Hiring Talent

At Google, I’ve interviewed a lot of candidates. A normal interview lasts about 45 minutes. During this timeframe, you have to determine whether the candidate is qualified for the job or not. And if not, eventually suggest where he/she can be a better fit.

The tech world is huge: there are many programming languages, many frameworks, and different working methodologies. Trying to identify perfect matches for the job description isn’t easy, but one thing is sure: you want to hire the most talented individuals.

Let’s start with the job description. Your project is rapidly growing and you need to increase the size of your workforce. You need someone to be able to do the front-end as well as the backend of your project. So, like many CEOs, you ask a recruiter to write a job posting based on your requirements.

Sadly, some recruiters don’t know much of the technical part so they will just follow blindly your guidelines. It often ends up creating hilarious job description requiring engineers to have 5+ years of experience for a 3 year old framework. Or the candidate needs to be an expert in too many technologies. You will most likely find nobody.

I received so many job descriptions where the requirements are unrealistic. For example: you can’t be a front-end engineer, dealing with browser specificity, i18n issues, and at the same time be a backend engineer designing scalable high traffic databases along with managing the server farms and supervising their expansion. Unless you can time travel, a restaurant cannot be run with one server doing everything. It also damages your credibility.

So how to avoid this uncomfortable situation? Ask a few engineers to review the requirements and give you feedback. You might end up learning that you will need to hire two people instead of one. And, if you want your project to be run properly, that’s probably the right thing to do. The requirements are only one part of the job description but it’s the most important part.

I’ve done interviews for a startup, initially on Skype, they then flew me to New York. After spending the day with them, they didn’t extend to an offer, reason being I wasn’t familiar enough with the service as a daily publisher/user. It would have saved a lot of time and money to emphasis on this requirement in the initial process.

The other parts of the job posting are easy as long as you remember to be original. For instance: don’t use common adjectives to describe your team(s) (e.g. “smart”), be unique (e.g. “high 5ers”). Too many recruiters talk about the “Coolest and hottest startups in the valley”.

Emails to candidates should be realistic and straightforward. Give as much information as possible: name of the company, information about the founders, describe how they envision their company: “We’re hoping to make environment as attractive as Google, providing free lunch, good health care and a good work/life balance”. There is no shame to start somewhere and be simple, no need to over emphase and overuse adjectives.

Once the recruiter has identified a pool of candidates, how do you recognize the ones that will perfectly fit? Check their resume, they show how long they’ve stayed in company, they show the projects they’ve contributed to, along with their role and involvement. It gives you a good estimation about the candidate capability to work with one or more teams, his flexibility, his passion, and his ability to learn and to deal with new challenges. Take also some time to read recruiter notes, they can have important information. Then starts the interviews.

I like to split them in 4 different parts. The first one, shorter, quickly introduces the conversation in which you should present yourself and explain briefly what you do in the company. It helps the candidate to understand why you are interviewing him for this position. The second step, slightly longer, retraces his/her current and past experiences, ask questions to see how he interacts with technology, projects and people. It adjusts the technical questions that follow.

Third part, the most critical and relevant: technical questions and problem solving exercises. The questions shows how well he/she understands the technology and its specificity, and the problems should be here to demonstrate cognitive abilities. Remember: you’re here to help the candidate, so if you see he/she is not going far enough, give hints. A good candidate acknowledges hints and proactively try to solve the problems. I personally prefer someone who is capable to solve a problem with a beautiful solution than someone who knows only the technology and its specificity. Always avoid targeted and ended questions such as “have you worked in the past with x / y / z frameworks?”, it should be on his resume.

When I was looking for a job in London, I noticed most companies were asking targeted and ended questions. For instance they asked if I was working in an agile environment, or if I had worked with Django in the past. Those are boolean questions which aren’t showing the candidates ability to either work in an agile environment or to be proficient in those frameworks.

Q/A is done, time is almost running out: give some minutes to the candidate to ask you questions about yourself, the company, and the position. Talk about your work, why you think it’s awesome to work here, give a sneak peek at the cool perks (free food, free micro kitchen). It will help him/her to make a wise choice if you extend an offer.

At the end of the interviews, you should be able to know why you’re hiring this candidate specifically. You should be able to reply to those questions: what value will he add to the company? Will he be happy here? Will he/she be an active contributor? Would you like to work with him? Even mentor him if necessary?

Always remember: if a candidate doesn’t fit the position he/she applied for, always feel free to suggest other openings. Talent is rare.

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