managing people
Posted on August 2, 2019

Thoughts On Hiring 2019

I have opinions about the hiring process and how we treat candidates. Here are a few of them.

Contents

Scope

What’s In Scope Here

The scope of this post is:

  1. I have a role, open for a fixed amount of time.
  2. I want to catch, interview and hire the best candidate(s) that apply during the open window.
  3. I want all candidates to feel they were treated fairly and experience clear and timely communication.
  4. Especially rejected candidates.

What’s Not In Scope Here

Topics not in scope are ones that are: long-term; out of my control in 2019; or where I simply want you to do your own homework. E.g.:

  1. Public perception of the company—you may have no to some control over this but it’s a broader woollier topic.
  2. The application experience i.e. how a candidate goes from “I want to apply for this ad” to “hiring manager receives an email”—I have no direct influence on this in 2019.
  3. Open roles where you’ll work out where to place candidates once you hire them. The principles still apply, but the language about comparing candidates won’t.
  4. Salary negotiations—I am not involved in salary negotiation in 2019.
  5. Assumptions based on research about bias, diversity, equality etc. e.g. “Why do long lists of requirements disproportionately put off under-represented groups?”—y’all need to do some reading 💁

0. Who Are We Recruiting and Why?

Some things to think about when filling an open role:

  1. Does this candidate increase the diversity of my team?
  2. What do you want from a successful candidate on day 1? Month 1? Year 1?
  3. Do I need senior experience or can I bring in someone less experienced who’ll need to spend time learning?
  4. How welcoming is my team of people who are different from them?
  5. I find the work of writing the ad helps here so see Section 2 “The Job Advertisement”.

1. Working With Your Recruiter

  1. Get to know and work closely with your recruiter: you’re on the same team.
  2. They’ve almost certainly been involved in more hiring than you, listen to their advice.
  3. Don’t expect your recruiter to do everything or be responsible for everything. It’s ok to check e.g. making sure candidates are getting their feedback.
  4. It’s your responsibility to keep up the high standards you aim for even when it means it can only be done detached via your recruiter.
  5. Candidates will ask the recruiter what your team is like so leave your recruiter with a great impression: be excited about your team, about hiring and treat them with respect.

2. The Job Advertisement

Guiding Principles

  1. I want a diverse and interesting team so I craft my ad to attract a diverse group of candidates not just “more of the same”.
  2. Don’t write a shopping list of tech or character traits—this disproportionately puts off under-represented groups.
  3. Write the ad so that that it portrays the role in a way that is close to the day-to-day experience of the existing staff. (A shopping list ad is a good counter-example here.)
  4. Sell sell sell! Candidates often have choices of where to interview and you want the good candidates to come work with you. This is especially important if you can’t out-compete on typical “easy” dimensions like salary.
  5. Cast a wide net in your ad: do everything you can to attract good candidates. Or perhaps: do everything to avoid dissuading good candidates. You’ll filter your candidates out in later stages.
  6. Work on the bias in your copy: get reviews from different people; run it by gendered language checkers; etc.

My Approach

Here’s a rough breakdown of content I think makes sense in an ad. The breakdown below is structured around an “individual contributor in tech” role, but isn’t too far from other sorts of roles.

About the company ± 15%

Sell sell sell!

About the team ± 30%

Sell some more! Talk about:

  1. The team structure—the breakdown of seniority, role or expertise. Include the whole team not just developers.
  2. The problem space—what are you wrestling with and why is it cool?
  3. The tech the team uses—this can attract candidates who may not know certain tech but want to learn it. Placing it in this space and not on a shopping list makes it clear the candidate does not need to know it to apply.

What you’ll learn / be exposed to in Year One ± 30%

  1. Keep selling! Candidates want to grow their skills and experience so tell them what they can expect. Preparing this can also help you think about what you want and what you need from a prospective candidate.
  2. There are skills the candidate will have to learn to do their work and there are skills available in the nearby environment that they can choose to learn. Separate these into two lists if it lets you bulk up on cool stuff to work with.
  3. Throw in as much as you can here. Think about the opportunities they might want to take. Being in a big company can give you a real advantage in attracting candidates.

What we hope to learn about you in the interview ± 20%

  1. Now we’re outlining some expected competencies. We talk about the skills and thinking we’ll need from day one. This can be: technology; processes; problem spaces; methodologies; leadership; scope of responsibility etc.
  2. Be clear in your mind and in the ad about expected competencies. You do this by understanding the scope of this specific role and crafting the ad to match e.g. In an ad for a tech lead: does the team need a leader who can teach specific technology skills to a diverse group and quickly work with otherwise little support? Spell that out in the competencies by looking for someone with some experience. Alternatively do you need a leader for a self-organised team that’s easy-going on mistakes? Maybe you can hire someone with less experience and room to grow—soften the written expectations to attract those candidates. In these two examples the basic responsibilities and job title might be the same but the roles will be different so write copy to attract appropriate candidates.
  3. A good fit for this section is a skill that will cause the candidate to quickly fail at the job if they lacked it.
  4. Avoid anything they don’t need day one and/or can be quickly taught on-the-job. The longer you make this list the more barriers you put in front of potential candidates.
  5. Candidates want to know what to prepare for the interview so this is a space to signal what homework they’ll need to do while also clarifying your expectations for them.

What the interview process looks like ± 5%

  1. Candidates want to know what they’ll be in for especially if they’re comparing the time and energy needed to interview at different companies. A clearly defined interview process—including how much time it’s going to require of the candidate—can be a competitive advantage.
  2. This is another space to signal some homework. Don’t be afraid to tell them about questions you plan to ask in the interview, and what they should bring to answer them. You want your interviewee to shine, and letting them be prepared can make a huge difference there. E.g. if you plan to ask them about a project they had strong technical input in, tell them to think of one beforehand. There is more value in prepared candidates than surprised candidates.
  3. Tell them to bring their own written notes, and that they can and should read from them.

My Bias

  1. I am saddened by how imbalanced and unrepresentative my industry is. Writing ads and interviewing is where I can make an impact so I work there to attract candidates that will increase the diversity of our teams.
  2. I want to reduce candidate anxiety about being “good enough” to apply.
  3. I want to send all kinds of signals that this is a good and safe place to work especially for under-represented groups. Assuming that it is a good and safe place; if your team isn’t a good and safe place please don’t send that message.

3. The Post-application Experience

Guiding Principles

  1. Your recruiter will be doing most of the work here but a hiring manager still carries responsibility for taking care of candidates.
  2. Respond timeously to applications and keep candidates informed of next steps in the process with expected times and outcomes.
  3. Be positive, excited and friendly about their application and ongoing involvement—on the phone and in email.
  4. Remember: you’re being interviewed by the candidate now.

Inviting them for an interview?

Make sure they know:

  1. What time to arrive (p.s. they’ll be at least 15-30 minutes early so make sure they have somewhere to chill or that you’re ready to collect them.)
  2. Who will be meeting them.
  3. What to do if they’ll be late / they can’t make it and whether you’re willing to reschedule.
  4. Fallback contact details in case the recruiter or hiring manager is unavailable (the phone number of the person meeting them is a good fallback.)
  5. Practical stuff like parking or transport info (not everyone will know the area.)
  6. What to say to Security if they’ll be encountering them e.g. “I’m here for an interview with x” (p.s. don’t forget to tell Security they’re coming.)

Not inviting them for an interview?

  1. Don’t suddenly change your tone from friendly to “professional.”
  2. Definitely don’t ghost the candidate! 👻.
  3. If you have treated a candidate well up to now they are more likely to say good things about your interview process to others and may even be willing to try again later.
  4. If you know of other opportunities then put them forward (with their consent!) It’s unlikely they know the scope of your organisation and where they might fit in better; or even what is available.

4. Reviewing CVs

Guiding Principles

  1. Look back to the questions in Section 0 “Who are you recruiting and why” as a reminder to yourself (and other reviewers) of what role you want to fill.
  2. You almost certainly have an “ideal candidate” in mind—it’s human nature—but you’ll have to choose from the candidates available. Try to make space for a candidate that’s different from what you expected. Sharing reviews with your panel will help here because everyone will have different ideal candidates.
  3. Learn about unconscious bias and continue the work to bring yours into your awareness.
  4. Find boundaries you can put in place to mitigate your conscious bias.
  5. Don’t confuse Opportunity and Potential: a candidate’s CV experience is only a representation of where they’ve worked. Why do they want an interview with you? A candidate is more likely to want a change of track than simply be lazily applying for any role. Be open to candidates wanting a big change.
  6. Look to your carefully crafted interview rubric to dig into a candidate’s potential instead of rejecting them because they may have had limited opportunities to put on their CV.
  7. Have your recruiter or someone outside the process try to remove the most egregious bias-causing elements from CV’s e.g. photographs, hobbies & interests. Some organisations even remove names.

My Bias (and rants)

  1. I am deeply sceptical of the value of a university degree once candidates have even a small amount of experience. I thoroughly disapprove of interviewers who put value on where you studied: it’s a pernicious classism that reinforces structural inequalities. This is a strong bias you can definitely work around.
  2. I cringe when I hear interviewers add up how long candidates have spent in roles and assume they’re “disloyal.” “Loyalty” to corporations is bullshit so don’t expect it in interviews.

5. The Interview Panel

Guiding Principles

  1. Diversity is what you’re looking for here: diversity of role, responsibility, experience, gender, race, team, department etc.
  2. Don’t be foolishly biased into thinking a technical interview won’t benefit from a non-technical person. Especially if you have a tech test as part of the process.
  3. Have a full panel—this is a powerful bias mitigation technique.
  4. Get to know who will give good advice and what your panel’s biases are. Keep good interviewers around for future panels.
  5. You don’t have to be “friends” with your panel members either—be wise enough to pick people who will have a perspective you can’t.
  6. A bigger panel lets you give less-experienced interviewers an opportunity to participate. Even a “no-experience this-is-my-first-job-ever” team member can participate and contribute when you have other experienced folk on the panel for them to learn from.
  7. Try as much as you can to keep the same panel members across batches of interviews—when you want to compare candidates later you want the same set of interviewers comparing.
  8. Combative or aggressive interviewers don’t belong on your panel.

My Bias

  1. I choose to have a 4-person interview panel. There is research that suggests that 4 is the sweet-spot for reducing bias.
  2. Some folks express concern about the intimidation of facing 4 people in an interview room and I acknowledge this concern. Interviewing is all about trade-offs and I mitigate this potential stress by spending time and energy being supportive and encouraging before, during and after the interview. the benefits of erasing bias outweigh the remaining risk after the anxiety-reducing efforts described above.
  3. Reducing anxiety is my #1 task in interviews. Because it’s something I personally suffer with and because I believe a relaxed candidate will find it easier to shine. It also levels the playing field for introverts.

6. Tech Tests

  1. Tech tests must pass the same scrutiny as any interview question: What do you want to learn about the candidate?
  2. The work you’ve done in the Job Advertisement can help here.
  3. What is the Minimum Viable Tech Test that will show you the candidate has the Day 1 competencies?
  4. Do you only need to know that the technical experience on the CV matches their ability?
  5. Do you need to see them demonstrating problem-solving, leadership, architecture, teamwork etc.?
  6. Can you answer any of these questions satisfactorily in the interview rubric?

Some thoughts on different kinds of tests:

The Take-home Tech Test

  1. Is your tech test time-consuming? This will increase drop-out rates at this stage.
  2. If you have a clear idea of how long it will take then you’ve probably sat down and done it knowing the answer, in the comfort of your own workspace and the safety of knowing you won’t lose your job if you mess it up. That doesn’t compare to the candidates experience.
  3. You may give candidates guidelines for how long they should spend on the test. If any extra time can be spent on a test a portion of candidates will. Chances are good this will give those candidates an advantage. Even if you can tell they did this it will still bias you as you compare those candidates to the ones who spent the recommended amount of time.
  4. Can you design the test such that “loads of free time” is not a competitive advantage?
  5. Candidates will have multiple jobs to apply to so consider: is your tech test a better investment of time than another company’s? Candidates weigh this up.
  6. If you do the same test for enough years they will get posted to GitHub and candidates will copy them. You might be able to tell but either way no good will come of it.

The In-interview Tech Test

  1. I hope you’re not getting people to write code on a whiteboard. It’s 2019!
  2. Writing code on a strange computer, in a strange IDE while more strangers watch you is utterly nerve-wracking, possibly even debilitatingly so. Expect your candidates to have little of their usual problem-solving ability and remember nothing about the language they might normally write in.
  3. I hope you’re not asking them to code in front of you in an unfamiliar language. Let them pick a language you are unfamiliar with.
  4. If you choose to leave them alone to bash out some code, what will you learn about them?
  5. If you choose to get an experienced and comfortable pairer to gently guide them, what will you learn about them?
  6. How much value can you learn from a demonstrably afraid and stupid candidate mashing a keyboard for far less time than you would spend on a 1 point ticket?

My Bias and “eh”

  1. Yikes, tech tests. It’s probably clear I’m not a superfan. I’ve tried to phrase these questions in a way that’ll make you reconsider doing it at all, or at least not do it the shitty way you do now.
  2. This is the place that technical people sometimes go a bit over-the-top or forget how little a tech test can accurately tell you.
  3. If you’re sceptical about specific claims on a candidates CV then a generic, for-all-candidates tech test is unlikely to set your mind at ease.
  4. You probably still want to do some kind of technical test—so you’re going to have to choose which trade-offs you want to make.
  5. Some folks have suggested that the best of both worlds is to offer candidates a choice. I can imagine this making it really hard to compare candidates. If you’re only comparing candidates to an objective scoring measure (how, the tasks are so different!) … maybe? Ultimately I think this “offering a choice” is a cop-out: decide on which trade-offs you can live with and go for it.
  6. I’ve also heard some folks mention reviewing code or fixing tests instead of getting candidates to write something from scratch. If your codebase lets you do that then awesome! Do keep the same one for the entire round.
  7. Some folks have suggested paying candidates to work on a take-home test, as an incentive or to reduce drop-out rates. No. Just, no. You’re almost certainly throwing money at the candidates who already had plenty of time and money; a few quid does not generally magic responsibilities away, so you’re adding bias to your interview process. There are also tax and legal implications for the candidates and additional admin too for multiple departments in your organisation. Rather pay yourself to stop considering bad ideas like this.
  8. I don’t think there are any easy answers. It’s all about them trade-offs.

7. The Interview Rubric aka Questions aka Grid

Guiding Principles

  1. While your advertisement was about casting a wide net, your rubric is about filtering out candidates and giving you information to fairly compare them and make a hiring decision.
  2. What do you need to know about all your candidates to inform you in making a good decision?
  3. Use a standard rubric for every candidate that you want to compare—this may be per role or even across multiple roles over time. Without this you don’t have a hope of comparing candidates beyond your bias.
  4. DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) is important here and something technically-focused interviewers often fall foul of. For example “What do you know about Technology X? Have you used Design Pattern Y?” when it’s unlikely a candidate wouldn’t be able to talk about the second if they can the first. Or asking multiple questions about different types of problem-solving when you can find a clear answer with one. Think deeply about the value of each question and what information it will give you about all the candidates that will let you compare them.
  5. Have your technical questions be broad. Being too specific risks having trivia questions (which are poor signals.) A broad question lets you dig into their thinking and gives you an opportunity to ask about claims made in their CV and how it applies to the question at hand.
  6. Look for good coverage of the whole role by asking about the many different aspects of “being a role in a team”. Include questions about: workflow; methodology; problem-solving; about how the candidate manages deadlines and workload, especially sharing, delegating and asking for help; how they learn; How they deal with inter-personal conflict, with disagreement, with the unexpected; etc.
  7. Avoid questions that are specifically about your team’s pathologies or your own negative experiences of candidates. E.g. I have seen questions like “how do you deal with a lead who won’t take feedback.” Even if it’s not the case in your team the candidate may interpret it as a warning; candidates will paint a picture of your team based on what questions you ask them.
  8. If you’re rebuilding your rubric: find a good base, have your panel review it and get some independent folk to review it too.
  9. Your rubric should read as rather boring. That’s a good thing! It’s your candidates answers to the questions that should be interesting and different: that’s what will let you differentiate between them.

My Bias

Technical stuff is about a quarter or less of my ideal rubric and is focused more on thinking and problem-solving, not so much trivia. If I can find an answer in 2 seconds on a search engine it’s not a good interview question.

8. The Interview Event

Guiding Principles

  1. You’re excited the candidate is here 🤩. You want them to shine, to be their best and you will act and speak to help them do that. This applies to everyone on the panel.
  2. You will make a snap judgement about the candidate the second they walk through the door-that’s how the brain works. It’s human nature to have internal short-hand reactions like “good looking = smart” or “tall = intimidating”; just hope they don’t look like someone you know! This is unconscious bias at work. Most traditional interviewing is about subconsciously looking for ways to justify that snap judgement but you and your panel’s challenge is to be aware, stick to the interview protocol and evaluate the candidates as fairly you can.

Before You Get Going

  1. Put out a good quantity of water, interviewing is thirsty work.
  2. Help the candidate feel welcome and comfortable by being friendly and easy-going. This applies to everyone on the panel.
  3. Tell them where the bathroom is and verbally give them an opportunity to go before the interview.
  4. Take a break every 60-90 minutes if your interview is that long.

How You Behave

  1. Smile and look interested 😃 Nod along with their stories 😄.
  2. Try to share some laughter, it can really deflate tension.
  3. Leave space during the interview for their questions—encourage them to ask and look at their body language for uncertainty or pause.
  4. The panel lead must be a strong facilitator. This can mean guiding a meandering candidate (or interviewer!) back on track. Or prompting candidates who are uncertain, frozen or who may have misunderstood you. You may have to interrupt them.
  5. Keep the interview time in mind too—it’s good to let the conversation flow but be mindful of spending time unnecessarily on a question you already have an answer to. This too is facilitation.
  6. I tend to divide the questions up between interviewers so that everyone on the panel has a share of the candidates attention. If the questions are divided up by area of expertise or interest, all the better.
  7. In the same way that candidates will read into the question you ask they will read into the jokes you tell and how the panel members relate—especially once you outline the hierarchy. Think carefully.

Taking Notes

  1. Take copious notes in response to the questions in your rubric—you’ll need these later for comparing candidates and for providing feedback.
  2. Tell the candidate that you’ll be taking notes and that it’s part of your interview format. Tell them it’s ok for them to take notes too.
  3. Stick to the facts: what they said, what you observed. As much as you are able steer clear of judgements. If they didn’t say much or answer the question well that will be accounted for in the scoring and the scores will align with your notes.
  4. I’m assuming you have no intention of illegally discriminating. So if your notes could in any way end up being seen by candidates be aware of any discriminatory implications in what you write down. If you’re uncertain about this then get some expert advice or training.

Interview After-care

  1. Walk them out afterwards. This is a good opportunity to give and receive some very informal and surface-level feedback. Ask them how it went. Try to see how they’re feeling. You can help them deflate some of their anxiety just by being genuine and friendly. Make some positive encouraging noises even if your internal hunch is that they’re a “no”.
  2. No more interview questions!
  3. We don’t (we try our best not to) evaluate the candidate any more but focus on seeing them as human beings who’ve just done a scary thing and might be potential future colleagues or people in our network.
  4. After-care lays the groundwork for keeping a candidate warm while you finish the interview process or one day welcoming them back to another interview.
  5. Let them know approximately when you’ll get back to them and how long you expect it will be until a decision is made. It’s ok to repeat what the recruiter will say.
  6. A candidate that feels good after an interview will say good things about you to others and may even be willing to try again if you reject them.

My Bias (and rants)

  1. If you’re looking for “passion” in candidates please stop. “Work passion” is probably biased towards extroverts or people that “look like you.” Stick to the questions and the predefined competencies of the role, not how “passionate” they are about writing code, learning or working at your company.
  2. If you’re still looking for “passion” then I’d recommend you look it up in a dictionary and see if the “work passion” you imagine matches any kind of real passion. E.g. You can probably tell I am very passionate about this point and about reminding folks that they have no idea how to suss this “work passion” out in an interview in a way that isn’t horribly biased and inaccurate. Just don’t.
  3. ❤️

9. Candidate Scoring

Guiding Principles

  1. Agree on a scoring method with your interviewers beforehand. Which sections or questions to point; how many points for each; whether half-points are allowed; what the points even mean.
  2. Clear scoring guidelines help your interviewers evaluate and compare candidates. Finding that clarity will likely need some pre-discussion.
  3. Your scoring process is about discriminating between candidates. You are judging and comparing candidates to each other so your discrimination needs to be fair, appropriate and legal too. The work you’ve put into your bias and the rubric is what helps you here, not only in picking out good candidates but in consciously avoiding illegal or inappropriate discrimination.
  4. It’s important to repeat: mitigating bias isn’t just about avoiding illegal or inappropriate behaviour, it’s far, far more about helping you find great candidates you may previously have overlooked.

First score each candidate on your own

  1. Don’t compare notes with your fellow panel members beforehand. This will bias your scoring and make comparing more difficult.
  2. Look back at your notes and score the candidate based on your own impressions.
  3. Don’t compare candidates at this stage, instead compare them to the expectations set in the scoring guidelines.

Then do final scoring with your panel

  1. Differences in score between interviewers leads to interesting conversations, insights or new perspectives on the candidate.
  2. It’s completely ok to change your opinions on a candidate at this stage.
  3. Come up with a final score together for each candidate so that you can compare them.

Feedback

  1. Write feedback for all the candidates. Look to the notes taken during the interview. Writing the feedback as a panel helps with working out what to say. There are good guides for this on the Internet.
  2. Please be careful of what you write down as feedback. Much like your notes careless feedback can result in, at best, a frustrated and negative candidate or, at worst, legal challenges. Your recruiter should catch you here but hiring managers and interview leads have a responsibility here too.
  3. If you don’t know what legal and illegal discrimination looks like when evaluating candidates—and how it may affect your bias—it’s worth doing that research or training as soon as possible.

My Bias

I use scoring of 1-4, no half points. It makes scoring trickier, but in way that forces you to commit.

10. Making a Decision

  1. This is it. Your candidates are all interviewed, scored and evaluated. As the hiring manager the final responsibility is likely down to you. Any decision you make has to be justifiable, based on the scoring and feedback. You’re not only answerable to your superiors but the team you’re hiring for.
  2. If you’re lucky there will be a clear winner(s).
  3. Don’t forget to pass the feedback on to candidates.

Don’t Forget to Inspect and Adapt Either

  1. There’s value in doing a retrospective on the hiring process with your panel and recruiter. Include any recent hires too!
  2. You might also look at the numbers and demographics of candidates in each stage of the funnel. This could highlight some unnoticed signs of bias in your interview process that you need to work on.
  3. look at drop-out rates: are there parts of the process that you can tighten up or change to improve candidates making it to interview e.g. a time-consuming technical test could be cut down.

Good luck!

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