I've had so many contractors come in for interview and express surprise and horror that we give them a technical interview
which bellends are actually hiring and paying these bozos?

no wonder banking is shafted
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 9 Jun 2014, 11:05, 1 reply)

We do an initial technical interviews by email, then if they pass that, over the phone
Weeds out about 90% before wasting time on actually meeting.

The email is a simple programming task; it's amazing how few of the submissions will actually do anything even remotely like the assigned task. Which is pretty shameful, as they can google, use textbooks, nick code from Stack Overflow, or whatever they like.

My favourite was one who made it through to the phone interview, but during that we could hear him typing feverishly into google before answering each question...
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Mon 9 Jun 2014, 11:21, closed)

by rights these people should be starving or stacking Aldi shelves
some dozy cunts are actually employing them for long enough to pay their mortgages
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 9 Jun 2014, 11:23, closed)

To be fair, it doesn't really matter if they're googling the answer,
since there are basically no programming roles that require people to program without access to google.

So, instead of giving textbook academic problems, for which it is easy to google textbook answers,
give them slightly more complicated real-world problems which require the joining together of 3 or 4
stack-overflow answers into a block of code that solves the problem. Being able to google for the info
that you don't have, and then quickly assembling that info into a solution that you didn't necessarily
understand 10 minutes ago, is probably more valuable than already understanding it 10 minutes ago.

Although, yeah, its kind of advisable to do the phone interview thing beforehand, just to get rid of the
90% of applicants for senior tech positions, who haven't even seen a fucking computer before.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Mon 9 Jun 2014, 11:32, closed)

Most programmers are just professional googlers really.
I can't imagine what it must've been like having to consult memory and books all the time.
( Slippery Mick ‏, Mon 9 Jun 2014, 14:32, closed)

only if you don't know the difference between a software engineer and a typist

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 9 Jun 2014, 15:33, closed)