I’ve always been pretty good at interviews. Mostly because I’ve done my homework and know:
- what the company does,
- how the company makes money,
- what my job would entail,
- what my weaknesses are and
- how to show confidence in my skills.
Aaron Swartz has a very different interview process which entails a very simple, casual atmosphere (coffee shop etc.) and small talk. No interview style questions in the least are asked during the discussion. His main goals are to find out:
- Is the person smart?
- Can they get stuff done?
- Can you work with them?
I think this is an excellent way to conduct an interview because as the post states:
Programming isn’t typically a job done under pressure, so seeing how people perform when nervous is pretty useless. And the interview questions usually asked seem chosen just to be cruel. I think I’m a pretty good programmer, but I’ve never passed one of these interviews and I doubt I ever could.
I’ve never been involved in the interview process at my work but one day – when the time comes – this is totally how I’d like to conduct interviews to hire developers.
