Were you asked technical questions in live interview?

[meh.]

Just curious on people's experience here. I have my first in-person interview for an actuarial position next week and don't have tons of prep time.

[alex]

what profession? computer engineering? scrubbing toilets? pole dancing?

[Talenos]

Yes, I couldn't imagine not asking any technical questions in an interview if it was a technical position.

[meh.]

It's a spot as a financial reporting actuary. I keep getting conflicting responses to the questions. Some people haven't been asked technical questions for in-person interviews, it was more so the team can meet the app.

[Talenos]

Well when are they supposed to find out if you are technically competent and can actually do the job they need you to do? I'm not sure what type of job you're going for, but every single interview I've had has been technical in nature, if not in the phone stage, for sure in the in person stage.

[Mr. Bloodthirsty]

Yes, always

[THW]

I always ask technical questions. If they don't know the answer, I ask them how they would find one.

[Dragmire]

I was required to code solutions to problems in realtime at my interview at WebDev for ISU during my 3rd with the boss and 2 others watching a projector to see how i actually code. None of the actual interview questions were particularly technical or challenging, but they did require a bit of non-idiot thought.

[Dragmire]

If they don't know the answer, I ask them how they would find one.

I think that's quite a bit more telling than the actual answer to the technical question.

[Robert Paulson]

No, i've never been asked serious technical questions in an interview, which blows my mind. I mean i'd get the basic bs like "how have you used OO to solve a problem?". Seriously crazy shit, where I'm at now I'm a systems architect and that's about as technical as it got. If I'm ever in a position to hire people I will put them in a room with a computer and no internet connection and have them code a relatively simple application.

[meh.]

actuaries go through a series of exams. minimum requirement to apply for this position was just to pass the first exam. I've passed two and third will be taken care of next wednesday..hoping the interview will be after that so i can look better

[VoicesofGusto]

I'm going through interviews right now with law firms... it's nothing more than a horse and pony show.

[DTower5]

I'm going through interviews right now with law firms... it's nothing more than a horse and pony show.

That is the understatement of the year...

[daoist]

If I'm ever in a position to hire people I will put them in a room with a computer and no internet connection and have them code a relatively simple application.

That's a horrible way to judge people's ability to code. Being a good *whatever* isn't just memorizing a list of syntax or whatever. It's having the ability to find it out. It's retarded to penalize someone because they didn't know by heart that that the third argument to the API call to make a window takes a pointer to a parent window rather than a z-index integer, or whatever.

Besides, you can't google how to code your head out of your ass, so there's no danger of them getting out of it that way.

[White Thunder]

If I'm ever in a position to hire people I will put them in a room with a computer and no internet connection and have them code a relatively simple application.

That's a horrible way to judge people's ability to code. Being a good *whatever* isn't just memorizing a list of syntax or whatever. It's having the ability to find it out. It's retarded to penalize someone because they didn't know by heart that that the third argument to the API call to make a window takes a pointer to a parent window rather than a z-index integer, or whatever.

Besides, you can't google how to code your head out of your ass, so there's no danger of them getting out of it that way.

Truth

I would much rather see someone who is resourceful and able to figure things out by whatever means. No real job exists in a vacuum like that, so why put someone in that situation?

[Robert Paulson]

I see your point, perhaps if you could devise something for them to build that doesn't take 3 hours and still can't be google'd in it's entirety. I also work in a .NET environment, so with intellisense you really don't need to google much for the sake of syntax. I guess the point would be that they understand and can apply basic programming concepts - the syntax stuff is a non-issue.

Still - if you need to google basic things, you probably aren't very good - and I wouldn't want to hire you. Also putting someone under pressure, even if unrealistic is a good way to see how they handle themselves.

[daoist]

I like your goal, but not your execution. What about giving them an internet connection, and just watching what they do?

If they're googling apis and whatever, GREAT! If they're googling how to do a loop, BAD.

[Reagraham Lincool]

Still - if you need to google basic things, you probably aren't very good - and I wouldn't want to hire you. Also putting someone under pressure, even if unrealistic is a good way to see how they handle themselves.

The thing is, sometimes "basic things" are really just "specific things." They're basic because for whatever environment you're working in, you see them constantly. For example, I have no formal C# training, but I program in it all the time. When I first started in C# I would fuck up basic stuff from time to time because I was trying to do things like I would in C++. Was that because I'm a bad programmer? No, it's because I've been programming in C++ for over 10 years. The algorithms weren't difficult. The data structures weren't difficult. The "basic shit" was difficult because it was specific to the environment that I was programming in and I wasn't used to that yet. The measurement of a good programmer is their ability to learn a new environment, not their proficiency within any one (because on a long enough timeline, that will NOT be a constant).

[Talenos]

I like your goal, but not your execution. What about giving them an internet connection, and just watching what they do?

If they're googling apis and whatever, GREAT! If they're googling how to do a loop, BAD.

Why not give them a task where they shouldn't need to look up API's at all. Just have them do something basic. If they need the internet at all, then that's a pretty bad sign.

[Robert Paulson]

Yeah that's what I'm talking about, not a complex build, but build a calculator or something basic. Or have them do some basic ORM.

[MrTippet]

I like your goal, but not your execution. What about giving them an internet connection, and just watching what they do?

If they're googling apis and whatever, GREAT! If they're googling how to do a loop, BAD.

Why not give them a task where they shouldn't need to look up API's at all. Just have them do something basic. If they need the internet at all, then that's a pretty bad sign.

Yeah when my company hires we have people do a simple program and they can use any language or even pseudo code.

[Dragmire]

I think it'd be interesting to watch people try to debug an obviously bugging chunk of code (with all resources accounted for, of course. no references to proprietary libraries). That's a bit of pressure to put on an interviewee though.

[Dragmire]

Yeah when my company hires we have people do a simple program and they can use any language or even pseudo code.

Pseudo code would be good enough for me.

[fiveSD]

If you had to already pass a test to get the interview (not directly), they may not do as many technical questions. In my experience, it has always depended. Within the same company some positions may have asked technical questions and others may not.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Did any of you guys have to take the IKM C++ exam? Fuck that shit.

All my interviews have been technical. Some easy, some hard.

Some interviewers I would explain the solution in high level, then go into detail, and as soon as I do they say "I get where you're going with this" and move on to the next question. Others start asking a general question, and then keep driving you to a more and more detailed answer, asking about exceptions and problems along the way.

In my experience, investment banks/financial companies ask the hardest questions and have the most hellish interview process ever.

For example, this bank I'm interviewing with has the following steps:

1. HR pre-screen
2. IKM test
3. Small coding problem (have 3 days to solve)
4. Technical pre-screen
   
   1. Discussion of #3
   2. In-depth technical questions on C++ at the language level (i.e. how the compiler generates code, problems in the linker stage if X & Y happen, why certain constructs were created in C++, obscure shit, etc)
5. In person interview
   
   1. 3 hours coding 6 problems
   2. 4 hours, 8-panel review of solutions to coding problems

[Little Bobby Tables]

I interviewed with 6 different managers. Two asked fairly rudimentary C questions ("what does this code snippet do?" and "write a code snippet that does x"). The manager that ended up hiring me challenged me to a game of Mastermind and I won.

[Mr. Bloodthirsty]

Christ, there sure are a lot of code monkeys left around here.

[Talenos]

I was asked some basic stuff, but one thing I thought was kind of cool and different was that I brought in a game I wrote to demo, and then I had to explain a certain part of the game and show the code. I think I had to explain how I did the collision detection. Then I showed them some particle generating code I wrote and explained that for a little while too. I like that just because it means the person explaining it will be really comfortable and you can see how they code.

[Reagraham Lincool]

Christ, there sure are a lot of code monkeys left around here.

It's almost like programming and ST attract the same personality types...

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

This was one of the more interesting questions I've been asked recently:

You and a dealer play a card game. If you win, you get $10. Else, you get nothing.

From a shuffled deck of cards, 2 cards are drawn. If both cards are red, then you get the cards. If both cards are black, then the dealer gets the cards. If the cards are either red/black or black/red, then they are discarded and no one gets the cards. Keep drawing 2 cards per round until there are no more cards in the deck.

At the end of the game, if you have more cards than the dealer, you win.

How much is this game worth and why?

[Pesto]

I don't know that you would ever win. You and the dealer would have the same number of pairs every time.

[Talenos]

EVERY time? When you flip a coin 100 times do you think you always get 50 heads and 50 tails?

[Pesto]

Yes, every time.

Flipping coins is not equivalent. In 100 coin flips you can have any number of heads and tails (50/50, 99/1, etc.). You can't draw 30 black pairs out of a deck of cards.

Think about it with smaller decks of cards and see if you come to the same conclusion I do.

[Talenos]

Ok yeah, you're right finite cards. The game is worth 0 then, since you always tie and always lose? If you use up all the cards in the deck every time it does seem like that's the only outcome.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Yes, that's correct.

Ok, I just got a callback with more info about the in-person interview. I have to interview w/ their in-house psychologist--he'll be doing personality & IQ testing.

[meh.]

Had interview today, not a single technical question.

[Talenos]

Had interview today, not a single technical question.

What stage of interview is this? Was it with a tech or HR person?

[meh.]

Final round of interviews...3 people for 2 spots. Met with 1 HR lady and then 4 actuaries that I'll (hopefully) be working with soon.

[Pesto]

Sweet.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

So this morning I had my 4th phone interview (HR, trader, senior soft dev, lead soft dev) w/ this company in NYC. Will they now fly me out? Will they offer me a job? Who knows!

I am flying out this Wednesday for an interview w/ Citigroup, and have an in-person interview at Amazon on Monday.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

This stresses me out.

http://imgur.com/rtutA.png

[WrenchHead]

Every job I've interviewed for, they needfully ask me, "Do you know anything about [technology nobody there currently understands] well enough to teach the people here how to do it?!!"

I've never had to actually draw anything up on paper or code anything. More or less I've just explained what I've done at my other jobs and how well it worked or didn't work.

I'm a 'code monkey' in a really crappy sense of the definition. I code all day, but it's DB and mainframe legacy stuff. Nothing technical. It's all business logic and the maintenance of programs written before I was born.

I'm trying to think of a good way to weed out the dead weight sort of employees I've seen. Some people are insanely booksmart but have no ability to extend it to the real world or be flexible in adapting to new problems. I'd like an interview where they dumped a bucket of legos in front of me and told me to build something. Then after I built something asked me to interface something else I was then required to build. I have no idea if it'd usefully give you a picture of a person's thinking ability, but at least it'd be more fun than an interogation.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

So I think most financial companies do this:

Congratulations on passing the Bloomberg resume review and making it to the second step of our interview process! We would now like to invite you to take an online technical assessment. Please write back with your preferred language: C, C++, C# or Java 2, so we can administer the correct test.

You will have THREE days from the day the exam is distributed to complete the exam. It is imperative that you take this exam on your own, with NO help from any other parties. Dishonesty will result in immediate disqualification from the interview process and will disable you from reapplying to any positions with Bloomberg in the future. The test will take approximately one hour, during which you will not be able to take a break or you will be logged out. For a detailed description of each test, please see below.

If the exam is completed in a timely manner and with a sufficient score, you will be contacted by a Bloomberg recruiter to participate in the next steps of our interview process. Please note that Bloomberg does not disclose candidate test scores.

But at this point, I'm not inclined to go through with it, as I'm expecting to hear back from several offers this week or next.

[Pesto]

I'd do it anyway, just to see if I could do it. It's just an hour.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Yeah, I took that test in C++ already (I'm pretty sure it's the one from IKM), but I'll do the one in C for fun.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

FML. I have 7 interviews in the next week or so.

- Bloomberg (on-site)
- Goldman Sachs
- Barclays
- T3 Capital
- Liquid Capital
- Renaissance Technologies

[Talenos]

Is this a recent change. Deciding to do financial stuff?

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Indeed!

[MarcusAurelius]

I like your goal, but not your execution. What about giving them an internet connection, and just watching what they do?

If they're googling apis and whatever, GREAT! If they're googling how to do a loop, BAD.

Why not give them a task where they shouldn't need to look up API's at all. Just have them do something basic. If they need the internet at all, then that's a pretty bad sign.

right. algorithm design, always 1000x more important than syntax, APIs, anything. If you're reliant on the dolphin-centric stuff, you're going to be outsourced.

q: here's a hard problem. pseudo-code it.


it's very easy to ascertain if someone has basic syntax-related programming skills. if they can do the basic stuff, and they can do the harder high-level stuff, you have a winner.

[Pesto]

q: here's a hard problem. pseudo-code it.

For my current job they asked me to pseudo-code FizzBuzz.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Python is close enough to pseudo code.