It's also potentially a good test for how you approach correcting people, especially when you're in a subordinate position. Some people can be too forceful ("you're wrong!") quite a lot of people will let it slide ("I'll implement this terrible idea because I can't say no").
I hate this thinking (I know it is not yours, it's a hiring meme).
If an interviewer makes some crazy assertion, then I pretty much flip into the mode of "how do I get out of this interview ASAP, as there is no way I'm working with this idiot". Whereas in the office, I'm the guy that sends the really difficult mass email that calls out his boss, if it is really needed. Engineering is not interviewing, and vice versa; why would you expect identical behaviors in both?
And yup, I am self selecting out of the situation where the interviewer is not an idiot and just 'testing' me. I'm fine with that, because I'm also selecting out of a job where people aren't willing to treat me with respect.
Interviewing is largely voodoo; we shouldn't be inflicting cognitive pain on people based on our random selection process. The only measure that has ever been shown to be predictive is past performance. So let's talk about my past performance, and leave this amateur hour psychological testing in the trash bin where it belongs.
It's a psychology test, designed by non-psychologists.
Don't try something because you sit down and think "hey, I am going to create an artificial situation, and then guess at what a good candidate would do[1]." Then see if he does that.
Other nervous circumstances that are not the same as interview circumstances. For me at least, test and interview stress is of a nature and effect that I have never experienced in other circumstances in 12+ years as an engineer of various disciplines.
The type of place who needs people who can develop under that type of pressure doesn't sound like a great place to work... That type of pressure sounds a lot like cowboy coding.
Comments
Seems like a good time to test it. After all, it's not absurd that you might need it in other nervous circumstances during the job.
It's also potentially a good test for how you approach correcting people, especially when you're in a subordinate position. Some people can be too forceful ("you're wrong!") quite a lot of people will let it slide ("I'll implement this terrible idea because I can't say no").
I hate this thinking (I know it is not yours, it's a hiring meme).
If an interviewer makes some crazy assertion, then I pretty much flip into the mode of "how do I get out of this interview ASAP, as there is no way I'm working with this idiot". Whereas in the office, I'm the guy that sends the really difficult mass email that calls out his boss, if it is really needed. Engineering is not interviewing, and vice versa; why would you expect identical behaviors in both?
And yup, I am self selecting out of the situation where the interviewer is not an idiot and just 'testing' me. I'm fine with that, because I'm also selecting out of a job where people aren't willing to treat me with respect.
Interviewing is largely voodoo; we shouldn't be inflicting cognitive pain on people based on our random selection process. The only measure that has ever been shown to be predictive is past performance. So let's talk about my past performance, and leave this amateur hour psychological testing in the trash bin where it belongs.
It's a psychology test, designed by non-psychologists.
Don't try something because you sit down and think "hey, I am going to create an artificial situation, and then guess at what a good candidate would do[1]." Then see if he does that.
[1] Which is often "what I (imagine I) would do."
Other nervous circumstances that are not the same as interview circumstances. For me at least, test and interview stress is of a nature and effect that I have never experienced in other circumstances in 12+ years as an engineer of various disciplines.
The type of place who needs people who can develop under that type of pressure doesn't sound like a great place to work... That type of pressure sounds a lot like cowboy coding.