Hiring is Broken And Yours Is, Too

“As a fun little exercise, I thought I’d take some time to compile every [interviewing technique and the pros and cons various blog posts ascribe to each].”

“I’m sure lots of people have very passionate opinions about the right and wrong way to hire. Quite frankly, I’ve lost all interest in hearing people’s opinions and anecdotal experiences. Until and unless someone does a rigorous scientific study evaluating different interviewing techniques, preferably using a double-blind randomized trial, there’s no point in beating this dead horse further. Everyone’s hiring practices are broken, and yours aren’t any better”

• Look at which University they attended
• Look at which companies they’ve worked at in the past
• Look at their GPA
• Ask them for references
• Do back-channel references
• Take home projects
• Audition for the role as a contractor
• Ask them to describe their past projects
• Ask for source code from significant projects
• Quiz them on their knowledge of various technologies, tools and frameworks
• Brain teasers
• Live Coding Exercises
• Pair programming on a “real” problem