That’s so rude of you to throw crap at Liberal Arts. Fine, being a techie is great. But that never gives you right to behave mean towards other arts or even science for that matter.

I disagree with almost everything you said – because it’s absolutely fabricated.

Everyone knows that an interview is a test – and there’s no such thing as “inviting cheating on a test by asking questions that are capable of being researched”.

Unless a test is specifically referred to as “open book” – then reviewing material is understood to be forbidded.

I agree that it’s important to ask questions that show understanding (eg. “cannot be Googled”)

– However, I am seeing much value in asking questions that can be Googled – in order to see which candidates are willing to cheat.

I agree.

I have been out of school for well beyond ten years. I have studied in-depth before all interviews.

I study more and more as the years go by – because I know more and more topics and areas as the years go by. Sometimes I re-read material “just because” and it’s amazing what you can learn after deep real-world experience gives you something to tie certain pieces of material to in your mind. Many aha! moments – for sure.

You must do everything reasonably possible that would positively separate yourself from other candidates. If you’re not doing that – then you’re likely not going to be offered the job.

I have been offered every single job that I’ve ever interviewed for. I’m absolutely certain that studying has been a factor in my interview success.

We had a handful of Canadian candidates, but rather few when compared to those from other countries. I think that the main issue was that the position was for a 16 month internship. A Canadian student may prefer to graduate first, and then find a job, rather than take on such a lengthy internship. In some instances foreign students may have fewer local opportunities, so an internship with such a well known company here in North America may seem more appealing (than it would to a Canadian student). Honestly though, that’s just my guess.

Thanks for the message, Bill. When I wrote the comment, I didn’t think that it would come down this way. After reading it again, I do realize how bad it was. I’ve asked Antonio to take down the comment.

I’d like to apologize (to everyone) for the remark I made.

I also appreciate you putting it down in the nicest way possible by saying “If I need some C coding done, I’ll ask someone else.”. I can learn a lot from you.

Reynold: Antonio was interviewing students who should have been studying things like algorithms and programming concepts, language semantics, etc. People who are working as a professional developer know what they need to know to get their job done and done well. Is it reasonable to expect an academic to know the academic details? I think so. Is it reasonable to expect, say, a newspaper editor to have great grammar? I think so. Is it reasonable for a professional cook to know how to grow vegetables? It’d be great, but I don’t think that the cook gives a rat’s ass about the mixture of grains that have to be force fed different geese to obtain the best fois gras. Nor do I expect the farmer who knows that to be familiar with 12 different ways of preparing the fois gras. I do expect the farmer, and any health inspectors, to be aware of health regulations but I don’t think that the cook or the general public to care – even if they can google it.

Similarly, I don’t expect, say, someone who specializes in buffer cache management to be familiar with the Java Swing API’s or a fast line-drawing algorithm. If the developer recently took a graphics course then I guess it’s reasonable for them to know the line drawing algorithm.

Maybe that’s something that you should consider in the future, Reynold – the context to see if it is reasonable to expect someone to know that information (or to possess some particular skill).

In the future, maybe I’ll consult you if I need to write a grant proposal (i.e. beg for money). If I need some C coding done, I’ll ask someone else.

Great article 🙂 You seem to be doing well for yourself, congrats.

My own experience, which isn’t dissimilar to yours, and some of the details you’ve mentioned in your hiring process, and some of the comments here, make me think that we really should have proper and popular Computer Engineering programs. Computer Science should be more academic.

It’s clear that most candidates and most companies … heck, most anybody in the industry, want/need people with more practical experience. I’m routinely stupefied at the number of people who aren’t even aware of revision control. These folk are clearly in it for the degree and the salary that follows, not for the passion of it. With a proper Computer Engineering program, they’d be FAR more useful and happy out of the gate.

Computer Science could then focus on the more hard-core stuff, as I feel it should. (Seems that most of the candidates produced today are neither good at the practical since they lack practice, and don’t care about the hard-core stuff.)

I wonder, has anybody ever interviewed anybody from a college-level program? A 2- or 3-year type thing that focused on the practical? Results? (On the Ops side of thing those candidates are usually worse than useless 🙂

As Leon explained, these are high profile intern positions. But even if they were not, unless your company has money to throw away, it would be anti-economical to cut time/energy and money devoted to hire interns. Why? A short story from my experience: http://thinkingbox.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/dont-cut-timeenergymoney-invested-in-hiring/

I think the important thing to take away here is, if you don’t think the interview question is fair, be honest. Don’t lie.