Comments on: Experience Report: Pair Programming Interviews http://blog.robbowley.net/2010/07/15/experience-report-pair-programming-interviews/ Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:38:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: rob http://blog.robbowley.net/2010/07/15/experience-report-pair-programming-interviews/#comment-270 rob Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:34:19 +0000 http://blog.robbowley.net/?p=945#comment-270 We really do do our best to make the atmosphere relaxed - we're certainly not attempting to create an environment to see how people work under pressure. Candidates who do find the situation a bit stressful at first mostly tend to calm down quite quickly once they're involved in the problem. People who find the exercise most stressful are those not prepared to admit they are stuck, which is not a good characteristic. We find that being able to discuss the candidate with a colleague who may see things differently to you is worth the sacrifice of having two of us in the interview. We really do do our best to make the atmosphere relaxed – we’re certainly not attempting to create an environment to see how people work under pressure. Candidates who do find the situation a bit stressful at first mostly tend to calm down quite quickly once they’re involved in the problem.

People who find the exercise most stressful are those not prepared to admit they are stuck, which is not a good characteristic.

We find that being able to discuss the candidate with a colleague who may see things differently to you is worth the sacrifice of having two of us in the interview.

]]> By: YvesHanoulle http://blog.robbowley.net/2010/07/15/experience-report-pair-programming-interviews/#comment-269 YvesHanoulle Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:52:14 +0000 http://blog.robbowley.net/?p=945#comment-269 This is something I have been saying to my clients for a while. I don't advised real code though. I know about one company that was sued because the person said I did production code, so you actually hired me. Having two people next to the candidate puts a lot of stress on the person. Don't forget that doing an interview is already a stressy situation. One risk I see is that you might end up hiring people that are a lot similar. It is always good to go for diversity, you also need people who might be less good at coding but good at softskills, debugging something etc. What if you would make them talk at your standup? y This is something I have been saying to my clients for a while.
I don’t advised real code though. I know about one company that was sued because the person said I did production code, so you actually hired me.
Having two people next to the candidate puts a lot of stress on the person.
Don’t forget that doing an interview is already a stressy situation.

One risk I see is that you might end up hiring people that are a lot similar. It is always good to go for diversity, you also need people who might be less good at coding but good at softskills, debugging something etc.
What if you would make them talk at your standup?
y

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