On 18/12/17 16:33, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
Rhodri James <rho...@kynesim.co.uk>:
I haven't often been involved in hiring, but the few times I have we
had more applicants than it was feasible to interview.
You don't have to interview them all. Once you encounter an excellent
candidate, you can close the deal. If you don't, you might lose them.
You don't have to find the one pearl in a thousand.
We used CVs as the only thing we had to filter with, looking for
*interesting* people.
For a developer position, we use a home assignment as a filter. There's
no knowing who completes the assignment, but (1) it gives an idea what
is expected of them and (2) it demonstrates interest from their part.
I believe we have a standard set of C programming questions we throw at
interviewees, on the same principle.
One place I worked at used to request a hand-written cover letter with
applications. This too was a filter, though not by graphological
analysis as many people assumed (and took umbrage at). No, we were
testing if you could follow instructions and take some degree of care.
A hastily scribbled piece of paper with lots of crossings out didn't
auger well for how careful you would be with the code base!
Exactly what "interesting" meant was somewhat arbitrary; we put one
person through to interview because she was a cellist, and that would
have given us a complete string quartet (she didn't get the job,
sadly).
We want to hire for the job and not bring in extracurricular activities.
However, one great way to stand out is a portfolio of GitHub projects.
Er, isn't that an extracurricular activity? I certainly don't have time
for it outside work.
Several people have gotten an offer largely based on those (after they
aced the technical interviews). For example, we just hired someone who
had written a game in sed. That doesn't make him an "interesting
person," nor do we look for game or sed developers. But that silly
exercise deeply resonated with our team. We expect to have great synergy
with him.
In other words, you find him interesting because of that.
--
Rhodri James *-* Kynesim Ltd
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