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Permalink Reply by Petra Nelson on November 7, 2012 at 8:37am

We are a software company so I have a few questions that seem to be relaible and valid:

As software developers, our team is constantly challenged to solve problems - good dev's love this element of intellectual challenge.  So we ask the following:

"Tell us about a time when you were stumped by a technical problem.  What was the issue, what was your response and what was the outcome".  Our favourite response is when someone's eyes light up and answer - "Yesterday!" and then proceed to tell us about a really gnarly code issue that they had to untangle by using a combo of the following: Google, asking a domain expert, get a white board and a colleague and talk it out, prototype a solution etc.  We love these people and there is a very high correlation between those who give an answer like this and our best developers!

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Branch on November 7, 2012 at 9:23am

That is a good question Petra. I like to sometimes ask the "out of the box" questions. I know candidates hate them and don't see elevance but to me, it shows me how you think. And of course, there is no right or wrong.

Petra Nelson said:

We are a software company so I have a few questions that seem to be relaible and valid:

As software developers, our team is constantly challenged to solve problems - good dev's love this element of intellectual challenge.  So we ask the following:

"Tell us about a time when you were stumped by a technical problem.  What was the issue, what was your response and what was the outcome".  Our favourite response is when someone's eyes light up and answer - "Yesterday!" and then proceed to tell us about a really gnarly code issue that they had to untangle by using a combo of the following: Google, asking a domain expert, get a white board and a colleague and talk it out, prototype a solution etc.  We love these people and there is a very high correlation between those who give an answer like this and our best developers!

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on November 7, 2012 at 4:51pm

Why in the hell did you do that?  How in the hell did you fix that?  Why the hell did you leave a job that you loved?  How the hell did you cope with that kind of environment?  If it were that impossible, why the hell did you stay two more years?

 

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