Your interview process is terrible and I'm going to show you how to fix it.
Do you know why FAANGM companies have these very complicated interview processes? Because they get literally thousands of applicants for a position.
They need some kind of way to cull 99% of applications. What's the easiest way to do that? Leetcode/hackerrank type questions. These companies unceremoniously reject thousands of engineers and whoever is left at the end gets to experience the real interview process. The one where people actually listen to you and ask about your experience.
Your company is not FAANGM. You do not get thousands of applicants. You are not scaling to two-hundred million users across the globe.
You are missing out on great candidates.
How do I fix it? How do I find talented people?
It's really simple and the results are great. Here's my current interview process:
- First round 30 minute interview with me, the VP of Engineering.
- We talk about your previous experience.
- Career goals, what you want to work on.
- I see if it's a good fit for the problems I need solved.
- Take-home assignment that takes about 5 hours to complete.
- This is a real project with a proper
README.md
to get it running locally. - Since we work with real-time data and data ingestion, our take-home reflects what you will be doing all day. No leetcode. Just good old fashioned: "can you do what we need you to do?"
- Talk to an API, render results in real-time, allow users to favorite a line-item. Focused.
- This is a real project with a proper
- Screenshare for one hour to review your take-home.
- You, one of our engineers and I sit down and go through the three tasks we asked you to complete, and you talk about your solution.
- Very casual, low stress.
- We poke holes, discuss alternative approaches and get a feel for what it would be like to work with you.
There is no step 4.
This only works if you have engineers on your team
If your founding team is non-technical, you cannot take this approach. In these cases, I recommend using a service like Karat I have taken a Karat interview once and the tool was serviceable, and process was technically sound.
But if you do have engineers on your team, give out take-home assignments. Give people a chance to show you what they are capable of and you will find the talent you need.
Being able to find rectangles in a grid of 0's and 1's doesn't mean that person will be able to deliver a good product and find product-market fit.
Would you like to experience our interview process? I'm hiring!
docs.google.com/document/d/1Gu3l1J8zh56MOCp..
Apply now and help us find awesome product-market fit in the esports gaming industry.