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While I appreciate that this process has been great for you, I would think that it probably sucks for all the engineers and managers whose time you took up inte

While I appreciate that this process has been great for you, I would think that it probably sucks for all the engineers and managers whose time you took up interviewing "for fun". Have you ever tried to hire engineers? It is a pain in the ass, and giving serious consideration to every candidate takes up a huge amount of time even before the interview, much less taking a significant chunk of a day for a significant chunk of the team to actually do the interview. If I found out someone had interviewed with me "for fun" I would be very tempted to send them a bill for "employment search consulting services" at my team's market rate per man hour!

sotojuan 11y ago
A lot of people do this though—my finance friends have been interviewing for internships and jobs there's no way they could get for fun and practice. Essentially they've wasted people's times for 2-3 years so by now that they're seniors any interview is a piece of cake. I guess that's more useful than just for fun though.
busterarm 11y ago
You go into this process knowing that it consumes time and that not everything is going to pan out. If you had the data and processes to identify the perfect candidate, you wouldn't need to bring people in to interview. It's not waste, it's data collection. If you're not building usable data out of your interview process, your hiring process sucks. My team was interviewing candidates recently and we brought in a guy that was great on paper and in the interview but we had other candidates scheduled and two of them ended up blowing the first guy away. I'm glad we delayed that hiring decision until we had an appropriate amount of data. Also, think of it like dating (or any other matching market). Being outcome-dependent says nothing about your candidates but a lot (that's unattractive) about you. The best way to do things is to build good relationships. Your company and your developers should have a network of people you can bring in at any time to interview for a position. As a developer you should also have a network of contacts to know who needs developers. Instead you're waiting till you're desperate and coming off as needy. If I see that, I'm going to ask for a lot more money or as an employer offer less. Thankfully for my wallet, almost everyone else is in the same boat as you. ...and if I'm out interviewing for fun and find a better fit, I'm probably going to take it.
- fapjacks 11y ago
  Here's really the meat of it (and well said!): I interview "for fun" because 1) I've always got my ear to the rail for a better opportunity, and 2) I love meeting cool, smart people working on awesome projects! I'm not a VC so this is my way of touring the technology industry and networking. The thought that I'm "wasting" someone's time I think is really strange.
  - busterarm 11y ago
    I've had people bring me in to chat telling me ahead of time that they weren't interviewing me but they wanted to get to know me so that when I had the years of experience they were looking for they'd call me up.
fweespee_ch 11y ago
Tbh, I sometimes say I interview "for fun" even when I'm serious about leaving because I want a better fit than I have and the process might take me a year (or longer) casually interviewing. I don't want to spook my current employer due to long term job prospects being poor.
spinlock 11y ago
Do you pay the people you interview their hourly rate?
theworstshill 11y ago
Hilarius response.
pyb 11y ago
OK, but what's much more common is companies interviewing candidates 'for fun' It's unbelievable how many companies will spend their time talking to every available developer in town, and end up never hiring anyone.

sotojuan 11y ago

A lot of people do this though—my finance friends have been interviewing for internships and jobs there's no way they could get for fun and practice. Essentially they've wasted people's times for 2-3 years so by now that they're seniors any interview is a piece of cake. I guess that's more useful than just for fun though.

busterarm 11y ago

You go into this process knowing that it consumes time and that not everything is going to pan out. If you had the data and processes to identify the perfect candidate, you wouldn't need to bring people in to interview. It's not waste, it's data collection. If you're not building usable data out of your interview process, your hiring process sucks. My team was interviewing candidates recently and we brought in a guy that was great on paper and in the interview but we had other candidates scheduled and two of them ended up blowing the first guy away. I'm glad we delayed that hiring decision until we had an appropriate amount of data. Also, think of it like dating (or any other matching market). Being outcome-dependent says nothing about your candidates but a lot (that's unattractive) about you. The best way to do things is to build good relationships. Your company and your developers should have a network of people you can bring in at any time to interview for a position. As a developer you should also have a network of contacts to know who needs developers. Instead you're waiting till you're desperate and coming off as needy. If I see that, I'm going to ask for a lot more money or as an employer offer less. Thankfully for my wallet, almost everyone else is in the same boat as you. ...and if I'm out interviewing for fun and find a better fit, I'm probably going to take it.

fapjacks 11y ago
Here's really the meat of it (and well said!): I interview "for fun" because 1) I've always got my ear to the rail for a better opportunity, and 2) I love meeting cool, smart people working on awesome projects! I'm not a VC so this is my way of touring the technology industry and networking. The thought that I'm "wasting" someone's time I think is really strange.
- busterarm 11y ago
  I've had people bring me in to chat telling me ahead of time that they weren't interviewing me but they wanted to get to know me so that when I had the years of experience they were looking for they'd call me up.

fweespee_ch 11y ago

Tbh, I sometimes say I interview "for fun" even when I'm serious about leaving because I want a better fit than I have and the process might take me a year (or longer) casually interviewing. I don't want to spook my current employer due to long term job prospects being poor.

spinlock 11y ago

Do you pay the people you interview their hourly rate?

theworstshill 11y ago

Hilarius response.

pyb 11y ago

OK, but what's much more common is companies interviewing candidates 'for fun' It's unbelievable how many companies will spend their time talking to every available developer in town, and end up never hiring anyone.