Stop Screen Peeking on Technical Interviews
Apr 26, 2019
technical
interviewing
A few weeks ago I interviewed for a remote Node Developer position at a company who does consulting work for some well-known government agencies. The appeal was that they were remote-friendly, offered a competitive salary, and would offer a few challenges that I was willing to take on if I were given an opportunity. I’d like to share what the interview process was like and how I think it could have been better.
So what did the interviewing process look like?
HR Discovery Phase (Interview #1): This was more or less a brief chat with the HR person. The person I spoke to shared a lot of company information in a short amount of time and openly admitted to “not being a technical person”, which is fine and not uncommon for those of us who have spent over a decade of our lives working in the tech space. It was a very exciting conversation and we both viewed it mutually beneficial to move on in the process.
Team Member Phase (Interview #2): In this phase I spoke with a member of the team I would potentially be working on. This person was very technical and it was a great experience to be able to briefly cover the technical aspects of the position. The next day the HR person reached out and we both agreed everything went well, so we moved onto the next part of the process.
Video Interview Phase (Interview #3): The aim of this phase was for them to give me a technical challenge to work on and have the ability to ask the team lead questions. This is where I feel the process could be improved, which I’ll try to explain for the remaining portion of this write up.
So what happened in the Video Interview?
First 10 minutes – Introductions and pleasantries exchanged. Explanation by team lead for what the challenge entailed. Surprisingly – they wanted to watch me work on the challenge for the next hour! Really?!?!?!
Next 10 minutes – I navigate to their challenge site and I was asked to download some data files. First click of the Download link resulted in a 404, then an explanation of how the website was reworked and apparently nobody tested the links to see if they worked. They had to share the files with me via Google Docs.
Next 10 minutes – I setup a skeleton for the project and dropped the data files into the project, I asked for clarification of the project requirements, and I briefly reviewed the data to see if there were any factors I would need to consider. The task was to analyze data and create a report of counts given a specific date.
Next 10 minutes – The project used a number of CSV files and I had to find a way of reading these. The team lead recommended using PapaParse (a Node library for reading CSV files), but they had no experience using it. I had only heard of it and after a quick review of the documentation I moved forward using it.
Next 10 minutes – I struggled using the library and setting up the code so that I was looping over all the rows of data. I asked the team lead if they saw anything and they were eager to make recommendations or what I should be doing. They recommended I use the Node debugger, which was something I haven’t used a lot of before. Eventually it seemed to be working as expected.
Next 20 minutes – I worked on setting up data structures, lookup tables, and starting to write the logic for grouping things together. I began writing the error handling and I was testing as I was going, which of course I hit some snags. The team lead asked me some questions, which I happily answered, but unfortunately it broke my focus a bit.
Last 10 minutes – The team lead said I was out of time and the coding stopped. To wrap up they asked me if I had any questions of them, which the most obvious one was: how did I do on this challenge? They were very blunt by saying that they felt I was more junior level and they could tell I was struggling through this challenge. Also, they said that it wasn’t really their decision on if I would be hired or not; instead, others would put it up for a vote within the company. They would get back to me they said. On a positive note they did say I stuck to the problem like glue and was determined to solve it.
What’s my reaction to this?
Honestly, I believe this was the most stressful interview I’ve ever participated in. What’s sad is that I should have been sitting comfortably at home! After waiting a few days for a response from the company, they eventually sent the “Unfortunately we‘ve decided to not to move forward at this time” message. If they expected me to finish the challenge in such stressful conditions, then it’s probably a good thing we didn’t go further down the road!
So how could it have been better?
For the challenge – give the candidate some time to solve the problem and do not rush things. For the data analysis challenge they gave me it would have been better to have at least a day to work on the project. This would be more realistic, especially with it being remote work.
Still keep the hour meeting – This lets the team lead see a proposed solution and make notes of what they’d like to discuss or evaluate ahead of time. Screen sharing tools could still be used for answering questions or showing something, but never should it be used as a spying tool. Ideally the team lead can get closer of making a list of technical strengths and weaknesses that this potential candidate has. From my experience, they just assumed I was junior level because I struggled to get past some technical difficulties while working on their hour-long technical challenge. It’s rather unfortunate because in the job description they list more requirements, but they got hung up on just one item and no opportunity given to discuss or show competency in the other areas. How many great candidates will slip by them before they finally figure out a better way of assessing potential candidates?
Thoughts for the Road
If you are an employer – review your interviewing process and strive to always look for improvements. Is the technical challenge you’re having your candidates complete relevant to the position that you are trying to fill? Ask candidates who have been through the process for feedback. I would have gladly shared this if asked.
If you are a job seeker – don’t beat yourself up if you encounter or have encountered an unfair or unrealistic interview process similar to what I have described. Keep your head up and ready for the next employer who knows how to attract top talent like you!
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