Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
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Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#2Just curious, thought of doing something like this for my company too, how long did this take and who did you have to go to to get this approved for public consumption?
Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#3Just curious, thought of doing something like this for my company too, how long did this take and who did you have to go to to get this approved for public consumption?
We (https://obvious.in) documented our entire hiring process on our Playbook (https://playbook.obvious.in/hiring/hiring-process/engineerin...).
Took us about a week to write everything down the first time and then we continuously updated it until it reached the current state.
We had the advantage of being a "public by default" company, so there was no need for approvals of any sort.
Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#4Also get feedback from candidates, especially rejected ones. The people who get offers will assume that the process works, since it validates their self-worth. Even if the process is very stupid. I've had processes that were so so bad from top companies. Like "here's a repo, clone it, write a program that will be judged by automated tests that you can't see". I had to basically guess what the tests were going to do, which turns the coding challenge into a game of luck.
I'd love to do away with coding screens in general. I glanced at the doc for Stripe and it looks great. I'd have loved to read this doc, but the last time I applied to Stripe I got a HackerRank followed by an auto-rejection. I get why coding screens exist, but it's so annoying to be batted away because I failed blind automated tests.
Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#5Also get feedback from candidates, especially rejected ones. The people who get offers will assume that the process works, since it validates their self-worth. Even if the process is very stupid. I've had processes that were so so bad from top companies. Like "here's a repo, clone it, write a program that will be judged by automated tests that you can't see". I had to basically guess what the tests were going to do,…
I think it can only be fair to ask for feedback from a rejected candidate if you (the potential employer) are willing to give feedback yourself, which is rarely the case, especially from larger companies.
Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#6Also get feedback from candidates, especially rejected ones. The people who get offers will assume that the process works, since it validates their self-worth. Even if the process is very stupid. I've had processes that were so so bad from top companies. Like "here's a repo, clone it, write a program that will be judged by automated tests that you can't see". I had to basically guess what the tests were going to do,…
It would feel a little awkward for me to ask for someone to do work for me after I've determined that they're not a good fit for the company. And if it's post-interview pre-result then the problem is that they'll feel pressured to be positive.
Perhaps if it were a third party.
Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#7Also get feedback from candidates, especially rejected ones. The people who get offers will assume that the process works, since it validates their self-worth. Even if the process is very stupid. I've had processes that were so so bad from top companies. Like "here's a repo, clone it, write a program that will be judged by automated tests that you can't see". I had to basically guess what the tests were going to do,…
I think it can only be fair to ask for feedback from a rejected candidate if you (the potential employer) are willing to give feedback yourself, which is rarely the case, especially from larger companies.
This might be what you'd think intuitively. I've conducted ~500 technical interviews, and in my experience candidates who are obvious DNP (do not pursue) often times really do not want your feedback or do not care about it, either because they think they're smarter than the whole process, or they're too busy turning inward to deal with an emotional breakdown. But those very candidates are the ones who are likely to leave the feedback!
tl;dr candidates are happy to give feedback whether or not you provide any yourself.
EDIT: I agree with you though. An interviewer should be ready and willing to provide feedback if the candidate signals that it would be welcome.
Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#8Just curious, thought of doing something like this for my company too, how long did this take and who did you have to go to to get this approved for public consumption?
We ( https://obvious.in ) documented our entire hiring process on our Playbook ( https://playbook.obvious.in/hiring/hiring-process/engineerin... ). Took us about a week to write everything down the first time and then we continuously updated it until it reached the current state. We had the advantage of being a "public by default" company, so there was no need for approvals of any sort.
Oh nice, you know it does have an interesting effect on me of making Obvious a more enticing place to apply... Has this improved the quality of interviews and/or applicants?
Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#9> We will do our best to provide a 15 minute break and/or lunch/coffee break during your interviews, especially if you'll be interviewing for more than 3 hours. That said, we are happy to accommodate additional breaks or fewer breaks, depending on your preferences, just let your recruiter or recruiting coordinator know!
I have seen this w/o breaks 5-7 interviews a day, too often. Some candidates suffer from low energy at the (n-1)th interview. The interviewer is baffled and gives a slightly negative feedback. The reason for the interviewee's interaction is not the skill of the interviewer.
So, in short - please keep breaks. You should have a 1h (min.) dedicated lunch break if you have a long 1-day interview. In additional, you should schedule 15m breaks in the morning and afternoon session to let the candidate recuperate. Finally, please ask your interviewers to look through the candidate schedule. Take into account that they have had many interviews, do your bit to make them comfortable. Also, please do not spin this as "If you can't go without breaks in a 7h day, you are not good enough to work here". Kindness, empathy helps and makes you a better employer.
Re: Tell candidates what to expect from your job interviews
#10Perhaps a bit of an unpopular opinion but as far as interviews go, I think that seeing how someone reacts unprepared is a lot more valuable then seeing their work with them knowing what to expect. You see their ability to adapt and improvise, which is far more valuable then being picky about a particular library or technology. Yes, the quality of their tests will be lower, but that's fine and you can take that into account when you are checking them and you can check the test along with the candidates and ask additional questions which will steer them in the right direction, which ultimately will give you more insights about their thought process. Imo, their thought process is arguably the most valuable factor.
Also the most valuable question you can ask as a part of the non-technical interview: "So do you have any questions for us"? If the answer is "no", you are not looking at a good candidate.