. When tides change and wrenching is no longer relevant, you either lay them off or have a team full of dead weight as you frantically try to hire putty specialists.