Technical Interviews Reject the Wrong Engineers

The author argues that technical interviews are broken, often rejecting strong engineers due to mismatch between interviewer and candidate skill levels and biases. Research shows whiteboard interviews test anxiety, not talent, and traits like growth mindset and Myers-Briggs lack predictive validity. The Big Five personality model has better support. The Dreyfus model explains why expert candidates may appear to lack reasoning. The author proposes FATE metrics (Feedback, Accuracy, Time, Effort) to evaluate interview quality instead of focusing solely on candidates.