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We only hire the trendiest

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Re: We only hire the trendiest

#721

Post by abossy »

tptacek wrote: post #383
cp9 wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except this is on top of that. nobody does a phone screen, checks a sample of code and says "tada, you're hired" we were going to get together in a room anyways.

It shouldn't be on top of that! It wasn't for our process. Of course: we did in-person interviews. And in-person interviews are disruptive no matter what you do. But: * Our in-person interviews were shorter than typical in-person interviews because they weren't tasked with fully teching candidates out. * Because they didn't try to tech candidates out, they weren't as stressful, and so were less draining and unpleasan…

Could you share the process you used to write your script?

Re: We only hire the trendiest

#722

Post by kpwagner »

yxhuvud wrote: post #654
kpwagner wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the whole "poker face" thing has been my achilles heal. I AM guarded with a lot of my personal information; in my experience for good reason. So what do you do in your free time? FUCK YOU. If your answer isn't play softball and train for marathons, it's a way-ahead/way-behind scenario. Maybe you get lucky and interview with someone who has shared interests. > I really like movies. I watch a lot of modern…

If they openly admit they give no free time, then it wasn't a place for you. Meaning that it was a good thing dropping SC2 into the discussion.

Ultimately, I agree. It's complex though; every job I've ever had has left a sour taste in my mouth, yet I still need to eat and pay bills. And despite the difficulties I've encountered actually getting jobs (interviewing), my employers have always said I was doing great work.

Re: We only hire the trendiest

#723

Post by jonnathanson »

peeters wrote: post #621
epalmer wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in an organization where we used behavioral interviewing techniques to get to the core of how someone operates. "Tell me about a time in which you..." works very well. If they resist answering the made mistakes questions we prompted them to understand that an honest answer is important. If they could not do that then they were not considered. These were not developer roles but most were very technical / anal…

> "Tell me about a time in which you..." works very well. These types of questions probably cause me more stress than any other. Being asked to think of a situation where you felt a certain emotion or had a certain mental experience is not actually that easy for everyone. My memory is terrible at that kind of thing. It's like my memory lacks a necessary index for what you are asking. I can start going through every m…

Incidentally, behavioral questions are common in nontechnical interviews, since the entire interview is spent analyzing a candidate's skills in the abstract.

How will I know if this person is good at, say, sales or biz dev in a vertical with long lead times? I can't vet that skill set directly; I can only ask the candidate about it. Behavioral questions give me something to cross-reference in the absence of on-the-spot performance data. So do case questions, which (at least ostensibly) tell me how a candidate thinks, and how she organizes her thoughts. (And of course, domain-knowledge questions help me assess the depth and quality of a candidate's experience in the field.)

Behaviorals aren't perfect, though. They can be gamed. It's not too much of a stretch for a candidate to memorize a half-dozen anecdotes to trot out in response to any question that begins with "Tell me about a time when..." (Nevertheless, you'd be surprised by how few people do that sort of prep work.) Canned responses are especially common with candidates straight out of school or grad school, where they are often trained in how to answer behavioral and case questions.

Re: We only hire the trendiest

#725

Post by JoeAltmaier »

jholman wrote: post #711
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. It takes all kinds of questions to get a good impression. But I'd just like to protest, my answer was not 'brute-force recall'. It was simple experience. See, I've written code at all of those levels. None of it was booklearning.

I'll start by noting that this sequence of comments is just nit-picking, and if that bores anyone, stop reading. That disclaimer disclaimed... I don't honestly care if it was booklearning or not, and I don't see what it has to do with my kvetch. I'm happy to believe you that it was learned from experience. What does "brute-force recall" mean to you? To me it means that you are only repeating things that you knew befo…

Never! Mine was just an anecdote, with no claims one way or the other. Probably out of context I agree.

Re: We only hire the trendiest

#726

Post by shawn-butler »

jacques_chester wrote: post #701
shawn-butler wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pivotal is the new Thoughtworks. Arrogant absurd process with no basis or evidence in reality. You either drink the kool-aid and march in line or you are "not with the program" Someone who will donate ten hours to an interview is someone that is "malleable" enough to be told how to think.

> Arrogant absurd process with no basis or evidence in reality. Do you sell t-shirts? I would like to buy one. In fairness, though, most people who decide to take an offer have self-selected. Malleability might be one reason. Another could openness to new experiences.

Yes I will sell you a t-shirt. How many would you like?

Re: We only hire the trendiest

#727

Post by jacques_chester »

shawn-butler wrote: post #726
jacques_chester wrote: post #701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Arrogant absurd process with no basis or evidence in reality. Do you sell t-shirts? I would like to buy one. In fairness, though, most people who decide to take an offer have self-selected. Malleability might be one reason. Another could openness to new experiences.

Yes I will sell you a t-shirt. How many would you like?

One, please. Size large.

Re: We only hire the trendiest

#728

Post by lfx »

cableshaft wrote: post #689
patio11 wrote: post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: There is a word in Japanese -- aizuchi -- for "meaningless nothings which you say during a conversation to let the other party know that you're actively engaged in the conversation." Sitting with a stone face during a meeting in Japan would be very not normative. Your counterparty would assume that either you're totally checked out, repulsed by what is on offer, or so ridiculously above their social standin…

My experience with Japanese people (I used to work in a Japanese company and attended a lot of meetings in Japanese) listening to someone else in meetings is a lot of "Aaaa, sou sou sou sou. Sou desu. Wakarimashita. Hai. Wakarimashita. Mmmm. Mmm Mmm. Sou desu." I eventually did some of it myself. Seems like a lot of aizuchi to me :P

How would you translate this sentence in English? Sounds like mantra.
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