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Thought experiment: For those running companies and hiring people. Would you take the time to occasionally run your interview processes over your existing emplo

by amirmc 13y ago

Thought experiment: For those running companies and hiring people. Would you take the time to occasionally run your interview processes over your existing employees? I'm not talking about involving them, I mean actually putting them through it. It would be one way to sanity-check that the process is selecting for the things you want from those coming from outside. As a company grows, the non-technical systems and policies also need to adapt but without feedback things might get weird (like the OP's example). If an existing high-performer does badly with your interviews/tests at some point then you really, really need to fix something.

gringofyx 13y ago
Here here, I'll second-that. Most management types are disconnected from the processes that their staff are instructed to follow. I've ran through application demos and walkthroughs with senior managers before where at the end they ask "Why do we do that?"
- alan_cx 13y ago
  Most technical types are disconnected from the realities of sales, marketing, finance, law, etc, etc
  - johnohara 13y ago
    So are most HR types.
    - alan_cx 13y ago
      Enough........ By your logic, no position in a business know about business apart from oh so clever programmers? Oh please. Look across HN at the threads about the psychology, depression, and so on. Programmers and some of the most insular people out there. No problem as such, but don't tell me they have some special ability to cover all bases in a business. That has to be a joke. If you think about it, HR are one of the few departments that are more likely to know about other departments. They have to, its their job. Do you think marketing has more interest in various departments as HR? Developers? Try talking to sales people, they think the idiot developers know nothing about that people want. Try talking to accountants, they think marketing just blows money. And so on. Oh yes, my department is best and every one else is a monkey. Yeah, heard the inter department politics over and over again. Its tired, boring and gets in the way of business. If idiots just grew up, and respected each others job functions productivity would benefit. But, hey..... A lot of the problem with HR is arrogant people in other departments who don't do the hiring job properly, then spit the dummy because they find out their funky programmer got fired for fraud from their previous job, or something, because arrogant programmer didn't want HR to do the back ground checks, because arrogant programmer thought new programmer would be one of the boys. Please, stop this nonsense.
      - Ziomislaw 13y ago
        can you make a company full of HR succeed? Can you make the same with only programmers?
legedemon 13y ago
I think I was in a really fortunate position when I was able to negotiate this at my second company. Interestingly, at my first company, asking an existing employee to take the written tests in the specified time-frame was a standard practice. They were also encouraged to provide subjective evaluation. On a very positive note, our HR director was someone who had removed psychometric tests at a number of organizations before he came to us.
Lerc 13y ago
How many people trust their employer to take a negative result on such a test as a sign of a poorly functioning test rather than a poorly functioning worker.
- ajuc 13y ago
  But if you work at the company for some time your employer has much better metrics to grade you than hiring process.
  - afterburner 13y ago
    Sure, as long as the people that know you run the interview and don't share the results with anyone that doesn't it's fine...
jackalope 13y ago
Why start with the interview? Try to find the job listing and submit a resume. Then ask yourself if that was a good use of your time. This part of the process is horribly broken for a lot of employers and they don't even know it.
ctdonath 13y ago
The author addresses this: She also told me that if I was re-interviewing at the company then I likely wouldn't get the job based on my psychometric profile, which was actually ironic since I was highly respected in my role and was one of only a handful of people that could convincingly debate technical alternatives with Senior Management.

by amirmc 13y ago

gringofyx 13y ago

Here here, I'll second-that. Most management types are disconnected from the processes that their staff are instructed to follow. I've ran through application demos and walkthroughs with senior managers before where at the end they ask "Why do we do that?"

alan_cx 13y ago
Most technical types are disconnected from the realities of sales, marketing, finance, law, etc, etc
- johnohara 13y ago
  So are most HR types.
  - alan_cx 13y ago
    Enough........ By your logic, no position in a business know about business apart from oh so clever programmers? Oh please. Look across HN at the threads about the psychology, depression, and so on. Programmers and some of the most insular people out there. No problem as such, but don't tell me they have some special ability to cover all bases in a business. That has to be a joke. If you think about it, HR are one of the few departments that are more likely to know about other departments. They have to, its their job. Do you think marketing has more interest in various departments as HR? Developers? Try talking to sales people, they think the idiot developers know nothing about that people want. Try talking to accountants, they think marketing just blows money. And so on. Oh yes, my department is best and every one else is a monkey. Yeah, heard the inter department politics over and over again. Its tired, boring and gets in the way of business. If idiots just grew up, and respected each others job functions productivity would benefit. But, hey..... A lot of the problem with HR is arrogant people in other departments who don't do the hiring job properly, then spit the dummy because they find out their funky programmer got fired for fraud from their previous job, or something, because arrogant programmer didn't want HR to do the back ground checks, because arrogant programmer thought new programmer would be one of the boys. Please, stop this nonsense.
    - Ziomislaw 13y ago
      can you make a company full of HR succeed? Can you make the same with only programmers?

legedemon 13y ago

I think I was in a really fortunate position when I was able to negotiate this at my second company. Interestingly, at my first company, asking an existing employee to take the written tests in the specified time-frame was a standard practice. They were also encouraged to provide subjective evaluation. On a very positive note, our HR director was someone who had removed psychometric tests at a number of organizations before he came to us.

Lerc 13y ago

How many people trust their employer to take a negative result on such a test as a sign of a poorly functioning test rather than a poorly functioning worker.

ajuc 13y ago
But if you work at the company for some time your employer has much better metrics to grade you than hiring process.
- afterburner 13y ago
  Sure, as long as the people that know you run the interview and don't share the results with anyone that doesn't it's fine...

jackalope 13y ago

Why start with the interview? Try to find the job listing and submit a resume. Then ask yourself if that was a good use of your time. This part of the process is horribly broken for a lot of employers and they don't even know it.

ctdonath 13y ago

The author addresses this: She also told me that if I was re-interviewing at the company then I likely wouldn't get the job based on my psychometric profile, which was actually ironic since I was highly respected in my role and was one of only a handful of people that could convincingly debate technical alternatives with Senior Management.