brain teasers are a terrible way to evaluate intelligence because of pressure
a person may know the technical details of something, but be terrible at understanding the big picture or be unable to architect properly
Interviews are a HARD way to evaluate someone … one guy I hired ended up snoring at his desk from week 1 … I always say 1 reference is worth 100 interviews …
I wish there was a much better way to attach to someone’s resume 2 indicators: intelligence and motivation … that’s all I ask
Also even tech firms have their “front office” and “back office” positions, and highly differentiate the hires… it’s not enough to say I work for bigN … or Goldman Sachs … you could be doing tip-of-the-edge ML or search algorithm work, or could be working on secondary GUIs …
Brain teasers are not the norm in technical interviews in the computing industry. The norm are technical questions aimed at trying to test knowledge and skill at something the interviewer sees as important (which may be a “big picture” topic).
Yes, interviews have limitations. (So do references.)
The applicant’s college name mostly says something about their parents’ financial circumstances and choices and their high school achievements. Do you consider those to be reliable indicators of their current ability to do the job you are hiring for and future ability to do anything that you may want them to be able to do in the future?
