This was potentially interesting but then: > They are in no way the most effective means of deciding who to hire because they maximize the role of bias and min

This was potentially interesting but then: > They are in no way the most effective means of deciding who to hire because they maximize the role of bias and minimize the role of evaluating competency. I can believe that badly planned and executed job interviews do the above but I've overseen or been directly involved in the interviewing of hundreds of candidates over the years, for dozens of roles, and the hit rate has been pretty good. Two probation failures, and that's about it. We're looking to assess skill and character in our interview process. We are interested in whether you can do the job, and whether you're a reasonable human being, and that's it. We have strong structures and guidelines in place in terms of questions, answers, and evaluation. And inasmuch as it's possible we strive to make our hiring process a pleasant experience, regardless of whether a candidate is successful or not (obviously there's some level of stress inherent in going through a selection process). We also give feedback that we hope will help unsuccessful candidates in future (I realise this is unusual and even frowned upon in some circles but our experience has been that most people appreciate it enough that it's worthwhile to deal with the headaches caused by the odd person who wants to argue about it). I get it. There's a cohort of people on HN who don't like job interviews. Honestly, I'm one of them. But done well, they work well. Our process isn't perfect, and we're always looking for ways to improve it - there was quite a lot of tweaking early on, for sure - but for us it's worked well. We've spent a lot of time on it because - although my role is as a CTO in a mid-sized firm, and this might not fit with everybody's expectations of that role - literally my most important job has been and continues to be hiring, building, and maintaining a strong, effective team. And I am very happy with the people we've hired. Just as important, I'm also happy with the decisions we've made about people we've chosen not to hire.