Java and Python

[Peter Hansen]

Geometric Engineer wrote:
> 
> Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote:
> >
[...comments about hiring practices, and ignoring certifications...]
> > Not all companies hire in this way, of course, but all
> > the best ones do. :-)

>   How has your experience been anyway with tests of any kind to bring
> out actual programming ability? Do you rely mainly on "look and feel"
> from the interviews? 

Not sure what you mean by "look and feel", but if my inference 
is correct, then I believe that is closer to what I look at than
tests...  As I said, communication skills are by far the most 
important.  Look, as in appearance, has little or nothing to 
do with it, but I think you just mean do I rely on the "GUI"
rather than attempting to do a black box test to infer what
is inside.  I think that's what I'm saying.  Hard to tell with
all the metaphors in the way. :-)

> I've found generally the people who know about a
> subject will be able to explain simply and clearly how to work at it,
> and that the people who don't know about a subject will talk lots but
> give little real information, or worse, be actively confusing.

Exactly so.  In fact, every poor hiring decision I've ever made
was something I could have avoided had I paid more attention 
to my "spider sense" during the interview.  In most of those 
cases, a programming test would have done nothing to
dissuade me (certainly all these candidates would have passed
a basic C certification test, for example).  I plan to continue 
my process, but spend even more care thinking about the responses 
and putting faith in my gut feeling, rather than going against 
my intuition as I have once too often in the past, just because 
the candidate looked good on paper or came with glowing 
technical references.

-Peter