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Ask HN: Why can't technical phone screens by async?
For at least the phone screen, having to wrangle two people's schedules as well as the fact that most interviewers will use up an entire hour when they know 20 minutes into the interview that the candidate has already failed seems wasteful.
If it were async, perhaps via screen recording, then you can solve both of those problems?
- verdverm 5y agoUse a calendar meeting service like Calendly Seems like less overhead than having to record, upload, and watch multiple videos. Conversation is also not asynchronous, the idea is to have a conversation, not a Q&A sequence. The in-the-moment stuff is important.
- sharps_xp 5y agobut it’s not like a conversation is going to trump terrible technical performance… When I do phone screens, first they must be able to code and then they have to communicate how/why they did what they did. i’m mostly quiet during the technical portions. clarification questions are weak signal imo
- verdverm 5y agoWe don't start with technical or an hour. 1. 30 minute chat 2. 30 minute tech, part resume, one algos problem ~20 minutes. We can expand the algo scope depending on how good they are. It is designed to be simple yet relevant to the job, based on actual complexities in the code / system. Maybe revisit how you conduct the interview process?
- sharps_xp 5y agoyou must have a great recruiter because the candidates we get take 45 minutes to solve a problem; it’s painful. no time to chat.
- verdverm 5y agoI'm not involved in the prescreening process. Still, the problem is only designed to take a handful of minutes with extensions to add complexity. We start with the chat and time box to 10 minutes, then spend time on the problem. I'm also flexible with time and will happily run over to field questions or chat more. A good statistic is to be spending 20% of your time on hiring if you want great success
- yuppie_scum 5y agoYou have to have great success already if you can dedicate a full day of every week to hiring.
- verdverm 5y agoYou can't have great success without dedicating sufficient time to your people (and the candidates who might join you) It's more like a foundation for building a house than a chicken and egg problem.