Why most developers fail their first tech interviews
I think most developers fail their first tech interviews for reasons that have nothing to do with their technical skill set. It's a failure that can be mitigated with preparation. In this post I explain how.
I think people here would generally appreciate having the content within this IH post rather than having to click away.
Good to know!
I'm just starting at IndieHackers. Will keep it in mind for next time.
Interesting post.
In my past life in hiring, I found that most developers of all levels, fail technical components of interviews because they did not have a purpose of completing the task. Sure, the purpose is to get a job, but if you are asked to "complete this test for us to gauge your ability", you almost see them switch off for various reasons (myself included when being recruited).
In my opinion, the process for recruiting technical people needs to be modernised. I fail to understand why writing and/or explaining any of their existing code is relevant to the recruitment process. Perhaps I am unusual in that I trust the applicant that they are honest in their application, and if they are not, they get found out very quickly and you move them on in the probation/trial period, which I have experienced.
The best developer I ever hired was never asked to write a line of code, I just wanted to know what they had built in the past, if and why the enjoyed that project (or if they did not enjoy it). Personally in my experience, if the person can explain what their experience is and it matches what you want, I find you hire a better developer.
It is very hard to strike a balance between respecting the candidates' time and assessing their technical skills. This is specially true in the case of entry-level applicants whom often do not have much prior work to show for, nor relevant experience they can explain to the interviewer.
When possible, I always prefer candidates to bring their own work rather than handing them a take-home exercise. Not only it's more convenient for everybody, candidates are also often more confident with their prior work and they fare better during the interview portion.
Thanks for reading!