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Should I ask applicants about what scifi books they've read? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) by shortrounddev to c/asklemmy

71 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm a software engineer who sometimes interviews other software engineers. I'm not given a script to go off of, I get to ask them whatever I want. Usually we just talk about technology and coding from a high level. I'm not a big fan of whiteboard tests.

I've noticed, however, that a lot of people applying to software engineering jobs feel very alien to me. I started coding when I was 12 and spent most of my teenage years on technology forums. A lot of people applying to these positions are very much ladder-climbing type people who got into the career for the money. Working with these people is an absolute drag.

We also interview for "culture fit". I would like to add in a single question to my interviews to assess that: what is your favorite science fiction book. You don't even have to have read it recently, you just have to have read one and formed an opinion on it. My thoughts

Pros:

Weeds out a lot of people since half of Americans don't read books at all.
Theoretically filters out people who love this kind of tech subculture from people who are just in it for the money

Cons:

It's unfair to people who enjoy fantasy novels, or any other form of fiction
Being motivated by money probably shouldn't be a disqualifying factor (I certainly wouldn't do this job for free), I'm just tired of working with yuppies and lashing out at poor unsuspecting Jr Devs

I'm half-hearted on this. I see why it could be considered unfair but I'm really tired of the kinds of people I work with.

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[–] Benjaben 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I like to ask candidates to tell me about a design pattern, or a framework, or a coding principle that they really appreciate and which changed how they think about or write code. It's an open-ended way to show me they care about the craft.

People who find the field interesting and somewhat fun (AKA not just lucrative) usually have these kinds of preferences or paradigm-shifting moments / learnings. People who can't come up with anything for this question tend to be real junior or just in it for the wrong reasons. Or so I tell myself, anyway.

[–] shortrounddev 2 points 16 hours ago

I think it's better to get an intuitive/human understanding of an applicant rather than making them take an SAT of Javascript questions. Above all, I value flexibility and the ability to learn new things. A lot of the people I don't want to work with kind of just learned react at a bootcamp and that's all they know how to do