Show HN: Roob. Ask your candidates for video resumes, instead of CVs | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Roob. Ask your candidates for video resumes, instead of CVs

getroob.com

2 pointsEl_Myrioun13 comments

This tells me that your culture says "I want to see what you look like before I even think about hiring you". That tells me all I need to know about your so-called company culture.

So, would you look for culture fit at a different stage of the hiring process or not at all?

I'm open to any kind of feedback

Video resumes will bias you towards attractive and well-spoken candidates. That makes more sense for sales than technical positions.

They'll not necessarily bias you. But still, our main use case is sales & marketing roles. If someone can convince you to hire them through this process, it's also highly likely that they can convince your customers to buy your product

> Culture fit is the glue that holds an organization together. That’s why it’s a key trait to look for when recruiting. Video resumes help you understand candidate's character and provide you information about their culture.

There's a reason why hiring for culture fit is a bad thing, not a value proposition.

Let's say that you hire the candidates with the best hard skills. If they don't fit your culture, they will be a threat for your company in the long run. Their values and behaviour can be as important as their skills. That's why you need to look for culture fit

I hope that's not designed for the programming jobs -- because for those, it'll totally select for the wrong thing. I have been conducting interviews, and they often start with me asking, "please tell me a few words about yourself". Some people fumble, and some have great prepared speech. Except in the extreme cases, the quality of introduction is rarely correlated with either interview or job success.

What signal does this question provide?

It tells me which follow up questions to ask. If during introduction the candidate talks a lot about past job A and very little about past job B, it probably means they find job A more interesting, and it will make a better topic for conversation.

(When interviewing people, you want to ask them about things they are good at, so you can properly judge their level. Asking them to select which topic to talk about accomplishes that.)

Additional, some people are just uncomfortable for the first few minutes of conversation with any new person. Asking a simple question with no wrong answer can help them feel more comfortable.

We're focused on early-stage startup jobs, so they're mainly sales & engineering roles. For them, it's really important to find a culture fit, because the environment they operate in is unstable and chaotic. So, their employees need some soft skills (combined with hard ones) to succeed in their roles

> sales & engineering roles

In the other comment you said sales & marketing roles.

You just saw a candidate's video. How do you "find a culture fit"? What do you look for?

We recommend employers to ask 3 basic questions: 1. Tell us about your (professional) experience 2. Tell us about your education 3. Why do you think you'd be a good fit with our company

Candidates usually have about a minute to answer each question, each one is answered in a different video. Everything is customizable by the employer.

So, question 3 is about culture fit

What do you look for in the answer for 3 to see if it's a good culture fit?

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