The Body Shop will start hiring the first person who applies for any retail job | Hacker News Reader

The Body Shop will start hiring the first person who applies for any retail job

fastcompany.com

27 pointsjbredeche8 comments

Fascinating. Hope this catches on.

Not quite the same thing, but several years ago, I stopped asking technical questions in interviews. (I'm not a hiring manager, but am often asked to evaluate people.) Instead, I just ask them to talk about their prior work and listen. Combined with actually reading resumes (shock), this seems to be plenty to get a sense of someone. (Not interested in references at all unless I personally know the referrer.)

I don't know about hiring the very first person if you only have one opening, but I think there's a lot to be said for publishing the position, collecting resumes for two weeks, choosing the two or three best for an interview, and hiring one or more on the spot.

Death march interviewing is for the birds.

I think the fear is that unless you watch someone work or see something they’ve produced, they can say all the right things but then be unable to really code without say a big huge helping hand.

It's sort of like a zero knowledge proof. I listen a bit, choose some bit that interests me (more or less random) and ask questions that elicit more detail. Repeat a number of times.

I don't believe that it's possible to convincingly fake one's technical skills and experience in such an interview.

That said, I'm sure it is possible to fake not being an asshole, and I don't know how to reliably detect this. Doubt the FAANGs can either, though.

Which is what the trial period is for. Use it, and terminate some people before the end of it.

I think the best way to hire people would be to do a quick 30 minute "filter" interview, where you basically ask about a person's background. If they can pass that, then sign them up for a 90 day contract. If they prove themselves during the 90 days, offer them a full time job.

Few talented people will sign up for this sort of thing.

Hmm. The article says "retailer" twice in the first paragraph, but the policy only applies to the distribution center (according to the second paragraph). In other words, the jobs they're hiring "the first person who applies" for are the jobs that literally anyone (who satisfies their three criteria - eligible to work in the US, can stand on their feet for eight hours, can lift 50 pounds) can do. They do not seem to be applying this policy to their actual retail sales jobs.

"The Body Shop plans to expand the practice to all of its retail stores this summer, where it employs around 800 people, and as many as 1,000 during the holidays."

Looks like they ran this as a pilot in the distribution center, and liked the results so much they're going to roll it out to retail.

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