We Only Hire the Best • Hacker News Board

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#71

Post by pmiller2 » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:39 PM UTC

askyourmother wrote: post #48

asb wrote: post #11

Corp: "We only hire the very best" Programmer: "What's the salary?" Corp: "Market average. Also, we're looking for people who aren't just motivated by money"

The worst are the new "tech companies with internal recruiters, tech tests prior to interview, twenty stages to offer, who moan they can't attract the best. Of course not! The minute you said tech test, I said goodbye, the minute you said internal recruiters, I laughed as I slammed down the phone. The best companies that can and do attract the best, still keep it simple - direct face to face interviews, max two stage…

What's the big deal with internal recruiters? Most companies, unless they're very small, are going to have them.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#72

Post by devy » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:46 PM UTC

Although I agree most of what DHH said in this blog post, I am a little disappointed that he only offers Don'ts but not in Do's.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#73

Post by pmiller2 » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:46 PM UTC

danvasquez29 wrote: post #58

askyourmother wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst are the new "tech companies with internal recruiters, tech tests prior to interview, twenty stages to offer, who moan they can't attract the best. Of course not! The minute you said tech test, I said goodbye, the minute you said internal recruiters, I laughed as I slammed down the phone. The best companies that can and do attract the best, still keep it simple - direct face to face interviews, max two stage…

I send out a test in between phone interview and face to face but it's very subjective, not really meant to weed out people who fail. The purpose of it is to create some technical talking points for the face to face interview in lieu of putting someone on the spot on the whiteboard. "I see you refactored this, but not this. Can you explain your thinking? Why did you decide this pattern fit the solution?" There can be…

> ...3 minute basic screen by the recruiter....

Exactly. The recruiter call should be primarily to gauge interest and to get some idea if the candidate has any skills and experience whatsoever. I've gotten calls from recruiters who were clearly not technical people asking fairly deep technical questions. That's an instant turn off to me.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#74

Post by iamgopal » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:47 PM UTC

Is it just me or svn blog quality greatly reduced these days ?

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#75

Post by citizens » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:48 PM UTC

softawre wrote: post #70

jazzyk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did we mention the perks like our "unlimited vacation policy"?

Heh. Man I'm glad I talked my VP down from the cliff. He honestly thought it was a Good Thing. I currently have 7 weeks off/year plus 10 holiday days. No way I'd take all of that with the unlimited plan.

Wow. Are you in the US?

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#76

Post by pmiller2 » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:48 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #56

braythwayt wrote: post #2

"Everyone thinks they're hiring the top 1%.”—Joel Spolsky, 2005 http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/01/27.html

Well I must suck then because there aren't companies lining up to just hand me a job like Joel says happens to all good developers. I have to hustle in order to keep food and a roof.

Don't worry. I'm sucking right there along side you. 3.5 years experience and I'm not even getting recruiter spam in the volume some of the people here are. :P

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#77

Post by dccoolgai » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:48 PM UTC

CaptSpify wrote: post #38

asb wrote: post #11

Corp: "We only hire the very best" Programmer: "What's the salary?" Corp: "Market average. Also, we're looking for people who aren't just motivated by money"

I see a similar effect that drives me nuts: Corp: "We only hire the best, but we can't find any good people. There must be an industry shortage of good engineers!" Me: "What about $candidate that we interviewed last week, I thought you liked him?" Corp: "He was great! But he wanted too much money" Me: "..."

And almost always these places pay their conference-calling-bullshitters top dollar. But it's like the apocalypse if you try to get more money for the people that actually do things.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#78

Post by jklinger410 » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:51 PM UTC

Employer: I want the most work for the least money.

Employee: I want the most money for the least work.

In the current market Employer > Employee.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#79

Post by CaptSpify » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:52 PM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #71

askyourmother wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst are the new "tech companies with internal recruiters, tech tests prior to interview, twenty stages to offer, who moan they can't attract the best. Of course not! The minute you said tech test, I said goodbye, the minute you said internal recruiters, I laughed as I slammed down the phone. The best companies that can and do attract the best, still keep it simple - direct face to face interviews, max two stage…

What's the big deal with internal recruiters? Most companies, unless they're very small, are going to have them.

I actually prefer internal recruiters. At least they typically have some motivation against throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#80

Post by quantum_nerd » Mon, May 23, 2016, 3:52 PM UTC

Sometimes I even ask myself: “you only hire the best…at what exactly?” there is difference between having a fancy degree/accolades and actually contributing meaningfully to your work. I have also seen(in my thin years of experience) that at most companies, there is a disconnect between HR and company’s talent needs. Only those who have figured out how to bridge that gap hire “the best”(subjectively).