Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by danjl 656 days ago
I would argue that a brief conversation with a senior developer provides as useful information as any coding test or fancy interview question. The only way to really know if someone is going to be a good fit for your organization is to hire them and work with them for a couple weeks. After just a couple weeks, you know everything you need to know about the candidate. Unfortunately, most of the world makes a hiring someone for 2 weeks difficult. If you want to fix something about the hiring process, find a way to let people work together for a couple weeks before hiring them as full-time employees. I've done this with contractors in the past and it works wonderfully. I still hire people and fire them if they don't work out after a couple weeks. I also tell people I will do this during the hiring process.
1 comments

This sounds rather holistic, and avoids many pitfalls of the "leetcode hazing" approach.

I do want to point out that anyone trying to line up their next job while staying employed, would probably not be able to take 2 weeks off their existing job. It would then come down to "quit your job and take a leap of faith".

Agreed, the requirement for currently employed people who have to take a leap of faith is the main issue with our hiring dynamic, IMHO.