Robert Sweeney on LinkedIn: #softwareengineering #interviewprocess #recruiting | 390 comments (original) (raw)
Robert Sweeney’s Post
Robert Sweeney is an Influencer
Founder, CEO, Engineering Leader
5y
I had a Director of Engineering at a world-renowned tech company tell me recently: "I can tell within the first five minutes of an interview if someone is a good software engineer or not." Um, no, you can't. That's not a special gift you have, it's called bias. #softwareengineering #interviewprocess #recruiting
Yes, only almighty has that ability to judge someone quality within a 5 minute interview.
Actually I think he's not wrong, just worded poorly. You can definitely tell if someone is a bad software engineer immediately if they are incredibly horrible. Aka a baseball player is probably a bad software engineer. And the reverse, someone who has all their code on GitHub and tons of backing proving their worth can immediately prove themself they are good. But it's not anything really special with that director, he seems arrogant. It's better worded like this: " It doesn't take long to prove yourself worthy of the job or alternatively show you are not equipped"
It is just like a Bloom filter - possible to identify a really bad one very quick. But to gauge someone as a decent/good/very good/exemplary engineer it certainly takes more time.
I totally agree. First 5mins is good ro ubderstand what his job history and roke was but tough to analyze in that duration.
Robert, I would never say something that definitive, but very often I can tell if a person is someone I can work well with within a few minutes. We as people have many first impressions and then later have a chance to see actual performance for the same. So we get pretty good a gauging people/projects/ideas/products very quickly. Yes. It’s bias, but it’s highly informed bias. ...and the older you get (more experience), the better you get at it. But it’s not equal or a substitute for a well-informed decision.😊 Thank you for the thought-provoking post.
Trying to find the LOL emoji.
Agreed it is very difficult to interview engineers. Mainly because a code test doesn't say much.
I think if you are making decisions like this in 5 minutes, you have wasted company resources by not having more thorough screening from the start. Building a diverse team is not just about engineering capability( important still) but also personality. I need to ensure that bringing someone new in isn't going to upset the team dynamic. This is in my opinion much harder to ascertain than what I can discover in 5 minutes. I use details like how long it takes them to respond to our recruiter, what they do when they don't know the answer to a question, and how flustered they get under pressure in the interview. Or even how they respond when I coach/correct their answer and try to teach them during the interview. If I can't get a human response, that is just as concerning to me as when they can't answer basic questions. I don't want to waste my team's time and energy onboarding someone who we would have to let go because of personality conflicts. If you can figure all that out in 5 minutes, then you must be able to read minds. Engineers often have bold personality characteristics, but that doesn't mean they all do, and its the more subtle ones that we should be trying to expose.Its much harder to fix your 5 minute mistake 6 months in.
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