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The Only Interview Question That Matters

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Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#121

Post by tptacek »

bennyg wrote: post #98
tptacek wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, you're assuming that the interview process reliably distinguishes between "qualified" and "easy to talk to", but in practice not only do engineering interviews not do that, but in confounding the two they also drastically over-weigh the "easy to talk to" attribute. Second, you're assuming that the way a candidate interacts with your team in an interview is an accurate representation of how they'll gel with the…

The ability for people to gel doesn't guarantee any of the following: listening to the same music, drinking roughly the same beer, playing the same games, and liking the same technology stacks. What I am arguing for is the part after someone's ability to accomplish the work and be creative has been shown. I think you underestimate how many people actually have the smarts and creative ability to do just about all soft…

I think I do the opposite: I think I value candidate potential more than you, because you propose screening based on how cordial or fluent a single interview with their prospective team is, and I don't buy for a second that you get a realistic picture of how well someone will communicate or gel with that team in the course of a single adversarial interview.

Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#122

Post by tptacek »

smsm42 wrote: post #109
tptacek wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, you're assuming that the interview process reliably distinguishes between "qualified" and "easy to talk to", but in practice not only do engineering interviews not do that, but in confounding the two they also drastically over-weigh the "easy to talk to" attribute. Second, you're assuming that the way a candidate interacts with your team in an interview is an accurate representation of how they'll gel with the…

I don't know how you get the same music and beer from that, but preferring the same technology stacks may have a value in the team. Less time spent arguing religion = more time spent doing actual work. >>> the real argument is that it doesn't work. It's not an argument, it's a statement. It would become argument if it would be supported with something that is not of equal weight with the contrary claim "no, it actual…

Let me understand you completely before I respond.

Is your argument here that conventional engineering job interviews...

(the sort where candidates interview with a series of engineers from the team all of whom ask different sets of questions and seek to gauge from their answers previous accomplishments, working style, technical competence, and team compatibility)

... are generally an effective way for teams to screen candidates?

Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#123

Post by Rajiv_N »

pg wrote: post #101
dominotw wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is problematic and discriminatory. I hope this doesn't become a trend. What if you are interviewing a kid from south-side Chicago or kid from third world who against all odds went to college. Is smart and motivated and could be a great asset to your company but never had the exposure to great ideas. You can argue that she can just say 'Going to college was my most significant achievement' but are you in a positi…

What if you are interviewing a kid from south-side Chicago or kid from third world who against all odds went to college? That is exactly the sort of achievement that impresses us, actually. For example, Qasar Younis started life in a house with dirt floors in a village in Pakistan. His family moved to the US, to Detroit, when he was 7. He appears to have worked his ass off from the moment they landed. We funded his s…

Qasar's story is amazing and inspirational. Was he able to convey his story in his application to YC and is that the reason you selected him in? Or did someone at YC already know him to be able to truly appreciate his achievement?

I have always found the YC application strange in that sense. So much emphasis is given to the question of the "most impressive achievement", but in order to convey any achievement with context, one needs to be quite verbose with their replies. Given that an application only has few seconds to impress, conveying anything is a challenge. Has YC given much thought to an essay type application?

I am proud of where I am today. I grew up in Mumbai, India (not quite a village). We weren't rich. I still have scars on my right foot from an abscess caused from a piece of glass that had pierced my foot while playing soccer bare feet on concrete. We couldn't afford shoes. Luckily my father's business started picking up around the time I entered engineering school. The plan was for me to graduate with a bachelor's in structural engineering and then we could work together to grow the business further. At 20, I earned my bachelor's in structural engineering. Unfortunately my father had died in an accident at work when I was in my penultimate year of engineering. I managed to get enough resources together to be able to attend grad school in the US. I met my wife there. BTW, she has an amazing story too. We now have a startup (https://magtag.me) that received angel investment recently. We feel like outsiders in the tech scene but our spirits are high and when we look back at our lives we feel nothing but pride.

My life is an ongoing achievement. Would you have time to hear me out?

Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#124

Post by hexagonc »

hrktb wrote: post #114
hexagonc wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I'm not just talking about blind, unfocused and overly enthusiastic passion. I'm talking about the passion that drives people to go beyond the call of duty, not because it is part of the job but because it is what they like to do. Passion got me the job I have now. Although I was also more than merely competent, the passion drove me to achieve that competence in the first place. Even if they're building important…

I'd agree with the parent...there are jobs where passion is key, like a tech evangelist for instance, or a product leader, a salesman, or a founder. But for an engineer, while of course creativity and trying to get better at the trade are important, so are not getting burned out, going through periods of shitty tasks keeping a professional attitude, make pragmatic choices when needed, without getting blinded by cooln…

Yeah, I can see how too much passion can burn you out. I'm borderline obsessive about some of the things I do in my spare time. The thing is that I really like doing them but taking a break from too much intellectual stimulation is probably a good thing. I'm probably not old enough to know but it may be more necessary for older workers. Probably also the reason I can handle it relatively well is because I don't have a wife and/or kids. Again, all the more reason to take advantage of passion when you find it in the younger folks!

Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#125

Post by smsm42 »

tptacek wrote: post #122
smsm42 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how you get the same music and beer from that, but preferring the same technology stacks may have a value in the team. Less time spent arguing religion = more time spent doing actual work. >>> the real argument is that it doesn't work. It's not an argument, it's a statement. It would become argument if it would be supported with something that is not of equal weight with the contrary claim "no, it actual…

Let me understand you completely before I respond. Is your argument here that conventional engineering job interviews... (the sort where candidates interview with a series of engineers from the team all of whom ask different sets of questions and seek to gauge from their answers previous accomplishments, working style, technical competence, and team compatibility) ... are generally an effective way for teams to scree…

Yes, it generally is. In my experience this is proven by the fact that close to 100% of working engineers are hired that way, and tech industry didn't collapse yet. But if you have better way, that is provably more efficient - I'd be very interested to hear about it (of course, if you're interested to tell me).

Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#126

Post by jw_ »

tptacek wrote: post #47
logicallee wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because some people cap at "I managed to code the most lines of code in June, 2006 among my seven colleagues, even though I was just hired on the tenth of the month and didn't know the code yet. That was quite a month." whereas others cap at, "well, I did manage to build the world's first and largest bitcoin currency exchange and reach volumes of about a million a day before we had to shut down." when you find out th…

So this one interview question allows you to make the decision between hiring someone who has only worked in the profession for a month and hiring someone who wrote a whole bitcoin exchange. Faint praise. The big issue is, what does this style of interviewing do for you with a real-world candidate selection challenge --- say, 3 developers, all similar on paper? There is no reason the best candidate necessarily has th…

I'd say the question helps you separate out candidates who have run into this sort of BS question before and have a pat answer already prepared.

"Gee whiz, I'd say my biggest flaw is that I'm TOO passionate about technology!"

Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#127

Post by ScottBurson »

tptacek wrote: post #90
hexagonc wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, and good luck hiring anyone right out of college this way. I think it is a fantastic question to ask someone out of college. It shows those people who are passionate about something and went beyond the minimal requirements for their degree to achieve it. A passionate student could answer this question in a number of ways; he could point out an open source project that he published on Github that has users, some r…

There might be nothing in the industry that gets under my skin quite as effectively as engineers making hiring decisions based on the perceived "passion" of candidates. "Passion" doesn't matter. What matters in a job is effectiveness and competence. Effectiveness gets things done. Competence ensures that what's getting done isn't going to backfire and create more work down the line. In our common usage, "passion" des…

Passion is critical. I wouldn't hire someone if I didn't think they were passionate about building good products. Other passions can tell me something interesting about them, but that's the one that counts since that's what I would be hiring them to do.

Maturity is also critical. And passion and maturity are not at all mutually exclusive.

If there are misconceptions about passion floating around the memespace, then you are certainly right to challenge them, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#128

Post by smsm42 »

tptacek wrote: post #120
smsm42 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you expect anything rigorous in such a nebulous business as predicting someone's performance in the environment he's never been doing things that he's probably never done before (even if he's done similar things)? I don't think you can have any rigor here. Do you have a proposed rigorous solution?

Yes, I have written long and specific comments on alternative approaches on HN before and won't bore you with a recap, except to note that I sketched out what I meant by "rigor" in the comment rooting this thread.

I understand what you mean by rigor but I'm not sure that your quest for rigor in that sense would yield better results. I could be very wrong, of course, my experience is nothing but a relatively small list of anecdotes. But if you indeed have a rigorous way of assessing candidates, I certainly look forward for you to creating the best recruiting agency ever, becoming a billionaire and transforming this field forever (not being sarcastic, btw, I'd like so see some innovation in this field, I'm just not sure how "rigorous" can work here, but if you do - I hope you are right and I am wrong).

Re: The Only Interview Question That Matters

#129

Post by tptacek »

ScottBurson wrote: post #127
tptacek wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There might be nothing in the industry that gets under my skin quite as effectively as engineers making hiring decisions based on the perceived "passion" of candidates. "Passion" doesn't matter. What matters in a job is effectiveness and competence. Effectiveness gets things done. Competence ensures that what's getting done isn't going to backfire and create more work down the line. In our common usage, "passion" des…

Passion is critical. I wouldn't hire someone if I didn't think they were passionate about building good products. Other passions can tell me something interesting about them, but that's the one that counts since that's what I would be hiring them to do. Maturity is also critical. And passion and maturity are not at all mutually exclusive. If there are misconceptions about passion floating around the memespace, then y…

If a candidate is effective and competent, why does it matter if they're passionate?
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