Between bad interviews I've been in or read about and spending the past 6+ months working on our hiring process I've become very opinionated about hiring.
The process Amazon and many other tech companies use is fucking terrible. Algorithm tests and surprise CS 101 questions do not identify good employees. They're biased towards recent grads, do not address most real world situations, can be gamed through studying, and do not identify people who can actually think. You should not be testing for people who interview well, you should be testing for people who will make good employees.
You need to test real world scenarios. If they're going to be re-implementing bubble sort and doing binary math then fine, use HackerRank. Otherwise you need to have candidates work on a project based on what they'll actually be doing. Will they be working on APIs? Have them build or integrate with an API. Mapping in an iOS app? Have them do that.
Do not drop big surprises on candidates. Respect them and they will respect you. Tell them what to expect up front. The first email we send includes an outline of our entire hiring process with a list of each step. I've lost track of how many people have thanked me for this. Going through an interview blind is extremely stressful and increases the likelihood of losing good candidates.
My goal is to set people up for success. If their skills match what we're looking for I want them to succeed. I don't want them to fail because they are bad negotiators, didn't have time to study CS questions, or don't fit the typical stereotypes of a programmer.
Can you post an example of what a typical outline would look like?
As someone who interviews a lot, I'm quite interested in implementing a no-surprise interview process for the place I'm currently at as I too have been at the other end of a lot of bad interviews.
Before you make your decision, please read the following:
The OwnLocal Engineering team is transparent. We want to make sure you have clear expectations about our hiring process, so we've outlined for you. If you are unable or unwilling to complete our entire process, that's okay! The last thing we want to do is waste your time, so please let us know.
Our hiring process consists of six steps: application, phone interview, project, meet and greet, on-site technical & culture fit interviews, and finally an offer.
Phone Interview
The phone interviewer will ask about your background, recent projects, and ask questions related to the skills we look for. We’ll give you time to ask questions too.
Project
The project is a small application related to what we do at OwnLocal. You’ll work with mocked or anonymized data in the same format as our real data.
Meet and Greet
The meet and greet is not a formal interview, it’s a chance for our team and you to get to know each other. We hang out for an hour, ask each other questions, and discuss our interests.
If you’re not local we’ll do a video call instead with 3-4 people.
On-site Technical & Culture Fit Interviews
The formal interview is two parts. The first is adding an additional feature to your project with one of our engineers. This allows us to evaluate how you work with our team. The second part is contingent on the results of your technical interview. If you pass the technical portion, we'll ask you to stay for culture fit interviews with people from different teams.
We've very picky. This year we've hired 1.3% of people who applied. It's not like our process is easier than the pointless ones others use. I'm sure we lose some good people along the way but at least we're not filtering for irrelevant criteria.
The process Amazon and many other tech companies use is fucking terrible. Algorithm tests and surprise CS 101 questions do not identify good employees. They're biased towards recent grads, do not address most real world situations, can be gamed through studying, and do not identify people who can actually think. You should not be testing for people who interview well, you should be testing for people who will make good employees.
You need to test real world scenarios. If they're going to be re-implementing bubble sort and doing binary math then fine, use HackerRank. Otherwise you need to have candidates work on a project based on what they'll actually be doing. Will they be working on APIs? Have them build or integrate with an API. Mapping in an iOS app? Have them do that.
Do not drop big surprises on candidates. Respect them and they will respect you. Tell them what to expect up front. The first email we send includes an outline of our entire hiring process with a list of each step. I've lost track of how many people have thanked me for this. Going through an interview blind is extremely stressful and increases the likelihood of losing good candidates.
My goal is to set people up for success. If their skills match what we're looking for I want them to succeed. I don't want them to fail because they are bad negotiators, didn't have time to study CS questions, or don't fit the typical stereotypes of a programmer.