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The question I always like to ask and reserve a good chunk of time for is along the lines of "What non-technical hobby or interest do you have?" and then "If yo
by buro9 14y ago
The question I always like to ask and reserve a good chunk of time for is along the lines of "What non-technical hobby or interest do you have?" and then "If you had all the technical resources you could dream of, how would you now bring something new to your hobby?" and once we've gone through that the real question is:
"Given that when you're duck hunting the key is to shoot ahead of where the duck is, and that a lot of the suggestions have been the next iteration applied to the hobby/pastime... what's the third or fourth iteration?".
Basically I want to see the excitement and passion about technology, their pastime, and how they think, how they identify problems, solve them in numerous ways, go beyond just today's solution. And I get wrapped up in it too, I also get excited by some of the stuff that comes up.
With a great candidate... the interview ends with us both inspired and a thousand new thoughts floating around the room.
The vast majority of candidates cannot leap beyond the first iteration, and some struggle to even see how anything within their hobby could ever change.
- danielweber 14y agoAnd when asked about your hobby, don't say "shoot hoops." (referring to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5255227 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5255227 )
- papsosouid 14y ago>What non-technical hobby or interest do you have? That seems like a poor choice. Are you trying to eliminate people who don't have non-technical hobbies for some reason?
- buro9 14y agoIt's fairly irrelevant, the last part is the important part... very rarely I do find someone who stubbornly declare that they have no other interests at all, but then I just propose for them some pastime or other that may fascinate them.
- papsosouid 14y ago>very rarely I do find someone who stubbornly declare that they have no other interests at all Of course, but your wording rules out a large number of likely interests as they are technical.
- buro9 14y agoNot at all. One interview was someone into rally driving and who was dreaming up HUD units in his car, to allow him to see his progress in real-time compared to those who had already raced, and to report tons of sensor based info back to the press hut. Then there was the rock climber who wondered whether rope tension could reveal the likelihood of the tether point giving way. Good hires raise interesting questions and then set to figuring out the many ways to answer them. The majority of hires I've made are technical, but their pastimes are not generally "When I go home I code".