[COFF] good job interview questions

[G. Branden Robinson via COFF]

At 2026-05-27T14:28:05-0700, Larry McVoy via COFF wrote:
> On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 12:56:52PM -0700, Adam Thornton wrote:
> > On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 11:01???AM Larry McVoy via TUHS
> > <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
> > 
> > > I took a different approach, we hired excellent programmers
> > > and our stuff worked.
> > >
> > This is probably a COFF question, but I'm interested in your process
> > for hiring excellent programmers.  CCing to COFF and I suggest we
> > continue it there.
> 
> Strangely enough, a lot of the same stuff your current boss wrote up.
> The technical part is pretty easy, the core of my team were all top 1%
> programmers.  Those people tend to recognize that talent up front.
> 
> We had two compatibility tests and one question (that well over 90% of
> programmers fail).

Good interview questions!  Here's how I'd fail:

> If we needed you to sweep the floors, would you?

If the floor needed sweeping--for instance if there were shards of
broken glass right in the middle of a common pathway; contrast behind a
rack in the server room--certainly and immediately, because that's an
overt safety hazard.  My colleagues or guests could get hurt if they put
a foot wrong.

But that's _my assessment_ of what makes a floor need sweeping in an
engineering/research lab, and let's be frank: _my assessment_ is likely
not of interest to my interviewer.

Let's craft some more revealing variants on that question:

Will you disengage from the responsibilities of your position to engage
in others for which you were not, by implicit or explicit contract,
hired, at an instant and without obvious or stated justification?

When a member of the leadership team appears at your desk to direct you
to undertake routine sweeping, do you have the sense not to ask that
leader why he's not doing it himself, given that he appears to be the
one with free time?

In practice--I say this because I've seen it happen personally--the
reason for drafting engineers into service as ad hoc custodians, like
dragooned privates in the U.S. Army, is because (a) the building staff
inadequately performs this function, which might be contractually the
responsibility of the management of the building from which your firm's
office space is leased; or (b) your firm is facing a serious cash crunch
and is desperately trying to reduce operating expenses, but the owners
have better things to do than to secretly sweep the floors themselves on
nights and weekends.  Being a "thought leader" relieves one of such
labor even in extremis.

Putting some "extra" spit and polish on the premises is commonly done
when ownership is shopping the company on the street, an expects an
on-site visit from a suitor.  To the right kind of buyer, the re-tasking
of engineers from production to custodial services moreover sends a
highly positive signal about the abject pliability of the labor force
one is acquiring.  One doesn't need to waste money on buyout packages
for them after the M&A deal is done; you can put them on street
immediately without severance, wagering--probably correctly--that they
are too cowed to bring a lawsuit.

So, if it were me, I'd probably look at the boss for a moment to see if
he--yes, he, as a woman manager has never pulled this stunt on me--was
attempting a joke or to wind me up, and if they weren't, go do it, and
then start planning my exit in short order.  If I have the backstop, I'd
announce my resignation the next day.  The manager has served as a
valuable information channel--the company I worked for is not what I
thought it was, and/or will be winding up operations on the basis I
signed up to work quite soon, by getting acquired or halting altogether.

> We asked ourselves if the recruit passed the super market test.  If
> you saw them at Safeway do you want to go talk to them or do you want
> to hide in another isle?

That's a good question, too, about work/life balance.  When I see a
colleague at the grocery store, especially by themselves, I infer that
they are seeing to life's basic needs--for themselves or for family or
friends.  (Maybe they're a caregiver.  Maybe a friends of theirs has
just lost their home.)  Do I want to buttonhole them to talk shop, to
assign (or let them infer from my "hints") tasking while they're not
even "on the clock"?  Or do I want to BS with them about NASCAR or UFC
in their meager little "free" time--which they're already spending on
the "custodial" labors of own life outside the office?

My approach is to smile, say hello, and keep pushing the basket.

> Very, very few people passed this test.  I hired people who didn't but
> I liked working with the people who did, better.  There is something
> satisfying about working with someone who understands what "it's done"
> actually means.

For a greenfield project, above the small scale, "it's done" can be a
challenging question to answer.  Ever done consulting work?  Personally,
for compensated efforts, I prefer a written SOW to a roomful of people
who sit back in their seats, nod at each other a lot, and contrive a
sense of fraternity over their shared coolness and superiority to the
jerks and losers lurking in the aisles at Safeway.  That camaraderie can
prove surprisingly shallow when it's time to pay the invoice.

By now I've sat on the hiring side of the interviewing table more often
than the candidate side.  The reason I think these are good interview
questions despite my critiques of them is that they provide priceless
insight _to the candidate_ about the culture of the workplace they're
petitioning to enter.  In our PR-saturated field, few firms are gifted
with a CEO happy to stand on stage brandishing a chainsaw.

Self-satisfaction and self-glorification don't ship code.  Workers do.

Regards,
Branden
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