Will You Hire Me? I Have Not Used Your Product.

https://medium.com/what-i-learned-building/cb3e44823cee

by jeffmorrisjr • 13 years ago

4 4 13 years ago

barylen• 13 years ago

You don't have to be the real audience for your own product.

I've done interviews with e-commerce sites and can say I have never bought anything from any of the ones I interviewed with, but I have dedicated some time to observe the flow (maybe get to the point of paying and cancelling there).

Forcing me to purchase something just to be allowed to interview is an obnoxious barrier.

incision2• 13 years ago

"If the candidate did not take the time to use your product, why are they sitting in your office asking for a job?"

Because my personal level of interest in what exactly you're selling may have little/nothing to do with my ability to deliver and passion to improve the infrastructure you use.

I'd say it's certainly a good thing if a person understands and is passionate about your product end-to-end, but it's a bit much to try and make a hard and fast requirement.

By the way, I'd never heard of Zaarly and found it a bit irritating that I had to scroll through 3 pages of marketing with four uses of "amazing" (The new beautiful?) to find the small "Purchase shippable items from select communities »" link in order to see what exactly the site is offering.

eshvk• 13 years ago

Because my personal level of interest in what exactly you're selling may have little/nothing to do with my ability to deliver and passion to improve the infrastructure you use.

I agree. The problem with our industry is that people want it both ways. They still have the old model of thinking of a servant who is "asking for a job". They also want someone who is a collaborative partner who might actually extend your product in cool, different ways. Now, I am going to go ahead and point fingers at an exec (CTO, VP, Products etc) who goes in, hasn't used that product. However, an engineer, really? He needs that level of abstraction in order to be competent at the job? If I am making the pipes faster, I think abstractions at the stage of an interview for me to talk about pipes without having to worry about the color of your house are fine. After all, it is not like the stuff that I am interested in: how ugly your codebase looks comes up by me perusing your shiny site which was probably outsourced.

Side Digression on the phrase "asking for a job". I always find it amusing when I get on the phone with a company after they contact me. Then they ask me the phrase: "Why do you want to work for us?". Rarely, if ever, is the unanswered question addressed: 'Why do you want to work with me, the candidate?'

incision2• 13 years ago

"They also want someone who is a collaborative partner who might actually extend your product in cool, different ways."

I wonder how many people really want that versus wanting a skillful automaton to execute their vision or worse, are simply giving lip-service.

I always find it amusing when I get on the phone with a company after they contact me. Then they ask me the phrase: "Why do you want to work for us?".

So true. The last company to contact me did exactly that. I mentioned that they had in fact contacted me, but proceeded to explain just why I honestly how like to work for them.

A recruiting pitch that starts with a basic "Why we want you." could be pretty powerful.

Will You Hire Me? I Have Not Used Your Product.

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