5 ms·

I hire a lot of people, and the difference between a good hire and a bad hire is hugely important. I've had some good results over time, and I like to think tha

I hire a lot of people, and the difference between a good hire and a bad hire is hugely important. I've had some good results over time, and I like to think that my skill and process for interviewing has been helpful, in addition to a great deal of luck in having had the chance to talk with some amazing people. Looking over this list...it's bad. A lot of the questions are phone it in questions that you can pick off of Google. They are the same questions that get asked at beauty pageants or political debates. The great fail at interviewing is that if you go into without a plan or process, you will wind up simply hiring people based on whether or not they have a similar personality to you. This is generally severely non-optimal. Classes of useful questions to ask at interviews: Diagnostic questions. Does this question let you separate or rank order the candidates in some way that is deeply meaningful for the position? Experiential questions. Does this question allow the candidate to discuss areas of his work experience in an in-depth way that would not be gathered from his resume or other information. Human questions. Does this question give the candidate a chance to display a wide enough range of himself, socially, that you are comfortable that he can work well with other people? There are probably more. But the next phase is that you have to match up each of these questions to your available interviewers (assuming your running a team interview). It takes a technical or numbers-orientated person to ask the diagnostic question, an experienced person to ask the experiential question -- hopefully one who will not be looking for people who have had the same experiences as himself, and a socially astute observer to ask the human questions. And then in the hiring phase, you need to know how exactly each one of these questions can go wrong (there are some very standard ways for the question types, and generally standard ways for the individual interviewer), and then you have to interview your interviewers to make sure that none of the traps were stumbled into. And then use this to make determinations of not only who the top candidates are, but even more importantly, who the possibly undervalued candidates are.

dominotw 7y ago
> A lot of the questions are phone it in questions that you can pick off of Google. Do you have an example of an interview question that can't be picked off of google?
- romaaeterna 7y ago
  Perfect ^^^. I'll use it.
patthebunny 7y ago
> I hire a lot of people, and the difference between a good hire and a bad hire is hugely important. This narrative is pushed constantly, to the point where it's started to lose believability with me. It's used by large companies to justify their BS hiring practices when the reality is a bad hire won't hurt the company that much. It's used by small companies to justify nonsensical interview practices. > Human questions. Does this question give the candidate a chance to display a wide enough range of himself, socially, that you are comfortable that he can work well with other people? I try not to display much of myself socially when I'm at work. I'm there to work. I'll gladly go out for lunch and be friendly with coworkers, but it's not hanging out with friends. It never will be.
- marshray 7y ago
  This is not about being friendly at lunch. Most jobs involve working with others. Due to the nature of 'work', it's not always easy. The ability to work together towards a shared goal even in the presence of pressures that would challenge interpersonal harmony is an important skill.
  - patthebunny 7y ago
    Which you aren't going to judge in an interview without abusive and humiliating tactics, which may not even work because at that point as an interviewee I'm not trying to maintain a relationship and have no real reason not to treat you like a jerk.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      I’m at a small company where we as senior software engineers often have to deal directly with demanding customers. I have to know how to be tactful and that’s something we filter for.
- romaaeterna 7y ago
  You may also hear the water is wet and the fire will burn narratives pushed constantly. One of my best hiring choices (whom I pushed hard for, against the objections of others, based on a solid interview result) pushes a new company-changing product every couple of weeks or so, it seems. One of my less wise choices (despite being good employee in certain ways), is currently responsible for my inbox filling up with emails from HR and legal. And if you can't make friends with the people who you spend 8 hours of the day with, who can you be friends with?

dominotw 7y ago

> A lot of the questions are phone it in questions that you can pick off of Google. Do you have an example of an interview question that can't be picked off of google?

romaaeterna 7y ago
Perfect ^^^. I'll use it.

patthebunny 7y ago

> I hire a lot of people, and the difference between a good hire and a bad hire is hugely important. This narrative is pushed constantly, to the point where it's started to lose believability with me. It's used by large companies to justify their BS hiring practices when the reality is a bad hire won't hurt the company that much. It's used by small companies to justify nonsensical interview practices. > Human questions. Does this question give the candidate a chance to display a wide enough range of himself, socially, that you are comfortable that he can work well with other people? I try not to display much of myself socially when I'm at work. I'm there to work. I'll gladly go out for lunch and be friendly with coworkers, but it's not hanging out with friends. It never will be.

marshray 7y ago
This is not about being friendly at lunch. Most jobs involve working with others. Due to the nature of 'work', it's not always easy. The ability to work together towards a shared goal even in the presence of pressures that would challenge interpersonal harmony is an important skill.
- patthebunny 7y ago
  Which you aren't going to judge in an interview without abusive and humiliating tactics, which may not even work because at that point as an interviewee I'm not trying to maintain a relationship and have no real reason not to treat you like a jerk.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    I’m at a small company where we as senior software engineers often have to deal directly with demanding customers. I have to know how to be tactful and that’s something we filter for.
romaaeterna 7y ago
You may also hear the water is wet and the fire will burn narratives pushed constantly. One of my best hiring choices (whom I pushed hard for, against the objections of others, based on a solid interview result) pushes a new company-changing product every couple of weeks or so, it seems. One of my less wise choices (despite being good employee in certain ways), is currently responsible for my inbox filling up with emails from HR and legal. And if you can't make friends with the people who you spend 8 hours of the day with, who can you be friends with?