Philip Walton: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

Walton reacts to the types of questions he got interviewing for front-end developer positions with Internet companies. He was asked lots of abstract questions and few questions about the practicalities of front-end development. I think that it’s a mistake to focus too much on a skills match when interviewing candidates, but I also think that you should verify the skills candidates claim to have in the interview process. In other words, a company that mostly uses Python shouldn’t be afraid to hire Ruby developers, but they should make sure that those Ruby developers really can program in Ruby. Front-end skills are more generalized, and it seems crazy not to interview front-end developers about those skills.