Face to Face Interviews

[SpontaneousOrder]

Is the the telephone or the face to face that people are supposedly not liking?

I think this:

But I guess for the code monkey/tester type roles the F2F is less important as there is only so many ways you can do something its either right or wrong, and if you can prove the technical knowledge of the subject that's all that is needed.

Is overly simplistic though. Many of the worst developers I know are the ones with certs out of their ears & can recite the java language spec word for word.

Technical knowledge is the easy part. Writing modular, decoupled, maintainable systems is where the skill & experience comes in.

Most places I interview at these days spend an hour or so 'pair programming' with you to test drive some code.

[expat]

eek is spot-on. As is SY01's last comment. An interview is a 2-way process, and painful though agents might find the thought, it is quite possible for a client to fail the interview.

[aoxomoxoa]

I'll reply if the thread is moved to General

It's already in Virtual General.

[NibblyPig]

If the interview is a 1 shot 15 min telephone interview, where you don't feel overly tested, in my experience alarm bells should be ringing.

For permie, I agree - anyone you're gonna be working with has had the same crappy interview. Everywhere permie I've interviewed at that didn't have a proper technical test or anything ended up being full of idiots.

But for contracting I don't think it matters, my current role was a 20 min phone interview with someone I still haven't met, and the gig is pretty good, the work is easy but the commute is a pain.

I'm not trying to develop my skills or work my way up to senior developer or anything, cos I'm a contractor, and when I'm done (in months, rather than years) I'll wave bye bye, drop some donuts on the table, and moonwalk outta there.

[suityou01]

For permie, I agree - anyone you're gonna be working with has had the same crappy interview. Everywhere permie I've interviewed at that didn't have a proper technical test or anything ended up being full of idiots.

But for contracting I don't think it matters, my current role was a 20 min phone interview with someone I still haven't met, and the gig is pretty good, the work is easy but the commute is a pain.

I'm not trying to develop my skills or work my way up to senior developer or anything, cos I'm a contractor, and when I'm done (in months, rather than years) I'll wave bye bye, drop some donuts on the table, and moonwalk outta there.

Then I would say you are very lucky and the contracting God has been very kind. Long may this continue.

[BolshieBastard]

Dont have a prob doing a telephone then F2F interviews. I never agree to 2 F2F interviews though. Deffo sign they'll treat you as a permie imho so for that reason, Im out.

[Boney M]

Discussion on LinkedIn where some pimps are saying that contracts are refusing to do F2F interviews after a telephone interview.

I do not feel that a two stage interview is anything other than expected (although it always nice to get it over and done with in one interview). I would normally see a F2F interview as more of a "if the face fits" situation, you get the job at the telephone interview, you lose it at the F2F.

But I guess for the code monkey/tester type roles the F2F is less important as there is only so many ways you can do something its either right or wrong, and if you can prove the technical knowledge of the subject that's all that is needed. For any role that has an aspect of Stakeholder management this is not the case, which is why F2F's are still needed.

Totally agree