How to Interview a Programmer

posted Friday, May 21, 2004 1:34 PM

We've recently brought in some peeps for a couple open positions we have at my gig.  We have not been impressed.  As we reviewed the candidates we started discussing the process of interviewing and things we could do to improve our interviewing process.  One of my colleagues came across How to Interview a Programmer which provided some decent insights into ways some industry “experts” go about finding good talent.

  • Explore an area of expertise
  • Hire for talent not for a position
  • Have them critique something
  • Ask them to Solve a problem
  • Look at their code
  • Find out what books they read
  • Ask about a people problem
  • Get to know them

How do you uncover good talent?  What process do you have candidates go through?

7 Comments

# re: How to Interview a Programmer

Friday, May 21, 2004 6:43 AM by Steve Hebert    
Nice find. We're doing some hiring in the next couple months, this will be good material to review.

I haven't heard much from Scott Meyers and Bruce Eckel in a while.

# re: How to Interview a Programmer

Friday, May 21, 2004 6:45 AM by Steve    
Yeah good material for those hiring and also those who might be talking to those who are hiring ;-)

# re: How to Interview a Programmer

Friday, May 21, 2004 2:28 PM by kent tegels    
Funny you should ask: <a target="_new" href="http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/ktegels/articles/2642.aspx">http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/ktegels/articles/2642.aspx</a>

# re: How to Interview a Programmer

Sunday, May 23, 2004 10:47 AM by Darrell    
Most of our hires are referrals, so that upgrades the average level of quality.

Whether we advertise or not, some people on the team or with similar skills to the potential review the resume and makeup targeted questions based on their resume. Then 2-3 people do phone interviews. If the potential gets that far, then we bring them in for in-person interviews where the potential can see anywhere from 2-6 people, individually or in groups. Then everyone gets together and votes. Usually it has to be near unanimous for a hire (we are very picky).

There are no set questions. In fact, almost everyone that does the interview changes directions as the interviewee provides clues, extra info, etc. We've successfully weeded out many bad employees that way.

Referrals are your best bet. My company has an excellent referral bonus (Steve, you want a job?? :), and that is where the vast majority of our hirings come from. After all that money we save on advertising, screening through a bunch of resumes that are not even tailored to the job, tech interviewing and then rejecting a bunch of candidates, the referral bonus is actually much cheaper!

# re: How to Interview a Programmer

Sunday, May 23, 2004 1:35 PM by Steve    
&quot;Steve, you want a job?? :)&quot;

What happened to picky :) and maybe ;-)

We usually try to get people vai referrals before we start bringing people in as well. I think the process your using with the phone screens and collaboration throughout the process sound good though, I'll have to see if we can work that into our process a little more then we do now.

# re: How to Interview a Programmer

Sunday, May 23, 2004 11:40 PM by Eric Wise    
The company I am currently working for gives 3 tests during the interview process.

#1 Standard IQ test.
#2 Standard personality profile test.
#3 Non-language specific programming concepts text.

#3 is multiple choice basically interpreting flow diagrams and making sure they can understand a modeled process and make logical assumptions about what needs to happen at certain places in the flow.

Getting interviewed here was the first time I had to go through something like that. It was an interesting experience.

# re: How to Interview a Programmer

Wednesday, January 05, 2005 8:49 PM by runge    
It's really good. it'll help us to hire talented people.

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