In my college we used Little Man Computer projects to discover how processors and simple commands work. We try to give unique "homework assignments" to our interviewees between their initial and their second interviews. These projects are designed to discover things about their programming personality. I'm sure I can find places onlin...
Would you give a potential programmer a 2nd chance in an interview if the face to face interview went really well, great communication skills, great cultural fit for the team and general chemistry was good. The candidate doesn't have a formal background (education wise) rather they have been taught on the job, but your gut feel is that...
There are several questions about job interviews on StackOverflow. I'd like to know about their counterpart: the "exit interview." I think the exit interview is an important part of the career transition process. So here are some things I'd like to know: Does your company do exit interviews? Are there special topics that specially a...
I'm starting to send out resumes for a Summer internship. What I'm looking for are some easy ways to set myself apart from the competition. I'm kind of looking at this from a "work smarter, not harder" standpoint as of now. Yes, the best way to set myself apart from the competition is to contribute to an open source project, join a ...
If you could only ask 1 interview question to determine whether or not to hire a programmer what would it be? Pretty similar to : what is THE best answer interview question... ...
Curious to get people's thoughts. I conduct frequent interviews, and have had enough in my career to reflect on them, and I've noticed a broad array of questions. I made this c++ specific, but it's worth noting that I have had people ask me algorithmic complexity questions over the phone, and I don't even mean what is the complexity of a...
So you've landed that interview, seem to be doing well (or already did well), and think this could be a possibility. Now starts the dual poker game: how much we'll underpay you, and how much we'll overwork you. There are enough questions on the former, but I'd like to hear tips and tells about the latter: How do you figure out how man...
I'm looking over resumes to hire a developer. On the resume it says - "I have 23 years of experience", but in the "experience" section it only lists about 15 years worth of work. Is it customary for programmers to cut short their experience section and not list everything, or is the current raised state of my left eyebrow completely just...
As someone who's bounced around a fair bit in jobs (at one point I had lost 4 jobs in less than 4 years, all of which laid everyone off when they closed their doors) I wonder how much the candidates stability affects hiring decisions. For those of you who do interviewing/hiring, do you look for someone with 5 years in one position? Do y...
I am getting ready to add another developer to my team and I want to try and fix the mistakes I made in my last hiring cycle. I like to think of myself as a competent programmer (I can be given a project, I can deliver on that project and the deliverable work with very few if any bugs) and so I ask questions that I would ask myself in a...
If and when I interview for another company how much detail am I expected to provide about my projects at my former (or present) company. Especially, if the projects are sensitive and under NDA (Non disclosure agreement). Would this be violation of any kind? I am sure quite a few of you must have encountered a similar situation. What do ...
I am preparing for an interview with Google (Mountain View) I was wondering if anybody could share some of the questions and experiences. I have been told that they ask both brain teasers and coding/algorithm questions this time ...
Does anyone know of any groups out there who do mock technical interviews on each other? I am looking for an interview practice buddy or two. I couldn't find any groups out there, so I started a google group in the hopes that there are more people who want practice and who are open to this. The phone interviews would be something similar...
So I'm going to a job interview next week at a Java place, and would like to not come across as clueless. I'm a pretty confident C#/.NET developer and am (clearly!) willing to consider jumping ship to Java - I'd like links to resources people would recommend for doing this. I'm interested in answers to questions like: Any guides that...
You've probably heard of the Microsoft Interview™, a kind of interview in which the interviewer asks a candidate brainteaser questions such as: Why are manhole covers round? How do they make M&Ms? What does all the ice in a hockey rink weigh? How many piano tuners are there in the world? How would you move Mount Fuji? I'm thinking of a...
I have an interview with Facebook for a software development internship. I was wondering if anyone has experience or insight into working for Facebook. I have looked through the other questions about common interview questions but wonder if there is anything specific Facebook may ask an intern. Thank you for sharing your experiences. ...
I had intentionally taken a break from my career for a few years and am trying to return to workforce. In the meanwhile I did some amount of freelancing but not quite a lot. While I get interview calls and do well at the technical front, I am asked this question about if and whether I can sustain a full time job. I have to tell you that ...
I have just completed my Master's degree in Computer Science and have gotten my first job interview as a developer. I do not have much experience in large scale development projects, but I am hoping my university education counts for something. I am wondering, what materials should I bring that would impress my interviewers? What do m...
I'm baffled by the responses to another question that say you shouldn't bring a code portfolio to a programming job interview. Why the heck not ? Others recommend this; it's even one of the "classic" stories in Peopleware: “It would be ludicrous to think of hiring a juggler without first seeing him perform. That’s just common se...
Imagine someone who loves system building and design, issues of code reusability and maintenance, and knows many languages, tools and tricks. But he doesn't like pure algorithms, questions about permutations, runtime analysis or the intricacies of sort algorithms. Can that person still be a good software engineer / developer? If yes, d...