It’s a season of peeves, my dear reader. The mother of all pet peeves, though, triggered a bush fire of sorts last month, when this thread at Hacker News went viral. The explosion in the number of upvotes, comments and collective jeering on a prevalent phenomenon which precedes technical recruitment (we call it “the algorithmic lottery”) triggered a debate in our HQ of a different kind, altogether.
We had to write our take on it (considering that we are enabling hiring teams unshackle themselves from this algorithm-first mindset of hiring) but witnessing the content deluge by self proclaimed gurus on “how to hire a software engineer”, we thought it was best to take a U-Turn. Here is our take on how NOT to hire a software engineer. Brace yourselves, for this might irk a few and enlighten the rest. Comments, brickbats and bouquets, throw them all.
Ask them to White Board
This is what it feels to be a coder solving white board exercises
When was the last time you met a coder who worked in a linear fashion? In a world where coders patch blocks, copy-paste and sculpt an application as a team, whiteboard exercises constraint a great coder and force her to think linearly to fit the spaces on the board. Quite painfully, recruiters scoff at candidates who erase the solution being proposed on a whiteboard, which is the exact opposite of what it needs — encouragement. Please ditch whiteboards if you want the greatest developers to come aboard your ship. TODAY.
Mail Them A Link To Some Timed Algorithm Assessment
Eric Elliott, the brains behind the much-acclaimed book “Learn Javascript With Eric Elliott” and a much-revered rock star at DoSelect, emails the following draft to prospective employers when he is asked to solve an algorithm based assessment
Thank you for your interest in me. This is an exciting opportunity! I think you’ll agree I’m a great fit for this position. I have relevant experience from <company, project> where I did <accomplishment>. I can do similar things for your team.
A couple of points, in the interest of saving all of us time:
1. I’m happy to let you watch me code, but I don’t code on whiteboards for job interviews. If I’m asked, I’ll use my laptop, instead.
2. I haven’t done a CS algorithm refresher in years ever — I’m self taught. If the position is heavy on any particular algorithms, I’m happy to brush up. Let me know what to study in advance so I can come prepared.
If those points are OK with you, I’m really excited to arrange an interview. I clear a full day this week on <day 1, day 2, day 3>.
If somebody like Eric Elliott abhors Whiteboards and Algorithms, you can safely assume that it’s the sentiment of the fraternity and sorority, at large. Timed, competitive algorithmic assessments are omnipresent and we worry that it would set in like a chronic tumor that would eventually poison the entire technical hiring landscape (and it is broken, already!). In an everyday work setting, coders gang up for days to break down the business logic in bit sized pieces before dissipating to work on modules. If you were to seize them on gun point through the means of a timed assessment, you would have a hastily put together solution that is neither workable or scale-able. Then why make them go through the pain of a timed algorithmic assessment? As one of the comments in the thread linked above states
“ I hire engineers for a living, and find intellectually dishonest any interview practice I wouldn’t enjoy myself. Paper coding, whiteboard coding, brain teasers, and algorithmic beatdowns are out. Representative take-home work samples and conversational problem solving are in.”
Experienced developers hate algorithms. Give them one and it’s a surefire mode of “How To Lose A Developer In 10 Days”
Throw Technology Buzzwords At Them As Bait
Ask any developer if her last conversation with a technical recruiter featured a conversation on these lines
“What does your dream job look like, to you?”
“What are some of your long-term plans? Why are we even having this conversation? I would want to understand some of your preferences in terms of your next role and organization”
Chances are that if a software engineer has a conversation which features some of these questions, she will shed tears of happiness. Technical recruitment has become a fishing net, the ingredients of which are buzzwords and technology keywords as bait, hoping that some gullible engineer will chew on it. That’s where you botch the plot, horribly.
What should you do instead?
Dive into her GitHub profile. See for yourself, the commits she has made and the technologies she loves, the most. Stalk her OSS submissions. Understand her passion and correlate an opportunity in your organization, only if there is one. If there isn’t, move on.
Read her blog, if she has one. Make a note of all things beyond work that feature in them. If there are cat gifs in them, send her one as a P.S. note after you have dropped an introductory email to them. Build rapport, empathize, and she would be eating out of your hands. Trust us, nothing beats personal rapport. Not your fancy-free lunch perks, not your hefty company insurance policies, not the promise of being one of the most loved places to work for. Rapport prevails, over everything else.
………….
We know that a million mile journey starts with that first step. We also know that technical recruitment is broken because of systemic cultural problems (and not because of one individual) which exist because of lack of education and an honest developer-recruiter conversation. Since there is no structured mode of feedback between the two communities, hiring stays broken.
We at DoSelect want to take that first step. In a series of such blogs and events, we would attempt to straighten out a few creases which are hampering successful hiring. Your feedback is heartily welcome. Please write to us at contact@doselect.com and we would love to have a detailed chat with you.
