3 ms·

What do you think about the writing sample idea in the article? Doesn't seem crazy to me.

tjradcliffe 12y ago
Great... if you're hiring writers. Writing skill is uncorrelated with everything else. I'm a great writer. Many engineers I admire and respect are not. I've got no magic bullet. Hiring people you know is good, and I strongly recommend informal face-to-face interviews. Two of the best interviews I've ever had (one where I was the interviewer, the other where I was the interviewee) were mostly about language design, which turns out to be a really revealing topic for discovering attitudes about process, standards, and software design generally. But how to screen people in the pipeline so you can avoid interviewing everyone who applies? No idea.
- itsdrewmiller 12y ago
  Is it actually uncorrelated with everything else? I think it's worth investigating (and I hope the addendum at the top of her article means that she will let us know how it works out!) In my experience great engineers who are bad writers definitely exist, but are more the exception than the rule.
hw 12y ago
I think having the candidate speak to his favorite project or past work is a great gauge of passion and communication skills. I always ask that, albeit in the face to face interview. It might be good to bump that step further up the funnel, but a lot of 'passion' gets lost in translation when it comes to writing vs talking.
- galfarragem 12y ago
  I hate to talk on the phone (aka talk without seeing the other person) so I hate phone screening. To complicate the situation, most of phone screenings I did were made by young recruiters that don't understand anything of what they are asking about, making all this thing silly and awkward. A skype interview is much more relevant but probably scary for the (non technical) recruiter. By the other hand if I can get a face to face interview, normally I'm in.

Great... if you're hiring writers. Writing skill is uncorrelated with everything else. I'm a great writer. Many engineers I admire and respect are not. I've got no magic bullet. Hiring people you know is good, and I strongly recommend informal face-to-face interviews. Two of the best interviews I've ever had (one where I was the interviewer, the other where I was the interviewee) were mostly about language design, which turns out to be a really revealing topic for discovering attitudes about process, standards, and software design generally. But how to screen people in the pipeline so you can avoid interviewing everyone who applies? No idea.

itsdrewmiller 12y ago
Is it actually uncorrelated with everything else? I think it's worth investigating (and I hope the addendum at the top of her article means that she will let us know how it works out!) In my experience great engineers who are bad writers definitely exist, but are more the exception than the rule.

hw 12y ago

I think having the candidate speak to his favorite project or past work is a great gauge of passion and communication skills. I always ask that, albeit in the face to face interview. It might be good to bump that step further up the funnel, but a lot of 'passion' gets lost in translation when it comes to writing vs talking.

galfarragem 12y ago
I hate to talk on the phone (aka talk without seeing the other person) so I hate phone screening. To complicate the situation, most of phone screenings I did were made by young recruiters that don't understand anything of what they are asking about, making all this thing silly and awkward. A skype interview is much more relevant but probably scary for the (non technical) recruiter. By the other hand if I can get a face to face interview, normally I'm in.