interview advice

[dsrtao]

The only sure way to not be caught lying on your resume is.... Class? Very good - don't lie on your resume.

If you list a technology on your resume and you also list a project involving that tech, assume that someone is going to ask you questions about it. Listing a language you don't like is semi-acceptable, if you know it well. Not being able to answer basic data structures questions for a programming job is Right Out. Apparently one can get a master's in CS with an A- GPA and not get an education.

I have decided I quite like the pair approach to interviewing candidates. You get exposure to another interviewer's style, time to think about your questions, and the opportunity to evaluate the candidate's reactions without being focussed on the question. Larger groups I don't like - too much pressure on the candidate, not enough time to ask your questions.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Did you check up on the GPA, also? If candidate lied about one thing....

interviews

[n2mlq.livejournal.com]

a friend of mine (whom I don't think you know) was doing an interview and the resume said the interviewee was at Rutgers in the late 1990s and worked in Computing Services. So my friend asked him if he knew an Alex Latzko, and the guy said yes, he worked with said Alex closely. He was then asked to describe me, and the description was basically short with short blond hair and a bushy moustache. He was shown the door almost immediately thereafter.

[dsrtao]

I don't know that they lied; maybe they are merely stunningly incompetent. In any case, it's moot: once it's clear that we aren't going to proceed with somebody, we don't bother checking up on them.

[jducoeur]

Larger groups I don't like - too much pressure on the candidate, not enough time to ask your questions.

Which is precisely why we *do* do it for our followup interviews. First interviews are either one-on-one or two-on-one (for the reasons you cite). If they pass that, we hit them with The Design Session -- they are told to lead an open design session with the team. Relatively high-pressure, but that's the point: if you're going to fold under that, you're probably not going to survive here. We have a lot of forceful personalities here, and expect programmers to be able to hold their own in that environment...