It's not an issue of time, but expectation. If it is clearly known that it will take 5 days to respond then the developer won't be peeved. The most important part of the process is to be transparent.
Fair point.
Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
21–30 of 71 posts
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#22Resume writer and ~20 year tech recruiter here. Just a comment to readers about the author's estimate that your resume is being reviewed for 5 minutes. It's not, so be sure not to write your resume as if it is going to get that much attention. Don't save the good stuff for the ending, thinking "the reader will get to that." Interview or delete decisions are often made in under thirty seconds, at least for things like…
Good point. I tried to be pretty conservative so it didn't feel like I was fudging numbers to make a point about speed in earlier rounds, but I wonder if I should clarify. I'll definitely include this when I write more for an audience of applicants. Resumes are soooooo boring, so anything to stick out is a big deal.
I was hoping not to seem pedantic on this, but it's potentially a key detail to a reader and I wouldn't want anyone to think they have 5 minutes to make an impression when the reality is much closer to 5 seconds to make an immediate positive impression. Then you likely get some more review time once the initial gut reaction is over.
Nicely written article BTW.
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#23Resume writer and ~20 year tech recruiter here. Just a comment to readers about the author's estimate that your resume is being reviewed for 5 minutes. It's not, so be sure not to write your resume as if it is going to get that much attention. Don't save the good stuff for the ending, thinking "the reader will get to that." Interview or delete decisions are often made in under thirty seconds, at least for things like…
Elevator pitch that resume.
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cool. So they just said, "Hey, we would like to offer you the job. Here are the details. Please take your time and let us know when you've made a decision"?
That's right, although they said something like 'Please decide within the week' or something to that effect. I'd have to dig up old, old paperwork to get the exact phrasing, but it wasn't 'Hey dude, it's chill, whenever you make up your mind'
Ha! Right, right. Good on them, and thanks for indulging me.
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#25Resume writer and ~20 year tech recruiter here. Just a comment to readers about the author's estimate that your resume is being reviewed for 5 minutes. It's not, so be sure not to write your resume as if it is going to get that much attention. Don't save the good stuff for the ending, thinking "the reader will get to that." Interview or delete decisions are often made in under thirty seconds, at least for things like…
Elevator pitch that resume.
Seconded. I always write a summary even though many writers don't, and my emphasis on summaries is also to define my client before a junior recruiter or inexperienced screener does it incorrectly on their own.
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#26Most hiring processes are engineering processes in the same sense that throwing a sheet over two chairs to make a cubby house is civil engineering...
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#27Where does this assumption come from that rejecting the majority of candidates leads to better results? At some point you're just cutting into the bone and rejecting candidates that are perfectly acceptable.
The more candidates you reject, the more time you waste and the more people come out of your interview with a negative experience of the company.
These costs can easily outweigh the cost of a bad hire. Nobody writing these blog-anecdotes even quantifies what that cost is.
At the end of the day, programming interviews seem more like hazing than anything. No other profession hires with a full day oral examination. It's fucking ridiculous.
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#28Where does this assumption come from that rejecting the majority of candidates leads to better results? At some point you're just cutting into the bone and rejecting candidates that are perfectly acceptable. The more candidates you reject, the more time you waste and the more people come out of your interview with a negative experience of the company. These costs can easily outweigh the cost of a bad hire. Nobody wri…
It depends on your definition of "perfectly acceptable." Almost every job in every industry with a hiring cycle rejects "a majority of candidates," especially when there's limited space.
> These costs can easily outweigh the cost of a bad hire.
How so? You're right that I've relied a good bit on the anecdotal, but aren't you doing so a bit here? Bad hires are ridiculously costly--especially on a small team--because they aren't just expensive. On a good team, almost every new hire lowers everyone else's productivity initially.
Hiring more people because of loss aversion also falls prey to the trap of "more people = more productive" that's been pretty thoroughly debunked in the software industry (http://a.co/3ierKnl)
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#29Hiring fast is actually really important. It sets a really good tone with candidates and forces you to have a hiring process with good decision points and processes. At Voxy we had a 1 week turn around goal from receiving a resume to having on offer on the table. Didn't always work out like that because of candidates, and vacations and what not, but that was the goal. The day of last interviews we either said no than…
Very good point, it's very off putting this 3 month or longer
hiring process. Definitely screws with your expectations of the company.
The weird thing is most of my applications lately seem to be going that slowly. It's especially frustrating from my end as I could be delivering and providing value instead of waiting for an offer.
I've actually started working on my own products just because people are too slow :)
Re: Hiring Processes Are Also Engineering Processes
#30Most hiring processes are engineering processes in the same sense that throwing a sheet over two chairs to make a cubby house is civil engineering...
The title got updated by HN, I think. I'm not trying to call everything engineering (I don't actually think everything should be approached as an engineering process). My argument is that the decisions you make about culture and process in hiring inevitably affect your actual team's process.