Something to consider about many scientific programming domains - they don't do much in the way of conditionals. Glance at the code for FFT - https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Fast_Fourier_transform (especially FORTRAN for the engineer and MATLAB for the data scientist). This is the domain that many work in. Throw a problem at people who haven't gone outside the implementation of mathematical formulas that requires using conditionals as part of the design and there may be a bit more difficulty. This could account for the "worst candidates" that you've experienced.
back
1 comments
They're the ones applying for experienced full stack developer positions...also we're not doing gotcha-style whiteboarding. It's literally 'take some basic thing and break down how it works' -- we don't even require it to be something in code. Some guy came in and gave us a data model for a flush toilet and nailed it.
If the self-taught/bootcamp junior programmer can nail it while you can't and are asking for twice+ as much money, how do I justify hiring you?