[thelist] Good "tests" for prospective employees?

Jay Blanchard jay.blanchard at niicommunications.com
Fri Jul 1 06:44:41 CDT 2005


[snip]
Developers rarely develop in isolation with no resources. Life is an
open book exam.
[/snip]

And some of the twenty questions were like "Which would you find the
answer?" type questions.

[snip]
And now that you've posted the answers to your questions I guess it
doesn't matter that I figured them out. Spoilsport.
[/snip]

Sorry :) I guess I could have waited a day. But you did well, and you're
attitude about it is great.

It appears that I have touched a nerve in this discussion though, as
several have been polarized by the thought that these kind of questions
mnight come up in an interview. I know I cannot cover it all, but there
are more things at play here (and some of you proved the point);

When hiring there are several factors to be considered, skill level,
apptitude, flexibility, attitude, personality, experience and more. A
brain teaser may reveal a lot about not only the ability to solve the
problem but the approach (as I wrote in my previous post) to problem
solving. If the candidate says, "let me Google for the answer", what
does that reveal to you? If the candidate wrinkles her nose and says,
"I'm not really good at these kinds of things", what does that reveal?
If the candidate says "wait! Don't give me the answer!", how do you see
them? These types of questions are not the entire interview, but when
combined with the classic approaches make for a more enlightening
experience for the interviewer and interviewee.

If we are lucky we may get to spend two or three hours with a potential
candidate and have to make several decisions. Do they know what they are
doing? Are they the kind of problem solver we are looking for? Are they
teachable? Do they bring something we don't have to the table? Do they
fit well with the team? Is their attitude generally good? Do the have
the skills we are looking for? Are they a leader or a follower? And on
and on....

The point is this. We have to find ways to reveal as much information
about a candidate as possible in the short amount of time that we are
allowed to spend with them before we say, "welcome to the team" or
"we'll be in touch". I find that questions like this reveal so much more
than whether a person has the ability to recognize a pattern. Everything
in an interview is a test.



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