Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#1

Post by jordigh » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 4:04 AM UTC

Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025
ballardgames.com

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#2

Post by imsurajkadam » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 4:48 AM UTC

This is very consuming. If chief tier people start doing this thjs then this will start draining “em more. Chief operated people should focus and be picky about whom they want to WORK WITH.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#3

Post by overgard » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 5:09 AM UTC

Totally curious about the "Candidate used AI to reply"

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#4

Post by murkt » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 5:36 AM UTC

overgard wrote: post #3

Totally curious about the "Candidate used AI to reply"

Maybe they’ve left a lot of clearly AI-generated comments. Or even wrote the text of the reply with AI. It’s usually quite easy to tell.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#5

Post by ValtteriL » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 6:31 AM UTC

murkt wrote: post #4

overgard wrote: post #3

Totally curious about the "Candidate used AI to reply"

Maybe they’ve left a lot of clearly AI-generated comments. Or even wrote the text of the reply with AI. It’s usually quite easy to tell.

It was a phone call

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#6

Post by DeathArrow » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 6:33 AM UTC

I would have outsourced the initial screening to a hiring agency and only interview top 5.

For a 3 people team this 4 weeks hiring process is too tedious.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#7

Post by ro_bit » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 6:34 AM UTC

One note that might be good to highlight in the article is that the take-home is expected to be 2 hours long. From my experience, they are much longer so I was initially surprised to see take-home's being given before an initial call until I looked at the assignment itself.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#8

Post by dainiusse » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 6:42 AM UTC

Curious about "no-AI" policy. From my experience interviewing lately AI is allowed,but the task is usually big in a small time window. So you quickly spin up the project but I see most of work in QA

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#9

Post by resonious » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 6:46 AM UTC

ValtteriL wrote: post #5

murkt wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they’ve left a lot of clearly AI-generated comments. Or even wrote the text of the reply with AI. It’s usually quite easy to tell.

It was a phone call

I've seen candidates make odd pauses followed by oddly "scripted" replies on a call.

Re: Hiring a developer as a small indie studio in 2025

#10

Post by testing22321 » Tue, Nov 11, 2025, 6:48 AM UTC

dainiusse wrote: post #8

Curious about "no-AI" policy. From my experience interviewing lately AI is allowed,but the task is usually big in a small time window. So you quickly spin up the project but I see most of work in QA

A friend at a nearly-FAANG said not using AI tooling in the interview is now an automatic fail. “Not that you’d be able to complete the task on time without it anyway”