That's what I was discussing with my friend a few days ago. He had an interview with Google last month and it took him a month or two to prepare for that. he did not pass the interview, but he got an interview with Amazon this month. He was busy with other things and he could not study for the interview. He mentioned that he cannot remember most of the things he prepared and read for the last interview. I am forgetful too, and I guess 90% of people forget details about algorithms and how to answer a puzzle very fast if they don't use it everyday.
So the question is what is the value of a skill or knowledge that fades away after a month or two? I know people who got hired by Google or other big companies that forgot all the information they acquired before the interview. Cause most of it is useless for the actual job. Many logic questions or puzzles are well known and people tend to know the answer before the interview.
If I had to interview someone; I would assign him a project from the company that is part the of the job he is going to do, leave him alone in a room with a computer for a time period I expect someone to finish that specific project. Finally, I come back to see the out come.
It is good for the applicant, as there is no pressure on him (except some time constraints maybe which is not a big deal), I do not put him on the spot and he does not have to deal with his boss while answering to a question. He does not have to dig unrelated information before the interview, and he can show off his programming skills if he has any.
It is good for the company, as I do not have to spend a day interviewing and prepare for that, I will know right away from the code if the guy is a good fit or not, I can see his programming skills, I know ahead of time how long in average it takes for an internal person to do the job, so I can measure his performance relatively. I do not even have to evaluate the code in front of him, I can invite multiple candidates at the same time, put them in separate rooms. Get the results, evaluate them and invite them for the second round if I liked their code.
So the question is what is the value of a skill or knowledge that fades away after a month or two? I know people who got hired by Google or other big companies that forgot all the information they acquired before the interview. Cause most of it is useless for the actual job. Many logic questions or puzzles are well known and people tend to know the answer before the interview.
If I had to interview someone; I would assign him a project from the company that is part the of the job he is going to do, leave him alone in a room with a computer for a time period I expect someone to finish that specific project. Finally, I come back to see the out come.
It is good for the applicant, as there is no pressure on him (except some time constraints maybe which is not a big deal), I do not put him on the spot and he does not have to deal with his boss while answering to a question. He does not have to dig unrelated information before the interview, and he can show off his programming skills if he has any.
It is good for the company, as I do not have to spend a day interviewing and prepare for that, I will know right away from the code if the guy is a good fit or not, I can see his programming skills, I know ahead of time how long in average it takes for an internal person to do the job, so I can measure his performance relatively. I do not even have to evaluate the code in front of him, I can invite multiple candidates at the same time, put them in separate rooms. Get the results, evaluate them and invite them for the second round if I liked their code.