Interview process

Engineering take home interviews

• A list of engineering take home assignments that look nicely done. Could be a good source of inspiration if you are (want) to have that sort of exercise as part of your hiring process.

Bias tools

• http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/
• https://joblint.org/

Interviewing engineering managers

• The ultimate playbook for hiring engineering managers by Jade Rubick.

Interviewing engineering executives

• Interviewing eng executives by Lethain.

Candidate review meetings

• The secret to holding a candidate review meeting that isn’t boring as hell by Jade Rubick

Career history interviews

• Jade: this post by Jean Hsu was really interesting, something I’d like to experiment with.
• “A career history interview is a structured way to get valuable information about how a candidate learns, adapts, and deals with challenges over time. It’s useful for spotting mindset patterns, evaluating empathy and self-awareness, and usually unearths different information than what comes up in technical or culture fit interviews.”
• “For each job/team/role, I’ll ask you a set of questions. We have limited time, so I may sometimes have to cut you off to move on.”*
• For each job or project (each should be roughly 1-3 years, or a total of 3-4 distinct groupings), you ask a structured set of questions. These are the ones I usually ask:

1. How did you end up in this role? / What were you hired to do?
2. Get some context on team size and setup —How large was the team when you started, and how large was it by the end of your time there?
3. During your time there, what are you most proud of? Reflect back some of the positive things and accomplishments.
4. Who did you report to? At the time, what would that person would have said were your strengths? At the time, what would that person have said were some areas for improvement?
5. If there are peers/close collaborators/direct reports that seem relevant, ask the same set of questions regarding strengths and areas for improvement.
6. Highlight some of the positives and their accomplishments, and say something like every job/team has some low points, what would you say were some of the lowpoints?
7. How/why did you decide to leave?

• From a purely communication management perspective, watch out for:
  • How hard they are to cut off
  • How well they take feedback and redirection
  • How much they listen or are respectful of your having to get the information you need to make a hiring recommendation
• Look out for poor communication, “The world is chaotic” mindset, Recurring areas for improvement, Lack of awareness, Negativity.