I like this one: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
The problem is that my answer is always something involving writing code and solving problems. I have no desire to be a manager of any kind - companies don't like people who aren't interested in moving on to management.
If someone can devise a job where they slide a problem description with some guidelines under the door, I'd be perfectly happy.
There are a lot of companies that see the value in someone who loves writing code and solving problems. If I asked that question (which I wouldn't, I hate it) I would be happy to hear the following as an answer:
"I love coding, so I hope that whatever I'm doing in five years, I'll still have my hands dirty solving real problems. I also love learning and sharing my knowledge with others. While I'm not interested in being a technical manager, I would like to be a technical leader."
Rather than memorizing the answers to bad questions, technical interviewers should memorize the questions themselves. Then if any of those show up in an interview, walk out -- one doesn't want to work at those sorts of companies.
That's a bit much - it's rare that a company doesn't have something broken about its hiring process, even good/great companies. If you want to work there otherwise, what does it hurt to learn the expected answer for fluff questions and recite it when asked?
As an interviewer I often ask questions not because I care what the answers are, but rather to change the tone of the conversation. There is little point in grilling people for an hour vs mixing in a few probing questions and keeping the interview light.
AKA, I see you got a CS degree and 5 years of development experience. Looking back what do you think your most (useful, fun, memorable) class was? What's language that you don't know are you most interested in learning / using?
This is an admiral ideal but when you have $50K in student debt, abandoning a potential job because you didn't like the HR screener is not the best idea.
Comments
Here's a good cheat sheet of answers to memorize.
http://www.gowrikumar.com/interview/index.html
I like this one: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
The problem is that my answer is always something involving writing code and solving problems. I have no desire to be a manager of any kind - companies don't like people who aren't interested in moving on to management.
If someone can devise a job where they slide a problem description with some guidelines under the door, I'd be perfectly happy.
There are a lot of companies that see the value in someone who loves writing code and solving problems. If I asked that question (which I wouldn't, I hate it) I would be happy to hear the following as an answer:
"I love coding, so I hope that whatever I'm doing in five years, I'll still have my hands dirty solving real problems. I also love learning and sharing my knowledge with others. While I'm not interested in being a technical manager, I would like to be a technical leader."
Rather than memorizing the answers to bad questions, technical interviewers should memorize the questions themselves. Then if any of those show up in an interview, walk out -- one doesn't want to work at those sorts of companies.
That's a bit much - it's rare that a company doesn't have something broken about its hiring process, even good/great companies. If you want to work there otherwise, what does it hurt to learn the expected answer for fluff questions and recite it when asked?
It is a bit much. Good managers can be crappy interviewers (and vice-versa). I would take it into account when considering my options, though.
As an interviewer I often ask questions not because I care what the answers are, but rather to change the tone of the conversation. There is little point in grilling people for an hour vs mixing in a few probing questions and keeping the interview light.
AKA, I see you got a CS degree and 5 years of development experience. Looking back what do you think your most (useful, fun, memorable) class was? What's language that you don't know are you most interested in learning / using?
This is an admiral ideal but when you have $50K in student debt, abandoning a potential job because you didn't like the HR screener is not the best idea.