Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 460 posts

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#351

Post by johnnyanmac »

TrackerFF wrote: post #175

Having previously worked at a place where it took minimum 3 months to hire someone (but often 6-12), I'd be amazed if Canonical actually ever gets to hire their first choices. What happened was this: By the time the first pick hires had been cleared, they had gotten another job. Same with second pick. Maybe even third, too. Most people don't have the luxury or will to just sit and twiddle their thumbs for months and…

devil's advocate: a bad software engineer is not only unproductive but drags down good software engineer's productivity. It doesn't make SWE's important, but it does sometimes mean that no hire isn't the worst choice.

In addition, Canonical is HQ'd in the UK, so it's not quite as easy to let someone go if red flags come up.

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#352

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

rurp wrote: post #237
TrackerFF wrote: post #175

Having previously worked at a place where it took minimum 3 months to hire someone (but often 6-12), I'd be amazed if Canonical actually ever gets to hire their first choices. What happened was this: By the time the first pick hires had been cleared, they had gotten another job. Same with second pick. Maybe even third, too. Most people don't have the luxury or will to just sit and twiddle their thumbs for months and…

> scientists going to antarctica I know someone who applied for a technical job based in antarctica and the interview process was much less arduous than the one described here.

It depends where you're going. Villas Las Estrellas requires an appendix removal.

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#353

Post by benhoyt »

In case it helps anyone, here's a recent blog article written by Daniele Procida (a director of engineering at Canonical, responsible for documentation) that helps explain the motivation for our written interview: https://ubuntu.com/blog/written-interviews - "Not just an annoying list of questions"

Disclaimer: I work for Canonical and help with recruiting.

I'd love it if our hiring process was shorter or tighter, but the written interview part (the part people seem to protest the most) I actually think is helpful. We're a fully remote company, and written communication is very important, so I think it's important that we evaluate how well someone can relate their experience and get technical ideas across. I personally review several written submissions per day, I read them in full, write notes of my thoughts, and evaluate them carefully. So your effort isn't wasted!

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#354

Post by iraqmtpizza »

rbanffy wrote: post #171
weinzierl wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C'mon, it was a casual joke and no harm done. Also punching someone weaker is a simple act, but taking on someone stronger requires courage. Does it fit the somewhat quirky (but by far not unusual) interview process? Yes Is it a sign of a moral flaw? No

Unless, of course, you work for that government. Kind of the same one that put people on the Moon, made the atomic bomb, invented the internet, and other things less extraordinary than repackaging Debian ;-) I have talked to him a couple times while working for Canonical and, while I knew his reputation of being a very Steve Jobs person, he was never an asshole with me. And the CEO was a real sweetheart. I'd think tw…

They also interned Japanese-Americans, caused the Arab Spring/Syrian Civil War, made the atomic bomb (oh, you mentioned that one!), ran numerous undisclosed human experimentation projects, imposed multiple central banking systems on the United States, caused the mortgage crisis, and gave China most favoured nation status.

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#355

Post by jzb »

KineticLensman wrote: post #223
TrackerFF wrote: post #175

Having previously worked at a place where it took minimum 3 months to hire someone (but often 6-12), I'd be amazed if Canonical actually ever gets to hire their first choices. What happened was this: By the time the first pick hires had been cleared, they had gotten another job. Same with second pick. Maybe even third, too. Most people don't have the luxury or will to just sit and twiddle their thumbs for months and…

A lot can happen in three months. My wife interviewed years ago for a UK govt research agency. They took three months to respond but did eventually set up an on-site interview. She went along anyway. HR met her at the gate and took her to the office of the person who owned the opportunity. When they arrived and there was no-one at his desk it turned out that he had died two months earlier and that the HR drone hadn't…

That’s probably a good sign you don’t want that job.

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#356

Post by johnnyanmac »

Invictus0 wrote: post #213
OkayPhysicist wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My current job was less than a week between my application and signing the final offer. Day 1: I send in an application. Day 2: My future manager writes back "Hey, do you have any work examples in obscure language I used for 10 minutes in my EE classes ?". I respond "No, nobody has work examples in obscure language ." Later that day, same manager emails me again, asking the same question, in slightly different words.…

This is so unusual it borders on unbelievable

heard of it, but never happened to me. The closest "turn around" was 2 weeks after getting a response from a recruiter (which took 3 weeks, so let's just ignore that). But that was because stage 3-6 of the interview was compressed into a full work day of revolving teams to talk to.

Given how the other processes work, I sort of prefer to get it over with. But I understand that that's not viable for people searching while still working full time.

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#357

Post by phist_mcgee »

iraqmtpizza wrote: post #344
hluska wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s time for me to leave Ubuntu behind for good. I can’t support anyone who is this much of an asshole.

he's an asshole because he wants to work with extraordinary people and made fun of george bush?

Twisting the signal/noise knob this way may not attract all or even the right kind of extraordinary people you think you will.

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#358

Post by imiric »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #323
TrackerFF wrote: post #175

Having previously worked at a place where it took minimum 3 months to hire someone (but often 6-12), I'd be amazed if Canonical actually ever gets to hire their first choices. What happened was this: By the time the first pick hires had been cleared, they had gotten another job. Same with second pick. Maybe even third, too. Most people don't have the luxury or will to just sit and twiddle their thumbs for months and…

So why do these companies insist on these incredibly long hiring processes? Clearly it must not be working if candidates are moving on before they're hired.

They don't insist on it. It's just the way they operate.

Everything takes ages in the corporate world. Every hiring decision needs to be signed off by interviewers, managers, HR, and sometimes even executives. Someone in this chain is usually on vacation, but there's no clear replacement, so someone else needs to be brought up to speed. Meetings need to take place for everyone to touch base, and discuss the candidates. Coordinating this around everyone's availability is difficult, since they have other meetings to attend. It really takes some outside-the-box thinking to make it happen. :)

Also, depending on the size and popularity of the company, they might be evaluating dozens of candidates at the same time. This also clogs the pipeline considerably.

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#359

Post by [deleted] »

thayne wrote: post #221
TrackerFF wrote: post #175

Having previously worked at a place where it took minimum 3 months to hire someone (but often 6-12), I'd be amazed if Canonical actually ever gets to hire their first choices. What happened was this: By the time the first pick hires had been cleared, they had gotten another job. Same with second pick. Maybe even third, too. Most people don't have the luxury or will to just sit and twiddle their thumbs for months and…

It certainly doesn't help that many companies never inform you if you don't get a position, so if a candidate doesn't get a response quickly, they are likely to assume they were rejected.

[deleted]

Re: Canonical’s recruitment process is long and complex

#360

Post by tourist2d »

benhoyt wrote: post #353

In case it helps anyone, here's a recent blog article written by Daniele Procida (a director of engineering at Canonical, responsible for documentation) that helps explain the motivation for our written interview: https://ubuntu.com/blog/written-interviews - "Not just an annoying list of questions" Disclaimer: I work for Canonical and help with recruiting. I'd love it if our hiring process was shorter or tighter, but…

From your page:

> Imagine if – as a job applicant – you could put yourself right in front of the hiring lead, and tell them, in your own words, in your own time, without interruption or distraction or pressure, why you think you’d be an excellent person for the role. What kind of applicant would benefit the most?

A liar

Post reply on HN