Ask HN: How good are you at judging resumes? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How good are you at judging resumes?

10 pointsleeny16 comments

Hey HN,

Can you guys please help me with an experiment I'm running?

You may have seen some of the data-themed blog posts about engineering hiring that I've written in the past (e.g. http://blog.alinelerner.com/lessons-from-a-years-worth-of-hiring-data/ and https://blog.hired.com/what-i-learned-from-reading-8000-recruiting-messages/).

If you've liked them, please help me write the next one! For this one, things are a bit different because I'm actually running an experiment, rather than just mucking about with data after the fact.

If you're actively involved in hiring engineers, it would be awesome if you could participate. In the experiment, you'll be making value judgments (would/would not interview) for 7 engineering resumes.

http://bit.ly/judgefest

Thank you! I'll explain what this is all about and share the results after the experiment is over.

-Aline

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We gave up on them entirely.

heh, disutility of resumes is a very possible result here.

Could you provide some more insight on what you're using instead? Cover letters? Github? What if the candidate has only worked on proprietary code?

No, we don't use cover letters. No, we don't look at Github. We used standardized interviews and work-sample tests. We hire resume-blind. We're not interested in the status indicators our candidates have collected. We want, very specifically, to know how well a candidate handles the kinds of problems they'll actually face working here.

My own experience backs this approach up. That said, I think you are downplaying how brutally hard coming up with good work-sample tests are. I've found that bad work-sample tests are as bad, if not worst, at pipeline biasing than more traditional means.

I suspect it took you a very long time to come up with these tests, and if you were hiring at a bigger scale you would see things like work-sample sharing/coaching/plagiarizing that might poison the approach.

I also think that while you guys have done a phenomenal job at building a novel hiring pipeline, you also have a natural advantage in hiring in that your field has a natural cachet amongst many tech. folks. That same advantage might not apply to insurance companies/banks/etc.

I guess what I'm getting at, is that I think your hiring practices have evolved to a great spot for your uses, I'm a little worried about how well they scale.

My responses to those concerns are a better coffee conversation than message board conversation. :)

I'm still waiting for an invite to join your hiring gamification startup ;)

Thanks, that makes sense. I'll have to see if you've written a blog on this before.

Try nemcv.com, they make the formatting easy, you just enter the content. A nice looking resume and photo are important

I was talking to a friend about this recently and he informs me that photos are standard practice in Europe and Asia. I find that ridiculous. What could a photo possibly do except to bias the hiring process?

I would stop interviewing immediately at any firm that demanded a photo.

I would imagine that an HR department in the US would be reticent to even look at a resume that included a photo to avoid the appearance of discrimination.

You don't know it includes a photo until you've looked at it, and refusing to look at it further invokes the appearance of discrimination.

It would make more sense to have the photo removed or obscured before anyone doing substantive review of the resume got a hold of it, though that may be difficult if the term "HR department" is an exaggeration and its really just one person (unless the HR department isn't actually responsible for substantive review, just tracking, and the working manager over the position does substantive review, which arguably ought to be the case for all kinds of other reasons -- in that case, a one-person HR "department" isn't really a problem, as all they have to do is receive, track, and make sure that things like that are dealt with before the real reviewer gets the resume.)

Actually the advice NemCV gives is totally opposite to almost everyone. Having a clear photo is important to show someone as being a professional, which is why NemCV is the only service with a 100% success rate for finding people jobs

Correct, our CVs do not make sense in the USA. Here in Europe even though photos are discouraged the EU still makes an exception for NemCV as it helps so many people find jobs

They're not usual in the UK (which is sort-of part of Europe).

Yes, NemCV is used alot in the UK. The guy on the homepage is from the UK and found a job there

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