Actually, if I went purely on personal experience it would be closer to 90%. I tempered it because I can't believe it could be anywhere that bad.
It's sad, but from what I've seen, applicants fall into two major groups, for the most part:
1. People who seem to know how to code (as in, actually use a keyboard) but who don't possess any type of critical thinking skills and can't actually figure out how a piece of code can solve a real world business problem - or even care - unless you tell them exactly how it should work. These people tend to live in big corps and stop coding completely at 4:59 everyday.
2. People with computer science degrees (the more the better) that can think up wonderful and complex solutions to the most basic of problems but can't seem to figure out a syntax error, or understand that a landing page does not require a $40K investment in the latest oracle database software, or that it doesn't matter how wonderful their design is if nobody can figure out how to use it, or that yes, it was more important to have it out last month than it was to make it run 30% faster.
Both of these hires are disasters. Unfortunately, the third group, the ones that can understand what a user is saying, design a simple way to achieve the goal, and where appropriate link it to other related features in a meaningful way, are few and far between. Most of them are working in small shops and never have the need to apply for a position via interview, since they get scooped up on reputation before that.
Well I still want to know where all those fizzbuzz claims come from.
Otherwise, I think you're largely right. But there's a lot of variation especially within that third group. I'm going to cautiously put myself into that third group. The problem is I'm probably on the lower end of that category. I'm able to make design decisions and use the things I learnt in computer science classes while still being pragmatic and solving real world problems. But I don't have a ton of experience. I often don't have language X or framework Y under my belt. And I think that's made it really difficult for me.
You seem to have a good idea of what you should be looking for, but what about all of the other interviewers? Are they just incredibly short-sighted?
And if the fizz buzz failures are actually that prolific, then I'm really at a loss as to why I'm having such a hard time finding a position.
Actually, if I went purely on personal experience it would be closer to 90%. I tempered it because I can't believe it could be anywhere that bad.
It's sad, but from what I've seen, applicants fall into two major groups, for the most part:
1. People who seem to know how to code (as in, actually use a keyboard) but who don't possess any type of critical thinking skills and can't actually figure out how a piece of code can solve a real world business problem - or even care - unless you tell them exactly how it should work. These people tend to live in big corps and stop coding completely at 4:59 everyday.
2. People with computer science degrees (the more the better) that can think up wonderful and complex solutions to the most basic of problems but can't seem to figure out a syntax error, or understand that a landing page does not require a $40K investment in the latest oracle database software, or that it doesn't matter how wonderful their design is if nobody can figure out how to use it, or that yes, it was more important to have it out last month than it was to make it run 30% faster.
Both of these hires are disasters. Unfortunately, the third group, the ones that can understand what a user is saying, design a simple way to achieve the goal, and where appropriate link it to other related features in a meaningful way, are few and far between. Most of them are working in small shops and never have the need to apply for a position via interview, since they get scooped up on reputation before that.