Respecting Experience in Hiring
A hospital is seeking a highly experienced surgeon with over a decade of experience in complex surgeries. They contacted the surgeon and agreed to participate in the interview process. However, this approach may not be the most respectful of the surgeon’s expertise. The surgeon, as well as an architect, have well-established careers and were not actively seeking job opportunities through traditional channels like job boards or LinkedIn. The hospital and study initiated contact with them, which may come off as offensive. It is akin to asking the surgeon to locate the heart and then closing the corpse on the table.
Similarly, asking the architect to create a building prototype is also disrespectful. These tasks can be declined, and the professionals can choose to remain in their current jobs while politely explaining why such requests are inappropriate. They can direct the companies to review their GitHub Profiles, which showcase numerous code examples they have worked on in the past. Interviews can often become mere tests of memorization rather than genuine indicators of competence. In my previous tech interview roles, I preferred to conduct a quick technical call to determine a candidate’s abilities rather than imposing tests. It would be more productive to ask interviewers to test-drive a simple issue in the candidate’s current codebase.
The efficiency of algorithms rarely extends beyond their application in day-to-day work. Instead, assessing how well candidates collaborate and interact with stakeholders is essential since technology ultimately serves people. The current job interview process has been around for over a century and has proven ineffective. Rather than subjecting candidates to these interviews, investing in teaching and training them is a more practical approach. Brain teaser interview questions only serve to boost the interviewer’s ego.
The limited time available to assess an individual’s abilities is the main issue with interviews in the software industry. Although these exercises can broaden our knowledge, most software engineers rarely encounter such problems in their careers. Presenting candidates with real-world challenges they can solve in their own time is a more realistic approach. Still, it must be adapted to accommodate different experience levels, as there is seldom a single “right” way to solve a problem.
