Re: Number 1 mistake to not avoid during an interview

A favourite question is "What's the longest you've ever sat in front of a computer for?" randomly thrown into the flow. I have yet to meet a trully gifted programmer who has not pulled the odd etreeeeeemly long session working on a particularly fascinating problem..... BTW I don't advocate extended hours as a good practice as we are all aware how it can quickly sap morale and diminish productivity.

I like this because candidates generally don't have a pat answer so you can assess enthusiasm for what we do, honesty in answering, depth of geekdom, and the ability to think on their feet all in about 60 seconds.

The responses to this seemingly simple question are quite fascinating.

cheers

tachyon

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Comment on Re: Number 1 mistake to not avoid during an interview

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Re: Re: Number 1 mistake to not avoid during an interview by svsingh (Priest) on Sep 18, 2003 at 13:23 UTC
Nice one. One of my favourites is "Why <job title>?" You'd be surprised at the number of people who can't answer that. It's a pretty good way to find out how interested someone is in their career though.	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Number 1 mistake to not avoid during an interview by idsfa (Vicar) on Sep 19, 2003 at 00:12 UTC
From the other side of the table, I usually kill them with "So, what do I have to offer you to hire you away from here?" If they can answer instantly, run , they have already left. If they would never leave the collective, run . Otherwise, they at least had to think, which makes an impression. Then you explain the above, which really makes an impression. Remember, when you stare long into the abyss, you could have been home eating ice cream.	[reply]