There's a joke in there somewhere...
19 karma · joined August 21, 2011
There's a joke in there somewhere...
Being earnest and dare I say somewhat unique in your discussions can often produce better results than crutching on over-used phrases. This is a reason I stick to phrases like "I apologize for" over "I'm sorry for", or "I appreciate that" over "Thank you for." When words/phrases you intend to convey become noise or just another figure of speech, why bother saying them at all?
1. There are no safe assumptions.
2. Relate.
There's also some benefits that can be gained by company A's method ostensibly over company B's. You get to see their response to the discomfort of not remembering an API. You get to understand their problem solving abilities, not in terms of code, but in terms of interpersonal relationships. In a recent article I read, someone had suggested offering a code prompt and then challenging the applicant to find the bug on completion (even if there wasn't one), simply to see how they respond when faced with that challenge.
Naturally it may not be perfect, it's just hard to really quantify which one is "better" if they're arriving at the same end -- a presumably competent engineer being hired. Are companies not interested in hiring people with both interpersonal skills and technical ability, after all?