1. GayleL. McDowell | Founder/CEO, CareerCup
gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
Preventing Disasters
Before They Happen
PreppingYourCandidatesto ReduceYour FalseNegatives
June9,2015 |Talent42

2. gayle in/gaylemcdgayleGayle Laakmann McDowell 2
Hi! I’m Gayle LaakmannMcDowell
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Author Interview Coach Interview Consulting
(CS) (MBA)
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3. But there’s one more thing…

4. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 4gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
Facebook’sInterview Prep Class
Weekly interview prep class for candidates
 (not interviewers)

5. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 5gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
Here’s the Problem
Process is biased towards falsenegatives
 “Better to reject a good candidate than hire a bad one”
 Lots of myths about interviews
Good candidates often fail
Your recruiting costs go up

6. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 6gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
Prep to Reduce FalseNegatives
Even playing field
Reduces anxiety
Removes randomness
More consistentprocess
Higherquality answers

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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
How
to
Solve
DesignYour
Process
TrainYour
Interviewers
PrepYour
Candidates
Hire More.Spend Less.

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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Need
to
Prep
Structure
Style of Questions
WhatYou’re Looking For
How to Prepare
Wearenotteaching
tothetest!

9. Structure
What Happens When
01

10. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 10gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
Structure
How many interviews?
Whois interviewing?(What roles)
How does the decision get made?

11. Types of
Questions
What are you going to ask?
02

12. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 12gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
Types of Questions
Recruiter call?
 Ask about projects, interest, etc.
Technicalphone screen?
 Design? Algorithms? Coding? Knowledge?
 Shared document? Read aloud?
Onsite?
 Design? Algorithms? Coding? Knowledge?
 Whiteboard? Computer?

13. What You’re
Looking For
Why do you ask this? What makes a
good candidate?
03

14. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 14gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
What To Tell Candidates
Examples of question
How much focus
How to prepare
How to do well
What you do/don’t expect
Sitdownwithyourengineers&discuss!

15. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 15gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
Types of Questions
Experience
Knowledge
Design
Algorithms
Coding

16. Prior Experience
The things they’ve built

17. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 17gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
How to Do It Right
Primarily focus on technicalexperience
Avoid cheesy questions
Probe deeper
 Don’tacceptanswersatfacevalue

18. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 18gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
1 Minute Pitch/Walk-Through
Chronological order
Mentionhobbies, especially technical
Mentionthe cool or interestingparts

19. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 19gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
ExperienceQuestions
Prepare 2 – 3 technicalprojects to discuss in detail
 Hard/cool
 Candidatedidcoreparts
Be comfortable diagraming at the whiteboard
Consider:
 Challenges, tradeoffs, technology choices, successes, what you’d do differently,
etc

20. Knowledge Questions
What do they really need to know?

21. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 21gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
How to Do It Right
Basicknowledge isn’t very useful
 If they can learn it quickly, why does it matter?
Knowledge should be:
 Hard to acquire
OR
 A red flagto lack

22. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 22gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
How to Prepare
What topics you’ll cover
Be open about what you do and don’t know
 Derive/guess at answers if you don’t know
 But admit that you’re notsure
It’sokaytonot know everything!

23. Design

24. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 24gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
How to Do It Right
Ask open-ended questions
Don’t expect knowledge of your systems
Look for howthey solve
Encourage questions & discussion

25. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 25gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
How to Prep
Problem-solving evaluation, not knowledge
Read about design of other systems
How would you act at work?
 Scopethe problem. Ask questions.
 Get a basic design.
 Improve from there.
 Beopen about issues.
DRIVE& LISTEN

26. Algorithm Questions

27. Gayle Laakmann McDowell 27gayle in/gaylemcdgayle
How to Do It Right
Medium / hard problems.
Uncommon problems.
Don’t look for just correctness.
Encourage the candidate. Be nice.

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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
What
They
Think
Testing obscure knowledge
Need to solve immediately
Must get everything right
Just correct is good enough
Hints = you’re doing badly

29. gayle in/gaylemcdgayle 29
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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
What
You
Want
 Assess problem-solving skills
 Evaluate CS fundamentals
 Push through hard problems
 Communication

30. gayle in/gaylemcdgayleGayle Laakmann McDowell 30
Preparation
Review & implementDS/Algorithms
Be very comfortable with bigO
Practice with interviewquestions
 (Givethem examples!)
Code on paper/whiteboard

31. gayle in/gaylemcdgayleGayle Laakmann McDowell 31
How ToDo Well
Keeptrying
 Problemsare hard.That’sokay!
Talkout loud
A slow solution is a good start
But keep optimizing fromthere

32. gayle in/gaylemcdgayle 32
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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
How
To
Approach
CrackingTheCodingInterview.com“Resources”

33. gayle in/gaylemcdgayle 33
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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
How
To
Tackle
1. Listen carefully.
 Ask if you’re confused
2. Examples help a lot.
3. Start with slow solution.
4. Optimize from there.
 Your interviewer may help you.

34. Coding

35. gayle in/gaylemcdgayle 35
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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
What
They
Think
Some: Must be flawless!
Others: Pseudocode is fine.
Designdoesn’t matter.Just correct
is good enough.

36. gayle in/gaylemcdgayle 36
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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
What
Really
Happens
Bugs are normal
Write real code
Designmatters

37. gayle in/gaylemcdgayle 37
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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
How
To
Tackle
1. Walkthrough algorithmagain
 Don’trushintocoding
2. Take your time
3. Write real code
4. Test it

38. How to ExecuteThis
How doyou actually prepcandidates?
04

39. gayle in/gaylemcdgayle 39
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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Ways
to
Prep
Classes
 Ideal,butneedlotsofcandidates
Videos
Books
Handouts
Discussion
Emails

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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
How
To
Implement
A “contract” withinterviewers
 Decidewhatinterviewslooklike
 Yougetthembetterprepared
candidates
 Theysticktovision
Interview training
Bonus: more consistency.

41. gayle in/gaylemcdgayle 41
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Gayle Laakmann McDowell
How
to
Solve
DesignYour
Process
TrainYour
Interviewers
PrepYour
Candidates
Hire More.Spend Less.

42. THANK YOU
gayle@gayle.com
gayle in/gaylemcdgayle