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It's pretty obvious that this whole "email everybody you know" method to find candidates has some serious selection biases. In particular, you're more likely t

It's pretty obvious that this whole "email everybody you know" method to find candidates has some serious selection biases. In particular, you're more likely to get referrals to people who are in the industry and have proven themselves, which clearly isn't a bad thing in and of itself, of course. However, I'd be concerned that this sort of thing just selects for people who are like the people that you know already. That doesn't seem like a solid strategy when what you want is actually the best available people who are willing to come work with you. How would you design a recruiting process to attract those people?

lkrubner 5y ago
Excellent question. If one accepts that no hiring process is 100% objective, then one is left with the conclusion that the only way to have a hiring process that is fair to everyone is to deliberately aim to overcome one's subjective biases. I try to address it in this part of the book: --------------- Recommendations from friends or friends of friends should count for a lot When hiring, I rely heavily on recommendations from people I know. To use some Silicon Valley jargon, I rely on "social proof." If a good engineer, who I've worked with, recommends some other engineer, that counts for a lot with me. I wrote this on Twitter and James Youngman responded, “It seems to me that this kind of approach is what perpetuates the domination of the industry by an in-group (who know each other, directly or indirectly) at the expense of outsiders, to the detriment of both diversity and fairness.” To be clear, this approach very much works when you are hiring novices who are straight out of school. Back in 2018, when I need some junior level frontend software developers, I hired several women from the Grace Hopper program for women that is run by Fullstack Academy. In that case I spoke with some experienced friends of mine who had either taught at the schools or volunteered as mentors at the schools. As such, they could point me to who were the best of the graduating class. As it was, I ended up with an unusually excellent team of novices. We all have a professional and ethical obligation to be sure we hire a diverse workforce – the workforce must be open to anyone who has real talent. There is no contradiction between that obligation and a requirement that a candidate be recommended by someone we trust. Assuming you have friends who understand their professional and ethical obligations the same way you do, they should be able to give recommendations on people they know, or put you in touch with friends of theirs who can offer such recommendations. Within your extended social penumbra of friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends, you should be able to find someone who can vouch for most of the candidates that you need to hire. You just need to put in the effort, chasing down those recommendations through extended chains of friendship.
- actually_a_dog 5y ago
  > Assuming you have friends who understand their professional and ethical obligations the same way you do... You know, you're not convincing me that your process doesn't just select for people like you here.
pc86 5y ago
You don't need "the best available people" though unless your plan is to completely dominate an entire industry (maybe it is, but it's probably not). And even then unless you've got enough money to make your developers rich and enough interesting technical challenges to keep them there after they are, you're not going to get the best people at all.

lkrubner 5y ago

Excellent question. If one accepts that no hiring process is 100% objective, then one is left with the conclusion that the only way to have a hiring process that is fair to everyone is to deliberately aim to overcome one's subjective biases. I try to address it in this part of the book: --------------- Recommendations from friends or friends of friends should count for a lot When hiring, I rely heavily on recommendations from people I know. To use some Silicon Valley jargon, I rely on "social proof." If a good engineer, who I've worked with, recommends some other engineer, that counts for a lot with me. I wrote this on Twitter and James Youngman responded, “It seems to me that this kind of approach is what perpetuates the domination of the industry by an in-group (who know each other, directly or indirectly) at the expense of outsiders, to the detriment of both diversity and fairness.” To be clear, this approach very much works when you are hiring novices who are straight out of school. Back in 2018, when I need some junior level frontend software developers, I hired several women from the Grace Hopper program for women that is run by Fullstack Academy. In that case I spoke with some experienced friends of mine who had either taught at the schools or volunteered as mentors at the schools. As such, they could point me to who were the best of the graduating class. As it was, I ended up with an unusually excellent team of novices. We all have a professional and ethical obligation to be sure we hire a diverse workforce – the workforce must be open to anyone who has real talent. There is no contradiction between that obligation and a requirement that a candidate be recommended by someone we trust. Assuming you have friends who understand their professional and ethical obligations the same way you do, they should be able to give recommendations on people they know, or put you in touch with friends of theirs who can offer such recommendations. Within your extended social penumbra of friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends, you should be able to find someone who can vouch for most of the candidates that you need to hire. You just need to put in the effort, chasing down those recommendations through extended chains of friendship.

actually_a_dog 5y ago
> Assuming you have friends who understand their professional and ethical obligations the same way you do... You know, you're not convincing me that your process doesn't just select for people like you here.

pc86 5y ago

You don't need "the best available people" though unless your plan is to completely dominate an entire industry (maybe it is, but it's probably not). And even then unless you've got enough money to make your developers rich and enough interesting technical challenges to keep them there after they are, you're not going to get the best people at all.