What is they.whiteboarded.me?

they.whiteboarded.me aims to be a crowd-sourced and curated list of companies that engage in good and bad interview practices. This allows job-seekers to only engage with companies whose interview processes are a good fit for them.

What is the mission of they.whiteboarded.me?

To promote diversity and inclusivity for all tech practitioners, regardless of experience level, educational background, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, etc.

It is no secret that the tech sector is growing at an unprecedented rate, accelerating every day. With this growth, companies cannot hire candidates fast enough. In fact, a common refrain amongst tech recruiters and tech hiring managers is that they simply cannot grow their teams as fast as they would like.

However, many companies will not stop these practices until they have a good reason for doing so. We, as tech workers, must provide that reason. If we slow growth by refusing to submit to demoralizing interviews, we have the capability to change our industry.

What does “whiteboarding” mean?

The term whiteboarding refers to the practice of asking a job interview candidate to implement an algorithm on a dry-erase marker board (commonly called a whiteboard) using their programming language of choice.

This term has grown to include metaphorical practices such as asking a candidate to code up an algorithm in real-time using a computer while the interviewer looks over their shoulder. The only difference between this practice and whiteboarding is that the candidate can remain seated with a keyboard. They are still expected to write a working program in real-time.

For more information, this article discusses the practice in greater detail.

What types of technical interviews are there?

There are three major types of applicant evaluations, which will be discussed separately:

While each of these has its advantages and disadvantages, most of the ire is directed at whiteboarding, live-coding, and online coding challenges.

No. We (and others) are suggesting is that the current methods of demonstrating competency do not actually measure competency, nor do they effectively predict a software engineer’s performance.

Why should I believe this random website?

Here is a curated list of relevant links, sources, and additional resources for your further consideration.

How is this different than Glassdoor?

While Glassdoor allows you to submit a review of a company’s interview process, it is not particularly tech-focused. Additionally, finding which companies do whiteboarding and live-coding vs. those who do not is very difficult on Glassdoor.

How do I submit changes?

Can I submit anonymous feedback?

Due to some concerns about the validity of the data and feedback received, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue receiving anonymous submissions. Some of the submissions received lacked important information and context about a some company’s interview process and the anonymity made it impossible to follow up to gain additional context.

Going forward, we will only accept changes via the channels listed above.

What can I do to help?