Two weeks later he came back to me with a request that I attend a two-hour test on the 28th of Dec. He was nice to me and sent me some previously-asked questions:
1. Algorithm with O(n logn).While #1 and #2 are covered at length in Horowitz and Knuth I have no interest in #3 (I do Embedded Linux after all) and have no clue about #4.
2. Algorithms with no solution.
3. Design class diagram for board game engine with pluggable algorithm.
4. Decorate, observer and strategy patterns.
So I asked myself whether it's worth wasting 4 hours and gas on this in lieu of the customary phone grilling or on-line test and here's what I replied to him:
Just as corporations (e.g. XYZ) I do have a policy when it comes to hiring [after 100+ interviews I know what flies and what not].Alas some Canadian corporations feel that it's allright to abuse of the candidates' time and to summon them for such pointless tests.
To me an interview is a two-way conversation that allows me to assess the company and the people I would be working with. A test is none of this. Some interviews have tests embedded -- this is fair and expected.
This is outside of my comfort zone & against my policy: what I like to see is a phone interview followed (maybe) by an in-person interview. I have deviated from this before with no positive outcome.
Thus I am not going for this waste of my time.
Unless you can arrange a phone interview [or maybe one full in-person interview] with XYZ I am afraid I am not willing to work for a company that has such inflexible and silly policies.
On the other hand I have hired for a Fortune-500-Company and I learned that it is very hard to find qualified talent -- and they were paying much much better. So it's up to them.
I have noticed that this job was posted on XYZ's website for more than a year. This means that either they are incredibly picky or that they have a dizzying turnaround rate.
-ulianov
P.S STB = set top box
