You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Interview Zone!

Ok, yes that was a blatant ripoff from an entry to the Twilight Zone TV show, but I believe it makes a point. Think about it, for those of us that have had to interview candidates, there has always been those times where you think to yourself: What on earth is going on here?!?

I’ve run across a variety of oddities during my career, and thought I’d share a few of them.

The Cheater

https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2015/10/24/the-freakonomics-cheating/pJ5Tq18irYVu9v06PqwH8K/story.html I had a candidate with a great resume who was finishing their masters in computer science, and was performing a phone screen over a video Skype call. The candidate was well spoken, and we had a good opening conversation. I then began to give out some simple technical questions as a way to get a feel for the candidate’s basic understanding of computer science. I asked questions like: ‘What is polymorphism?’.

Did I mention that this was a video conference call? I sat there and watched the candidate either google the answers to my questions, or text someone for answers. I kept my poker face on, and asked additional questions each one harder than the next. The candidate not only continued to look up answers, but managed to get many of them wrong as well! Needless to say, this candidate did not move on in the hiring process.

The Pompous

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/08/the-virtues-of-arrogance.html Towards the beginning of my career, I was given one of my first candidates to interview. This was an internal candidate for a mid-level role, and I was given some basic guidelines: Personality, and basic skills. At first the interview went well, and the candidate seemed to have a good personality that would fit well with the team. Then I began asking the technical questions, and things went from great to bad with the first question. What the question was isn’t really important, the answer given was.

I’ve been with this company for X years, I don’t have to answer technical questions.

“Well then, I should just hire you right on the spot”, said no one ever. I mean seriously, either this person didn’t want the job, or they really thought they didn’t have to go through a formal interview process.

So, how would you have handled this candidate?

The Bookworm

http://www.rps.org/events/2017/november/15/the-bookworm-club A few years back, I had an interview with a candidate whose resume looked very impressive. They completed their computer science degree in under four years with honors. The resume was light on internships, but there was enough there that I was expecting an almost ideal candidate.

When the interview started, I could tell the candidate was nervous, so I started with simple textbook style problems. Once the candidate seemed to be in a good place, I decided to ask a more moderately hard problem. The problem I asked is not important except that I felt it would be just outside their experience level. My goal was to gain insight into how the candidate attempted to solve problems and communicate while doing so.

Much to my surprise, the candidate was incapable of solving the problem, or even understanding how to go about beginning to solve it. Additionally, they failed to ask clarifying questions, or even attempt to whiteboard the problem itself.

The Smoke and Mirrors

I’m sure most of you have seen a resume that looks just about perfect. Good education, several years of experience within the same or similar problem space. Only, to get to the interview and realize that the candidate was so far from ideal, that the interview was a waste of your time.

https://civilengineeringcentral.com/are-you-really-who-you-say-you-are I was sent on a recruiting trip to a university for a job fair. The expectations for the trip were high, and we expected to interview many candidates that were getting their masters in computer science. The lines were long, and the resumes plentiful. As the day went on I started to notice a pattern to at least 95% of the resumes I was viewing.

  • Undergraduate degree in India.
  • At least five years of experience at a IT/consulting/Tech company.
  • Obtaining a MS in Computer Science.

The recruiting team and I went through the resumes and picked out the best of the best for some on campus interviews the next day. What we found was disturbing. Not a single candidate with the above mentioned pattern was able to solve or code very basic programming problems. The only candidates to advance to on-site interviews were a couple of undergraduates.

The Diamond in the Rough

Finally, I’d like to talk about those candidates who surprised me in a good way. I had a candidate come in, where I was the first interviewer of the day. Their resume looked average if not a bit below average, and I was curious about how https://www.irocks.com/diamonds-in-the-rough-finding-a-true-gem they had managed to make it as far as an on-site interview.

Once we sat down and got through the introductions, I asked the candidate how hard a problem they wanted. Surprisingly they asked me to give them my hardest problem. Just to be sure, I clarified that the problem I would give them I normally give to architect level candidates. They were absolutely sure they wanted to attempt it.

Much to my surprise, the candidate’s ability to articulate the problem, their possible solutions, and provide the needed code astounded me. Did they fully solve the problem? No. But that wasn’t the point. The point is to see CAN the candidate problem solve and code. This entry level candidate was as good at problem solving as a senior level engineer.

These days when I interview someone, I still get a few twilight zone moments.

What twilight zone moments have you had giving interviews?