The Mental Impact of Tech Interviews

Lengthy technical interview processes frustrate tech workers and can impact one’s mental health. From high-pressure whiteboard coding that feels more like a Broadway audition, to reciting encyclopedic knowledge found in computer science textbooks, it is no secret that technical interviews are broken. While these practices are well-known, benefit tech companies, and are widely criticized, the deleterious effects they have on tech workers have gone unrecognized. Unnecessarily difficult technical interviews can create imposter syndrome which can cause new mental health issues and exacerbate existing ones. Long-term, this can affect productivity, morale, retention, and drive people to abandon their tech careers or even halt prospective careers before they’ve begun.

It’s time to refactor tech hiring.

Transcript

1. The Mental Impact of Tech Interviews By Zack Zlotnik linkedin.com/in/zackzlotnik github.com/cheesesashimi
2. Overview
3. Job interviews are a universally stressful experience.
4. Stress negatively impacts performance on skill-based assessments.
5. Coding challenges and technical interviews are not accurate nor unbiased.
6. Impostor syndrome is real.
7. Lets talk about coding interviews
8. What is a coding interview?
9. A timed skill assessment where a job candidate is asked to write code, in real time.
10. Why are these done?
11. Companies want to ensure that candidates have the necessary skills for the job.
12. But...
13. Coding interviews are hard work
14. Candidates are exhaustively interviewed; sometimes about orthogonal topics.
15. Live coding is inherently flawed
17. What if other industries hired like tech?
18. Auto Mechanic
20. Plumber
22. Locksmith
24. Tax Accountant
26. What do these interviews accomplish? • Put the interview candidate under unnecessary pressure. • Cause careless mistakes they would not otherwise make in the real world. • Become mentally blocked. • Cause and placate impostor syndrome.
27. What don’t these interviews accomplish? • Accurately assess candidates. • Provide repeatable and dependable results. • Verify that the candidate possesses the required skills.
28. What do these professions have in common? • Skilled professions. • Practitioners must complete rigorous training, certification and, in some cases, licensing requirements. • Failure to perform under pressure usually does not result in loss of life.
29. Is good performance under pressure necessary for software development?
30. Maybe. Maybe not.
31. When is good performance under pressure absolutely required?
32. Cave diving
33. Pilots
34. Surgeons
35. Nuclear reactor operators
36. What do these professions have in common?
37. High cognitive load
38. Low margin for error
39. Stressful work environment
40. Mistakes can cost lives, not just dollars
41. Does this describe what good software engineering jobs are like?
42. Performing under pressure • Cognitive tasks, such as programming, are more difficult to perform under pressure. • Recollection of important details is lost. • Careless mistakes are made. • Does not correlate well with what software developers actually do.
43. Can software defects be fatal?
44. Lets talk about coding assessments
45. What is a coding assessment?
46. A “Take-Home Test” that a job candidate completes on their own time.
47. Are coding assessments a good idea?
48. • Provides a way for a candidate to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise. • Allows a candidate to think creatively and independently. • Allows a candidate to use the tools and workflow that they are the most comfortable with. • Creates a strong competency signal which is easily verified. Yes.
49. But...
50. Scope and complexity are a problem
51. Participation bias is introduced
52. Requirements can be unclear
53. Why should we fix things?
54. Mental health is a growing problem in the tech industry
55. A 1990 study indicated that 32% of software engineers suffer from depression. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1974658
56. “Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their own accomplishments.” Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
57. 70% of Millennials have experienced impostor syndrome in one form or another. Source: http://thehustle.co/why-70-percent-of-millennials-have-impostor-syndrome
58. In mentally healthy individuals, impostor syndrome is a temporary annoyance.
59. In mentally unhealthy individuals, impostor syndrome can be devastating. Whether or not you get the job.
60. When given a task in a job interview, you subconsciously compare yourself against your interviewer.
61. Comparison and judgment of one’s technical abilities against others can be very distressing.
62. We are our own worst enemies
63. How can we fix things?
64. Admit it is broken
65. Companies should be transparent
66. Companies should be respectful
67. Hiring pipeline latency, consistency and accuracy are more important than throughput
68. Companies should collect and monitor interview metrics and statistics
69. Companies should always close the loop
70. Technical interviews should have sane scope and complexity limits
71. Technical interviews should not include live coding from scratch
72. Pair-programming should actually be pair-programming
73. Coding assessments should have sane time limits
74. Coding assessments should be completed by interviewers as well as candidates
75. Coding assessments should have clear and concise wording
76. Coding assessments should include expected input / output data
77. Coding assessments and the candidate’s solution should be open-source
78. Interview questions should not be secret
79. Interviewers should examine a candidate’s prior work
80. Candidates should be able to use the tools they are the most comfortable with
81. Automated coding assessments should not be used
82. Candidates should be given detailed feedback about why they did not receive an offer
83. Candidates should feel empowered to ask candid questions about the interview process
84. Lastly...
85. Make programming fun again
86. End the stigma of mental health
87. Each and every one of you are awesome and deserve a fulfilling tech career
88. #DisruptTechHiring
89. Thank you.