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> How do I distinguish candidates that can do the smooth talk from the ones that can walk the talk... Jason Fried of Basecamp has some brilliant advice on this

> How do I distinguish candidates that can do the smooth talk from the ones that can walk the talk... Jason Fried of Basecamp has some brilliant advice on this subject -- A résumé "doesn't say anything really about what someone's capable of," Fried told Friedman. "We're always about getting to the realest possible thing, so we can cut through all the fog and find out if this person can do what they say." One way to do that is to have the candidate complete a sample project. Fried gave Friedman an example: Let's say Basecamp is hiring a designer. They'll give a candidate for that job one week to complete a project — and pay the candidate $1,500 for the work. > http://www.businessinsider.com/basecamp-ceo-jason-fried-doesnt-care-about-credentials-2017-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/basecamp-ceo-jason-fried-does...

beefield 9y ago
That might be good. I had thought a bit less involved process where I just show one of our simpler scripts and ask the candidate to comment to me everything from the workflow/tools he would use to develop/maintain the script to how and why s/he would write the actual code differently. And this in two cases, first the theoretical case with unlimited time to make things perfectly, and the real world case when there are about a thousand other thing that you should do... But here come my limitations. I know a good candidate should talk about version control and some testing, but I have never made a git pull request and I don't know if I knew a unit test if it came and bite me. Someone might lecture me about using more object-oriented approach and others keep on talking about how cool functional paradigm is. I just don't know how to evaluate these answers...
- JSeymourATL 9y ago
  It's perfectly acceptable to tell the candidate that you're not a subject matter expert in a given area. Ask them to explain how they go about their work in layman's terms. If they can do that without a bunch of mumbo-jumbo; you'll likely have an acceptable hire. Imagine you were hiring a Chef-- can you tell me how you prepare Boeuf Bourguignon?

beefield 9y ago

That might be good. I had thought a bit less involved process where I just show one of our simpler scripts and ask the candidate to comment to me everything from the workflow/tools he would use to develop/maintain the script to how and why s/he would write the actual code differently. And this in two cases, first the theoretical case with unlimited time to make things perfectly, and the real world case when there are about a thousand other thing that you should do... But here come my limitations. I know a good candidate should talk about version control and some testing, but I have never made a git pull request and I don't know if I knew a unit test if it came and bite me. Someone might lecture me about using more object-oriented approach and others keep on talking about how cool functional paradigm is. I just don't know how to evaluate these answers...

JSeymourATL 9y ago
It's perfectly acceptable to tell the candidate that you're not a subject matter expert in a given area. Ask them to explain how they go about their work in layman's terms. If they can do that without a bunch of mumbo-jumbo; you'll likely have an acceptable hire. Imagine you were hiring a Chef-- can you tell me how you prepare Boeuf Bourguignon?