Ask HN: What is the hardest challenge in the hiring process for you? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is the hardest challenge in the hiring process for you?

I have both HR and programming experience so I was thinking about starting an HR Tech startup. I have some ideas, however, I'm trying to figure out what is a pain point in this process. If you have any challenges with hiring people or searching for a job, please, share with me.

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People that feel like they are on the border of hire/no-hire. Some people will obviously fail the interview (this doesn't mean they are terrible, or even not qualified, it just means they didn't do well on your interview). It's easy to say no to these people.

On the other hand, there are some people that will do so well you know you want to hire them. Usually if the process is rigorous enough, these are your slam dunk employees. The problem with them is they will likely ask for a lot of money, but you know they can do the job.

The people that are on the border I think are the hardest. You want to give them a shot, and you may not have had a slam dunk, or they turned you down because the offer wasn't good enough. How do you figure out which people that did "pretty good" are the hires, and which are the no-hires?

I think it is essential to hire the right people, and money it is not the main thing. It is better when people like your product and really want to be part of your company. So if your employees are passioned enough, you can set a compromise. For example, you can offer a lower salary but a higher bonus that depends on a company, department, or particular employee results. Providing an option can be also a fit solution.

I wasn't really trying to talk about the money. I was talking about if you're on the fence on a candidate as to hire them after an interview (which happens a lot). Do you take a risk and hire them? Do you want to avoid false positives and not? What if you don't have someone you absolutely know will be great for the job you're looking for, how do you pick the best out of your pool?

Time, it is extremely time intensive to review and screen technical candidates. Every company with its own unique culture is different hence the heavy use of time in the process. If you could optimize the front of the funnel and reduce time spent, that would be beneficial to companies.

Have you ever considered using any HR tools like video-interviewing? A candidate using webcam records their answers to your questions (you can add any questions you want) and then send this video recording to you. You can understand why candidates want this position, how they speak, how they look like. If you need to check technical skills, are you willing to use this kind of online assessment app?

Hiring is a hard problem, and I don't think these are good solutions to optimizing the front of the funnel.

If I was applying to a position and was given this, it would immediately signal that the company doesn't respect my time. It's clear that they want me to put in work without any investment on their part, and a coding exercise with no previous interaction does the same.

I may be biased as an engineer at a large, well-paying tech company with a few years of experience. If I was desperate for a job, for instance applying for a first job, I may be more willing to put up with the power and respect imbalance.

> how they speak, how they look like

What if a candidate isn't able to speak? I'd also hope that no decisions are being made based on how the candidate looks.

Yes, I agree with you that how candidates speak as well as look like shouldn’t be the right criteria for decision-making.

But speaking about video-interviewing, what if there was a smart virtual assistant that can analyze more information during the interview and answer any of your questions about an offered position and a company? In this case, you don't need to schedule time with a recruiter, you can just go throw an interview at any convenient time.

And if this assistant was able to analyze more information, maybe, it could provide you with a better job position. The assistant could improve the hiring decision without any bias, taking into account only professional skills. This could be more valuable for both sides – employer and employee.

This assistant could also give feedback to candidates, helping them to prepare for the interview and asking some test questions. That could help the candidate understand more about the job position requirements

I think Hiring is one of the hardest problems. Your bringing on someone to your team and your going to invest an incredible amount of time training them. You want to find the right person.

I want the jobs to be written by someone who knows what you need to actually do in the job rather than by HR, because I don't know what you want.

I've always wondered if developers ever submit fake info the first time they sign up for a job, get an offer to take the coding test and learn the questions. Then sign up with their real details and cruise through.

Is this something anyone has ever noticed or done?

Yes, I've heard about this problem. In this case, you as an employer have to change your questions for each new interview. There are some assessment apps that can do this task automatically for you.

Removing the subjective aspects in hiring, especially developers.

Do you think it could be better, if an assessment is done with artificial intelligence, without human interaction at all?

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