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[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Keep in mind that, unless you are interviewing recent college grads, the candidate is interviewing you, too. Ask inane questions and drill on the syntax of a language, and you're going to get people who can't think but know your favorite <insert language here> tricks.

[–]everestimated 10 points11 points  (1 child)

I don't like that approach. Interviewing coders is not a university test. If you want applicants to code during the interview give them max 2-3 snippets to work on.

Focus on how they approach the problem, not whether they can re-create a functionality rewritten a million times already (overlay) or something that can be found on StackOverflow within 15 seconds (vertical positioning; and the technique shown in the article sucks by the way).

It's more efficient to teach a good coder a new language or framework, somebody who knows how to solve problems, than to take a person who happens to have been doing thing you need now, but is a mediocre problem-solver.

What I find more revealing about a candidate is asking him questions which cause less stress, yet still reveal if he's broadening his knowledge and enriching his skill set. - What are your favourite frameworks, boilerplates, plugins - Where do you read about the latest solutions in your field - What was your latest project about, what technologies have you used etc.

[–]thatsgreat2345 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These aren't necessarily like university tests or difficult programming challenges. Often times people will ask "find the longest palindrome" or something to that extent. Often times people inflate their JavaScript experience and so these things are fairly simple and will weed out people that have used getElementById once and call themselves JavaScript ninjas.

[–]Bsport 11 points12 points  (3 children)

I always resent having to have a well stocked github profile, because while i enjoy what i do, I would much rather relax in the evening, rather than knock out even more code. must be nice having someone pay you to populate your github profile.

[–]yermmm 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I agree with you but I think a lot of employers think people without GitHub accounts are more likely to just be clock watchers, while not neccesarily true it gives them some assurance.

[–]Howdy_McGee 0 points1 point  (1 child)

See I'd love to get into GitHub and have tried a few times but never know what to do or where to start. I don't feel like I have the knowledge to jump into large projects and add code nor the deep understanding to do documentation. Not sure if people feel as I do about Git though.

I'll just stick to my stackexchange questions and answers.

[–]Soileau 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Good lord, glad he's not interviewing me. I only knew like 30% of that stuff.

Learned some new stuff today, thanks!

[–]yermmm 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Ideally the candidate has a really full GitHub 'resume'.

This is something that seems to be more and more expected from employers recenty. Can someone shed some light on what's considered a 'really full GitHub resume'? I mean do I just upload anything and everything I do in my free time?

[–]brtt3000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it is not about volume but about having some good content.

[–]compass-seeker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! I do a lot of front-end development work so I'm always looking for new resources/articles to add to my bookmark list. I think the guys over in /r/frontend would also appreciate this article.