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Francisco Zarabozo
I know for a fact that it is true that most candidates fail to code properly on interviews. But I also know it is a very delicate aspect of an evaluation and it can go wrong for a lot of reasons and not necessarily because the prospect is a bad programmer. It probably is a very good thing to have a candidate that perfectly passes all coding tests, but that’s just a starting point and that doesn’t mean either that you have a good candidate in your hands.
I have to do code tests almost for every company I apply, because I generally apply for remote positions. Most of my jobs have been coding from my home in Mexico City for a company in the USA.
I’m really used to it. Also, it’s common for companies to use the same coding exercises, so whenever I find myself struggling with some point of a test, I make sure I don’t forget to research it later just in case I get asked the same thing in another interview.
For the most part, I’ve done great with those tests, but most companies don’t just rely on those results, they also make other interview rounds to talk with me and evaluate other aspects of my person.
When I’ve been in charge of testing candidates, I’ve seen a low percentage of approving candidates, and I’ve never seen the company hire the ones that failed over the ones that passed. What I have seen, is that some of those hires, didn’t end up being good for the team or the company.
Now, here’s what proved to me that failing a coding test doesn’t really mean much:
The only time I’ve failed in a very humiliating way, was when I applied for an Amazon position. The thing there was, I really felt under pressure because “it was Amazon”, I felt like if I was applying for Google or Facebook. It was a big deal to me.
They have this really pressuring way to test you: you have to enter a call with a shared screen of a Linux terminal, and your interviewer goes on telling you what to code next. It is about resolving about 3 or 4 exercises/problems. You have to code without being able to consult any references and you know your interviewer is watching everything you type, delete, every change of mind on your code, even hearing every breath you take. And, you have 60 minutes to finish.
That’s the only time in my life I actually froze. I couldn’t think properly. And the fact that I didn’t sleep well thinking I had a coding test with Amazon, didn’t help me much. The more I was having trouble to design a function to do something, the more I was feeling like I wasn’t able to do anything, feeling really humiliated at the same time for being watched while my brain wasn’t working. It was an infinite loop of gradually feeling more unable to unfreeze while feeling more aand more humiliated. One thing fed the other until the time was up.
Suddenly, my interviewer told me “time is up. I’m really sorry.” I knew I looked terrible, like I didn’t know anything, like I lied in my resume, like it was impossible that someone like me had the great experience he claimed. Or at least that’s what I was sure at the moment my interviewer was thinking the whole hour.
I felt really, really depressed after that interview. I received a letter after that thanking me for applying and regretting that they were looking for a “different” profile at the moment.
The thing is, I didn’t fail because of a lack of knowledge. I didn’t fail because of a low IQ (which I actually don’t have low at all). I didn’t fail because of a lack of experience. I failed because of a set of physiological reasons that got together at that moment and that have happened to me only once in my life. And it was a really sad thing for me.
For my surprise, Amazon kept contacting me over the years to have me apply for new openings, which made me realize they don’t really think anything of you after an interview. If you fail their tests, you can apply again.
I personally haven’t applied again for Amazon even with those invitations, mainly because they require me to relocate and I have very good jobs working from home when they invite me. But there’s still a part of me that feels like I need to apply again and demonstrate I can do just fine, just to get myself free of that daemon of failure that my first interview with them gave me.
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I know for a fact that it is true that most candidates fail to code properly on interviews. But I also know it is a very delicate aspect of an evaluation and it can go wrong for a lot of reasons and not necessarily because the prospect is a bad programmer. It probably is a very good thing to have a candidate that perfectly passes all coding tests, but that’s just a starting point and that doesn’t mean either that you have a good candidate in your hands.
I have to do code tests almost for every company I apply, because I generally apply for remote positions. Most of my jobs have been coding from my home in Mexico City for a company in the USA.
I’m really used to it. Also, it’s common for companies to use the same coding exercises, so whenever I find myself struggling with some point of a test, I make sure I don’t forget to research it later just in case I get asked the same thing in another interview.
For the most part, I’ve done great with those tests, but most companies don’t just rely on those results, they also make other interview rounds to talk with me and evaluate other aspects of my person.
When I’ve been in charge of testing candidates, I’ve seen a low percentage of approving candidates, and I’ve never seen the company hire the ones that failed over the ones that passed. What I have seen, is that some of those hires, didn’t end up being good for the team or the company.
Now, here’s what proved to me that failing a coding test doesn’t really mean much:
The only time I’ve failed in a very humiliating way, was when I applied for an Amazon position. The thing there was, I really felt under pressure because “it was Amazon”, I felt like if I was applying for Google or Facebook. It was a big deal to me.
They have this really pressuring way to test you: you have to enter a call with a shared screen of a Linux terminal, and your interviewer goes on telling you what to code next. It is about resolving about 3 or 4 exercises/problems. You have to code without being able to consult any references and you know your interviewer is watching everything you type, delete, every change of mind on your code, even hearing every breath you take. And, you have 60 minutes to finish.
That’s the only time in my life I actually froze. I couldn’t think properly. And the fact that I didn’t sleep well thinking I had a coding test with Amazon, didn’t help me much. The more I was having trouble to design a function to do something, the more I was feeling like I wasn’t able to do anything, feeling really humiliated at the same time for being watched while my brain wasn’t working. It was an infinite loop of gradually feeling more unable to unfreeze while feeling more aand more humiliated. One thing fed the other until the time was up.
Suddenly, my interviewer told me “time is up. I’m really sorry.” I knew I looked terrible, like I didn’t know anything, like I lied in my resume, like it was impossible that someone like me had the great experience he claimed. Or at least that’s what I was sure at the moment my interviewer was thinking the whole hour.
I felt really, really depressed after that interview. I received a letter after that thanking me for applying and regretting that they were looking for a “different” profile at the moment.
The thing is, I didn’t fail because of a lack of knowledge. I didn’t fail because of a low IQ (which I actually don’t have low at all). I didn’t fail because of a lack of experience. I failed because of a set of physiological reasons that got together at that moment and that have happened to me only once in my life. And it was a really sad thing for me.
For my surprise, Amazon kept contacting me over the years to have me apply for new openings, which made me realize they don’t really think anything of you after an interview. If you fail their tests, you can apply again.
I personally haven’t applied again for Amazon even with those invitations, mainly because they require me to relocate and I have very good jobs working from home when they invite me. But there’s still a part of me that feels like I need to apply again and demonstrate I can do just fine, just to get myself free of that daemon of failure that my first interview with them gave me.
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