3 ms·

You want exceptional talent, you know that they need to be “pampered” to take the job, and yet you make them fill out a form before they even talk to you? That

You want exceptional talent, you know that they need to be “pampered” to take the job, and yet you make them fill out a form before they even talk to you? That doesn’t sound like a great tactic. In my experience the single best free tactic for vetting candidates is having them be referred by your employees. Of course you’ll still have to look at them yourself like at any other candidate, but at least they have a direct reference you can talk to. If your employee is any good, chances are the people they want to work with/have previously worked with and enjoyed it are as well.

HillaryBriss 8y ago
yeah. i personally struggle sometimes to answer the question "Why do you want to work for XYZ company?" and that's because so much of why i want to work at a company boils down to the specific tasks and working conditions and the specific people i will interact with in that specific job. the overall company seems like a small factor a lot of times. also it's hard to know much about some new, private, very small startup anyway. how much info can i really obtain about something that small and that private?
- JustSomeNobody 8y ago
  "I like to work in interesting domains on interesting problems. From the outside, it looks like this describes your company so I'd like the opportunity to talk to you and learn more about your company."
  - HillaryBriss 8y ago
    nice. yeah. i like that sentiment, that perspective. i would feel good about answering in that that way. thanks. (for some reason, i always imagine companies want an answer like "Well, I've been dreaming about fixing bugs in billing systems for discount airline backend software since I was in the sixth grade. And since your company is the third largest discount airline backend software company in this part of Ohio, I just had to apply.")
- lainga 8y ago
  I actually hope these kinds of questions are traps. From my point of view, you want someone saying "I want to work on X thing you are doing because I am good at X", not "I want to work at XYZ Co. because it's cool and hip".

HillaryBriss 8y ago

yeah. i personally struggle sometimes to answer the question "Why do you want to work for XYZ company?" and that's because so much of why i want to work at a company boils down to the specific tasks and working conditions and the specific people i will interact with in that specific job. the overall company seems like a small factor a lot of times. also it's hard to know much about some new, private, very small startup anyway. how much info can i really obtain about something that small and that private?

JustSomeNobody 8y ago
"I like to work in interesting domains on interesting problems. From the outside, it looks like this describes your company so I'd like the opportunity to talk to you and learn more about your company."
- HillaryBriss 8y ago
  nice. yeah. i like that sentiment, that perspective. i would feel good about answering in that that way. thanks. (for some reason, i always imagine companies want an answer like "Well, I've been dreaming about fixing bugs in billing systems for discount airline backend software since I was in the sixth grade. And since your company is the third largest discount airline backend software company in this part of Ohio, I just had to apply.")
lainga 8y ago
I actually hope these kinds of questions are traps. From my point of view, you want someone saying "I want to work on X thing you are doing because I am good at X", not "I want to work at XYZ Co. because it's cool and hip".