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A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

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Re: A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

#251

Post by blowski »

JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #206
blazespin wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This works, but make sure they spend the 2 hours in your office and not 12 hours at home solving a 2 hour problem.. The other problem is that when you pay them you generate all sorts of nightmaris legal liabilities.

>This works, but make sure they spend the 2 hours in your office and not 12 hours at home solving a 2 hour problem.. Did you read the article? That's what the article author is saying not to do, they prefer to see a well worked solution after you define a particular technology, showing they are adaptable and have thought it through properly. Limiting them to your office, timeboxed, advantages people who spit out line…

Please don't suggest someone hasn't read the article. It sounds hostile and doesn't really add anything to your comment.

Re: A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

#252

Post by pgl »

shandor wrote: post #233

This seems like a pretty popular take on the interview process here on HN. However, there's one pretty glaring flaw that I've never seen discussed: if the interviewee can take the problem home, what prevents them setting up a hackathon with their friends at their place, and making the interview problem a team effort? A couple of knowledgeable friends can do wonders, and if you also prep with them a little you can pro…

No interview method is foolproof. If someone goes to those lengths, you'd find out soon enough that they're not actually competent enough to do their job after hiring them.

But I'd consider that fairly unlikely. Plus, starting from a position where you don't even trust someone enough to behave like a mature human being isn't a great way to begin a professional relationship.

Re: A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

#253

Post by mrep »

toephu2 wrote: post #195
arielweisberg wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% This. I just wasted a bunch of time extracting an offer from one of AmaGooFaceFlix. Supposedly a top SV company with good compensation. Got an awful offer to relocate to an area where 1/4 to 1/2 the house costs twice as much and I would no longer be able to work from home. I would also lose a significant portion of my life commuting. The offer was comparable to what I made working remote from Boston. I don't mea…

Sounds like Amazon?

Re-read (it is an odd wording): "1/4 to 1/2 the house costs twice as much". He also said SV

Seattle is not even close to being as bad as silicon valley in housing costs.

Re: A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

#254

Post by StreamBright »

ceronman wrote: post #142

This is a great way of hiring, but unfortunately it doesn't fit in all scenarios. First, this model alone doesn't scale. Big companies interview hundreds of candidates every week. It's not possible to design and evaluate a weekend project for each one of them. This doesn't mean that they can't have projects, but early filters are needed. That leads to the classic phone and F2F interviews to rule out those who can't c…

Sorry but this is simply not true. After a while we decided to do exactly the thing that the article describes as our preliminary interviewing process at Amazon. We also had extensive onsite interviews, however we did not ask candidates to code at the whiteboard. Btw, when you work for such companies it is expected that you spend 10% of your time on hiring. Getting hiring right is one of the most important things that you need to do at the scale of Amazon, Google and all of these large companies. Having a single bad hire can bring down the performance of an entire team.

Re: A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

#255

Post by TeMPOraL »

rizzom5000 wrote: post #98
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to not pay them. Most candidates will do this for free, as it's far better than traditional ineffective hiring practices. The thing is, there are always reasons why this method isn't viable. It's not till you try it that you notice huge gains.

That only makes sense if you're talking about people who are unemployed. As someone who is already employed full-time, I simply don't have the time to solve your problems for free just to see if you'd like to invite me over for an interview. I avoid these problems like the plague and very much prefer to whiteboard. If you pay me consultant rates, I can more easily justify the effort.

> As someone who is already employed full-time, I simply don't have the time to solve your problems for free just to see if you'd like to invite me over for an interview.

That means you don't care enough about changing jobs. There are people who will happily do that "interview" for free even when being employed full-time. The only relevant question for the company is whether there are enough qualified candidates willing to do the test for free.

Re: A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

#258

Post by cm2187 »

shandor wrote: post #233

This seems like a pretty popular take on the interview process here on HN. However, there's one pretty glaring flaw that I've never seen discussed: if the interviewee can take the problem home, what prevents them setting up a hackathon with their friends at their place, and making the interview problem a team effort? A couple of knowledgeable friends can do wonders, and if you also prep with them a little you can pro…

...or it is being ressourcefull!

Re: A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

#259

Post by pakitan »

StreamBright wrote: post #254
ceronman wrote: post #142

This is a great way of hiring, but unfortunately it doesn't fit in all scenarios. First, this model alone doesn't scale. Big companies interview hundreds of candidates every week. It's not possible to design and evaluate a weekend project for each one of them. This doesn't mean that they can't have projects, but early filters are needed. That leads to the classic phone and F2F interviews to rule out those who can't c…

Sorry but this is simply not true. After a while we decided to do exactly the thing that the article describes as our preliminary interviewing process at Amazon. We also had extensive onsite interviews, however we did not ask candidates to code at the whiteboard. Btw, when you work for such companies it is expected that you spend 10% of your time on hiring. Getting hiring right is one of the most important things tha…

I'm curious if you have any statistics about the different interview styles/processes. Obviously it's hard to figure out the false negatives (good engineers you didn't hire) but how about false positives? Also, is homework assignment now a part of the standard interview process at Amazon or is this just your team/department?

Re: A Method I’ve Used to Eliminate Bad Tech Hires

#260

Post by maccard »

deepGem wrote: post #237
shandor wrote: post #233

This seems like a pretty popular take on the interview process here on HN. However, there's one pretty glaring flaw that I've never seen discussed: if the interviewee can take the problem home, what prevents them setting up a hackathon with their friends at their place, and making the interview problem a team effort? A couple of knowledgeable friends can do wonders, and if you also prep with them a little you can pro…

One view of this behaviour is cheating, another view is hustle. I mean, if you could arrange a hackathon to solve an interview question - you are hired my friend :)

Do you expect this guy to organise a hackathon to solve every problem you give him? And what if that havkathon now involves the people at your company working on his problems as well as their own?
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