I disagree, a fair majority of developers fall within the INTP or INTJ classification of Myers-briggs. both of which like to analyze a situation before they would consider answering. Specifically, the INTJ classification is filtered heavily at the whiteboard because of their Judging trait. INTJ's know what they don't know, and if they don't they are going to stop to find a resource that can provide that portion of the answer. Due to the INT part of their profile, they are not going to look at anyone in that room as a potential authority for that answer and therefore they will feel research is needed. This can cause a situation in which an INTJ can basically lock-up. They know they don't know a portion of the answer, and they have none of the natural authorities to look to, to resolve the answer so that they can move on. This can happen on something as simple as forgetting an API method or the modulus operator.
No matter how much interviewers say they are just looking for solutioning, they are not being honest with themselves because when they see code that is not their style or they see someone make stupid mistakes (which we all do) on the whiteboard, it embeds in the mind. It such an overpowering signal that it outweighs all other evidence. An INT already knows this and would therefore prefer to present finished code, not how you get there, which finished code is all that really matters, you can walk them through how they arrived at the finished code, and they will have a far more competent answer because they are not trying to code and drag people along with them at the same time.
Even if a developer makes 20 mistakes, and uses the compiler/debugger to catch them, then fixes them, if the code that they are going to check in is always clean, is his process bad? on the whiteboard it is, but for me personally if said hypothetical coder never checked in a mistake, he would be my top pick. There are just too many failure points for me to recommend the whiteboard. I believe that they provide no use in an interview and I believe they hurt companies more that employees.
Organizations that utilize the whiteboard are doing themselves a disservice because they are setting introverted people up in a situation where a portion of them are naturally going to fail, in a situation that send such a strong false signal that all other evidence is negated. Then some of them are complaining that they cannot find talent. If a company is whiteboarding then they are filtering INTJ's out no two ways about it. As such, they are filtering out a lot of people that combine technical skills with creativity.
No matter how much interviewers say they are just looking for solutioning, they are not being honest with themselves because when they see code that is not their style or they see someone make stupid mistakes (which we all do) on the whiteboard, it embeds in the mind. It such an overpowering signal that it outweighs all other evidence. An INT already knows this and would therefore prefer to present finished code, not how you get there, which finished code is all that really matters, you can walk them through how they arrived at the finished code, and they will have a far more competent answer because they are not trying to code and drag people along with them at the same time.
Even if a developer makes 20 mistakes, and uses the compiler/debugger to catch them, then fixes them, if the code that they are going to check in is always clean, is his process bad? on the whiteboard it is, but for me personally if said hypothetical coder never checked in a mistake, he would be my top pick. There are just too many failure points for me to recommend the whiteboard. I believe that they provide no use in an interview and I believe they hurt companies more that employees.
Organizations that utilize the whiteboard are doing themselves a disservice because they are setting introverted people up in a situation where a portion of them are naturally going to fail, in a situation that send such a strong false signal that all other evidence is negated. Then some of them are complaining that they cannot find talent. If a company is whiteboarding then they are filtering INTJ's out no two ways about it. As such, they are filtering out a lot of people that combine technical skills with creativity.