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How to hire low experience, high potential people

worktopia.substack.com

241–250 of 433 posts

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any competent HR department would have a fit if they knew these kinds of questions were being asked. It's way too easy to wander into illegal discrimination when you're making hiring decisions based on people's backgrounds like this.

You'd think this was true, but I've seen some crazy shit in interviews, even at companies that were big enough and had a robust enough legal team, where you'd think they'd have their shit together. I once interviewed at a medium sized, name brand Silicon Valley darling everyone on HN has heard of, where an interviewer outright asked me if I was married and if I had kids! Like, holy shit, just read your interview trai…

The way I understand it, you can legally ask the questions, you just can't consider protected status for hiring purposes. The interview guidelines prohibit asking because "we didn't ask" is a stronger defense than "our interviewers have mental firewalls".

This case is strictly worse because the questions are explicitly being asked to evaluate eligibility for hiring.

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#242
I stopped reading when I saw the suggestion to avoid hiring people that are insecure. Some of the best software engineers I’ve ever hired lacked self-confidence and struggled with insecurity. In my experience, those folks tended to have extremely high standards for themselves, and did great work.

Conversely, some of the worst software engineers I’ve ever hired were extraordinarily adept at projecting a high level of confidence without appearing to be overconfident.

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#243
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I found the part where the author throws in "cared for a dying parent" particularly distasteful, it's like a benchmark for "palatable damage"

The author appears young. I would give them the benefit of the doubt. It has been my experience that people who have lived a fortunate, trauma free life cannot really understand the trauma experienced by others. They might appear to understand, say all the right words, and so on. Then a few days later or weeks later be confused or upset because of how you react to something. A good friend once said to me, "Wow, that…

> "Wow, that is still upsetting you?"

If not a jerk, then grossly lacking in sensitivity, empathy and tact.

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#244

> “Tell me about you. If your life was a book, give me the chapter titles from your birth till now.” Once you’ve gotten the overview, dive into each “chapter” and plumb the depths for their real stories. Go back to their childhood! I learn a lot about their grit and commitment to excellence from their basketball obsession or maybe their experience caring for a dying parent. I don't think I'd be comfortable sharing th…

[deleted]

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#245

> “Tell me about you. If your life was a book, give me the chapter titles from your birth till now.” Once you’ve gotten the overview, dive into each “chapter” and plumb the depths for their real stories. Go back to their childhood! I learn a lot about their grit and commitment to excellence from their basketball obsession or maybe their experience caring for a dying parent. I don't think I'd be comfortable sharing th…

I have a large gap in my resume from a bout of depression that left me basically incapacitated for nearly 10 months. I get asked about it all the time in interviews. I just respond “I’m under NDA”. I also get asked about GitHub profiles. I have a pseudonym on GitHub, and maintain a few projects. I dont divulge that information either. “I’m under NDA” or “I only work in proprietary code with many trade secrets involve…

- "tell me about your childhood" - "I'm under NDA"

thank you for a great laugh

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#246
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> bias here against people who've had horrific childhoods. I didn't read this as a bias against significant prior challenges, in childhood or after. I certainly had such challenges and I've always thought most people have. Since the author's stated goal is identifying high potential, early career candidates in the absence of prior success or obvious metrics, it seems essential to look for resilience. To me, understan…

I'm not marrying my company. I want to hold it as far from my heart as corporately possible. I don't want to think about it after work, I don't want to work on it after work. I don't want it to know my secrets nor do I need to know its. I want to be able to say peace bro and walk away whenever I want with no thought of a sad feeling. Which unfortunately does happen but it's always coworkers or cool tech.

Any company that goes out of its way to try to marry you is immediately suspect.

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This interview style seems bound to create a psychologically enmeshed workplace with no healthy boundaries. Or a workplace full of people with charming, easily-shared backstories and nuclear families but no yucky problems. Would not want to work here, personally.

Any competent HR department would have a fit if they knew these kinds of questions were being asked. It's way too easy to wander into illegal discrimination when you're making hiring decisions based on people's backgrounds like this.

This person came out of the Thiel Fellowship, the rules are different.

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#248

> “Tell me about you. If your life was a book, give me the chapter titles from your birth till now.” Once you’ve gotten the overview, dive into each “chapter” and plumb the depths for their real stories. Go back to their childhood! I learn a lot about their grit and commitment to excellence from their basketball obsession or maybe their experience caring for a dying parent. I don't think I'd be comfortable sharing th…

I've noticed a trend where the lower the position, the more invasive the questions become. I think it's a power dynamic - they can ask the questions because they know the applicants are more desperate. For example, before I was an engineer, I was scraping by on odd jobs after the 2008 crash. Around that time I applied for a job at Red Robin (basically a fast food restaurant for those who don't know). One of the quest…

Those are definitely interview questions "sold" to companies as being able to weed out undesirables (read: find the answers to questions they cannot ask because of anti-discrimination laws).

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't these quadrants from about 100 years ago? Some Prussian General von Whatshisname? Edit: General von Hammerstein I divide my officers into four classes as follows: the clever, the industrious, the lazy, and the stupid. Those who are clever and industrious I appoint to the General Staff. Use can under certain circumstances be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy qualifies for the…

They're simply 2-variable Karnaugh maps. Widely used in logic design in electrical engineering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnaugh_map

I mean the smart/dumb lazy/hardworking axes, not the underlying concept

Re: How to hire low experience, high potential people

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a large gap in my resume from a bout of depression that left me basically incapacitated for nearly 10 months. I get asked about it all the time in interviews. I just respond “I’m under NDA”. I also get asked about GitHub profiles. I have a pseudonym on GitHub, and maintain a few projects. I dont divulge that information either. “I’m under NDA” or “I only work in proprietary code with many trade secrets involve…

- "tell me about your childhood" - "I'm under NDA" thank you for a great laugh

Hmmm, a parent can perhaps sign an NDA on behalf of their child, so could they sign an NDA with themselves?

To the lawyers!

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