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John_Maxwell_IV comments on Seeking geeks interested in bioinformatics - Less Wrong
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Comments (13)
Ugh, terrible.
This is how most software developer interviews work right?
Right. One of the other things that's possibly unclear from the description here is that this isn't a research scientist position; this is for a software developer supporting the research scientists. (If you think life extension is cool, it's probably a more fulfilling place to work than writing banking software.)
Correct, this is a staff programmer posting. Not faculty or post-doc (though when/if we do open a post-doc position, we'll be doing coding tests for that also, due to recent experiences).
Yup. Terrible.
What would you suggest?
Look at their body of work -- the code they wrote.
Having a track-record of contributions github/bitbucket/sourceforge/rforge would be a very strong qualification. However, few applicants have this. It's a less stringent requirement that they at least show that they can... you know... program.
Programming is not a real time activity. Almost anything would be better than a real time test, maybe a provisional hire, or a take home, or asking people to code something in a few hours.
It depends. Writing a paper is not a realtime activity. Answering a free-response question can be. Proving a complex theorem is not a realtime activity, solving a basic math problem can be. It's a matter of calibrating the question difficulty so that is can be answered within the (soft) time-limits of an interview. Part of that calibration is letting the applicant "choose their weapon". Another part of it is letting them use the internet to look up anything they need to.
Our lead dev has passed this test, as has my summer grad student. There are two applicants being called back for second interviews (but the position is still open and it is not too late) who passed during their first interviews. Just to make sure, I first gave it to my 14 year old son and he nailed it in under half an hour.