Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong • Hacker News Board

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#21

Post by amurmann » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:23 AM UTC

cageface wrote: post #17

amurmann wrote: post #6

Why not just pair with the interviewee for half a day or a day? You will learn how they think and work and if you like them. It's a riddle to me. I've never heard from anyone actually trying it and not being happy with the insight won.

I'm a lot more interested in how someone breaks down an architectural problem than I am in how well they can implement heap sort on a whiteboard. The closer the interview is to real coding the more you learn. Of course, github is the real resume now.

Why not pair on whatever you would be working on anyway. I usually have to solve many architectural problems every day but honestly never had to implement a heap sort all my life. So there should be ample opportunity for an interviewee to show his architecture-fu

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#22

Post by sp_ » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:26 AM UTC

I worked for a German startup too and our main problem was not vetting interviewees but finding people who want to interview at all. In the five year history of the company I think only one single person was hired who was not already friends with someone at the company.

Other people just never applied. I remember manning the booth at one of those college campus events and it was very lonely. I probably talked to three students that day. Nobody followed up with us. I even had the distinct feeling that students avoided eye-contact with us and made beelines for the booths of the big established companies.

In the end, our hiring interview process for interns was 'do you want to work for us? yes? you're in' and for full-time applicants it was simply non-existent. I think in the last three years we did not interview a single person.

I often wondered why that is but I have never found a good answer. In the end it worked out for us. The company was acquired by Google.

Still, I would have liked to have some applicants and interviews once in a while because I keep reading so much about them and I wanted to practice being an interviewer to avoid pitfalls as described in the article.

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#23

Post by markkanof » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:27 AM UTC

emehrkay wrote: post #11

While at my last job I was tasked with being apart of the interview process. My favorite question was "how do you keep up with web technology and trends? (web development)" and I was surprised at how many people had no answer for that simple question. My response to my manager was "this dude wont work"

I've experienced the same thing while conducting interviews. The flip side is that some people have great answers and they often open up and show their passion for programming when they get to talk about the things that interest them and aren't as focused on how nervous they are trying to answer your question correctly.

I've also has people tell me that they read the study guides for the Microsoft certification exams. I'm not trying to start an argument about the value of certifications. I think it is questionable though when asked how someone keeps up with the latest technology, they reply that they read books with content of questionable real world application, from a single company, that are updated every three or four years.

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#24

Post by KeyBoardG » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:30 AM UTC

Totally agreed. As a team lead I've hired my best talent with interviews like this.

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#25

Post by chopsueyar » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:31 AM UTC

When I hire a developer, I ask him about the scene in 'The Social Network' with the Winklevoss twins, and ask if he knew Armie Hammer's face was CG'ed to another actors body.

Depending on his answer, I know right there whether to end the phone interview, or fly him to the Valley so I can see him write code on a whiteboard.

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#26

Post by tptacek » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:40 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #15

My current system is: 1) Simple programming challenge ( 2) Casual discussion-style interview to get to know how they think and behave. 3) Short term contract with a predefined project ( 4) Full time hire with salary + equity.

If (3) is working for you, great; however, bear in mind that it's a seller's market for talent right now. I'd neg an offer contingent on doing a 3 month contract first, and I'd advise my friends to do the same; why should I shoulder that risk, if there are 2-3 other good positions open that will take it on for me by offering FT right away?

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#27

Post by michaelchisari » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:40 AM UTC

Despite having written tens of thousands of lines of open source code, I have yet to have an interviewer who has looked at that code and asked me about it.

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#28

Post by currywurst » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:45 AM UTC

sp_ wrote: post #22

I worked for a German startup too and our main problem was not vetting interviewees but finding people who want to interview at all. In the five year history of the company I think only one single person was hired who was not already friends with someone at the company. Other people just never applied. I remember manning the booth at one of those college campus events and it was very lonely. I probably talked to thre…

I have heard this anecdote from many of my friends as well. So my advice would be : any devs frustrated with jobs in their country head over to Germany ! It's a beautiful place with a comfortable work culture ...

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#29

Post by spamizbad » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:48 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #15

My current system is: 1) Simple programming challenge ( 2) Casual discussion-style interview to get to know how they think and behave. 3) Short term contract with a predefined project ( 4) Full time hire with salary + equity.

Wow, you actually encounter people willing to take you up on #3 these days? They're either in love with your company or desperate for work.

Re: Hiring Developers: You're Doing It Wrong

#30

Post by Udo » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 3:52 AM UTC

sp_ wrote: post #22

I worked for a German startup too and our main problem was not vetting interviewees but finding people who want to interview at all. In the five year history of the company I think only one single person was hired who was not already friends with someone at the company. Other people just never applied. I remember manning the booth at one of those college campus events and it was very lonely. I probably talked to thre…

Maybe it varies between regions. We were based near Mannheim, and it was hard to find interesting software startups. Our town even has a technical university which meant that graduates were always looking for jobs in a market that didn't have that much to offer. In the web world, developers mainly had the choice between working for an advertising agency or work at a very small shop with less than 5 people. Non-web devs would have to choose either IBM in Mainz or SAP in Walldorf as a matter of course. At least that's what it looked like from my perspective, I could be wrong. So yeah, we got a lot of CVs for any job postings and people were also sending them in when we had no openings. I guess the region was just starved.