Out of business

I passed by an empty store front that used to be a restaurant.  Above the front door and window, they had a big awning with the word "RESTARANT".

Maybe they had the best food in the world there.  Maybe the nicest wait staff, and the most organized owners.  Maybe.

But I'd be willing to bet no.  Even if they hadn't been out of business, I would hesitate to go there just based on the sign.  Can one typo really mean that much?  Well, if they can't bother to spell correctly a few words that they're paying thousands of dollars for, what are the odds they're going to do the $10 dinner really well?  Sure, if all my friends ate there and assured me it was delicious, I'd give it a shot.  But chances are they won't get that shot from my friends either.

One reason I like to give code exercises on job interviews is to see the coding grammar of the applicant.  Basically, I want to know how easy to read their code is.  So I also look to see if they've modularized, or they just have one big function.

I also want to see how complete it is.  What kinds of errors did they anticipate?  How robust is the solution?  Is it extensible? 

What I don't do is give knowledge tests.  In fact, I like to sit someone at a computer, and they can have all the time they want to google up however much help they need to finish the code.  Because, frankly, if you can walk in not knowing the language and write me a very small mini-app in a few hours, well, you're probably the right kind of person we want to hire anyway.

But, more importantly, even with the time constraint removed, and knowing that this work will be reviewed, it is surprising how many people will sloppily have typos and lazy naming.  All single-letter variables.  No naming convention.  Very basic words misspelled.  No indenting.

Does this stuff matter?  Some might say no, but I think if you can't bother to get this right when you have no time constraint, and your own money and career are on the line, what are the odds you'll do it under pressure and it's someone else's (the company's) money at risk?