3 Apr
2006
3 Apr
'06
9:43 a.m.
In article <200604031024.k33AOjdZ002070 at mwave.heeltoe.com>,
Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com> writes:
Richard wrote:
I didn't get mad, I just 'dug in' as you say. But I didn't get the
"trick" to the puzzle so it just sat there unfinished. Basically I
felt it was a waste of precious interview time because while I might
often get stuck on this little trick puzzles, I very rarely get stuck
while writing software and even then I don't stay stuck for very long.
This becomes evident when coding with me or looking at code I've done,
but its not evident by shoving random brain teasers in front of me and
demanding I solve them in 10 minutes. I'm not a seal in a circus act.
Once it was Microsoft, so I expected this. The other time it was a
game company.
It says a lot in an interview when the candidate gets mad when you ask
them to solve a hard problem on the spot :-)
It also says a lot when they just 'dig in' regardless of the answer they
come up with. those moments are often a harbinger of the future.
...or maybe not since you presumbaly wouldn't hire the person who was
put off by being asked to solve an irrelevant puzzle. This reasoning
sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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