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The amount of information available on candidates to hiring managers is extremely limited. Evidence of outside creativity is a pretty good sign that someone is

The amount of information available on candidates to hiring managers is extremely limited. Evidence of outside creativity is a pretty good sign that someone is not a bozo.

maxk42 5y ago
Again - I fail to see how the second part is derived from the first. If I'm already engaging in a screening process, wouldn't it be better to ask the candidate to solve a problem that relates to their role than to ask them if they've done any blogging on the topic of tech?
- azinman2 5y ago
  Because it gives you a more rounded sense of the individual. Other passions. Other ideas. Areas they’ve worked in unrelated to your problem. Job/coding interviews are very difficult to do well, and many people such as myself tend to perform poorly due to the stress of the interview (so much that I’d rather stay in a mediocre position than go through the agony of interviewing — I hate it with every fiber of by being, and it correlates 0% to my in-job performance). It’s just more data, which is especially useful if you’re on the fence with someone. You can also see creativity which isn’t something you can test well for in an interview — especially technical interviews.
  - EvilEy3 5y ago
    > it correlates 0% to my in-job performance False. It correlates directly to your job performance, unless you're YAML developer.
    - azinman2 5y ago
      My ability to solve an artificial problem on a whiteboard time limited with a gun to my head correlates directly to my job performance? Not only does it not in my case, I don’t know how you could even make such a claim without knowing me, my work, and how I perform in such interviews… and that’s just me. Much has been written on this subject with similar anecdotes as well as quantitative research done by Google’s HR department. Clearly 0% is an exaggeration at large, but it’s well documented to be a poor correlate.
- simonw 5y ago
  Being able to write and communicate clearly is an important skill for software engineers, especially in senior roles - and it's something that's difficult to evaluate in an interview setting. Interviews don't tend to include writing - and strong communicators who get nervous during interviewers may end up at a disadvantage.
- wpietri 5y ago
  I think you're missing the "stand out" part of this. I've done a lot of tech interviews lately, which is where I get at ability to do the work. But when a hiring team is trying to pick among the people who do approximately as well on that, then other factors can help. At that stage, I definitely like to see things that indicate people are excited about something enough to just make a thing (a library, a small project, a blog post). If that's related to our domain or tech stack, even better. But even without that it's a plus in that it's a sign I can just give them a user problem or a technical issue and trust they'll go off and do something good with it.
- wyager 5y ago
  By the time you've gotten someone in an interview you've already committed a huge amount of effort towards them. Seeing a cool project someone made is a very strong signal that interviewing them won't be a waste of time.
dheera 5y ago
Why is this such a hard problem to solve? When I was a founder it was incredibly hard to find people who are "available" and skilled because they feared listing themselves as available on LinkedIn. When I'm not a founder and skilled it's incredibly hard to get to hiring managers. Usually I get warm intros from people within companies I'm interested in, it works way better, and usually often results in jumping straight to the on-site interview step. Why isn't there a central website where you can just post your name-redacted-resume, accomplishments, and (optionally) target location and salary range anonymously, and if someone wants to reach out, then you can reveal your real name and e-mail? Or better yet a Tinder-like interface where companies swipe candidates and candidates swipe companies, albeit with no photos, just a name-redacted resume?
- a_t48 5y ago
  You just know someone would ruin it by finding a way to cross reference it with LinkedIn data.
- lodovic 5y ago
  This may not provide you with the desired results - you usually want to hire people for their technical skills, not how good they are building an online presence and marketing themselves.
  - dheera 5y ago
    They don't need to build an online presence, they just need to join the app and upload a resume.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

The amount of information available on candidates to hiring managers is extremely limited. Evidence of outside creativity is a pretty good sign that someone is not a bozo.

maxk42 5y ago

Again - I fail to see how the second part is derived from the first. If I'm already engaging in a screening process, wouldn't it be better to ask the candidate to solve a problem that relates to their role than to ask them if they've done any blogging on the topic of tech?

azinman2 5y ago
Because it gives you a more rounded sense of the individual. Other passions. Other ideas. Areas they’ve worked in unrelated to your problem. Job/coding interviews are very difficult to do well, and many people such as myself tend to perform poorly due to the stress of the interview (so much that I’d rather stay in a mediocre position than go through the agony of interviewing — I hate it with every fiber of by being, and it correlates 0% to my in-job performance). It’s just more data, which is especially useful if you’re on the fence with someone. You can also see creativity which isn’t something you can test well for in an interview — especially technical interviews.
- EvilEy3 5y ago
  > it correlates 0% to my in-job performance False. It correlates directly to your job performance, unless you're YAML developer.
  - azinman2 5y ago
    My ability to solve an artificial problem on a whiteboard time limited with a gun to my head correlates directly to my job performance? Not only does it not in my case, I don’t know how you could even make such a claim without knowing me, my work, and how I perform in such interviews… and that’s just me. Much has been written on this subject with similar anecdotes as well as quantitative research done by Google’s HR department. Clearly 0% is an exaggeration at large, but it’s well documented to be a poor correlate.
simonw 5y ago
Being able to write and communicate clearly is an important skill for software engineers, especially in senior roles - and it's something that's difficult to evaluate in an interview setting. Interviews don't tend to include writing - and strong communicators who get nervous during interviewers may end up at a disadvantage.
wpietri 5y ago
I think you're missing the "stand out" part of this. I've done a lot of tech interviews lately, which is where I get at ability to do the work. But when a hiring team is trying to pick among the people who do approximately as well on that, then other factors can help. At that stage, I definitely like to see things that indicate people are excited about something enough to just make a thing (a library, a small project, a blog post). If that's related to our domain or tech stack, even better. But even without that it's a plus in that it's a sign I can just give them a user problem or a technical issue and trust they'll go off and do something good with it.
wyager 5y ago
By the time you've gotten someone in an interview you've already committed a huge amount of effort towards them. Seeing a cool project someone made is a very strong signal that interviewing them won't be a waste of time.

dheera 5y ago

Why is this such a hard problem to solve? When I was a founder it was incredibly hard to find people who are "available" and skilled because they feared listing themselves as available on LinkedIn. When I'm not a founder and skilled it's incredibly hard to get to hiring managers. Usually I get warm intros from people within companies I'm interested in, it works way better, and usually often results in jumping straight to the on-site interview step. Why isn't there a central website where you can just post your name-redacted-resume, accomplishments, and (optionally) target location and salary range anonymously, and if someone wants to reach out, then you can reveal your real name and e-mail? Or better yet a Tinder-like interface where companies swipe candidates and candidates swipe companies, albeit with no photos, just a name-redacted resume?

a_t48 5y ago
You just know someone would ruin it by finding a way to cross reference it with LinkedIn data.
lodovic 5y ago
This may not provide you with the desired results - you usually want to hire people for their technical skills, not how good they are building an online presence and marketing themselves.
- dheera 5y ago
  They don't need to build an online presence, they just need to join the app and upload a resume.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]