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by lr4444lr 3685 days ago
I'm curious then, on what basis are new hires considered qualified? Not the ones moving horizontally from a similar company where employment itself in the prior company would denote ability, but those who are moving up in their career or from a different tech subspecialty? If a lot of the work is proprietary, you're not expecting FOSS contributions, and algorithmic tests are out, what metric do you use? Do you just match years experience with the stack? Educational attainment?
2 comments
xyzzy_plugh 3685 days ago
This comment puzzles me.

How do you think anyone got hired 10, 20, 30+ years ago in tech? How do you think candidates are evaluated in other fields that do not have some equivalent to FOSS?

I have a friend interviewing for a high-level marketing position. They look at your resume, ask you about your past work, give you some short tests or scenarios, and make a decision based on all the feedback the collect. It's not a perfect system but it's how the world works, basically.

Also, it helps to have friend in high places. It's often a matter of who you know.

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mto 3685 days ago
Agree, 10 years ago they asked you about your projects, how you solved problems, what you think about the decisions that were made, to reason about the technologies and architecture etc.

I still think, you can learn much more from that than from trivia questions or text book examples. If a person can argue about choice of technology/algorithm/architecture/method, can tell you how they approach a given problem etc...

My feeling is that the "shortage" is a lie. Back then there were no thousand competitors for every boring job out there. Weeding out so much wasn't necessary for 5 applications :)

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lr4444lr 3685 days ago
> How do you think anyone got hired 10, 20, 30+ years ago in tech?

I wasn't active in the profession back then; I have no idea, and that's why I asked. My question was not rhetorical.

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maxxxxx 3685 days ago
Talk to the person. Let them describe what they have done previously. Ask how and why decisions have been made. What they would do better. If you know your stuff yourself it's not that hard to figure out if the applicant knows his or her stuff.
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