Spooking potential hires

http://josephwalla.com/spooking-potential-hires

16 16 12 years ago

As a 40-year old who has been in the industry long enough to have a very healthy set of references to back me up, I conversely find it annoying that my time is wasted by people who want to subject me to half a dozen levels of interviews where I'm mostly doing silly shit like reversing a string in place or doing their stupid variation of a Fermi question.

Yes, interview me for fit (on both sides), but subjecting me to an endless barrage of technical interviews where you ask me questions I've heard dozens of times before is much more likely to get me to drop out of the process than subjecting me to not enough is. The article says they skipped "one of the final interviews" suggesting there were multiple already... And within one interview I can assess the skill level of the people interviewing me without having to attempt to intuit it based on how many of the "Microsoft questions" from the 80s they found on Google to ask potential candidates.

Are you sure the candidate was "spooked" because you didn't interview him or her that one final time? The article doesn't do a good job of explaining if that is speculation or verified feedback from the candidate. There are a billion and one reasons why someone might give you a pass.

guiseppecalzone2• 12 years ago

This can definitely go to far, especially if the company’s process itself involves too many steps. I don’t think that’s the case with us, which has been an advantage when competing against companies that take weeks to decide. For an engineer, assuming they’re available for interviews, we can make an offer in just a few days after they apply.

Sorry for not clarifying about verification versus speculation. I talked to the candidate on the phone at the end of the process. The candidate felt like we had moved too quickly and had remaining questions. The last interview would have answered those questions, but no doubt, that’s partially speculative.

collyw• 12 years ago

I got hacked off with a company recently. They send an email to the local Python meetup group with what they were looking for. I replied, highlighting experience in 13 of their 15 criteria.

"Great now, we would really like to see an example of your code".

"Well all my stuff at work is in house, and contains some sensitive information. I have started a small side project recently, but you will have to understand that it is not finished. Have you got a bitbucket account?"

"Great, now we would like you do dedicate a bit of time to set up a simple flask API...."

"I have sent you an example for real work I have done, I don't think it is really necessary for me to set up a project using two technologies I am not familar with..."

The guy kept of framing it as if I was causing a problem. I said I would do it for the local freelance rate, but that seemed to go unnoticed as I was asked for a solution to my reluctance to do the test.

RKoutnik• 12 years ago

As a response, I've started a project where I code out the answers to all of these silly "can you code" questions that pop up. I've been able to use it in several interviews, and it's thrown the interviewer for a loop (they still insist I write it out as if I'd go to all the trouble to fake a GitHub repo to avoid writing five lines).

You can find the repo here: https://github.com/SomeKittens/Interview

ogdenyogly• 12 years ago

Asking too interesting questions can go the wrong way too... I interviewed for very successful startup. They decided to throw some "real world" problems at me-- problems they'd been struggling with for a year. The interviewer spoke very poor English and could not describe the topology of their systems but still managed to shoot down every idea I had.

Not sure how I was supposed to solve a problem in 45 mins that had been haunting them for a year.

pdenya• 12 years ago

Seems like most companies disagree with this, great people get preferential hiring treatment and get to skip interviews. The story of Zuckerberg taking candidates on hikes is a good example.

I wonder if it would be as effective to just tell them what you're letting them skip and why.

Mithaldu• 12 years ago

I'm sceptical. How do they know they spooked him? There are no details lost on that. Did they just jump at him with a number? Or did they clarify they thought he was a great candidate, making them willing to skip some steps?

All good companies i've ever worked at had a fairly fast hiring process as they knew what they wanted and did research on their own on me, while the ones that stuck to the numbers ended up being full of incompetent or outright inhuman people.

languagehacker• 12 years ago

My guess is that this wasn't the only thing that spooked the candidate. To be brutally honest, anyone talented enough to merit an expedited decision like that would probably be awfully bored working at a company in the online faxing space. More importantly, they probably already had a competitive offer from a company in a more interesting space.

The only thing I can think of that would be more boring than working at an online fax company would be working at one with a series of meticulous HR processes.

guiseppecalzone2• 12 years ago

HelloSign (https://www.hellosign.com/) is actually what the candidate would have been working on. Sorry if there was any confusion.

greenyoda• 12 years ago

"The only thing I can think of that would be more boring than working at an online fax company..."

There are lots of companies in "boring" businesses that could provide interesting technical challenges and pleasant working environments for developers. Why would an online fax company be any more boring than an apartment rental company (Airbnb) or a taxi service (Uber)? I'd guess that those two companies would have no difficulty attracting good developers.

lolwutf• 12 years ago

AMA Request: Potential hire recently spooked out of a job interview by HelloFax

pbreit• 12 years ago

So the guy made a bad(?) decision based on incomplete information (/jumping to conclusions) or there's more going on in this story?

sportanova2• 12 years ago

Definitely either more to the story, or he just wasn't impressed with the company / didn't see himself working there.

wildpeaks• 12 years ago

The conclusion bugs me because it takes one data point to deduce a general rule.

Yes in that specific case, perhaps the candidate was spooked by the speed of the offer, but next time might be the opposite: another candidate will get tired of the lengthy process until you get to the point and will drop out in favor of a company looking for more than ticking all boxes, especially as it might be a red flag that the environment isn't flexible enough to adapt.

So don't feel bad for following your guts and making an offer: if he really had been the perfect fit, he would have felt the same way.

sportanova2• 12 years ago

I agree, don't be afraid to break with the 'process' and go with what seems to make sense. If once person doesn't join, it's not an indictment of your breaking the 'process'.

stephenbez• 12 years ago

I've felt like the candidate in the story before.

For one company I interviewed with, the questions were all straight-forward. I finished 30 minutes early and they had no more questions to ask me.

If the interview process can't differentiate from someone who is merely ok and someone who is amazing then the company will be likely filled with people who are only merely ok. That isn't a company I want to work for.

Compare that to a place like Google where if you claim you are an expert at a language, they will have the language creator interview you.

Spooking potential hires

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