<story><title>Hiring without whiteboards</title><url>https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>udev</author><text>It is also a cultural thing.&lt;p&gt;I observe that anglo-saxon peoples teach their kids to voice their concerns, needs, wants, and opinions, and to expect (!) results from this. (Compare how american kids behave at airports, train station, and public places with kids from other countries, e.g. french speaking countries).&lt;p&gt;This helps them approach situations in life with a healthy dose of self-worth and the baseline state of mind that if something is wrong it&amp;#x27;s not their fault.&lt;p&gt;In contrast, many other cultures teach their kids that it is impolite&amp;#x2F;crude&amp;#x2F;disrespectful to bother adults with your half-baked thought, or (God forbid) unexpected wants, or complaints.&lt;p&gt;I come from a culture where you are expected to moderate your verbal output when addressing your superiors (e.g. teachers, boss, etc.). You speak out only when you have something worthy to say.&lt;p&gt;Example:&lt;p&gt;I had trouble going to &amp;quot;office-hours&amp;quot; when at university in North-America. I always got the feeling that I am bothering the prof, and it is my duty to study more to understand the material, and I should not take his time when I merely did not understand something.&lt;p&gt;My anglo colleagues seem to not have such qualms. Their thinking is more along the lines of &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t understand (not my fault), it is his job to teach me (most likely his problem), he has to explain this better, I pay for tuition after all...&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I am happy to have unlearned some of the above things.&lt;p&gt;But generally, I find the speak-your-mind-at-the-white-board-while-we-watch interview tailored for cultures where kids are taught to be vocal, and are difficult for equally intelligent people from other backgrounds.</text></item><item><author>kelvin0</author><text>Imagine this. You are interviewing for a job, you walk in a room with 2 people who hand you over a sheet with a few problems. They ask you to write the solutions on the whiteboard, while they wait for you to complete.&lt;p&gt;Not a word is said, they are clicking at their laptops, and staring at the whiteboard, as waiting for the genie to pop out of a bottle. All the while your mind is frozen and stuck in a bad loop.&lt;p&gt;This lasts an hour, you are barely able to complete parts of the problems and are frozen. Of course this affects your usually creative and sharp mind.&lt;p&gt;The torture lasts an hour, time&amp;#x27;s up! You shake their hands, as a kiss of death, and head out. As you are walking back, all the answers to all the problems they wanted you to whiteboard, come rushing like a torrent in your mind. Too bad, another &amp;#x27;botched&amp;#x27; technical interview.&lt;p&gt;This is my experience as a battle tested developer who is shipped many products and has been programming for the love of computers since the age of 12 (professionally for more than 15 years). I am not going to be working at Google any time soon (not that a Google job really matters to me).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jordanb</author><text>What you&amp;#x27;re describing is Power Distance.&lt;p&gt;On the whole the West tends to have lower power distance than the East. And Anglo and Germanic countries tend to have lower power distance than Romantic countries, while Scandinavia has the lowest power distance anywhere.&lt;p&gt;France has quite a high power distance by Western standards, although it&amp;#x27;s still lower than most Eastern countries.&lt;p&gt;The US tends to have rather high power distance by Anglo&amp;#x2F;Germanic standards although if you look at all the cultural dimensions the US tends to be an outlier towards moderation in its cohort probably due to its amalgamated culture (the US is hardly a strictly Anglo country).&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.clearlycultural.com&amp;#x2F;geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions&amp;#x2F;power-distance-index&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.clearlycultural.com&amp;#x2F;geert-hofstede-cultural-dimen...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Hiring without whiteboards</title><url>https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>udev</author><text>It is also a cultural thing.&lt;p&gt;I observe that anglo-saxon peoples teach their kids to voice their concerns, needs, wants, and opinions, and to expect (!) results from this. (Compare how american kids behave at airports, train station, and public places with kids from other countries, e.g. french speaking countries).&lt;p&gt;This helps them approach situations in life with a healthy dose of self-worth and the baseline state of mind that if something is wrong it&amp;#x27;s not their fault.&lt;p&gt;In contrast, many other cultures teach their kids that it is impolite&amp;#x2F;crude&amp;#x2F;disrespectful to bother adults with your half-baked thought, or (God forbid) unexpected wants, or complaints.&lt;p&gt;I come from a culture where you are expected to moderate your verbal output when addressing your superiors (e.g. teachers, boss, etc.). You speak out only when you have something worthy to say.&lt;p&gt;Example:&lt;p&gt;I had trouble going to &amp;quot;office-hours&amp;quot; when at university in North-America. I always got the feeling that I am bothering the prof, and it is my duty to study more to understand the material, and I should not take his time when I merely did not understand something.&lt;p&gt;My anglo colleagues seem to not have such qualms. Their thinking is more along the lines of &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t understand (not my fault), it is his job to teach me (most likely his problem), he has to explain this better, I pay for tuition after all...&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I am happy to have unlearned some of the above things.&lt;p&gt;But generally, I find the speak-your-mind-at-the-white-board-while-we-watch interview tailored for cultures where kids are taught to be vocal, and are difficult for equally intelligent people from other backgrounds.</text></item><item><author>kelvin0</author><text>Imagine this. You are interviewing for a job, you walk in a room with 2 people who hand you over a sheet with a few problems. They ask you to write the solutions on the whiteboard, while they wait for you to complete.&lt;p&gt;Not a word is said, they are clicking at their laptops, and staring at the whiteboard, as waiting for the genie to pop out of a bottle. All the while your mind is frozen and stuck in a bad loop.&lt;p&gt;This lasts an hour, you are barely able to complete parts of the problems and are frozen. Of course this affects your usually creative and sharp mind.&lt;p&gt;The torture lasts an hour, time&amp;#x27;s up! You shake their hands, as a kiss of death, and head out. As you are walking back, all the answers to all the problems they wanted you to whiteboard, come rushing like a torrent in your mind. Too bad, another &amp;#x27;botched&amp;#x27; technical interview.&lt;p&gt;This is my experience as a battle tested developer who is shipped many products and has been programming for the love of computers since the age of 12 (professionally for more than 15 years). I am not going to be working at Google any time soon (not that a Google job really matters to me).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>adrianratnapala</author><text>People are downvoting this, but the difference in cultures is real (though I wouldn&amp;#x27;t say it is confined to anglos).  But udev might be exposing a case where the &amp;quot;anglo&amp;quot; culture has a genuine advantage.&lt;p&gt;Engineers really should communicate clearly about 
technical stuff.  People solving complex problems
really should concepualise their approaches clearly,
ideally so that can be expressed in words.  People
really should reach out for help when blocked.&lt;p&gt;And if Anglos find it easier to do those things, then
good on &amp;#x27;em.</text></comment>