[INTPenis]

What is a team? I know we're on HN but there are many different types of teams.

I work in sort of devops teams and I've helped conduct the technical part of a few interviews so I made some questions for that reason.

1. Some technical questions but they're not that important.

2. More important is what they do in their off time. I always try to figure out how nerdy they are.

One person when asked the 2nd type of question brought out their mobile phone and showed us how they could control their entire home with an open source automation system and a homemade app they made themselves.

They were hired and they were very good.

[jowiar]

Re #2: Ugh. This sort of thing is a selector for plenty that is negative about the tech industry — selects for young single men without a family.

Frankly, I want to go home at night and do anything but code. Music, art, explore the city, have friends. And I want to work with others who value the same.

[throwawaymath]

> One person when asked the 2nd type of question brought out their mobile phone and showed us how they could control their entire home with an open source automation system and a homemade app they made themselves.

They were hired and they were very good.

They would have been an equally capable hire if they did not have the time or inclination to complete that project. Moreover you can acquire all the skills a capable software engineer has without having personal projects. That means this is a poor heuristic for hiring criteria and candidate assessment.