Yes. I used to do the chatty bit first before subjecting interviewees to the "technical evaluation"; it seemed polite to engage people first.
That was depressing. At least I found out the technical evaluation was worth giving. An astonishing proportion of people that came off well in less technical conversation would utterly flunk the test.
I'm not talking minor errors caused by interview pressure. I mean people with "5 years of C++ experience" writing void reverse_string(char* in) { char b[] = new char; b = in; ... }
That was depressing. At least I found out the technical evaluation was worth giving. An astonishing proportion of people that came off well in less technical conversation would utterly flunk the test.
I'm not talking minor errors caused by interview pressure. I mean people with "5 years of C++ experience" writing void reverse_string(char* in) { char b[] = new char; b = in; ... }