4 ms·
Problem is, that there just isn't enough time to evaluate everyone who applies. In my last job, I was a Director of Engineering at Box. Every job post we put u
by soham 11y ago
Problem is, that there just isn't enough time to evaluate everyone who applies.
In my last job, I was a Director of Engineering at Box. Every job post we put up, had hundreds of applicants (thanks to job-boards which let candidates apply to jobs like putting in a shopping cart). What do you think we, as hiring managers, are going to do at that point? We'll have to start forming biases. And if we have to start forming one, it's better to start with good schools and good companies. (I'm sure VCs have a more severe problem).
Problem gets worse when you're hiring at scale, and you want to hire before the holiday season nears, because if you miss the season, the company is doomed. At that point, there is almost panic. A resume with brand names on it, naturally gets higher preference.
Homework projects could work well if the hiring requirements are small, but won't work well when a company has to hire say 25 engineers a quarter, which we had to. At that point, the process becomes too long, and it's easy to lose good candidates to a long process.
This method of interviewing has been around ever since, and is going to be around for the foreseeable future. Nobody loves it, including the interviewers, but there just isn't a better way to do it at any sort of scale. Especially when there are much bigger problems to solve when you're running a business.
It's best to take the bull by the horns. I run http://InterviewKickstart.com http://InterviewKickstart.com, which is a bootcamp for preparing for such technical interviews. We do almost exactly what is in the blog post. It works. Spectacularly.
- captain_trips 11y agoI dunno - part of leading an eng group is taking heat to do the right thing. I've been in the growth phase a few times now, been under tremendous pressure rapidly build a team. Taking the time to find the right people is absolutely key - better to hold off then get the wrong people in. Maybe it's because I've seen complete dipsh?t Stanford and MIT grads or maybe it's because I didn't go to a marquee school, but I put a big line in the sand on that one...
- soham 11y agoTaking the time to find the right people is absolutely the key, but the unwritten part of the rule, is not to do that at the cost of business. Better to hire engineers who are good enough, than to miss the holiday season. The process of DS/Algos doesn't necessarily find wrong people. It's just the fastest way to find engineers who are good enough. In some sense, they almost secretly WANT you to succeed, by "standardizing" the process.
- spike021 11y agoBy forming biases where applicants from "good" schools/companies, wouldn't you wind up losing out on plenty of potential hires that could actually be better? I don't go to a top school, but I've spoken with students in similar degree programs who don't do nearly as much as me outside of class to learn. In some cases, my breadth (and depth in some cases) of skills and knowledge surpass what those students have and know. It would seem unfair to give them a pass simply because they had the chance to go to a "better" school. Not to judge, but just an honest opinion.
- argonaut 11y agoYes, you do. But do you have a choice? The key part in soham's comment is "at scale." Obviously the most optimal strategy from the perspective of finding the single greatest candidate is to interview everyone and throw out no resumes. But there is an additional time constraint. So you start throwing out resumes.
- gedrap 11y agoOf course you will miss some good candidates and it's unfair to them. But as soham explained, it's a trade off. You might miss the best candidate, but you will probably find the second or third best candidate spending significantly less time. It's totally unfair, yes, but it's obvious why it's happening and there's not much that could be done to change it. So while the candidate is losing on this one, the company is (probably) winning.