“Hire the best” → A critical perspective on standardised hiring processes | Hacker News Reader

“Hire the best” → A critical perspective on standardised hiring processes

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8 pointstobiu7 comments

Google famously passed on the guy who invented Homebrew, so at least you're in good company. As others have said, the interview process selects for (wait for it) ... people who are good at the interview process. It's kind of like the SAT and college. If you want to get in, you get good at the SAT, regardless of its relevance.

Instead, maybe seek out the companies that go bonkers for your OS project and can't wait to turn you loose inside their company. They're out there and I suspect it would be more enjoyable to work for them. Good luck and don't despair!

I actually hope that some of the ideas get picked up. Might be naive.

Getting visibility / traction for a new OS project is intense these days, especially in case it is "disruptive". Might be too far ahead.

"They're out there and I suspect it would be more enjoyable to work for them". Probably, but hard to find. Most job requests are like "Would you like to help us with Angular, React or Vue?".

My apologies for not realizing that point you were making. I agree that it might be difficult to find a company that wants you to build their product using your OS project. I meant that there are probably companies out there that would evaluate your abilities on the strength of your OS project and then hire you to build whatever it was they needed.

If you want to make your side project your day job, that's a different story, but maybe it would be possible to build a startup on it. Easy to say, I know. The internet is full of well-meaning but effectively useless advice like mine. :)

"We want to hire the best talent" - Some company making insurance software that pays below market.

Understanding that you aren't the best (company), and you don't need the best (talent), but instead you need people that can put up with the mundanity of your working environment and product, is probably a better task than "trying to fix interviewing". The interviewing will fix itself if the reflection and honesty from the companies show up.

Sharing an idea here, because I haven't had the gumption to start my own blog.

Job interviews should be recorded, available for review.

Feedback loops are important. Accountability and transparency are important. Constructive feedback is important.

Once recorded interviews become a thing, it'll spawn of cottage industry of interview prep.

Inspiration:

Part A

I ran for office. Endorsement interviews are part of the gauntlet (ritualized humiliation). My recorded and publicly released interviews were terrific. The closed door interviews were trainwrecks.

I've had maybe a dozen interviews (as applicant) that were complete trainwrecks. And there's no way to appeal, contest, or even understand wtf just happened.

I've also interviewed 100s. Per Luke Hohmann's advice, I tried very hard to explain yays and nays to candidates, be avail for followups. FWIW, I've never received the same courtesy.

Part B

Part of the candidate prep is practice, just like working on your golf swing. Start camera. Do your thing. Debate, stump speech, meeting people. Review the tape. Try to get better. Rinse, lather, repeat.

One org I serve does dozens endorsement interviews every year. All public. It's so much work. And incredibly valuable. To us, the candidates, news medias, voters. And whenever there's a mini drama, we just say "review the tape". Prevents so much bullshit.

Part C

Training. Most people suck at interviewing. Both hosts and guests. Why? Because it's fucking hard.

Back when I was recruiting and hiring (served as manager for a group of products), HR stuff was easily 1/2 my job. I was fortunate that my boss took this responsibility very seriously, providing training and resources.

Author says that he is humble but he is not humble enough, he still thinks that his achievements should mean something. They actually do but not all the time, at some point the fate can and will be decided by a 1 yoe junior dev who thinks they are a hotshot based on the TC comparison thread on Blind, all leadership principles be damned.

Big corp interviewing is an exercise in Zen and should be approached as such.

"Author says that he is humble but he is not humble enough"

I have been thinking about this part while writing it :)

It actually did not feel comfortable to write this much about myself. Thought it was important though to put the article into perspective.

I normally would not even apply for big company roles, because most of the time you get stuck in roles where it is close to impossible to make an impact.

Agree on the Zen part.

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