But here is a suggestion to fix the interviews: Let the candidate bring their own code!
First this gives you a unique inside in the programming style the candidate prefers. Second the candidate knows the code very well and is probably more relaxed when he needs to answer your questions about the code (given that she/he didn't copy-paste the code from somewhere).
It is similar to designers showing a portfolio of their work to a potential employer. So if this works for designers, why not for programmers also? It is called "The Art of Computer Programming" for a reason. ;-)
This has implications that the candidate has code they can bring in. 99% of the code I have written over the last few years has been for work and therefore can’t be shared. The little code I have written outside of work falls into 2 categories, minor tweaks to existing code bases or experimental bits of code to try something out. Neither of those are really useful to this situation. If I was looking for code that I fully wrote myself that would work for this I’d have to look at projects from a number of years ago which means my ability to answer questions would be significantly diminished as I don’t remember why/how I made the choices I made.
> 99% of the code I have written over the last few years has been for work and therefore can’t be shared. The little code I have written outside of work falls into 2 categories, minor tweaks to existing code bases or experimental bits of code to try something out
Agreed whole heartedly with this. When I'm writing code for fun, I'm not spending time thinking about spec coverage, architecture, or great data design. I'm just screwing around getting things working.
The problem with that is that we can't be sure that it is their code.
And let's be honest, it doesn't really work for designers either. Because the problems of hiring programmers isn't unique to programmers. Hiring gets harder the more you need out of your workers.
Take any reasonably skilled position, hiring is incredibly difficult because it's hard to evaluate a person's skill in the blind. Hell, it can be difficult even when we do have ways to evaluate skill.
Take any major sports league. The draft is essentially teams hiring players. And they've spent the entire year evaluating hundreds, if not thousands of players to find out which ones are good enough to be hired. They have games to look at, stats to pore over, people to talk to about these players. And they get it wrong often.
I am a veterinarian and recruiting is way more straightforward. You’re not going to test the person on the spot. It’s way more about personality fit, what you like/dislike to do, and where you see yourself a few years later down the road. And then a real paid tryout.
Also I just changed jobs and was able to write code quickly because they were recruiting with tasks in mind for me. Sometimes it feels like the position is just opened to have more velocity on the sprints.
Veterinarians have boards and licenses, right? I can't hang a shingle as a vet on a whim. That's a very clear filter. All the vetting of whether or not someone can perform the job is done before they even get to you.
However, anyone can call themselves a programmer and apply to programming jobs and there's no way to tell if they're capable or not until they're at it.
And even previous job experience isn't a strong signal of competence. I've inherited code bases from people who left for other programming jobs where the code they left behind was just a mess inside.
Even boards and licences won’t keep one from being a bad recruit. It has the same value as a CS degree I guess most people applying will have, and you’ll still be whiteboarded.
But here is a suggestion to fix the interviews: Let the candidate bring their own code!
First this gives you a unique inside in the programming style the candidate prefers. Second the candidate knows the code very well and is probably more relaxed when he needs to answer your questions about the code (given that she/he didn't copy-paste the code from somewhere).
It is similar to designers showing a portfolio of their work to a potential employer. So if this works for designers, why not for programmers also? It is called "The Art of Computer Programming" for a reason. ;-)