His point, that hiring process is not a scientific process, is probably correct. But the same is true about performance review process (in my opinion). At best, the performance review is unscientific and biased, at worst it is a popularity contest, while usually, it is a formality.
> I've never had an interview that tried to evaluate my ability to work in a team or prioritize tasks - both of which are probably more important to doing well in a software engineering job than being able to find anagrams in O(n) time.
And I have never seen a test that could reliably evaluate your "ability to work in a team or prioritize tasks".
The hiring process is usually unscientific because making it reliably scientific is very expensive.
Yes, but what about the commonly trotted out line of "hiring mistakes are expensive so we'd prefer to not hire than make a mistake". Perfect example of having cake and eating it...You have to eat the cost somewhere. Either it's in the hiring process, the firing of a bad employee, or spinning your wheels waiting for the right candidate.
> I've never had an interview that tried to evaluate my ability to work in a team or prioritize tasks - both of which are probably more important to doing well in a software engineering job than being able to find anagrams in O(n) time.
And I have never seen a test that could reliably evaluate your "ability to work in a team or prioritize tasks".
The hiring process is usually unscientific because making it reliably scientific is very expensive.