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The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

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Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#51

Post by btrettel »

fzeroracer wrote: post #14

I'm thinking back to a recent interview I had. It was one of those online coding tests; after spending about an hour and a half on it I sent it back to the recruiter and they came back to me saying I didn't pass because I 'only' got an 80% despite passing all criteria in the worst working environment possible. This was a no-AI test too so I unfortunately respected the criteria. So many interviews still demand absolut…

I had a similar experience before [1]. I fully agree that too many interview tests select for dishonest people.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35496976

Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#52

Post by wiseowise »

DonsDiscountGas wrote: post #43
tracerbulletx wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the not too distant past (like 10 years ago) flying people to a final in person round was standard practice.

Standard and expensive (in terms of time and money) for both the company and the applicant

Well, maybe some things should be expensive.

Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#53

Post by coffeefirst »

ElProlactin wrote: post #28

> Google, McKinsey, and other companies have responded by reintroducing in-person interviews for some candidates, a meaningful step backward in efficiency (due to travel time and costs) that signals how seriously they are treating this problem. Maybe the relentless pursuit of "efficiency" at all costs has broken the world? I remember when I applied for my first job. I got dressed up and my mom drove me to the intervi…

Absolutely. It turns out friction is important in the right places.

Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#54

Post by ElProlactin »

DonsDiscountGas wrote: post #43
tracerbulletx wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the not too distant past (like 10 years ago) flying people to a final in person round was standard practice.

Standard and expensive (in terms of time and money) for both the company and the applicant

If the cost of hiring the wrong person is huge, the cost (in terms of time and money) of conducting on-site interviews is almost certainly lower.

Also, in terms of the costs to the applicants, this touches on the oligopolistic nature of so many industries today, which has resulted in high concentrations of the most desirable jobs in places with the highest costs of living.

Basically, unless you already have a FAANG job or are independently wealthy, it's not easy to up and move to Silicon Valley, Seattle, etc. and job hunt.

Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#56

Post by neilv »

> When the earliest filters in your hiring process stop working, your organization begins to systematically select for candidates who are best at performing the hiring process, rather than those best equipped to do the job.

Isn't "performing the hiring process" theatre what Big Tech hiring has been demanding for ~20 years?

And gifted to most smaller companies? (Because people already knew Google frat-hazing student style interviews, from their own interview prep, to try to get into a FAANG, so they mimicked that when they went elsewhere?)

Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#57

Post by Aurornis »

DonsDiscountGas wrote: post #43
tracerbulletx wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the not too distant past (like 10 years ago) flying people to a final in person round was standard practice.

Standard and expensive (in terms of time and money) for both the company and the applicant

FYI companies should be reimbursing travel expenses for this travel. As a candidate it's worth clarifying to confirm so you don't get some oddball startup trying to force candidates to pay their own travel, but every big company travel interview will be expenses paid down to your travel to/from the airport and the meals you eat along the way.

The time commitment is real, but on-site travel is almost always reserved for the last round on-site. Often as a final pass verification, or when the company is down to a couple of final candidates. Companies aren't flying every applicant out for all of the interviews. If you get to that point, you're close to the job.

Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#58

Post by ghaff »

buffer_overlord wrote: post #18
ghaff wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of it has been based on networking for a good 20+ years. Yes, there was a certain if you have a pulse era in tech at at a lot of companies--leet code notwithstanding though that was an issue--that has largely passed and a lot of people are reacting to tech hiring becoming a more normal multi-month process.

I told the last recruiter who had a six week interview process “I’m not waiting that long when I can literally clone your product in a weekend for $50

That's nice. But a lot of people looking for professional jobs may take a year+ to find a position.

Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#59

Post by bluefirebrand »

cocoto wrote: post #36

I'm responsible for hiring junior C++ developers in a small company (first role). Let met tell you that almost all candidates are stating "medium" level in C++ in their resume but don't even know how to work with pointers or references, they don't even have the level of someone studying the language for half a day. And I don't even think it's related to AI. Whatever the reason, it's very easy to assert a candidate co…

Lying on resumes is very common, so is lying on job postings. It's a really weird arms race where no one is getting what they want.

I will say that I'm not surprised by this at all. I think a ton of people have been convinced that basically all languages are more or less the same, so they are confident putting languages they barely know on their resumes. "I know python and Java, how hard can C++ be?". This isn't a new problem, or even a "coding bootcamp problem"

I studied computer science at a small university in 2006, several of my friends went to a much larger university and studied Software Engineering

They didn't learn pointers back then either. They learned Uncle Bob Java and that was basically it.

Re: The early hiring funnel is now breaking on both ends

#60

Post by cleandreams »

I was walking through a startup neighborhood in San Francisco the other day and I encountered several telephone poles which were posted with advertisements for software engineering jobs. These were not generic or scam advertisements. This was a particular startup, looking for software engineers. What is old is new again.
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