5 ms·

Ask HN: When interviewing, what are the telltale signs of a very good candidate?

8 points by _sunshine_ 11y ago

What are the signs you use to sort out the best candidates before an interview (or after having the initial chat with them)?

dsacco 11y ago
There are no universal signs that a candidate is very good. This is one of many reasons why hiring is difficult.
ruraltechnocrat 11y ago
Hiring is very difficult. I think looking at a prospective hire with the same lens you'd use to review them is helpful. So you're trying to understand how this perform as: 1. Employee - are they capable (motivation + skill) of doing a good job across the dimensions of quality and speed? 2. Owner - are they the kind of person who can display ownership of an area? This can be demonstrated by outside activities/projects they worked on, or ways they made their former work environment better/more efficient 3. Teammate - are they going to be a good teammate, a nice person, and collaborate well with others? If you see red flags in any of these areas, probably not a good hire. If you see excellence in these, probably a great hire.
jaisonjustus 11y ago
Our main metrics for hiring are be based on Skill, Knowledge, Quality, Ownership and Collaboration. Which is similar to @ruraltechnocrat. But I will explain how our process is and at what point we measure qualities. 1. Skill: we review his works in Github, Behance etc. If he made an application and release we will go through it also. 2. Knowledge: through interview 3. Quality: We will give him a one-week test task to make a small application using some web services like Flickr, Instagram etc. 4. Ownership & Collaboration: After reviewing the test task we will invite him to the office and work with the team on the real project. may be peer program with a developer. This is a very long process but we got a better result from out old fashion of hiring. But Still @dsacco quote is very true, there is no universal sign for a good candidate. Most of the candidates are like the yin-yang. but I had seen and inspired a lot of good managers who maintained the equilibrium in the team. This is something out of the scope of the question but shared the thought. Peace

8 points by _sunshine_ 11y ago

What are the signs you use to sort out the best candidates before an interview (or after having the initial chat with them)?

dsacco 11y ago

There are no universal signs that a candidate is very good. This is one of many reasons why hiring is difficult.

ruraltechnocrat 11y ago

Hiring is very difficult. I think looking at a prospective hire with the same lens you'd use to review them is helpful. So you're trying to understand how this perform as: 1. Employee - are they capable (motivation + skill) of doing a good job across the dimensions of quality and speed? 2. Owner - are they the kind of person who can display ownership of an area? This can be demonstrated by outside activities/projects they worked on, or ways they made their former work environment better/more efficient 3. Teammate - are they going to be a good teammate, a nice person, and collaborate well with others? If you see red flags in any of these areas, probably not a good hire. If you see excellence in these, probably a great hire.

jaisonjustus 11y ago

Our main metrics for hiring are be based on Skill, Knowledge, Quality, Ownership and Collaboration. Which is similar to @ruraltechnocrat. But I will explain how our process is and at what point we measure qualities. 1. Skill: we review his works in Github, Behance etc. If he made an application and release we will go through it also. 2. Knowledge: through interview 3. Quality: We will give him a one-week test task to make a small application using some web services like Flickr, Instagram etc. 4. Ownership & Collaboration: After reviewing the test task we will invite him to the office and work with the team on the real project. may be peer program with a developer. This is a very long process but we got a better result from out old fashion of hiring. But Still @dsacco quote is very true, there is no universal sign for a good candidate. Most of the candidates are like the yin-yang. but I had seen and inspired a lot of good managers who maintained the equilibrium in the team. This is something out of the scope of the question but shared the thought. Peace