3 ms·

9.5 hours is actually just thorough. Hiring is the #1 thing any engineering org has to do right. Remember, a false positive will cost you far more in dollars, t

9.5 hours is actually just thorough. Hiring is the #1 thing any engineering org has to do right. Remember, a false positive will cost you far more in dollars, time, and effort than a false negative. Microsoft is a huge company. The best thing it can do to improve its odds in the marketplace is to put enough process around hiring such that they can significantly reduce the false positive rate. I'd argue more people should do full day interviews than less. You wouldn't marry someone after knowing them for only 4 hours, so why should a company hire someone after getting to know them for less than a day? ;-)

timr 18y ago
You wouldn't marry someone after 9.5 hours, either. The problem is, if you insisted that every first date lasted ten hours, you'd rarely get a second. The ones who did make it though your screen would probably be neurotic and weird.
- rantfoil 18y ago
  If every first date lasted TEN HOURS. Well, if you're cooking breakfast in the morning, maybe a second date might be expected. ;-)
- ardit33 18y ago
  i hope you are not really equaling marriage and a job. The average person stays about 2 years in a job, and they go thru about 10.5 jobs before age of 40. Most people get married once or twice in their lifes, and expect their marriage to last forever. Nobody expects that from a job. You might want to equal getting a job with dating and sleeping with a new girl, but not getting married ;)
  - timr 18y ago
    I'm not making the comparison. I'm making fun of it.
  - rantfoil 18y ago
    Well, not quite. But who you get married to will determine a huge amount of how happy you are, possibly for the rest of your life if you're so lucky. =) Similarly, for a startup (or engineering team), each hiring decision is so important that in aggregate it will pretty much determine how happy/productive you are... and possibly in the case of a startup, for the rest of your life as well. The time scales may be different, but the impact is similar.

timr 18y ago

You wouldn't marry someone after 9.5 hours, either. The problem is, if you insisted that every first date lasted ten hours, you'd rarely get a second. The ones who did make it though your screen would probably be neurotic and weird.

rantfoil 18y ago
If every first date lasted TEN HOURS. Well, if you're cooking breakfast in the morning, maybe a second date might be expected. ;-)
ardit33 18y ago
i hope you are not really equaling marriage and a job. The average person stays about 2 years in a job, and they go thru about 10.5 jobs before age of 40. Most people get married once or twice in their lifes, and expect their marriage to last forever. Nobody expects that from a job. You might want to equal getting a job with dating and sleeping with a new girl, but not getting married ;)
- timr 18y ago
  I'm not making the comparison. I'm making fun of it.
- rantfoil 18y ago
  Well, not quite. But who you get married to will determine a huge amount of how happy you are, possibly for the rest of your life if you're so lucky. =) Similarly, for a startup (or engineering team), each hiring decision is so important that in aggregate it will pretty much determine how happy/productive you are... and possibly in the case of a startup, for the rest of your life as well. The time scales may be different, but the impact is similar.