[rohi81]

As a first time entrepreneur hiring out interns I have had a very a telling experience. I did all the classic mistakes of basing the candidacy on certain parameters or keywords on the resume - though I believe its their work not what they claim matters. I did nt meet with much success. One of the most insightful things I learned in this process was to ask the candidate to contribute a sample piece e.g. a small piece of his work for a fictional project. This filters out many of the non-committed types. Some look bad on paper and even fail the screening questions bu their work again is revelation. We also upped the candidates commitment check by asking them to dial in and pick a screening date, fix up a deliverable (sample only) and meet a deadline. We filtered out all non-serious, non-committal candidates and those that came after this elimination by virtue have turned out to be very committed. They are far more passionate. My lessons were simple 1. Measure and value their commitment 2. Value their work and through that their passion and sincerity 3. Challenge them with adversity and discouragement - watch closely on their reactions.

After this you end up with great people. Btw - we were hiring creative interns for copy-writing job (nothing fashionable like programming). So there you go my experience on this and your article strikes a high resonance with me for this reason.