I am a CS undergrad but I landed a programming job last year and I like it a lot. We are currently 3 programmer in the development section of the company and we have to work with pretty much anything were asked to do. We deal with many different languages and learn them as needed for some quick jobs etc etc. We want to hire a 4th programmer and I'm asked to suggest some students in my class, a year younger, since I failed a class. I don't really know any of these guys except my teammates which I wouldn't suggest. We don't really want to interview them all so I thought we could make a little challenge to help us choose who to interview. We're in need of someone who understand the business even though they're new to it, and likes to learn new stuff and code. Any idea on a programming challenge or a kind of letter saying why we should take them?TL;DR: We need a new undergrad programmer, we want the best to come to us without interviewing them all. Any challenge or test you could suggest?
Choosing the right programmer among a class of undergrads
interview;hiring
Run them through the Programmer Competency Matrix and see where they fall.Identify problem solvers. People who get 100% on assignments are great, but might not be the most out of the box thinkers. Look for people who ask questions and work around problems without following traditional routes.We don't really want to interview them all so I thought we could make a little challenge to help us choose who to interview.This line in particular worries me. You should sit down with every applicant for at least five minutes unless the interaction you have shows such a gross lack of knowledge it would be worthless. You might end up (as mentioned above) with people who are great at finishing specific tasks but lack an overall big picture view.